CHAPTER EIGHT
HALEY ALMOST DANCED INTO HER apartment, tossing her mail into the air, where it landed on the table they kept by the front door. “Congratulate me!” she said, meeting Lolita’s interested gaze.
“I’m in. Congratulations!” She’d been slumped against the sofa, watching a nature program while she read a fat book with a dark, foreboding cover. “Why am I congratulating you?”
Haley moved over and sat on the edge of an upholstered chair. Then she placed her hands on her knees, trying to look very calm. “I kissed a woman,” she said, making one eyebrow dance. “On the mouth.”
“Yeah!” Lolita made a fist and punched it into the air. “How long has it been?”
“I’ve kissed women since I’ve known you,” Haley said patiently. “I swear I have. But it’s been a while since I made the first move. I’ll grant you that.”
“This is the puppy owner, right?”
“Sure is.”
“What’s her name again?”
“Piper. Piper Campbell. And I’m turning over a new leaf. I’m not going to check her out on the internet, I’m not going to look her up on Facebook, or Instagram… I’m going to let her reveal herself to me like people did in the olden days—before Snapchat,” she said, chuckling.
“Good for you! That’s the best news I’ve heard in a long time. Got a picture?”
“It’s a little early for that, but I’ll try to get one when we’re training her sister’s dog again. She’s cute,” she said, letting herself purr a little. “Very cute. And no visible signs of utter lunacy.”
“I’m happy for you, kiddo. How can we celebrate?” Her head cocked, and Haley could just see her surveying her options. “Ice cream? You could make us Dr. Pepper floats.”
“I don’t need a thing,” she said. “We had two beers and a burger.” She didn’t add that she’d avoided the bun and the fries. Lolita didn’t have to know everything.
“A burger on a Tuesday? Two beers? This woman must be fantastic!”
“I’m not sure whether she is or not,” Haley said thoughtfully. “But I’d love it if she were.” Standing, she walked into the kitchen and opened the freezer. “How many scoops?”
***
Piper stowed Delta at day care the next day at noon, then drove up to Woodland Hills. She was a bit of a gym rat, but could usually only make it on her days off. Because of Delta, she’d not even been able to do that recently, so she made an extra effort today.
She was pleased to find her buddies, Chelsea and Jess, already working up a sweat on elliptical machines. Both of her co-workers were a bit younger than she was, both straight, both good-looking women who spent a lot of time trying to look even better, an effort Piper usually didn’t devote much time to. Given how little they had in common, it was a mystery why they’d all clicked, but they had. It had been seven years now, and they’d continued to get closer. Not close enough to do much outside of work, but they gossiped whenever they got a free minute, and tried to work out on Wednesdays—the one day they were all unencumbered by husbands, boyfriends, and girlfriends.
“Hey, you fitness freaks,” she said, grabbing a towel, twisting it into a rope, and swatting both of them with it.
“Piper’s here,” Jess crooned. “Come warm up.”
She truly hated doing cardio, even though she knew that was dumb. But she’d had a good trainer when she first joined the gym, and he’d shown her proper form for working with free weights, still her preferred way to spend an hour. Weights wouldn’t do much for her heart health, but she loved feeling strong. Someone had convinced her that muscle burned more calories, so she’d held onto that belief, ignoring all other theories that didn’t mesh with the one she liked.
Hopping onto a spare machine, she started off slow, just trying to warm up enough to be able to throw some iron around without hurting herself. “Guess what I had last night,” she said.
“I hope you had a better night than I did,” Chelsea said. “I drank about three glasses of wine and passed out on the sofa. Wasn’t yesterday the shits?”
“Ha!” Piper said. “Delta and I were almost eaten by a Mack truck masquerading as a dog. And when the beast wasn’t allowed to eat my little buddy, he peed all over both of us. All over,” she stressed. “From my knees to my toes.”
“Eww!” Chelsea shrieked. “Your day was worse!”
“But it got better,” she said, starting to breathe heavier. “I went to the doggie day care place and got Delta washed while I scrubbed my clothes at the sink. Then I went out on a date,” she taunted.
“With the dog lady?” Jess asked, already smiling, anticipating the answer.
“Yep. Dog lady and I had a couple of beers, a burger, and a first kiss,” she proclaimed. “An epic one.”
“One?” Chelsea said, eyes popping open wide. “Why stop at one?”
Piper shrugged. “Just seemed right. I like this woman. If it’s good, we’ll have a lot more opportunities, and if it’s not, I’m in no rush to get too involved.”
“Too cautious,” Jess warned, shaking her head. “You have to jump in.”
“I’m jumping,” she said, “I’m just jumping carefully.”
“We want to know everything,” Chelsea said. “What’s cool about her?”
“Couple things,” Piper said, having already spent time during her drive reviewing the list. “One, she doesn’t know about Charlie, so she’s not trying to get her to read a screenplay she’s been working on for twenty years, or have Charlie appear at her charity, or have Charlie get her onto a film as an extra. And two, she knows Charlie’s always pulling me into things, and she doesn’t seem to think that’s horribly neurotic.”
“Big one,” Jess said soberly. “Nina would still be around if she could have kept her jealousy in check.”
Shrugging, Piper said, “But she couldn’t. She just wasn’t secure enough to know that I had time for both her and my sister. To her, it was a competition.”
“And dog lady’s truly not in the biz?” Jess asked. “She’s not secretly an actress who’s doing this dog thing until her next big break?”
“If so, she’s hiding it really well. And if she’s hiding something like that this early in the game…” She placed two of her fingers at the side of her neck and made a quick slicing motion. “She’s toast.”
CHAPTER NINE
ON SUNDAY AFTERNOON, PIPER LOADED Delta into his carrier and drove up to Santa Monica, where they were meeting Haley to continue their low-key training.
They arrived first, giving Piper the unmitigated pleasure of watching Haley walk down the palisade, with the shimmering ocean providing a lovely background. She was dressed colorfully again, with a coral and white striped boat-neck top and blue shorts. They were the perfect shorts for her, a couple of inches above the knee, and slim-cut. While cargo shorts might have been a more practical choice for a dog trainer, they didn’t show off a woman’s legs, which were a particular turn-on for Piper.
As Haley walked, she smiled at anyone who looked in her direction, giving a higher-wattage version to kids and dogs. Overall, she just seemed like a warm-hearted, optimistic woman who was so cute, she made Piper’s pulse rate pick up. When she was still fifty feet away, she put her fingers into her mouth and a sharp whistle made Delta leap to his feet, turn his head a hundred and eighty degrees, then finally land on her. He took off like a frightened mouse, tripping himself on his leash, landing on his shoulder before rolling onto all four feet—a nice trick he’d have a hard time replicating.
Dancing with joy, he raced back to Piper to tell her Haley was near, then dashed back to make sure she made it the rest of the way—a good ten feet.
“We’re both glad to see you,” Piper said, keeping her voice soft and lazy, “but he’s not very good at playing it cool.”
“And you are?” Haley stood above her, ruffling her hair.
“No, but he’s absolutely shameless.”
Haley sat down, then arranged herself into the
same pose Piper had seen Charlie get into many times after she was loosened up from yoga. “Sorry I’m a little late. I called my mom on the way over and she had some family gossip she had to share.” She took in a deep breath and let it out, lifting her chin to improve her posture.
“I’m spared that,” Piper said.
“What? The gossip?”
“The family. It’s pretty much just my sister and me. That’s part of the reason we’re so close.”
“No mom?” Haley asked, her expression morphing into a sympathetic one in a flash.
“Nope. Our mom died when I was a freshman at Valley College.”
“Oh, Piper,” she said, looking so sad Piper felt sorry for herself. “That’s just awful. Was she sick?”
“Yeah,” she said, nodding. “Since my sister was a toddler.”
“That’s why you didn’t work at the traditional type of teenager jobs,” Haley said, obviously having a good mind for details.
“Pretty much. It certainly wasn’t a good time, but we made it through. Well, Charlie and I did.”
“Your dad…?”
“Mine’s a schmuck,” she said, laughing a little. “My sister’s is, too, but he’s also a jerk. No love lost there,” she said, hoping to let it drop.
“Oh…you have different dads. I didn’t realize you were half-sisters.”
“We’re not,” Piper found herself saying, then she laughed at herself. “We are, but that’s never been how we’ve thought of ourselves. Since neither of us has a relationship with our fathers, we only acknowledge the person we have in common—our mom.”
“Your dad was…inconsistent?”
Piper nodded with gusto. “That’s being generous. My dad’s self-involved, disconnected and almost entirely absent. I haven’t seen him since my high school graduation, where he was so late he missed the ceremony.” She could feel her mood veer into a dark place. “He still wanted a trophy for showing up.”
Haley leaned against her playfully. “I was trying to be polite.”
“There’s no need for that. I don’t hate him, but I don’t have a single good thing to say about him.”
“Then I hope you don’t take after him.”
“I don’t think I do, but other than being a good-looking heartbreaker, I don’t know much about him.”
“You’re clearly good-looking, but I’d be surprised if you were a heartbreaker.” She smiled. “I mean that in a good way. You seem too kind to stomp on hearts.”
Now feeling a little sheepish, she said, “I’ve broken up with my last three girlfriends, so they might disagree.”
“Want to talk about them?” Haley asked tentatively.
“There’s not a lot to say, since I wasn’t super invested in them. I like to get out quickly if I see something isn’t going to work, and not everyone appreciates that. Some women want to hang in there until you hate the sight of each other.”
Haley just nodded, obviously satisfied by the explanation. “You said you were in college when your mom died. Did you get to finish?”
“Nah. I dropped out and went to beauty school. I had to come up with some cash,” she said, shrugging. “It takes a while to get your license, but I knew we had enough money to last us for two or three years. Thank god,” she added, rolling her eyes. “We didn’t get a dime from those damn sperm donors.”
“You’ve been a very good sister,” Haley said, giving her a pat on the knee.
“It’s mutual. My sister was only seven when our mom died, but I swear she put every bit of her energy into trying to cheer me up. She’s always been the cheerleader of our tiny little family.” She was well sick of talking about herself, and switched the topic. “Now it’s your turn. What have you got? I know you don’t have siblings, but I want to hear about this family that’s so gossip-worthy.”
Haley laughed at that. “I’ve still got three grandparents, two aunts, and one uncle, all with spouses, along with seven first cousins. All but two of them have kids, and everyone but me lives in Kansas.” A cute smile settled on her face. “Check that. One pioneer went all the way to Missouri, but she can look across the river and still see Kansas. They all pretty much think I’m nuts for living in California.”
“Are you out to all of them?”
“Every single one. My cousins were all cool, but my older relatives took a while to adjust.” She waved a hand. “That’s ancient history now. If they don’t like me, my sexual orientation has very little to do with it.”
“I bet everyone likes you,” Piper said, looking into those warm, dark eyes. “Delta and I sure do.”
“Delta seems to think he can just lie on his back and let the sun warm his belly,” Haley said, reaching over to pat the puppy on his pink skin. “But we’ve got work to do, mister. Let’s get at it.”
After two hours, they took a break to head to Venice for Haley’s favorite fish taco place. Piper noted that all three of the places she’d chosen so far had been super casual and pretty inexpensive, another plus to add to her growing list of stellar traits.
They sat at circular concrete tables with attached benches, the kind set into the earth to prevent anyone from stealing them without a two-ton truck and a winch. They hadn’t yet touched in even a casual fashion, and Piper wanted to change that right now.
The sun had gone behind the marine layer, the deep bank of fog that settled atop the ocean in the late spring and early summer, and she saw that Haley’s legs were pebbled with goosebumps. Putting her fingertips atop a knee, Piper let them glide slowly up to the hem of Haley’s shorts. “You look like you’re getting chilly.”
A smirk settled on Haley’s face. “You’re not making it better. Now my arms are covered with goosebumps.”
“Huh.” Piper set her chin in her hand. “I wonder why? I didn’t feel a cold breeze blow in.”
“The gentler the touch, the more I react,” she said, her eyes taking on a smoky affect as they stared at each other for a few seconds. “Why did I say that?” she asked, slapping herself in the face. “That’s the kind of intel I should make you work for.”
“Never let it be said that Piper Campbell is afraid of hard work,” she said, standing, with Delta jumping to his feet at the same time, his little head swiveling around to see where the danger was.
Haley looked into her eyes as a warm smile bloomed. “It’s a lovely Sunday evening and we’ve put in a full day of dog training. Don’t you think we deserve an ice cream cone? Or maybe a cupcake?”
“I do. But if this was a full day of dog training, I should have been a trainer. Much better hours.”
***
They went over to the boardwalk to people-watch for a while, eating marginally good ice cream as they walked. Though there were places to get much better cones, you couldn’t beat the panoply of kooks on the Venice boardwalk, and Haley loved nearly every one of them. As long as a person wasn’t violent, she had a limitless appetite for eccentrics.
They’d been walking for a while, with Delta riding in his carrier, both to protect him from bikers, skateboarders, hoverboarders, guys on stilts, and snake-handlers, as well as to allow them to make some progress without every person stopping to exclaim over his cuteness. Piper, as a native, didn’t seem as interested in the sideshow nature of the scene, easily able to converse while barely noticing a guy with an iguana the size of a pre-schooler balanced on his shoulders. “You still haven’t told me much about your past,” Piper said. “Sure it’s not filled with skeletons?”
“Definitely not. But the past doesn’t interest me as much as the future. Tell me about your plans. What would you like to have happen?”
“With my…what?”
“Anything. Everything.” She grasped Piper’s free hand and gave it a squeeze. “I want to know what’s important to you. Like…what would make you happy?”
Piper blew out a breath as she thought, pausing to let passersby walk around them. “I’m happy enough with my job to keep on doing it, I’ve got good friends, and I love spending
time with my sister.” When she turned, a sweet smile lit up her face. “All I’m missing is a girlfriend.”
Unable to resist the lure of her smile, Haley found herself leaning in close, seeing the flecks of gold and green in Piper’s eyes, just short of mesmerizing. Then a soft, yet firm breast pressed into her arm as their lips met, sending sparks down Haley’s body. “I want more of that,” she murmured, hearing her voice come out like she was half-drunk.
“Me too. Much more,” Piper murmured, eyes closed.
After another kiss, Haley stood tall and straightened her shirt. “I’m not usually one of the people out on the boardwalk, making out.”
“We were making out?” Piper said, smirking a little. “You’re a generous grader.”
“You know what I mean,” she said, taking a quick look down at the butter pecan ice cream dripping onto her hand. “I like privacy.”
“You don’t live far from here,” Piper said, with her dazzling blue eyes taking on a sexy cast they hadn’t yet displayed.
“Mmm…” She gazed into Piper’s eyes for a few seconds. Her body would have agreed in a second, but her emotions were much slower to jump in. “I don’t think I’m ready for that yet—”
Piper interrupted, in a flash. “I was just suggesting we hang out, but then I thought about being alone with you and I started to think of what that’d be like and I was all…” She was actually blushing, which was truly charming. “When can I see you again? Tomorrow?”
“I’ve got to work, but I’m off at six.”
“Could you trade days off? My shop’s closed tomorrow, so we could spend the day together.”
“Will you make it worth my while?” She moved closer again, her lips just out of reach. Piper looked like she wanted to grab her and hold her close, the exact reaction she was looking for.
“Guaranteed. And I’ll pay for another lesson for Delta. You’ll be making money hand over fist.”
“I’m not trying to get rich off you, Piper.” She let her gaze travel and linger on her delicious mouth. “Actually, money’s the last thing on my mind.”
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