Sweet Summer Sunset

by Delores Fossen

  With the doorbell still ringing, she put on her boots as if she’d declared war on them, and Nico was so concerned with her mood that he was afraid she would end up saying something she’d regret. Not that she shouldn’t tell her parents to knock it off, but it was better for Eden to do that with a cooler head.

  Nico finished dressing, too, and even though he’d hurried, Eden still made it out of the bedroom ahead of him. He managed one last burst of speed to get to the door ahead of her, and he blocked her from opening it. At their feet, Miss Kitty obviously wasn’t happy about any of this because the cat actually bothered to get up from his usual sleeping place by the window and was hissing.

  “Take a deep breath,” Nico advised Eden. “Recite the states. By the time you get to Minnesota, the timing might be better.”

  Clearly though, her visitor thought the timing should be faster, because in addition to the constant ringing, there was now a heavy-handed knock. That didn’t please Eden, either, so Nico opened the door to see if he could work some magic and calm things down a bit.

  He came face-to-face with Damien.

  His first thought was that he actually wished it’d been Eden’s parents because they might be more clueless about what had just gone on between Eden and him. But Damien took it all in, with a long sweeping glance where he no doubt noticed their disheveled clothes, their messed-up hair. Possibly even the stubble burns on Eden’s neck from where Nico had given her some of those tongue kisses she liked.

  If the situation hadn’t been so damn awkward, it would have been comical to watch as the truth started to dawn on Damien. First, his creased forehead from the confusion. Then, the widening eyes when the confusion wasn’t so confusing. And finally, his mouth dropped open.

  “What the hell’s going on here?” Damien snarled a few moments later. His voice was loud enough to cause Miss Kitty to hiss again, and instead of running to Damien as he usually did, the cat turned tail and went into the bedroom.

  “Well?” Damien demanded. “What’s happening?”

  Eden rolled her eyes and huffed. “None of your beeswax,” she snarled right back. “Go home to your fiancée. I don’t have time to deal with your pissy mood this morning. I’m late for work.”

  Without even waiting around to see what Damien’s response would be, Eden took her purse from the coffee table, dropped a kiss on Nico’s mouth and practically elbowed Damien out of the way and then out of the house and back onto the porch.

  Once Nico stepped onto the porch, too, she shut the door, and she headed straight for her car and drove off. Fast.

  Just like that, she was gone, leaving Nico and Damien there to stare at each other. Obviously, Eden hadn’t thought they’d have a fight, but Nico wasn’t ruling that out. Damien looked awfully pissed. That in turn pissed off Nico because, after all, Damien had been the one to leave Eden, and he had no say in what was going on in her life now.

  “You fucked her?” Damien demanded.

  Oh, that didn’t help Nico saddle his anger. “None of your beeswax,” Nico repeated. “If Eden wants to tell you anything, she will.”

  Obviously, that was not an answer that Damien wanted to hear. For a moment, Nico thought Damien might indeed try to punch him. He cursed, and he didn’t whisper, either. He was loud enough to be drawing the attention of the neighbors. That meant it wouldn’t be long before there was more talk about Eden and him, but now Damien would be added to the tasty gossip mix.

  “I’m running late for work, too,” Nico informed him. “So, if all you’re going to do is stand there and curse, I’m leaving. Once you’ve calmed down, we can talk.” He started down the steps.

  “The divorce was a mistake,” Damien said.

  That stopped Nico. So did Damien’s voice. Definitely not the same tone he’d used for all that cursing. Nope. There was a silent groan at the end of that hoarsely spoken comment.

  “I want Eden back,” Damien added when Nico turned around to face him.

  “I’m pretty sure it’s a little late for that.” Hell, Nico hoped it was anyway. If he’d thought there’d be a mess once Eden and he stopped having sex, it would be a mess times a million if Damien came back into the picture.

  A mess that put a hard knot in Nico’s gut.

  He didn’t want to lose Eden, especially not to this dickhead who’d let her go in the first place.

  “You’re engaged to Mimi,” Nico reminded him.

  Damien nodded and scrubbed his hand over his face. “But I want to end that and get back together with Eden.”

  That brought back more than a tad of Nico’s anger. “If you really wanted to get back with her, you would have ended things with Mimi first.” And he braced himself for Damien to argue that with some bullshit answer.

  But Damien only nodded again. “You’re right. I’ll break things off with her this morning.” He paused and stared down at the porch. “I won’t be able to get Eden back, will I? I’ve lost her.”

  It sure looked that way to Nico, and he was hoping that wasn’t all wishful thinking on his part. “Like I said, you’d have to talk to Eden about that.” He started to walk away, but like before, Damien stopped him with a question.

  “Will you help me get Eden back?” Damien asked.

  Nico turned and looked him straight in the eyes. “No way in hell.” He didn’t even have to think about that, and this time, Nico did leave.

  “You’ll just break her heart,” Damien called out to him.

  Yeah, he probably would, and Nico felt the weight of that plow into him like a mean rodeo bull. For a day that had started off darn well, it was sure going downhill fast.

  Nico was a good halfway back to his office when his phone rang, and he snatched it from his pocket, figuring it was Eden. It wasn’t.

  It was Rayelle.

  He was so not in the mood to speak to her right now, but considering what she had told him, he had no choice. She could be having another meltdown over the secret she carried in that silver box.

  “Rayelle,” he greeted when he took the call. “Is everything okay?”

  “No,” she immediately answered. “It’s Piper. She’s crying and locked herself in her room. Nico, you need to come right away. I think she might have found out.”

  “Found out what?” he asked.

  He heard it then. Rayelle was crying. “About what I have in that box. Please come, Nico.”

  CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

  EDEN WAS READY to toss her phone in the trash when it dinged because she figured this had to be from Damien. She had no idea what was so important for him to show up at her house, and she didn’t want to know, either. She just wanted him to slink back to his jealous fiancée and stay out of her life.

  Her fuming anger vanished though when Eden saw Piper’s text on the screen.

  Could you please come to the cabin? It’s important. I need to see you right away.

  Eden got a dose of instant guilt. She’d sensed something was wrong with the girl, and she hadn’t pushed hard enough to get to the bottom of it. Well, she was going to push now. Probably push at Rayelle, too, if the woman was adding to anything related to whatever was happening to Piper.

  Eden texted back:

  I’ll be there soon.

  Even though she’d just arrived—and late at that—Eden stuck her head in Roy’s office. The client wasn’t there yet, but Roy was on his computer, no doubt getting ready for him.

  “I hate to ask,” she said, “but is there any chance you can do the meeting without me? I’m so sorry, but something personal has come up,” she added, and hoped that would suffice as an explanation.

  Roy studied her a long moment as if he might press for info, but he finally nodded. That was enough to get Eden moving. She hurried to her car and drove off in the direction of the cabin.

  Of course, the worst-case scenarios came, and she thought about Pipe
r having an STD. Maybe one that had some medical complications. If that was it, there was no way the girl would want to tell Rayelle. Or Nico. So, it was possible that Piper would need Eden to take her back to the doctor in San Antonio. And she would do that. Even though they didn’t have an appointment, they could just go to the doctor’s office and wait to be seen.

  When Eden pulled into the driveway in front of the cabin, she saw someone she definitely hadn’t expected to see. Nico. He was getting out of his truck, and he glanced back at her, a puzzled look on his face.

  Puzzled with no visible bruises.

  That meant Damien and he hadn’t duked it out after she’d left them. Not that she thought that would happen. Things had probably gotten heated between them, but Nico wouldn’t have thrown a punch unless he’d gotten to a breaking point that she’d never seen him reach. She, on the other hand, might have lost it and punched Damien right in his cheating, slimeball face, and while that would have felt good, it would have only made things worse.

  Damien and she no longer shared a life, but they did occasionally share the same town, and for the sake of their families, she should at least try not to have a public brawl with him. Hopefully, he would stop pestering her. She was tired of his and Mimi’s visits and just wanted them to leave her alone.

  For now, Eden pushed all that aside so she could try and help Piper with whatever was going on.

  “Piper texted me,” Eden explained to Nico when she got out of her car. “She texted you, too?”

  He shook his head. “Rayelle called.”

  Oh. So, this was really bad, and Eden was about to ask how they should handle this when her phone dinged again. It was another text from Piper:

  Come to my bedroom. Just you. I want to talk to you before I see Nico.

  That was more proof of the STD theory. It would be a lot easier to talk about it with another female than with a brother or foster mother.

  She showed Nico the message. He growled out some profanity, but he didn’t stop her when she went into the cabin. Neither did Rayelle. In fact, the woman was sitting on the sofa and looked as if she’d been crying. Great. Maybe Nico could soothe whatever was wrong with Rayelle while she was with Piper.

  Eden tapped on Piper’s door, and she immediately heard the snick of the lock. The moment it opened, Piper took her arm, pulling her inside. Piper closed the door, relocked it and turned to face Eden.

  “I’m pregnant,” Piper whispered.

  She’d said it so softly that at first Eden thought she had misheard her, but judging from the girl’s terrified expression, she hadn’t. However, Eden did consider that Piper was just wrong about this.

  “You got your period,” Eden reminded her. But then she skidded to a mental halt. “Did Jax and you have sex again? Is that why you think you’re pregnant?”

  Piper gave a heavy sigh. “No, we didn’t have sex again, and I don’t think I’m pregnant. I know I am.” With another of those sighs, Piper walked across the room and sank down onto the foot of her bed.

  Eden joined her there, sitting next to her and putting her arm around the girl. Since she had no idea what to say to her, she just waited for Piper to continue. It took a while, and during those long moments, Piper wiped away tears that slid down her cheeks.

  “My period was just some spotting,” she explained. “I told the doctor that, and she did a pregnancy test. She called to tell me it was positive. I’m definitely pregnant.”

  Eden tried not to gasp or make any other sounds of shock. Or dread. Piper definitely didn’t need that. But this explained Piper’s somber mood for the past couple of days, and again Eden wanted to kick herself for not coming to her sooner. This had to have been hell for Piper.

  And it was going to be an even deeper level of hell for Rayelle.

  Eden decided not to mention anything about that.

  “The doctor said I needed to make an appointment,” Piper went on. “That I needed a physical, and we could discuss my options.” Piper’s voice didn’t just crack. It shattered. So did she, and she sagged against Eden when she started to sob. “Oh God. Eden, what am I going to do?”

  Oh boy. This was beyond Eden’s skill set. Way beyond. So, she took her time, holding Piper and letting her cry it out for several more minutes.

  “What do you want to do?” Eden finally asked her. Sadly, that was the best she could come up with.

  “I want to dig a big hole and hide in it,” Piper answered. “I don’t want to face Aunt Rayelle or Nico.”

  Eden definitely understood that. She might be thirty years old, but she still remembered what it was like to be a teenager.

  “Does Jax know?” Eden added, going at this from a different angle.

  Piper nodded. “I told him, and do you know what the idiot did?” She didn’t wait for Eden to respond. “He asked me to marry him.”

  Since she’d thought Piper had been about to say that Jax had dumped her again, Eden felt huge relief over that. And she felt some confusion.

  “Why did his marriage proposal piss you off?” Eden wanted to know because it was obvious that’s what it had done.

  “Because we’re too young,” Piper blurted out. “We’re in high school, and we both need to finish. We don’t need to be trying to make a marriage work. The divorce rate is sky-high for teenagers.”

  That sounded, well, sensible. So, Piper had ruled out saying I do. “How does Jax feel about all of this?” Eden pressed.

  Piper dragged in a long breath before she answered. “He was upset when I first told him. He was worried about how his parents would take the news, too. Plus, there’s that whole embarrassing thing that now they’ll know we’ve had sex. People will look at us and know.”

  In the grand scheme of things, that last part didn’t seem like such a huge deal, but she knew where Piper was coming from. Eden was dealing with some of that with Nico. The gossips had likely figured out that Nico and she were having sex and were probably hashing out possible details. Still, Nico and she were adults and could handle it. Piper might not be able to do that.

  Piper gave her tears another swipe, lifted her head from Eden’s shoulder and looked her straight in the eyes. “I have to tell Nico and Aunt Rayelle.”

  “No way around it,” Eden agreed.

  No matter what Piper decided to do about this, they had to know. And once they got past the shock, maybe they’d be able to give Piper something she desperately needed right now.

  Emotional support.

  Then, Eden might be able to talk Nico out of going to see Jax. Nico was way too protective of his kid sister for him to be having a showdown with the boy who’d knocked her up.

  “Will you go out there with me?” Piper asked. “Will you tell them?”

  “Of course,” Eden readily agreed, and even though she knew she wasn’t dreading this as much as Piper was, there was still plenty of dread.

  “Thank you.” Piper stayed quiet a moment, but she did get to her feet. “Once they know, I should be able to explain everything to them.”

  One could hope, but Eden might have to muzzle Rayelle for that to happen. She couldn’t see Rayelle staying quiet about something like this.

  Eden grabbed a tissue from the nightstand and had Piper wipe her eyes and face. Once she’d done that, Eden put her arm around her again to get her moving to the door. Eden didn’t want to delay even a few seconds to give Piper more time to think about what she’d be facing out there. Best to get this done fast, like ripping off a bandage.

  It surprised Eden when Piper opened the door and walked out ahead of her. Both Nico and Rayelle were there, of course. Waiting. And both looked a little shell-shocked as if bracing for the worst.

  Good.

  Because they might see this as the worst.

  Piper walked closer to them, and she took hold of Nico’s hand. “I’m pregnant,” she said.


  Well, Piper had definitely done the fast-bandage move, but she apparently wasn’t finished. The girl glanced at Rayelle before fixing her attention back on Nico.

  “And I’m keeping the baby and will raise him or her,” Piper added. “Since I’m sure Aunt Rayelle won’t approve of that, I want to move in with you, Nico.”

  * * *

  NICO FIGURED “OH, SHIT” probably wasn’t the most articulate response, but it was all he could manage. Apparently, Rayelle couldn’t even manage that because she just stared at Piper. Her eyes were wide, her mouth was slightly open.

  Ditto for Eden.

  Eden’s reaction made him wonder exactly what had gone on in the discussion Piper had had with her in the bedroom because Eden seemed as surprised by this as Rayelle and he were. So, maybe Piper had just done some crying on Eden’s shoulder but hadn’t spilled this quadruple whammy of bombshells.

  Pregnant.

  Keeping the baby.

  Raising it.

  Moving in with him.

  “Uh, I thought that was a false alarm,” Nico added a moment later, and then he winced because now he’d just confessed to Rayelle that he’d known about Piper’s possible pregnancy-related issues.

  “I thought so, too,” Piper admitted. Even if her hair had been on fire, she couldn’t have looked more uncomfortable. “But the doctor ran a test at the clinic and it came back positive. Jax knows,” she quickly added.

  There were several more revelations in that explanation, not just for him but for Rayelle. Who still hadn’t said a word. He didn’t think the woman’s continued silence was a good thing, either.

  “Jax asked me to marry him,” Piper continued. “But I said no because we’re too young.”

  Nico nearly pointed out that if she was too young to get married, the same logic applied to her raising a baby, but this didn’t seem like the right time to state the obvious. Piper was barely holding it together, and her red eyes told him that her “holding it together” had been a very recent occurrence. This had obviously been tearing her apart for a while now.