Sweet Summer Sunset

by Delores Fossen

  But hell almighty, it was doing the same to him.

  “And no, I don’t want you to beat up Jax,” Piper added almost in a whisper. “He didn’t force me to have sex. I wanted to be with him like that. And FYI, we did use protection.” She paused and tacked on the rest in a barely audible mumble, “I guess something went wrong with the condom.”

  He had indeed been thinking about having a little chat with Jax, one that would have a bite of anger in it. However, her remark cooled Nico down a little.

  Yeah, he knew what it was like to be with someone “like that” since it’d been less than a half hour since he’d gotten out of bed with Eden. Of course, the difference was that Eden and he were adults. Still, if you had sex—even protected sex—you ran the risk of making a baby. As Piper and Jax had learned the hard way.

  “I’m almost seventeen,” Piper went on when no one else said anything. “I’ve already checked, and I can take the rest of my classes online so I can graduate. That’ll free me up to get a part-time job so I can save some money and eventually get my own place, but in the meantime, I’d need to stay with you.”

  Nico definitely hadn’t missed that part. Hadn’t missed immediately thinking how that would change both their lives. Of course, their lives had already changed, but Nico just hadn’t been aware of it until a couple of minutes ago.

  “Jax already has a part-time job,” Piper continued, “but he’s going to work more hours so he can pay me child support. I might even be able to live here once Aunt Rayelle goes back to San Antonio.”

  Wow, she’d thought all of this out. And had likely done all the thinking, planning and, yes, worrying without him even knowing anything was wrong.

  “I see,” Rayelle finally said.

  The woman’s voice certainly didn’t have the tone of a show of support. That was probably why Eden jumped right in.

  “I can help,” Eden offered, sliding her arm around Piper. “I’ll talk to Roy and see if he can use more help at the law office. I’d wanted to put in fewer hours there anyway to focus on...other things.”

  Eden meant the blog, and while she had indeed talked about reducing her hours for Roy, she’d never seriously considered it because then she would have had to explain to everyone how she was earning a living.

  “I see,” Rayelle repeated, and she cleared her throat.

  Nico knew this had to be a kick in the teeth to Rayelle, along with reminding her that she’d once been in the same position as Piper. Well, nearly the same position anyway. Rayelle’s mother had strong-armed her into giving up the baby, but Piper wanted to keep hers.

  Nico wouldn’t be doing any strong-arming.

  Even though he was still reeling from everything he’d just heard, he went to Piper and pulled her into his arms. He made sure he put as much love in that hug as he could manage. Later, he could gnash his teeth and vent about this situation she was in, but he vowed then and there that Piper wouldn’t see any gnashing or venting from him. Well, not about this anyway.

  “I’ll help you,” he promised Piper.

  He could actually feel Piper’s body relax. Her muscles that had been so hard and stiff went soft, and the breath she blew out was one of relief. No doubt about that.

  “Thank you,” Piper whispered. “And thank you,” she added to Eden. Piper pulled her into the hug, too, making it a group one.

  Minus Rayelle.

  Nico figured while this might be comforting to Piper, they weren’t going to be able to exclude the woman for long, and he was right.

  “We need to talk,” Rayelle insisted, looking at Piper. “There are some things that need to be spelled out.”

  Nico made eye contact with her, hoping to give her a silent reminder not to cast any stones here. He wouldn’t reveal Rayelle’s secret. He’d seen how hard that had been on her. But he wasn’t going to let her verbally bash Piper now, either.

  “I have custody of Piper,” Rayelle reminded them. “I’m legally her foster parent, and she’s a minor.”

  The hug posture stayed in place, but Piper, Eden and he turned and angled so they could see Rayelle. This time, Nico gave the woman a glare because her reminder felt a little like drawing a line in the sand. It must have felt that way to Piper, too, because her muscles stiffened again.

  “And?” Nico prompted when Rayelle didn’t continue.

  “And I believe Piper will be better off with me. In our home in San Antonio,” she added. “This is a small town, and there’ll be a lot of talk about a pregnant teenager.”

  “There’ll also be talk in a city,” Nico pointed out.

  Rayelle nodded. “But it won’t be something Piper will have to hear every minute of every day. She’ll be judged harshly here.”

  Nico wanted to argue with that, but there was some truth to it. Of course, he could squelch some of the judging. Well, public judging anyway, but he wouldn’t be able to stop the gossip. He wouldn’t be able to protect Piper from that.

  “I think it’s best if Piper and I leave and go home. Right away,” Rayelle emphasized.

  Piper stayed put. “I’m not giving up my baby.”

  Rayelle nodded again. “Understood. You can have the baby, finish school and continue to live at home. No rent, no expenses. And this way, you’ll be able to see Jax more often.”

  Until she said that last part, Nico could practically feel the argument building inside Piper. But Rayelle’s offer might be too tempting for her to pass up.

  Piper’s silence dragged on. Nico stayed quiet, too, but that’s because he was trying to gauge how Rayelle was truly doing. He didn’t want this to be the calm before the storm. And he didn’t think it was. Maybe it wasn’t just wishful thinking on his part and that the woman was truly offering Piper the kind of support that Rayelle herself hadn’t gotten.

  Was that it?

  If so, Nico would have been thankful except for one thing. He didn’t want his sister to go.

  Hell. When had that happened? Just a few weeks ago, he had thought he couldn’t wait for summer to be over so he could get out from beneath Rayelle’s scrutinizing eyes. Away from being a bad influence on Piper, too.

  But now...

  “You can stay here with me if you want,” Nico told Piper. “I can try to work out the whole foster thing.”

  New tears watered Piper’s eyes, and he wasn’t smart enough to figure out what they meant, but he hoped she was happy. Eden certainly was. She gave him a reassuring smile.

  However, there was nothing reassuring about the look Rayelle gave him. “Honestly, I doubt you’ll be able to convince Child Protective Services to allow you to foster, and it won’t be a speedy process. In the meantime, I’m going to insist that Piper come back to San Antonio with me. Pack your things, Piper,” Rayelle added to the girl. “We’re leaving now.”

  CHAPTER EIGHTEEN

  EDEN HAD NEVER been a “misery loves company” kind of person, and she wasn’t about to start now. But Piper’s dilemma helped Eden put her own troubles in perspective.

  Yes, her folks were giving her grief about the blog and seeing Nico, but at least she was an adult and could handle the hassles. Piper was just a teenager. A pregnant one, who didn’t have control over her own life. Case in point—Piper had gone back to San Antonio with Rayelle.

  Eden seriously doubted that Piper wanted to be under Rayelle’s roof, but the girl might have wanted to stave off a big battle between Nico and Rayelle. And that might still come since Nico hadn’t seemed pleased about Piper caving in. In fact, he was in San Antonio now, not just to make sure Piper was truly okay but also to try to work out the best possible arrangements for the girl.

  She figured Rayelle wasn’t going to make that easy for him.

  But then Eden frowned and rethought that. Rayelle certainly hadn’t been judgmental and mean after hearing the pregnancy news that had surely rocked her tidy little wor
ld. However, she had been resolute, confident even that Piper’s staying with her was for the best.

  Whether Piper remained in San Antonio or not, it would be better all around if Nico, Rayelle and Piper could work out a solution that gave them some peace of mind—Jax, too. Because whether or not Nico and Rayelle liked it, the boy had a big part in this and could possibly end up helping Piper raise their baby.

  Eden hadn’t been anywhere near ready to be a parent at that age. Piper and Jax probably weren’t, either, but if Eden had a say in this, she would make sure they got a lot of help. She believed Nico felt the same way, and he’d feel that even stronger once he got past the initial gut-punch of learning that his kid sister was going to be a mom. Nico would do whatever it took for Piper because that’s the kind of good guy that he was.

  She smiled at that thought and tried to go back to focusing on the blog. It was a losing battle. She’d had her laptop open and in front of her for over an hour now. Had reread the blog post at least a dozen times. And she still had nada. No advice whatsoever to Horny in Houston, who was asking advice about what to include in a home sex tape she wanted to make for her “sweet-cheeks cowboy.”

  Nico would almost certainly be able to come up with something. Plenty of something, considering how good he was at sex. But she couldn’t bother him. No way would he want to think about sex, but Eden was hoping that once he came back from San Antonio that he’d be stopping by her place. Even though she’d had him in her bed that morning, she wanted him again.

  And again.

  All right. So maybe she could answer the blog after all. She could just think of things—sex games—that she’d like to play with Nico. Actually, there were a lot of things she could think of when it came to Nico, and she frowned again when she admitted that not all of it would involve getting naked with him.

  Miss Kitty sprang to life from his sprawl on the window, and when he went trouncing toward the door, Eden suspected she was going to add another hassle to her already hassle-filled day.

  And she was right.

  When she opened the door, Damien was standing there.

  “Don’t close the door in my face,” he said when she started to do just that. “Please,” he added. “Just give me five minutes.” He tacked on another please, and he scooped up the cat into his arms. Miss Kitty snuggled against him as if he owned every kibble factory in the state.

  Eden didn’t feel as if she owed Damien one minute, much less five, but she didn’t want him going to her parents. Something he’d already done. According to her mom, Damien had called her three times already today, and he’d made it clear that he wanted to get back together. That had caused her mother to hope way too much, and it hadn’t completely dashed that hope when Eden had assured her mom that Damien and she weren’t getting back together.

  “Five minutes,” Eden said, “and when you’re done, you’ll leave me, my family and Nico alone.” She hadn’t had proof that Damien had actually called Nico, but when Damien dodged her gaze, she suspected he had done exactly that.

  “I ended things with Mimi,” Damien blurted out the moment he was inside.

  No more gaze dodging. He stared at her as if he expected her to leap for joy. The only leaping Eden would do was if she saw Nico drive up in front of her house.

  “I want you back,” Damien added, and his tone led her to believe that he actually thought that was something that could happen.

  Eden sighed and scrubbed her hand over her face. How had she ever put up with this man? Better yet, how had she ever lived without Nico’s kisses? She didn’t have answers to either of those, but she did have something to tell Damien.

  “No.”

  She’d thought that by keeping her response simple and direct, that there wouldn’t be any confusion. But she wasn’t that lucky.

  “You can’t mean that,” Damien insisted.

  “But I do,” she insisted right back. “I have no intention of getting back together.”

  “But you love me,” he snapped.

  “No,” she repeated, “and I haven’t loved you for a very long time.” Since she considered that an end to the conversation, she took the cat and used her free hand to take hold of Damien’s arm to “help” him back out the door.

  Damien held his ground. “Are you saying this because of Nico?” He toned that question down a little, but there was a big spark of anger in his eyes.

  Since she doubted Damien was going to pick up on any subtleties or half answers, she went with the truth. “Yes. I’m falling in love with Nico.”

  Clearly, that had not been what he’d expected her to say, but Eden realized it was the honest to goodness truth. It would have made her life so much easier if she could just blow it off as good sex, but nope, she couldn’t do that. She was falling for her best friend and a first-class womanizer.

  Damien just stood there, mouth gaping, and his eyes fixed in a blank stare. It took him several moments of his rapidly passing five minutes to regain the capacity for human speech.

  “Falling in love with Nico?” he said, but it didn’t actually seem to be a question rather than a questioning of her sanity. He even repeated it—three times—before he finally moved off the broken record observation and went on to something else. “Sheez Louise, Eden, that’s a stupid thing to do. You know how he is.”

  Yes, she did, but she didn’t think Damien was talking about how great Nico was in the sack. She seriously doubted that Damien wanted her to give him a laundry list of Nico’s other assets so she just stayed quiet, which only seemed to frustrate Damien even more. Of course, maybe her smug smile added to that frustration, too.

  “You can’t trust him,” Damien said as if it were gospel.

  “Oh? And why not?” She made her smile even smugger because she doubted Damien could come up with anything.

  But Damien didn’t seem to have any trouble doing that. “I’ll bet Nico hasn’t even told you the truth.”

  No way was she going to drop her smile on just that vague accusation. “The truth about what?” She let go of his arm to tap her mouth in a fake yawn.

  The yawn probably wasn’t a good idea because it set off a new round of fire sparks in Damien’s eyes. Now he got a smug look. “Nico knew I was seeing Mimi when you and I were still married. He knew the whole time, and I’m betting he didn’t say a word about it to you.”

  That caused her smile to vanish, and she shook her head, ready to check and see if Damien’s pants were on fire from that lie he’d just told.

  But it wasn’t a lie.

  She could see that past the depths of those eye sparks.

  “Think about that before you fall all the way in love with him,” Damien went on. “He knew and didn’t tell you. He’s not perfect, Eden. Nico’s a dick just like the rest of us guys.”

  And with that summary, Damien turned and stormed off.

  * * *

  RAYELLE HEARD THE soft knock at the door and tried to steel herself up. It was probably Nico, returning to try to convince her to bring Piper back to Coldwater. She understood his argument. He loved his sister and wanted to be with her. But Rayelle knew the cruelty of a small town when it came to scandal, and she didn’t want Piper to go through what she’d gone through.

  It had crushed her.

  Besides, she couldn’t have Piper leave. She just couldn’t. Having Piper there didn’t give her the happy family home that Rayelle had once dreamed of, but it was the next-best thing. Her daughter was with her, and even though she couldn’t tell Piper the truth, Rayelle didn’t want to lose this time with her.

  She was surprised when she opened the door and didn’t see Nico or Jax standing there. It was Wally. He tipped his cowboy hat before he slipped it off his head and held it almost like a salute over his heart.

  “Do you have time to talk?” he asked.

  She had plenty of time, especially since Pipe
r wasn’t exactly in conversation mode. Rayelle had tried to discuss things with her, but she hadn’t gotten anything more than monosyllabic responses on the drive to San Antonio. Once in the house, Piper had gone straight to her room. Rayelle figured she was angry with her for demanding that they leave Coldwater, but maybe Piper would soon see that it was for the best.

  It was that “maybe she would soon see” that was troubling Rayelle, and it was likely the reason she stepped back to allow Wally to come inside. Heaven knew she needed to talk to someone, and while Nico’s assistant probably wasn’t the best candidate for that, he was here. Not only did he know she’d given up a child for adoption, he’d been kind to her. That hadn’t especially been a consideration in recent years, but it seemed to be now.

  She led him into the small living room that was still decorated with Brenda’s things. What was missing was her sister’s casual, haphazard disorder. Books and photos that had once been placed willy-nilly were now aligned. Ditto for the rug that no longer lay at an awkward angle. Rayelle had fixed all of that after she’d moved in with Piper.

  “Would you like something to drink?” she asked, remembering her manners.

  “No, thanks.” He didn’t sit until she motioned for him to take a seat on the sofa. “I just wanted to check and see how you were doing. Are you okay?”

  She wasn’t sure how much Nico had told him, but obviously he knew some portion of what had happened or else he wouldn’t be here.

  “I’m fine,” she said, surprised when her voice cracked. She wasn’t sure why she couldn’t keep her emotions in check around this funny-looking man.

  This nice man, Rayelle mentally amended.

  “Actually, I’m not fine,” she added. “Piper is hardly speaking to me, and Nico is angry. They think I did the wrong thing by insisting Piper come back here.” She paused and sat down directly across from him. “But you know what happened to me. I don’t want people talking about Piper like that.”