Loving Piper

by Charlotte Lockheart

  “You’re protesting too much, Piper.”

  “Oh, for heaven’s sake, I’m being realistic. Really, Dee, you don’t understand.”

  “I know when I hear a spark in your voice, and since you’ve been living there, you sound happier, your tone is different. And that’s with a house nearly in ruins and the issue of your prodigal daughter. But wait, before we go there, is little Jennie still knocking on your door?”

  “Yes, she’s my tiny faithful visitor, brings me presents, like some of the fluffy chicks she adores, a couple of storybooks. I love that kid.” Piper did love Jennie but wondered at all the attention the little girl paid her. She must be missing her mother.

  “Sounds like she loves you, too. What does Rob think about all this?”

  “That’s a good question. I have no idea. It’s usually the babysitter upstairs when Jennie visits, after I get back from school. I don’t think Rob gets home till about a quarter to six… usually.”

  “You seem quite knowledgeable about his schedule,” Deirdre teased.

  “You’re incorrigible. There is nothing going on. Even if he was interested—which he’s not—he’s not ready for a girlfriend. Plus, he’s got a pot belly.” Piper crossed her fingers behind her back as she visualized Rob’s fit, flat stomach. “And a hairline that’s receded to almost invisible…” In her mind now, Rob’s very full head of golden brown hair was predominant. “Let’s see, and did I mention the nasty overbite.” She tightened her fingers and grimaced, Rob’s wide smile that featured white and even teeth mocking her. She carried on quickly, not wanting to dwell on the lie. “And even if I was interested—which I’m not, because he’s nice but on the pedantic side of boring—”

  “Those things aren’t necessarily deal breakers, Piper.”

  “As I was saying, even if I was interested—which I’m not…well, I don’t know. I don’t think I’m good relationship material,” Piper said. There, surely Deirdre wouldn’t persist in the face of all those negatives.

  “Of course you are, darling, it’s just a matter of finding the right man, your version of Sam.”

  Piper sighed out loud. “I’m afraid you might have got the last good man, Dee. Anyhow, that’s not why I called you. I know you weren’t sure it was a good idea, but after I hung up from talking to you, I went ahead and asked Manny to meet me. So tonight’s the night, and he’s going to pick me up for dinner. I’ve suddenly got cold feet about interfering in Kathleen’s life.”

  “It’s a tough one, Piper. No matter what you do, it’s inevitable that either Kathleen or Manny is going to be furious with you? It’s just as dangerous to not be the messenger.”

  “My thinking, Dee, is that he is her father, after all. I know she hasn’t told him and I think he ought to know what’s going on with her. Maybe he’ll be able to talk to her. She’s certainly not confiding in me. I still don’t even know who the father is. And then there’s her second year at school, which is very close to starting now. What about that? She could be a mother by the end of second semester.”

  “Yeah, you’re right, let him in on the secret. I’ll say that for Manny, he might not have been right for you, but he did the right thing by Kathleen. When do the fireworks begin?”

  “He’s picking me up for dinner at about six. Surprise—we’re going to that little Greek restaurant, the one that’s been his favorite for seventeen years.”

  “You could never call Manny fickle, could you. He’s a lifer.”

  “Except for me.”

  “Yes, well, except for you. Wait a minute, you sound different, what just happened? You’re not having regrets about Manny…or anything like that, are you? Good grief, Piper, that was over so long ago, and after all, you left—”

  “Of course not, just stating the facts,” she said. Piper did not want to relive those old, awful days. “Okay, Dee, I’d better get ready, talk to you later.”

  “Call me anytime, Piper. Ciao, bella.” Deirdre said her goodbye in a way that reminded Piper of what a dear friend she was.

  After hanging up, Piper remained where she stood, and put her hand across her forehead. She had felt positively bereft for a moment in that conversation and it had taken her—and Deirdre—by surprise. She and Manny weren’t right for each other, had never been right together. And they had fourteen unlamented years of life after marriage to prove it. The single thing they had done spectacularly well was produce Kathleen.

  Still there was that momentary flash of loss, longing. Certainly not for Manny, but for an unknown person who could be what Manny should have been. Someone who would love and protect her, comfort her, laugh with her, make love to her. Another unruly sensation to be quashed. She absentmindedly stacked the piles of books and papers on her desk, preparations for the new school year. Yikes, the beast that rode in on the first week of September was whinnying increasingly loudly and about to come charging straight at her.

  “You need to dress for dinner,” she said, pulling off her lightweight khaki pants and sleeveless pink top. She stood in front of the closet, wondering what would be appropriate to wear. “Don’t be silly,” she chastised herself. “This is not a date, it’s a dinner with your very ex ex.” The man who had swept her off her feet when she was eighteen. And married her. Against her parents’ wishes, of course, but what did they know.

  This was the man who it turned out had not been right for her—or for anyone else until he stopped the drinking that was ruining him in every way—but had been unstinting in his care and love for Kathleen. This did not change even after remarrying and starting another family. Wrong time for Piper, but very right for beautiful, gentle Maria, his wife for the past twelve years. Manny and Maria, even their names together sounded more like a couple than Manny and Piper ever had been.

  It had been a long time since she’d dressed for anything other than vacationing or teaching. What would she wear if she was going to dinner with Rob. That prospect was more fun to entertain. Rob—her feelings for him were too new and tender to be shared with Deirdre yet, and when they came to nothing she didn’t want to have to endure Deirdre’s sympathy. But her reticence in talking to Deirdre hadn’t prevented Rob from infiltrating her thoughts with regular frequency. Actually her dreams, too. And those had been X-rated. She who only liked fluffy movies was dreaming in porn. It would be a relief to see him in real life with his clothes on.

  For the past eight days, she hadn’t seen him once, in any state of dress. Coincidence or intentional? She didn’t know him that well, maybe he was the sort who ran and hid when presented with a difficult situation. Not her. When a problem arose, she found it was simply easier to meet the situation head-on, deal with the immediate discomfort and establish the new normal. And what exactly was the new normal now that they had a history in which a kiss overrode all other features of their short history. She blushed and shook her head. She couldn’t remember the last time she had so thoroughly dissected a scene from her past, and she still wasn’t tired of it.

  She manhandled the clothes at the front of the closet to reach less-used possibilities at the back, the party girl section. She had brought far too many clothes with her, and wondered why she’d chosen these particular items, what ball she’d anticipated an invitation to. Crazy, a pink taffeta cocktail dress. And a couple of skimpy risqué numbers that she hadn’t had the courage to wear even once. She pulled them out and held them up one at a time, dancing in front of the floor-length mirror and letting her head fall back as she modeled them for herself. Manny had never been further from her mind.

  Rob was walking by his front window when he saw Piper embracing a dark-haired man who was not much taller than her. They separated and he caught a glimpse of the man’s face. Even from this distance, Rob could see intense dark eyes. The man had other equally strong facial features—substantial nose and mouth. Rugged, a man’s man. He was the kind of man who could serve as a visual definition of the male of the species.

  Rob didn’t like him. He was undoubtedly just short of
Early Paleozoic in his attitudes about the environment, equality between the sexes, probably spent his free time chasing his trilobite friends in violent video games.

  So, what was Piper doing with him? Was that he-man her boyfriend? Of course, Piper could have a boyfriend—just because she hadn’t mentioned one didn’t mean he didn’t exist. He’d wondered about it earlier and then let it go when no boyfriend surfaced. It shouldn’t have mattered one way or another, but he’d been relieved.

  Now the man was opening the passenger door of a Hummer. He hadn’t noticed the make of the behemoth in his driveway. Good Lord, Rob had kissed someone who had kissed someone who owned a Hummer. As Piper stepped up into the vehicle, Rob finally looked directly at her. He had never seen her in that particular sundress, red with tiny see-through straps. Her hair, shiny and black, was pulled into some kind of twist at the back. A few tendrils had come loose from the rest, and she was laughing. She looked radiantly beautiful. She had gotten all dolled up for this Neanderthal. Rob obviously didn’t know the real Piper.

  “What’s wrong, Daddy?”

  “Nothing, Jennie.”

  “Then why did you say that word you’re not supposed to say?”

  Rob didn’t have a ready answer for that. There was no reason for his bad mood. Actually he wasn’t in a bad mood—things just weren’t cooperating today. The noodles boiled over and then he forgot about them and they were a mushy mess about to be topped with a creamy tomato sauce featuring flecks of burnt onion. He’d gone ahead with the recipe even after the initial mishap with the onions, hoping the disagreeable odor would disappear. Just when he thought he was getting somewhere as a cook, the basic tenets would vanish right in front of him. Some culinary mistakes seemed to fix themselves up, while others intensified throughout the whole process.

  “Daddy?” Jennie was staring at him, her head on an angle, her eyes wide.

  “Nothing’s wrong, sweetheart, just a couple of things from work. And they’re better now, so don’t worry.”

  “Can we eat outside?” Jennie started to bounce.

  Great, Rob was off the hook. He said, “Sure we can. Why don’t you get some plates out for us…a couple of napk—”

  “I wonder what Piper eats for dinner. Can I ask her?”

  Rob sighed. “Uh, I don’t think she’s home right now.”

  “Can I go check?”

  “Well, sweetheart, actually I know she’s not home right now. I saw her leave.”

  Jennie had been pestering him about Piper and she now slumped theatrically. She loved having a mission, a reason to run or jump up and down. Suddenly she raised her hands above her head and stood on tiptoe in her ballerina position. Then she darted out of the kitchen and ran up the stairs. A minute later she was back with her big rooster, dancing him around the kitchen.

  Good, the mood roller coaster had taken an upturn. “Jennie, can you and Brocky help me carry dinner out. I’ve got our plates and drinks, how about you grab the napkins and cutlery.”

  “Daddy, look, Brocky can carry napkins on his head!”

  “Yes, he’s gifted. I only had to hear him cluck once and I knew he was the finest fowl in the flock.” Rob emitted his version of rooster talk.

  Jennie giggled uncontrollably and had to pick up the napkins more than once on their way to the patio table as Brocky lost control of his additional headpiece.

  There was no more talk of Piper that evening. His daughter was in the throes of becoming accustomed to a switch at the day care and was bubbling with stories about the new Mrs. Stevens, who was very nice but Jennie missed Mrs. Small, who had such a nice voice. She moved on to her friend Marissa.

  “She has white shoes with ladybugs all over them, and a ladybug T-shirt. Daddy, do we need more ladybugs? They’re the bestest bugs. Marissa said they eat other bugs, the bad bugs.”

  “What about bedbugs, honey, we don’t have bedbugs.” Rob tuned back into Jennie’s chatter.

  “No, Daddy, bad bugs—they eat the bad bugs.”

  Rob tried to make her laugh. “What? The kids at school are eating bad bugs?”

  Unsmiling, Jennie stared at her father. She had picked up on his inattention. Rob couldn’t wait for this day to grind to a close. When the conversational standards of a five-year-old were beyond him, that said something about his state of mind.

  Jennie was very tired and was asleep even before Rob finished reading the story. He kept reading aloud to the end just because he couldn’t stop himself. Animal stories were his favorites, Jennie’s too, and it seemed wrong to leave a youngster lost in the forest without his mother when a few more minutes would have them reunited and snuggling. He kissed his daughter’s forehead, walked to the door, then looked back at the tiny mound under the covers. At times like this he was overcome with love for her. Because of Jennie, he knew he still had a heart.

  Rob stood very still in the far corner of the garden, flashlight in hand, waiting patiently for the next croak of what he was sure had to be a tree frog. The sounds had been loud but infrequent, and so pegging the amphibian’s location was difficult. He’d been in the dark, treed area probably no more than fifteen minutes, but it seemed like hours and he was almost ready to give up when the door from the apartment opened and Piper walked out. She carried something in one hand and walked cautiously to an empty chair on the patio. She placed what he could now see was a cup on the table in front of her and leaned back into the chair.

  Rob was about to call out to her, softly so as not to scare her, when he heard a brief guttural sound. He was immediately riveted again by the notion of tree frogs, but the nature of this was far different and the location had changed. There it was again, maybe calling to its mate. And now it seemed to have a rhythm to it. The tree frogs certainly had a wide variance in their calls.

  He furrowed his forehead, cocked his head and listened intently. After a moment he let his head drop and laughed out loud. Piper jumped up, alarmed.

  Rob jumped too in an attempt to quickly reveal himself. “Piper, it’s just me—Rob.”

  “What the…heck are you doing out here?”

  “Sorry, listen, I’m sorry, I thought I heard a tree frog at the back of the yard, but they’re hard to spot. Shy little buggers and I’d just about given up when you walked out. I didn’t intend to scare you.” He made his way along the path to the patio.

  “What made you laugh?”

  “Uh, I’d rather not say.” He searched for a plausible lie.

  “Oh, come on, better to say than look like a nut laughing maniacally by yourself in the middle of the night.”

  “Well then, to be honest, it was you.”

  Piper stood there, a puzzled expression on her face, and then sat back down. “Me? Now that you say it, I can see how just the sight of me could provide infinite amusement, a festival of clowning around, right here in your backyard at the location of—moi.” She was clearly enjoying herself now. “Yes, I am a reliable trigger for knee-slapping hilarity…okay I give up.”

  “If you really wan—”

  “I do.”

  “It was that sound you were making, a sort of cross between—”

  “I call it singing, if you really want to know.”

  “Oh, I see…I thought it was another tree frog.”

  A moment of quiet followed and then they both erupted. The sound of Piper’s husky voice was infectious and they continued laughing far beyond the point Rob knew it made sense to stop. Eventually the gasps wound down and Piper wiped her eyes.

  “Thanks for that, Rob. I haven’t had a good belly laugh in a long, long time.” She started to rise from the chair, sank back into it, then finally stood and headed for the door. “Good night. Sweet dreams.”

  Rob sat outside alone for another fifteen minutes, relishing the silence in the aftermath and noticing his own contentment, still hearing echoes of Piper’s throaty laugh. He could get used to that. A laugh that washed away constraint, made him feel ready to break out. When he got into bed that night his heart
was pounding a little and he closed his eyes, happy to be drifting towards desire.

  LOVING PIPER

  Thanks for reading Part 1 – Up and Down! I love Piper and hope you feel the same about our heroine. She’s up to more, she’s in a little deeper in Part 2, The Piper Pitfall. It’ll be available soon. Come back for that!

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  I’ll let you know when it’s ready! I’m as anxious as you are!