“So after he introduced me to his biceps, he flexed his butt at me. Some kind of primitive way of showing off, I think.”
“Like a baboon, hmm?”
The image that conjured made Zoe choke on her tea.
“Now I’m seeing a red, puffy ass shaking at you.”
Zoe had just managed to swallow, when tea once more went down the wrong pipe.
Piper gave her a sly grin. “Interesting you’re mentioning Gavin again.”
“Again?” she rasped.
“Yep. You don’t remember all that bitching you did about some arrogant Marine at the gym who thinks he’s God’s gift to women? A few weeks ago, a few months ago. Hmm, the last time I was here? You do a lot of ranting about this guy. But you seem to have changed your tune.” Piper smirked and ate a second sweet roll. “Sounds like you’re going soft on me. Maybe up for a relationship after all?”
Piper was teasing, Zoe knew, but she took the words to heart. “No. Not me. I’m focused on my career. Don’t worry.”
Her aunt didn’t smile back. “But I do worry. Just because I chose not to marry doesn’t mean marriage is wrong. Holding hands with a man won’t turn you into your mother. We both know you go right anytime your mother goes left. But just because marriage agreed with her doesn’t mean it’s wrong for you. Heck, it might yet agree with me if I ever meet the right guy.”
“Really?” Zoe hadn’t expected to ever hear that.
Piper sighed. “Aubrey’s passing has affected us all. It made me look more closely at my life and what I want out of it. I’m at that point where my career is amazing. I travel, I have family I love, girls—a girl—I think of as my own.” Crap. Piper’s eyes were shiny. She cleared her throat. “Dating is nice and all, but a man to call mine sounds good about now. Something more permanent than Tom for breakfast and Nick for lunch.”
“No one for dinner?” Zoe tried to make sense of her aunt’s turnaround.
“Not lately. I’m on a diet.” Piper gave a half laugh. “I’m kidding, obviously, but we’ve all taken a good, hard look at life since losing Aubrey. My life isn’t perfect, kiddo, not by a long shot. But I’ve accepted the choices I’ve made. You’re at the point in your life where marriage and babies make sense.”
“Really?You’retalking to me about marriage?”
“Okay, maybe nothing so conventional as marriage. But how about dating a guy for more than a few months? Maybe finding someone to spend time with on your days off? There’s more to life than teaching medical software to doctors and nurses, honey.”
Zoe didn’t know how to take her aunt’s new stance on relationships. For so long, Piper had been her hero. A woman not afraid to defy convention, to be all about career at the accepted cost of family. And she’d succeeded.
Now to hear her talking about men and connections and home and hearth? “Are you sure you don’t need someone to help you with your multiple personalities?”
“Make fun. But I’m not the one panting after my self-defense teacher.”
“I am not.”
“Are too.” Piper raised a brow.
“So he’s good-looking.” Zoe shrugged, needing to be at least a little bit honest. “Nothing wrong with me liking the scenery while I work out.”
“And?”
“And nothing. He’s a good teacher. I like the gym. It de-stresses me.” She thought about Gavin and found herself smiling. “He’s annoying. But he makes me laugh.”
“That’s magic right there.” Piper nodded. “Why not see what a date might do? Aubrey used to tell me you needed to get out more.”
“She nagged me about it too.” Incessantly.
“Well, she knew you best. Maybe you ought to think about it.”
“Fine. Okay.”Anything to stop this conversation.Piper believed in handling grief head-on. She talked about Aubrey as if mention of the girl didn’t still tear a huge hole in Zoe’s heart. Treating the loss in a healthy, verbal way. So Zoe did the same, to prove she was dealing with losing her twin—her best friend, confidante, and the only person who could consistently win an argument against her.
Zoe gradually changed the topic to the English lavender, lupines, and overgrown daylilies in the far corner of her small backyard. Fortunately, Piper latched on to talk of gardening. She didn’t have outdoor space in her condo by the water and was eager to dirty her manicured hands.
Doing her best to appear relaxed and not tense at thoughts of her sisterorGavin, Zoe laughed and joked about anything and everything, ignoring her aunt’s sly suggestion that she too join Jameson’s Gym. That had disaster written all over it. Especially because Zoe had decided to wear those same pink yoga pants to work out on Monday, just to poke the sleeping bear and see what he’d do and say.
Guns of Steel? More likeBunsof Steel, she thought, remembering his finer-than-fine flexing, and chuckled despite herself.
