“I want to. I like them.” Piper walked up to him and looked into his eyes. “Grant, I won’t lie and tell you something just to make you happy. That’s what I like most about you. You’re honest, and that’s makes it better for me to be honest. Just promise me you’ll never lie to me, all right?”
“Um, well... ”
“Grant, please. Tell me the truth. Always.”
“But what if a dress makes you look fat?”
She huffed. “Well, then you can fib a little. But not about important stuff, okay?” Her eyes were a darker honey, full of emotion as she said, “I know you don’t want to hear me talk about Sam. But what he did really hurt me, and I’m still trying to get over it. I just... I don’t think I could handle it if I found out you were lying to me.”
She’d admitted a deep truth, he knew. He couldn’t not tell her. Not now.
“Then there’s something you need to know.”
She paled. “Tell me. Please.”
“Well, your cooking really does suck.”
“Hey.”
“Also, I was telling you the truth when I said you’re the most beautiful woman I’ve ever seen naked.”
“Grant.”
“But I might have fibbed a little when I said you might have been, partially, the model for my comic. Piper, you are totally the inspiration for the Pied Piper.”
“That’s her name?” She blushed and smiled. “I like it.”
“Oh good. And another thing.”
“Yeah?”
“I love you. Now, what should we order for dinner?”
Chapter 20
Hope’s Turn
“You told her what?” Cade asked as they sat at a downtown coffee shop Tuesday morning.
“She didn’t want me to lie to her, so I told her I loved her. There. It’s now out in the open.” Grant sipped his coffee, wishing he’d ordered a cocoa.
“And how’s that going for you?”
He sighed. “Not great. We cuddled and still hung together on Sunday, but everything felt awkward. And no more sex.”
“Dumbass.”
“Hey, she wanted honesty. I respect that.”
“Of course you do. But women say a lot of what they don’t mean. She wants to know you’ll be faithful, not that you have feelings for her that are pretty sudden.”
“Nineteen years isn’t sudden.”
“It is to her. I doubt she remembers you two pledged to get married.”
“Well, technically, I have another year before that’s official. But since I’m here, I thought I’d start early.”
Cade groaned. “If that’s not bad enough, Ellie keeps hounding me. She thinks I’m hiding something from her. That there’s something wrong with you.”
