“That’s good. You don’t have any reason to be scared. Peter’s just a lot of hot air and mean words.”
“Yeah, he’s not so nice. I’m glad I don’t have to be close with him,” she said, pulling back from me.
“Do you want to stay home from school?” I asked as she opened the fridge and pulled out the juice.
“No. We’re doing a project in history class, and I don’t want to have to make it up.”
I nodded. I didn’t know where I got this levelheaded kid, but she was amazing. “I’d better go wake Tyler.”
Moving across the kitchen, mug in hand, I wasn’t looking forward to going to work. I needed a martini instead of coffee.
“I’ll be ready,” Piper called after me.
“Oh,” I said, turning toward her, trying to act nonchalant. “Aston wants you to call him. Only if you want.”
She simply nodded, and I let it be. It wasn’t my job to force him on her or push their relationship.
I went through the motions—dragging Tyler from bed, getting myself ready, and taking the kids to school.
Finally settled at my desk, I texted Seth.
BEXLEY: Thanks for helping with Piper. She went to school this morning. I thought you’d want to know.
He didn’t respond other than to thumbs-up my text.
I knew better than to beg him for more. Honestly, I didn’t want to get tangled up with him again, any more than I already was.
Of course, as soon as I started to do some charting and look at the day’s agenda, my phone pinged. Thinking it was Seth again, I looked at the screen.
ASTON: How is she? When does she want to talk with me? I want to be available. I’m spending the day at Aidan’s office, prepping for tomorrow. Then this will all be over.
Cocky as always, Aston never considered Piper might not be up for talking, or that he might not have this whole case-being-dropped thing in the bag.
I didn’t feel like getting tangled up with his rhetoric either, so I left the text unanswered.
The rest of my workday went by relatively quickly and easily. At three o’clock, I went to get a coffee down the street, and was met on the sidewalk by Peter Prescott as I pushed open the door to the coffee shop.
“Bexley,” he said, his tone stern.
“No, don’t talk to me. Go away.”
“You know me better than to think I will walk away from what I want, and what I want is to talk with you right now.”
With his hand on my back, he guided me to a table inside the coffee shop. He was that much of a bully, and confident to boot.
“Get your hand off of me,” I said through gritted teeth, then added in a hushed tone, “Screw off.”
“Not until I get what I want,” he said, his voice slightly over a whisper but firm. He had the nerve to motion to a chair.
“What is it you want, Peter? Or should I say Mr. Prescott, sir? You ruined your own son’s life. You’ve made mine miserable, and I hardly know you. Should I go on? I think I will. You scared the shit out of your very own granddaughter. What else could you possibly want?”
He sat down across from me like we were two people happy to meet up for coffee, gently splaying his sport coat behind him. “I need a favor.”
“You want me to do a favor for you? Are you serious?”
He nodded as if this wasn’t the most outlandish conversation. “I want you to call your boyfriend off the road he’s going down. He acted poorly when it came to our business, and he needs to accept the consequences. End of story. I need Aston to accept all this.”
“You’ve gotta be fucking shitting me. First off, I barely know you. Oh, wait, I already said that,” I hissed as I leaned forward, my eyes narrowed on Peter Prescott. “I met you when I was a teen, and it sucked. You judged everything about me, and then you took away the one person I ever loved, the one person who made me believe life may be a little better for me. Later on, you came after Piper when she was a baby, and now you’ve terrorized her.” I continued to whisper when I wanted to scream.
