14
And My Bow
Sit.”
Kol wasn’t used to taking orders, but he wandered into the kitchen too stiff to argue. Piper stood bright-eyed at the counter, her hair tied off with colorful bands into many uneven braids, clearly Michaela’s doing. He sat on the stool she pointed to and took note of the two empty bowls already waiting there.
“No eggs Benedict or Belgian waffles this morning?”
Piper smiled from the side of her mouth as she returned from the refrigerator carrying a gallon of milk, and then she produced that damn box of Choco-Crunchy Bits from under the counter.
“Oh, no,” he groaned but reached for the sugary cereal anyway.
Piper pulled it away from his grasp, and in his groggy state, she was much faster. She gave him a pointed look, then slowly filled his bowl. Her gaze was soft as she watched the crunchy bits fall and then served herself, her mouth looking even softer with a gentle, knowing grin. Next came the milk, another thing she did with ease and grace, and his insides went right to mush.
Gods, Kol, get it together—it’s just a bowl of cereal.
“You’ve got a big day ahead of you,” she said, and that mushiness in his guts solidified. “You need as much fuel as you can get.”
“I don’t love the sound of that.” He accepted the spoon she offered.
Piper just took a bite, dark brows rising playfully. If she didn’t wish to devolve anything further, that was just fine so long as she kept leaning on the counter across from him and grinning around her spoon as she ate.
The cereal tasted exactly as he expected, both nauseating and delightful, and he was immediately transported back to his father’s galley kitchen on an early, Sunday morning, but the seclusion he was used to never came. Instead, Piper was there, and for once Kol felt like he was exactly where he was meant to be.
“Ready to go?”
Kol jumped at the hand that fell onto his shoulder. He’d not even heard Presley enter the kitchen. “Go where?” He eyed the long, black case Piper’s brother was holding.
“We’re gonna go shoot shit.”
Piper scoffed. “Don’t be a dick.”
“Don’t call your brother a dick,” said her father as he too came into the room, “and don’tbea dick, Pres. It’s only target shooting, Kol, nothing alive.”
Piper’s brother gave Kol’s shoulder a shove that surely looked like a friendly squeeze to everyone else. “Probably not anyway.”
“That’s what we’re doing today?” Kol didn’t remember seeing that in Piper’s planner.
“That’s what you’re doing. The rest of us are making cookies.” Piper cleared away the empty bowls.
“Why can’t I make cookies too?”
Presley tugged him to his feet. “Because men shoot shit.” He shoved the case into Kol’s hands.
“This feels sexist.” He caught Piper’s eye, awkwardly hugging the gun case to his chest. “This is sexist, right?”
“Oh, yeah, totally.” Piper shrugged. “But I also don’t want to be around all the burping and farting, so I am very happy to stay here with the womenfolk and children.”
Kol wasn’t convinced. “Haven’t I proven how good I am at taking directions? I can help you measure and mix things.”
“Come on.” Piper’s father nudged Presley out of the way and put a friendlier hand on Kol’s back. “It won’t be that bad.”
Kol swallowed, but let the man lead him out of the kitchen, and before he realized, he was sitting in the back of someone’s van, surrounded by Piper’s male relatives, six of them in all. He assumed it might be a little easier with Luis there who was Deb’s husband despite being the same age as Deb’s son from her first marriage, Cody, but the two of them got along swimmingly, and Presley was even brave enough to bring up Formula One and listen to everything Luis had to say. That left crass Uncle Russ, his oldest son, Holden, and Piper’s father. “Just call me Jim,” he’d said, and Kol agreed with an uneasy flip in his gut.
Why he should really care was beyond him, but this was Piper’s father, and if playing at being her boyfriend were to be believable, he should be slightly nervous shouldn’t he? Especially when the man was carrying a rifle.
It was just target practice, though, and Kol was thankfully not the target. So, he attempted to make a good impression on his fake girlfriend’s real father, fitting ear protection over his beanie so he wouldn’t reveal the slight point to his ears and listening intently as the instructor—who was a woman, but he didn’t make the quip he wanted to about how they should have brought Piper and the others along—explained the rules.
