“Don’t you have plans with Piper?”
I sigh and pull away, my mom stroking my hair and the side of my jaw as we part. “Yeah, she’s picking me up, and we’re going to Jack’s.”
“Tell her I said hi.”
“I will.” I squeeze my mom one more time for good measure. I walk back to the kitchen and whistle for Hank to come inside. He prances toward me with snow clinging to his fur. I grab a towel and wipe down his paws, belly, face, and chin.
“That’s a good boy. You wanna see Piper?” I ask, like he completely knows who Piper is. Hank may be cute, but as far as brightness goes, I would say he’s on the side of big head, small brain. He lies down in the kitchen next to the heating vent as I do some finishing touches to my makeup before meeting with Piper.
Fat snowflakes fall from the sky as I open the front door, Hank nudging Piper’s thigh. She dutifully pets his head and coos at him. My best friend and I are practically complete opposites. She’s nearly six foot with jet black hair, olive skin, and deep green eyes. “Sorry, Hank, no puppies allowed at the cafe,” she tells him.
Hank just pants and pushes his giant head against her thigh one more time, leaving a trail of slobber, until he walks back into the house to find my mother. Piper wipes her pants to the best of her ability and doesn’t complain about the drool.
“Ready?”
“Ready.” I grin as we both walk to her truck, my steps taking me a tad longer in the snow. Piper opens my car door for me, and I roll my eyes. “Piper, you don’t have to do that shit.”
“You’re a fucking Omega, Charles. It’s in my DNA to make you happy. If we’re not going to be fucking or biting, the least I can do is get a car door.” She slams the car door when I get in, letting me know her irritation. It would be too easy if the universe made us attracted to each other, but no, nothing in life can be that easy.
“How’s Boston?” I ask.
She smiles as she turns the ignition and heads into town. “I love it there. But I think I’ll like Connecticut more.” I don’t press her on Connecticut; her heart is going to Yale for medical school. So I think it’s best we wait and see how it goes before we talk about it like it’s a reality. I’m such a fucking negative Nancy.
“More than home?”
“More than home. It’s the same weather, but the people, the places. There’s just more options than we could ever imagine in Elmore. What about you? How’s North Carolina?” Like she doesn’t already know. I roll my eyes, and she laughs. “The offer still stands. Come with me to Boston or wherever I end up, finish school online. You hate it there.”
“The scholarship.” She nods, knowing I can’t afford to have to pay out of pocket. “Plus, I don’t know if I could leave Mom.”
“I get that. Just know that it’s always an option.”
I want to tell her how she doesn’t have to take care of me, how I’m not her problem. I know she’ll just tell me to shut the fuck up, and if she didn’t want me to live with her, she would never have asked.
“Thanks, Pipes.”
“No problem, Charles.”
She parks the large white truck in a spot in front of the cafe and whistles at the black one next to us. “Who the fuck’s truck is that?” She whistles, looking over the vehicle. All I know is that we’re looking at a big black truck, nothing else fancy about it. “That truck is easily eighty grand.”
That has my eyes wide. There’s no one I know in the area with that kind of money. Besides all the people I’ve met at school, Piper’s family is the wealthiest I’ve ever met.
“Maybe they’re from Stowe?” I ask, and she nods her head, coming to the same conclusion. We would always drive the forty minutes to Stowe to trick or treat at the rich people’s houses.
Piper walks close to me, probably making sure I don’t trip, and I hold my tongue, not wanting to be difficult. She’s made it clear that her Alpha instincts dictate how she treats me sometimes. Sometimes I hate it, and other times I cherish it. Like when she isn’t afraid to be affectionate and hug me as much as I need. But sometimes her overbearingness can be on the side of obnoxious. She opens the door to Jack’s, and my senses are filled with coffee beans, espresso, and some of the patrons’ scents. She has me sit at the table by the glass window that looks over on Main street where we’re parked.
I don’t even have to tell Piper my order, she just knows. There’s no surprise when she comes back to the table with a hazelnut latte and biscotti for me and a black coffee for herself.
We sip in silence for a moment when Piper drops the bombshell.
“I met someone,” she says, and I blink at her a few times. We text almost every day, but she’s just now telling me this. I arch an eyebrow at her, and she blushes. “It’s new, really new. But I want to see where it goes.”
“An Alpha?”
“Fuck no, he’s a Beta. He’s pre-med too. His name is Nick.”
“Nick?” I ask.
“I invited him up here before Christmas. I was hoping you two could meet.”
