Piper blanches. “Withme?”
“Uh…yeah? Thing is, I honestly don’t think he cares. He asks questions like that because he thinks that’s how guys are supposed to talk to each other. Or maybe it’s to get a rise out of me. He knows I’m not going there with him.”
“But why would you? You haven’t even hit the ball in three years.”
I laugh, surprised by her boldness. “If I didn’t know better, I’d think you were throwing down a challenge.”
She scoots forward on her chair, resting her cool hands on my knees. The wind’s making her curls unspool like streamers. Shesays, “Tati’s timing last night was a bummer.”
“I thought so too. It gave me time to think, though.” I don’t want to kill the mood because I like where this is going, but her eyes are bright and she’s smiling warmly and I’d be a dick not to level with her. “Piper, you and me together…it’s kind of complicated.”
Her brow furrows. “Because of Tati and Davis?”
“Maybe. But also because I’m leaving in August. Is that something you’re okay with—complications?”
“Areyouokay with complications?”
I fold her hands into mine. “I think so, yeah. I like you. Like, a lot. But I need to be straight with you.”
The sun’s fallen below the horizon, but the sky still glows orange, pink, and purple. Piper’s face is shadowed, making it impossible to read her expression.
“Okay,” she says. “Then be straight with me.”
I pull in a breath. “There’s this girl back in Spokane. It’s over between us—it has been for months. But we were together for a while, and it was brutal at the end. I’m still kind of banged up.”
“Like, you still care about her?”
I pause, considering. “I guess I’ll probably always care about her, to some degree. But not like I used to. It was intense between us. There’s a lot of baggage. A fucking cargo ship full of baggage. But I don’t want to be with her anymore, if that’s what you’re asking.”
She purses her lips, thoughtful. “You’re sure?”
“Yeah. Very sure.”
“Okay.”
“Okay?”
“Yes. Okay. I’m sorry you had bad breakup. But I’m glad you told me.”
I roll my neck, letting my shoulders relax, only just realizing how tense this conversation has made me. I was ready for her to drill into me, demand details, project whatever past bullshit she’s lugging around onto what she and I are building.
That’s what Whitney would do.
But Piper’s being very mature about the whole thing. Is this how relationships are supposed to go?
She smiles. “Henry, I like you too. I don’t want you to keep parts of yourself walled off.”
I smile, flooded with relief. “You’re really cool, you know that?”
She shrugs endearingly. “Yeah, I do.”
I lean in. “You want to go to first base with me?”
Laughing, she says, “I thought you’d never ask.”
Piper
It’s happening again.
