Scratch that. After the additional workout Coach Larkin put me through, I skipped my eight o’clock, trudged over to Stromboli’s to pick up my truck, and headed home for a necessary nap. I woke up in time to shower before my one o’clock, and out of habit I checked my phone. Crickets.
Whatever had “come up” with Piper apparently meant radio silence.
At the end of the day when Finn asked if I wanted to grab a pizza at Stromboli’s, I might have growled at him. Then I locked my door, grabbed my sketch pad, and started drawing.
Somewhere around midnight my appetite returned, and I headed downstairs to scrounge up a snack. Soft, feminine laughter behind Callahan’s door alerted me that Jamaica was spending the night. Didn’t have to be Einstein to know what that laughter meant. A stab of jealousy seared my gut, and I wondered for the millionth time what Piper was doing now—and with whom.Reboundricocheted through my head, and without thinking I punched the wall outside Callahan’s room on my way past.
I discovered Finn and Danny in the kitchen working their way through a jumbo supreme pizza. So I invited myself to snacks.
“Where’s your girl?” Danny asked around a bite of his slice.
“She’s busy this weekend.” I stuffed my mouth full of cheesy, meaty goodness and hoped the two of them would be great roommates and stop the inquisition at one question.
It was too much to ask.
“You two in a fight or something?” Finn prodded.
“Nope.” I finished that slice in three bites and reached for another.
“The way you’re acting sure seems like you’re in a fight,” Danny said, his tone serious.
Sighing in frustration, I said, “We’re not in a fight. She texted she had something going on this weekend, and that’s the end of the story.” I slowed on stuffing my face with my favorite Stromboli’s pie, taking a “normal human bite,” as my mom liked to say. “In case you forgot, she spent the night on Wednesday. Just sayin’.”
I’m not sure if I was convincing my buddies or myself with that reminder. But to prove the point, I grabbed a beer from the fridge and sat my ass back down at the table. If I bailed now, they’d know I was lying. Her cryptic texts and ensuing silence had left me uneasy, which was all Callahan’s fault. If he hadn’t made that crack about me being her rebound, I wouldn’t be in this state.
Probably.
I sucked down half my beer and finished my second slice.
“Didja hear about Reynolds?” Finn asked.
Danny and I exchanged a look and said simultaneously, “No.”
“Guess he put in for a transfer. So much for team loyalty.” Finn finished a slice and we all reached for the last one.
“We bought, so you’re out, Bax,” Danny said. He ruined his stern-dad look with a grin. Turning to Finn, he held up his hands for a game of Rochambeau to determine who ate the last slice.
When Danny’s rock beat Finn’s scissors, Finn’s face crumpled like he might cry, and I cracked up. Downing the last of my beer, I tossed the empty in the recycle.
“I never liked that prick much anyway. Hung out with all the frat rats and expected to play on reputation alone. He didn’t fit into Ellis’s system from the first day,” Finn said as he folded the empty pizza box in half and pushed it into the trash.
“Opens up a scholarship spot for you, Danny,” I said. “With the way you flip into beast mode every morning in the weight room, bet Coach Larkin already put in a good word for you.”
“If the Air Force taught me anything, it’s to expect the unexpected. It would be great if Coach scholarships me, but if he doesn’t, I know how to work.” He finished the last slice, and added, “Either way, I’ll be all right.”
“Thanks for the pizza.” I stopped at the kitchen door. “You driving to the ad shoot tomorrow?” I asked Finn.
“Yeah.” A smirk tilted the corner of his mouth. “At least tomorrow I won’t have to try to drag your ass out of bed.”
I flipped him the bird and headed back to my room.
Finn’s comment about loyalty stuck in my head as I settled against my headboard and opened my sketchbook again. When I’d complimented Piper on her loyalty to her family—and her undeserving asshole ex—at first she’d seemed surprised, then pleased. Now I had to wonder if that loyalty extended to me. As an experiment, I drew her as I’d seen her that first night at the Molly, only this time with a soft expression for her ex.
No matter how hard I tried, I couldn’t make it happen. After erasing the sketch so many times I wore a hole in that part of the drawing, I decided my inability to draw her with someone else was a sign. If she was going to end it with me, she wouldn’t leave me hanging for an entire weekend. She’d do it fast and clean.
I went back to drawing her the way I loved seeing her best: lying on her side, her arm shielding those luscious breasts I struggled to keep my mouth off whenever we were naked together, her hair falling around her face in soft waves, the satisfied expression in her eyes, and the gentle curve of her smile. Nothing in the world was beautiful as Piper in the minutes following a mind-blowing orgasm—one I’d given her.
Whatever was going on with her this weekend, it wasn’t about us.
