I return the panties and sweatpants to her hips and let her take care of the rest. Locating my belt, I redress, trying to find the right words to answer her question.
“Do you send nudes to a lot of men?”
She closes her mouth and looks at me, astonished. “What have my nudes got to do with anything?”
“Nothing.”
A lie, obviously. I look at Piper for less than a second and get this inexplicable urge to protect her for a lifetime.
“Sorry if I’m prying. But I just thought I’d ask as a?—”
“Friend, right?” She bites the lip I just busted. “Because friends totally ask each other how many nudes they’ve sent.”
“Is it so bad if I look out for you?”
The astonishment dissolves on her face, replaced by a more deflated feeling that has me regretting I ever asked.
“Yes. It is bad.”
“It’s only the same as me looking out for you on the James Taylor case. Every man on this planet would kill to have you in bed with them for a night.” I feel something twinge in my jaw as I contain the jealous feeling. It’s back, and now it’s even worse than before, since I can no longer rely on the sex to numb everything. “Just…be careful.”
“I’m not back on the dating site, if that was your roundabout way of asking if I was.” Her eyes turn shrewd again. “Are you?”
“No.” I come away from the island and lean back into the worktop opposite. “It wasn’t my intention to pry, although it’s good to hear that there’s nobody new on the scene.”
“With the investigation underway, there’s no time to date. Besides, Sonny keeps me happy. He’s all I need in my life.”
Silence drifts between us as we both register yet another similarity between us both.
No time to date because of the kids…
But enough time to fit in a quickie at the end of an exhausting day…
“You’re jealous,” she says.
“I never said that.”
“You’re controlling your voice more than normal. You always used to do that.”
Damn the woman for knowing me better than I know myself. This was supposed to be a friends with no benefits type situation, but I could not contain my libido when she sent me that picture.
The same way no other guy would be able to contain theirs if she sent them something similar.
“It surprises me that you’re still single. Surely every man in this town is trying to win you over.”
“I think you’re paranoid, and are being way too overprotective. I get it—you had to rush back for Ellie. But you lost your chance by not telling me the full truth. How can I be sure that you’re being honest with me now?”
“I know.” I dip my head in understanding. “But maybe it was meant to be like that for a reason. Maybe what we needed was closure.”
Her eyes are coated in a glassy sheer that makes it look as though she’s about to cry. That’s how she looked when she was telling me about her father leaving. “If closure is what we needed, why do things between us still feel unfinished?”
17
PIPER
The next week,Caleb and I are on a mission for that closure.
But no amount of ripping off each others’ clothes is getting us any closer to it.
