He’s not thankful for the truth. It’s the money he’s thanking her for.
Although, I watch James Taylor plod down my lawn and know that money isn’t the only motivation that made him escalate this case to a full investigation. This kind of thing is personal. It always is with fires.
Only, James is taking it a step too far by targeting a woman who only ever wanted to provide for her son.
My hands clench into fists, and then I’m over there, inches away from issuing that punch I’ve been resisting giving him.
“Caleb!” Piper takes off after me.
James is lucky that her touch is enough to freeze my world. The bastard gets away unscathed, for now. But he will be paying the price soon enough.
Birds twitter around us, the beating of wings reminding us that the sun is still shining, and that we’re both here, alive and well, despite the circumstances.
“He’s not gonna take your word for it, Hart. We both know how determined he is.”
Something breaks in her jaw, unleashing tears from her eyes. They spill parallel to each other from both of her eyes, and my stomach flips.
“Nobody’s convicting or charging anyone,” I tell her.
“I confessed, Caleb. You just said that he’s not gonna take anyone’s word for it.”
“We’ll figure something out.” My hand can’t help but touch her again. This time it’s in her hair, stroking through locks that feel even softer than before.
It’s an incredibly intimate moment, but I don’t know how else to comfort her. That’s my problem when it comes to Piper. All I know is how to be her lover. I’ve never known it a different way, and part of me refuses to ever even try.
“You’re staying in my house.”
The energy shifts around us. Every cloud has a silver lining, and this particular lining is uplifting—Piper and Sonny get to stay at mine a while longer.
The small smile on her face indicates that she also feels the same uplifted way.
There are many ways she could respond to me, “okay” and “thanks” being just a few. But the smile extends on her beautiful face, lifting the apples of her cheeks as she says, “Good.”
Planting a reassuring kiss to her lips feels natural, but I refrain for now and take us both inside. “On another note, I’m going to pick up the kids.”
“At lunchtime?”
“Until we have your father and his stalker handled, I need Ellie and Sonny to be where I can see them.”
I grab my keys from the bowl and head out, but not before planting an accidental kiss to Piper’s forehead—a force of habit from before. We lock eyes for a fraction of a second, but I force myself out of the door before the lingering becomes dangerous.
Shit.
I jump into the car and speed away.
23
PIPER
The two daysthat follow are a blur. I work on one of those days and spend most of my time outdoors on the other, for two very different reasons. One: because I’m waiting on that Chevy. And two: because all of this drama is making me nauseous as hell.
I spend this afternoon alone in Caleb’s house with the two kids. We had to fill out sickness forms for them both. I was iffy about lying to the school about them coming down with something, but come to think of it—me vomiting outside of Bean There yesterday makes the lie plausible.
I’m dreading spending most of the night alone in the house without Caleb tonight. I left my father at that rancid motel and haven’t heard another peep, no voicemail, nothing. It sickens me to know that the car is still on the prowl, lurking. The worst part about all of this is that I don’t know how long they’ve been watching me.
I only caught the Chevy loitering three times. I’ve been so busy with the fire and moving into Caleb’s, tackling stubborn feelings that won’t go, that I have gaps in my memory. The car could’vebeen following me around for a great deal of time. Two months, even, if my father is right about how long he’s been living up here for.
“Can I practice a Dutch braid on you?” asks Ellie, padding barefoot into the kitchen with a hopeful set of eyes.
