Her face lit up. “I’ve been meaning to go there.”
“It’s really good. And the portions are huge.”
“Even better.”
Piper gestured for me to dig in, but I only grabbed a bite of the hash browns. She went for pancakes first.
“This issogood,” she said the second she took a bite.
“Tammy never disappoints.”
“Seriously. I’ll have to be brave and go there sometime. Maybe you could come with me.”
I paused before saying what had been on my mind. “People might have thoughts about that.”
“What thoughts?”
“That we shouldn’t be together.”
She frowned, eyes narrowing. “Who would say that?”
I almost said “Joey,” but the word wouldn’t come out. “People who care. Or have opinions.”
“I don’t care what they think. I care whatwethink. You and me. No one else. I want this. Do you?”
Sometimes, the way she could be direct still shocked me. I had to clear my throat before speaking. “I do.”
“Then we’ll be fine.”
“There’s another issue.”
“And what’s that?”
“You’re here because you want to find a place to stay, right? I can’t promise that I’ll be staying.”
“You’ve been here for a decade.”
“That’s stolen time. I’ve gotten close to people finding out, but it’s only because I’m lucky. And luck runs out. The last thing I want is for you to get swept up in it with me.”
Piper crossed her arms and frowned. I was sure she was going to fight me on this. “What if I want to be?”
“I don’t know if you’d want to. You like it here. I’d never take that from you. So, maybe we should?—”
“Don’t say it.” Her voice was firm.
I stopped. “It’s not an option I like either.”
“What if we just ... figured it out as we go? That’s what I’m doing with the touching thing. And we can do it for you too. You don’t want people to know? Then we don’t tell them. You wanna go slow? We go slow. But the point is, you like me, and I like you. I would like to explore that.”
“And if I have to leave?”
She looked down for a moment. Piper liked Strawberry Springs, and moving here had been hard for her anyway. I would never ask her to change any of that.
“Then we figure that outifthe time comes.”
I stared at her. Figuring it out meant it would end.
But so would everything else.
