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“So, better than Daddy?”

Jesus. I grab the pillow from under my head and whack her with it. “Please don’t bring up Dom when I’m talking about sleeping with his son.”

“You don’t think it’s going to come up?” Piper asks skeptically. God forbid a girl lives in denial for five minutes. “Are you going to do it again?”

“Sleep with him?” I ask, and Piper nods. “I mean … I already did. This morning. But he also made it clear that this wasn’t a one-time thing for him.” I explain Killian’s reaction to me suggesting we just get it out of our systems, and she’s quiet for a moment. I can hear kids running up and down the street, probably throwing snowballs if the squeals are anything to go by. For all of Dom’s flaws, I’m grateful he bought us the house on this street. It’s a good place for the kids to grow up, even if the house itself is falling apart.

“Okay, I have three thoughts on that,” Piper says finally. “One, that’s pretty hot. I can’t lie.”

“Right?”

“Two, he sounds pretty serious about you. And three, you deserve that, Scar. You deserve someone who cares about you. Someone who wants to stick around for you and the kids.”

It sounds like a stamp of approval, and I can’t hide the surprise from my face. Though Piper is as friendly and bubbly as they come, she’s fiercely protective. She never liked Dom, but she tolerated him for my sake—for the kids’ sake. She still doesn’t talk to the girl who canceled on Landon for his grad formal because her actual crush asked her. She went on to marry said crush last year, and Piper found a witch online and paid them to make it rain on her wedding day. It did.

So for Piper to be on board with Killian, after such a short amount of time … I never thought I’d see the day. And something about it scares the shit out of me.

“I don’t think it’s serious,” I backtrack. “It was just good sex. Really, really good sex.”

Piper snorts. “It was good for a reason.”

“What do you mean?”

She scrunches up her face, picking at her sparkly orange nail polish. “It’s different when they care about you. It’s different when they respect you. Better.”

“But what if that’s all this is? Killian’s the first person to show interest in me for years. What if the only reason I feel like this is because he’s nice to me and my kids?” I try to make it sound reasonable, but there’s a panicked edge to my voice I can’t seem to control.

“He’s not the first person to show interest in you. Half the single men in this town have shown interest. They all know you, and like you and your kids. You’ve had people vying for the stepdad role for years—and you haven’t looked twice at any of them.”

I must look as disbelieving as I feel, because she laughs and rolls her eyes.

“You’re oblivious to it. It’s like you got so used to how Dom treated you that you couldn’t recognize it when anyone else wanted you. But Killian is different. He’s a good man. It’s going to be messy when everything comes out with Dom and his wife, whether you and Killian are together or not. But I think he’d be a good person to have by your side during that.”

My mind races with worst-case scenarios, wildest dreams, and what-ifs, but one in particular is the loudest:

“But what if I get hurt? What if my kids get hurt? What if it all goes wrong?”

“What if it all goes right?” Piper says, gently. “These are the risks you take by living. But you have to trust your instincts, and if any part of you didn’t trust him wholeheartedly, he wouldn’t be sleeping in the same house as your kids,” she points out. “And sure, you could say your instincts led you to hook up with Dom in the first place, but I don’t know, Scar. Fate’s a funny thing. Maybe this is how it was all supposed to turn out. You were supposed to end up with the coolest kids in the world, and one day you’d meet the love of your life because he showed up on your doorstep and demanded you stop sleeping with his dad. Maybe when Killian’s mom finds out, this’ll be the thing that finally makes her leave her cheating husband, and you’ll all live happily ever after. Except Dom. Fuck him.”

It’s a nice idea, imagining that some hand of fate has been nudging me in this direction. At least then I could put the blame for my fuck-ups on someone else. But I can’t, and it’s just that: an idea. A fantasy. “That’s a very romanticized view of me being a mistress.”

Piper frowns. “That wasn’t your fault. You didn’t know. And you deserve a little romance, Scar.”

“He’s leaving, Pipes. This can’t go anywhere,” I remind her, and myself, but she just shrugs.

“It’ll work out how it’s meant to. Maybe you’ll finally get a little of that Clover Pines luck that everyone swears is real, and you’ll get what you want. If anyone deserves it, it’s you.”

I think I’d need more than luck to get what I want. A miracle, perhaps.

Piper’s doorbell rings, and she grabs her phone to check the camera. My heart has the audacity to skip a little beat at the sight of Killian bundled up in a jacket, scarf, and the green toque Caitlin told him he should get at the grocery store because it matched his eyes. He picked two matching smaller ones for the kids, and one for me, because he wanted us all to match, even though my eyes are brown.

“It’s open,” Piper calls through the speaker at the door, hitting the remote unlock button on her phone. “We’re upstairs—second on the right.”

A moment later, Killian is standing in Piper’s bedroom, and my lips automatically lift.

My smile quickly disappears when he says, “You left your phone, and your mom called—”

“Are the kids okay?” I jump out of Piper’s bed, ignoring her “ow” when the blanket hits her.