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“It will never happen again. We got it out of our systems, and we’ll forget about it.” The nagging thought in the back of her head reminded her that her body was insatiable now. This desire Leo had unlocked was never going to be fulfilled. He was wrong about one thing, though. She did regret it, because now she was stuck like this, thinking about how thoroughly undone she could be if only it were Leo’s hands doing the undoing. She’d have to find someone else now. Someone who could do the same things to her that he did. But she already knew she would never be comfortable enough to demand what she wanted like that again.
“Exactly. It never happened.” Leo zipped his lips and twisted the key before tossing it out the closed window. “And, to be very clear, I won’t tell Sam, and you won’t tell Thea. I really can’t have Sam finding out about this.”
“Find out about what?” Piper asked, fluttering her eyelashes in feigned confusion.
Leo chuckled, catching on. “No idea.”
Twenty-Eight
PIPER
The sight of the olive green house at four-three-six Juniper Street made Piper’s muscles relax. Leo had driven the rest of the way to Archwood in what would probably go down as the strangest car ride ever, but when he pulled up to his house, Piper was so tense from just the idea of driving a mile or two to her childhood home that Leo repeatedly offered to just walk the distance from her house to his instead of making her drive. She was still feeling a bit stubborn from everything that had happened, so she refused. Out of everything that had gone down on the trip, driving for five minutes wouldn’t kill her. And yet, when she got behind the wheel, every bone in her body locked up, and she wished she would have listened to Leo. After accidentally yard-sailing an entire bag of sunflower seeds across the passenger seat and console and squeezing the steering wheel until the blood left her fingers, Piper finally made it home.
The noise coming from behind the front door didn’t surprise her in the least. It was two in the afternoon. Piper would be more shocked if there wasn’t any commotion inside. Judging from the other car parked on the street, the Winstons were over. She twisted the knob and gave it a hard push. The front door always stuck on the way in due to the paint that had built up from how many times Piper’s mother had repainted the door, and no one had bothered to fix it.
“Suck it, losers!”
A wide smile broke out across Piper’s face. She’d know that voice anywhere. Jayla, the Winstons’ oldest kid and her little brother Cooper’s constant accomplice, was on her feet in the living room dancing a little jig with a remote control in her hand while Cooper and his other best friend, Camden, stared up at her.
“Dammit,” Camden yelled, tossing his controller onto the couch beside him.
“Language!” Walker’s voice called from somewhere beyond.
“Sorry!” Camden shouted back.
“You’re cheating.” Cooper stood up and went toe to toe with Jayla. Piper’s little brother was right in the middle of his awkward teenage phase and looked like he’d grown an entire foot since the last time she had seen him. His voice was starting to do that cracking thing that said he would soon have the voice of a man. “How do you always win?”
“You should be asking why you two always lose.” Jayla grinned and continued her victorious hip swivels.
“Well, I know why I lost. I fucking suck at this game!” Camden groaned and then quickly corrected himself. “I mean, uh, freaking.”
“Piper!” The sound of her sister’s squeal made Piper perk up in the doorway as she heard heavy footfalls down the back hallway and then saw a blur of long black hair whip across the room. Then Piper was engulfed in the smell of strawberries as she leaned into her sister’s embrace. Pearl always smelled like fresh fruit and home. It was morphing into something more mature now, but it was still the same comforting scent. When Pearl pulled out of her arms, Piper stared in awe. Pearl was still just as petite as the last time Piper had seen her, but there were hints of a more womanly figure filling in.
“You got new glasses.” Piper reached up to tap the rim of Pearl’s circular frames, and the glasses slid down a little on the bridge of her sister’s nose. The sight made Piper smile again. She might miss it if Pearl ever stopped having to push her glasses back up.
“I did! I also got my doubles pierced because I’m a cool bitch now.” Pearl brushed her hair off to the sides to show off the new silver heart-shaped studs above her familiar dangly heart-shaped earrings.
“Language!” Camden called out as he, Cooper, and Jayla closed the distance between the living room and the Hartrick sisters. Pearl rolled her eyes and barely gave Camden a second glance.
“Anyway, I’ve turned over a new leaf. New car, new me. I’m edgy now,” Pearl declared, shaking her shoulders back and forth in a shimmy, her sleek hair brushing back over her shoulders as she did. Piper giggled because “edgy” was the exact opposite of what Pearl was. Her sister might dress in a little more black than before and frequently wear combat boots, but Pearl’s favorite color still was and always would be pink, the color of love and romance and all things cute. That was why the mauve sheets Piper had picked out for her sister—which she now would not be giving her—looked both mature and romantic at the same time.
“Um… Piper?” Cooper’s hesitant voice broke the attention off of Pearl, and everyone turned to look at him.
“Coop!” Piper tossed her arms around her little brother, and he stiffened underneath her, gangly arms hanging at his sides as she crushed him. “Hug me back, you dingus!”
“You should really go to the bathroom,” he said into her ear. Piper pulled back from his embrace in confusion just as her oldest brother, Colin, along with her aunt and uncle and their best friends, Amala and Roscoe Winston, rounded the corner from the kitchen.
“The college girl is back.” Walker beamed and then came to a halting stop in front of Piper, eyes wide in horror, before whirling on his wife with a finger jabbed in Piper’s direction. “I told you this would happen!”
“What are you—oh.” Talia blinked at Piper, who shifted on her feet, nervously looking down at herself and wondering what the hell everyone’s problem was.
“Jesus, do I have something in my teeth?” Piper asked. She covered her mouth with one hand. Amala burst into laughter beside Talia, who had her lips curled over her teeth to hold back her own laughter.
“This is not fucking funny,” Walker snapped.
“Let’s just…” Roscoe, decked out in his police uniform, started to herd Walker away from the door.
“Will someone tell me what the hell is going on?” Piper threw up her hands in exasperation.
