“I may not know my sister as well as you do, but even I know if you go over there right now…she’ll rip you to shreds.”
“As she should.” I whirl on him. “None of this would be a problem if you had given her the chance to prove her methods in the presentation. But no, the almighty Pierce would rather stick his head in the sand instead of building this business to what it could be.”
“You have no idea what you’re talking about.” He argues with his arms crossed over his chest.
The audacity of this guy. I will never understand why he’s so different from the rest of his siblings, even Peter isn’t as much of an ass.
Before I have a chance to say anything else, someone shoves me. Pierce has the good sense to catch me before I hit the ground. When I turn around Peter is glaring at me. I didn’t even hear the golf cart return.
“What the fuck did you do to my sister?”
This isn’t behavior I’d expect from him. He’s never really paid us much attention. I mean, I know he cares. They are siblings. But I didn’t think it was enough to get a rise out of him.
When I don’t answer, he takes a step toward me fist raised. At this point, I would take the ass kicking. I deserve it. I lied to my best-friend, the one person I love more than life itself. I also crossed a line.
Pierce jumps between us. “He’s not the only one she’s pissed at. Calm the fuck down.” The last words are almost a hiss. No doubt trying to keep their parents from coming to investigate.
“What the hell did the two of you do?” Peter’s eyes bounce between us. “I’m not surprised she’s mad at you.” He points athis brother. “But, you.” Pointing at me. “Never make her mad. In all the years we’ve known you, I’ve never seen the two of you, fight.”
“We’ve never had a reason to…until now.” I study the ground in front of me, refusing to make eye contact with Peter. Even if Pierce tries to take some of the heat for this, I’m also to blame.
Pierce gives his brother the information but leaves out the part where if I didn’t pull her in, he was going to fire her. Of course, he can’t make himself look horrible. Even though he does that on a daily basis with zero help.
“Y’all are really something.” Peter shakes his head. “You shouldn’t have gone behind her back, Beau. You are the one person Piper trusts in the world. Do you have any idea how this will make her feel?”
“Considering she ran away from me…yeah, I have an idea. Which is why I need to go talk to her.” Standing here cementing the fact I fucked up isn’t going to make anything better.
“Absolutely not.” Peter crosses his arms over his chest. “You need to give her space. When she’s ready to talk to you she’ll let you know.”
How in the hell is he going to dictate when I can talk to my best friend? It’s not like they are even close. She argues with him almost as much as she does Pierce.
“That’s not acceptable.” I take a step forward. I don’t know why. He’s not easy to intimidate, but I’m also not going to throw a swing. I wish I could, though. It would feel really freaking good.
“Too bad, Beau.” Peter closes the distance between us. “She’s hurt because of you and this dumbass.” He points toward his brother. “Piper will be fine. I’m bringing her breakfast in the morning.”
“Do you even know what she likes?”
“Of course, I do. She’s, my sister.” Peter turns toward his big brother. “And you are going to let her take off however long she wants. I imagine she wants to talk to you even less than she does Beau. I really thought you learned your lesson after all the bullshit with Paula. But you really can’t help being an ass. Can you?”
Pierce’s mouth drops open. His brother has never talked to him like this. He usually does whatever he’s told and tries to impress Pierce. I guess those days are over.
He doesn’t give either of us a chance to respond and marches back to the house. I’ve seen Peter pissed, but it’s usually because we’ve done something to make Pierce mad. This is the first time I’ve ever seen him upset on Piper’s behalf. He’s not wrong, though. Piper will talk to us when she feels like it’s right. No matter how much it kills me inside to know I can’t do anything to ease the pain. Especially since I’m one of the people who caused it.
There’s no point in me being here. “I’m gonna go.”
Pierce levels me with a stare. “As long as you’re going straight home.”
I can’t believe he’s trying to tell me what to do. He must have forgotten I’m not one of his siblings. But…I can’t argue with his order. If I go over there right now, I have zero doubts she’ll rip me a new one.
I know he won’t go there either because it’ll be ten times worse than whatever I get.
My hands go up in the air in surrender. “I promise I won’t stop at Piper’s. Can you tell everyone I had to leave?”
It doesn’t mean I won’t be working on a plan to smooth things over. Maybe she’ll be more forgiving after I tell her what Pierce was going to do. Doubt it, though. She’ll see it as a betrayal either way. She got hit with two less than great pieces of information tonight. She’s not going to take any of this lightly.
“Sure.” He nods before turning toward the house and follows his younger brother.
I don’t bother waving as I turn toward the side of the house to get to my car. Tonight, did not go the way I intended, but at least now she knows about everything. Not in the way I had planned, but it’s all out in the open…mostly.
