“Piper . . .”
“Don’t make me call Mitch. He’ll be on my side about this.”
The mention of his fiancé, who I knew he’d argued with many times over me, shut Joey up. Mitch was worried, but he was far more on my side than Joey ever would be.
I didn’t like using him in an argument like this, but even at the hint of someone from my past being here, I had to. There was no way I could tell Joey the truth.
“Fine.” He said it slowly, his voice flat, and I knew he wasn’t happy about it. “But only if this person really wasn’t from your past.”
My stomach churned, but I shook my head. “They weren’t.”
“Then I guess I’ll head out after breakfast.”
I nodded, forcing a smile on my face. Soon, I would be free to do what I wanted without Joey’s watchful eye on me.
I wanted that more than I could say.
Clearly, I was even willing to lie to get it.
16
THEO
Strawberry Springs Neighborhood Watch
Dale Garrett:New bottled water in stock now! Get it while you can!
Comments:
Atticus Thompson:Is it that fancy spring water? Save me a few, will ya?
Hu Gh:BACK IN MY DAY WE DRANK FROM THE HOSE
Tammy Jane:Oh, here we go ...
Hu Gh:LOOK AT ME. I TURNED OUT FINE!!!
Wren Hackett:Why don’t we consult your ass, which is SOMEHOW STILL IN THE GROUP!
I still feltthe simmering rage when I pulled up to my house. It had followed me all day to the point that Kelsey had asked if I was okay. I wasn’t. While I would never make Piper feel bad for what she had told me, it was horrible tohear.
And I still didn’t understand why she trusted me with it in the first place.
My feelings didn’t stop the day, though, and I had to serve all of my customers with the best attitude I could. But this was the first time since I’d opened the coffee shop that I was tempted to let Kelsey take over the front while I hid out in the back.
It was no secret to me that Piper affected me in ways that I didn’t understand. I felt what she felt, and I cared about how she handled things. I would never step in and take over for her, but I wanted to see her succeed because she wanted to as well.
Now that I knew the truth about her past, though, I understood what kind of a mountain she was climbing. It would be fair for her to hide out forever, to give into the fear and live half a life. Many would.
She was stronger than I realized.
Admittedly, I’d had an idea of what had happened to her. One didn’t just develop a fear of touch. I simply hadn’t known all the details. And maybe it was better that way.
With a sigh, I slammed the car door and went into the house.
Over the years, I had put in a lot of work on this place. I emptied it out, took down the wallpaper, painted every room, and refinished the floors. I had found and fixed all of the small things that had come up. At first, it had been a lot of trial and error. I had to look up videos on how to fix things, but that led me to working as a handyman for the rest of the town once Marj figured out I was good with a hammer.
That was the main reason I was able to open the coffee shop. I was grateful for it. And these days, I didn’t have to do a ton of maintenance on my home. I was grateful for that too.
