Page 64 of Meet Me in Ivy Falls

Her body vaulted up and she smacked her head against the top of the cabinet. ‘Shit!’ She backed out of the space, rubbing her head.

I quickly rushed to her side and knelt down. ‘Sorry. I didn’t mean to startle you.’

‘What the hell are you doing here, Beck? You said you wouldn’t be back for a while.’

I knew that tone. She’d already given up on me. Again.

‘I needed to come here and tell you in person that I’m not letting you down. Backing out of our dinner.’

I held out a hand to help her up. She knocked it away and snorted out a cruel laugh like she didn’t believe a word I said.

‘Can you chill with the attitude for a second and let me explain?’

Her eyes narrowed and it was like I’d lit a fuse on a bomb.

‘It’s that attitude that has kept my business alive for the last couple of months. It’s that attitude’ – the word slipped out of her mouth with a sharp venom – ‘that is going to save this house. Your house. So don’t you give me crap about how I work, what my focus is, when I’m trying to save your ass!’

I took a step back as her fury filled the entire room. Her armor solid as a rock.

‘Tell me what this is really about? Are you regretting the other night?’ I asked even though I wasn’t sure I wanted to know the answer.

A flicker of sadness moved across her face before she leveled her shoulders. ‘I’m not some naïve little girl, Beck. It’s possible for me to have a one-night stand and not get attached.’

Her frigid response knocked the wind out of me.

‘Go back to Nashville. I have everything under control.’ She turned her back to me but I wouldn’t let her push me away.

‘I never said you didn’t have things under control.’

‘Like I said.’ She bent down, ready to crawl back under the sink. ‘Go home. I’ll take care of the job here. I’m sure you have other things to do. People to see.’

‘What the hell is that supposed to mean?’

She ignored me and reached for a wrench set on a paint-splattered tarp next to the open cabinet. I went through our last phone call in my head. How I’d danced around the topic of Piper being here.

Piper.

She must have heard her voice in the background. Fuck. I was already on shaky ground with her, and by not being honest about my sister I was blowing it again.

‘I know what you’re thinking and you’re wrong. I’m not running away from you. From our agreement.’

‘You don’t have a damn clue what I’m thinking,’ she said more to the old pipes under the sink than to me.

I shoved my hands into the pockets of my jeans and kicked at the ragged edge of the tarp. ‘When I got home after the other night, I found Piper sleeping in front of my door.’

She stopped working but still refused to look at me. ‘I thought you said your sister was in New York?’

‘She was but I’ve been trying to talk her into coming to visit. The last time I spoke to her she wasn’t interested.’

Torran inched back from the cabinet. Her bright green eyes bored into me. ‘What changed?’

‘She finally got a job, and an important audition, and flew all the way here to tell me about it. We’ve spent the last two days catching up.’

Torran stayed quiet but I recognized her hesitation. Jumping on a plane and showing up unannounced at your brother’s apartment didn’t exactly sound like something a sober person would do.

‘Is she okay?’ she asked.

‘Yeah, I was worried she might be high too. But besides looking a little tired, her eyes are clear, and she doesn’t reek of booze. Her timing is weird though and I get a sense that something else is going on.’