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“Dad, are you okay?” Piper said, and Alyssa tightened the hand she’d laid on Nathan’s arm. The muscles beneath it tensed. She glanced over at Leo, who appeared paler than earlier.
The older man forced a smile. “I’m just happy my little girl has found someone. Maybe there are grandchildren in our future, Lydia, from both our son and daughter.”
Lydia clapped her hands together. “Yes, isn’t it wonderful?”
Cullen slid to the edge of his seat. “Hold on, I—”
“It’s been a good day for us, darling.” Lydia stood and strolled to Leo’s side. “I think we should leave the rest of the evening to the young people.”
“You’re right!”
Alyssa didn’t like how he seemed hopeful they would all get up to making those grandchildren the second they were alone. As soon as the door closed behind his parents, Nathan sat back in his seat and took Alyssa’s hand in his. He laced his fingers with hers, but he didn’t look at her. All of his attention lay on Piper. His sister fidgeted in her chair, Emma stared out the window, eyes glazed, and Cullen snuggled close to Piper’s side in a belated attempt to appear the besotted idiot.
“So,” Nathan began, the word somehow a warning no one could mistake, “why are you pretending to be my sister’s boyfriend?”
Gasps sounded all around the room, including Alyssa’s. She couldn’t believe Nathan had called Cullen out for a liar. If nothing else, she thought he would believe the man a no-good cheating bastard who couldn’t keep his attention on the woman at his side.
“E-Excuse me?” Cullen stuttered.
Why had she been attracted to him?
“I said”—Nathan’s gaze shifted to Cullen, shutting the man up with a glance, and then back to Piper—“why have you lied to Mom and Dad, Piper?”
Talk about calling the kettle black. “Nathan,” Alyssa chided, “leave her alone.”
They waited for Piper to speak, but instead she jumped to her feet and ran out of the room.
“Piper!” Emma started after her, but Alyssa cut her off.
“I’ll go talk to her.” What’s gotten into me? Emma stepped back.
Alyssa found Piper at the end of the hall, but instead of tears, as she expected, her lips were compressed into a straight line, and her eyes almost crackled with fire. I don’t need this drama. “Piper, are you okay?”
“Get my brother to back off.”
“Whoa.” Alyssa held up her hands. “Look, I have nothing to do with this. It’s between you and your family. What I want to know is why, when you were so close to coming clean with your mother, you didn’t do it.”
Confusion colored the woman’s face and then cleared. “You overheard us talking this morning.”
“Couldn’t help it. I was on the way to breakfast.”
“I wondered why…Never mind. Just talk to Nathan. If he doesn’t stop acting like he’s going to rip Cullen apart, we can’t keep the act up.”
Alyssa tapped her foot. “I don’t know why you think you can command me and I’m supposed to jump.”
Piper gritted her teeth. “Please.”
“Of all people to bring here.” She tried again to reason with the woman. “Why don’t you tell them the truth? You’re an adult, aren’t you? I think Nathan said you’re twenty-four.”
Piper snorted. “I’ll never be an adult in my parents’ eyes.”
“No, you’ll never be an adult until you start acting like one.”
“You wouldn’t understand.”
For some reason that hurt, given she had no parents, but she didn’t think Piper meant it that way. “No, I don’t, and I don’t give a damn either. Handle your business.”
She turned on her heel and marched away. Piper didn’t try to stop her and didn’t return to the living room. After some time, Emma jumped up from her seat and left without a word. Alyssa sighed.
