AllFreeNovel
Share Us
I hung up on her and I probably broke the speed limit the whole way there. In hindsight, I was fucking lucky. I wasn’t going to dwell on it.
At the lake, I leapt out of the car and yelled, “Piper!”
She turned and I finally found her. She shook her head, and I couldn’t remember seeing her so lost in fucking ages. I put my arms around her, and I felt her relax a little against me. I hoped she knew she made me feel the same way.
“I didn’t mean to interrupt your party,” she muttered into my jacket.
“You didn’t interrupt anything. I was out, but something more important came up.”
She pulled away from me and look at me in panic. “Crap! Is Maddy okay?”
Fuck, she was adorable. That her first thought had been my niece? If it wasn’t such a bad idea, I might have starting thinking I loved her.
“You, you idiot. You’re the something more important.”
She shook her head against me. “No. Not if Maddy needed you.”
I huffed, needing to put a stop to this self-deprecating behaviour. I held her at arm’s length. “Honestly, Barlow – if you’ll allow me to indulge in some nancy wank for a moment – you are the most important thing in my world, all right? You need me, I’m here. It’s just not a fucking negotiation, love.”
“I’ll concede only so you don’t have to be all wanky and emotional anymore, okay?”
“Okay. Thank you. Now, did you want to talk about what’s up, or are we going to sit here and say nothing for a while?”
She shrugged. “I just… Can we sit?”
I dropped my arse to the shore and held my hands out for her. “Come on, then.”
She sat down and tucked herself between my legs. She leant against me and I wrapped her up, kissing her head before I leant my chin on her shoulder.
“Where were you?” she asked, but I wasn’t sure how much she cared.
“At a mate’s. He found himself with a bit of a gathering and invited me over.” It was a permanent invitation, but not a lie.
“You could have stayed,” she said.
I shook my head. “No. We’ve been through this.”
She nodded. “Right, my bad.”
“You want to talk about it?” I asked.
“I have no idea where to start,” she admitted.
“That’s okay,” I told her as I rubbed her arm. “Just say whatever you want.”
“What if I want to say nothing? What if I want to tell you I’m in love with you? What if I want to say I feel like walking into that water and never coming out?”
There was a lot to unpack in that, but I wouldn’t begrudge her any of it. I’d take any of it, or none of it, whatever she was happy to give me. I was just there for her, whatever she needed. Although, if she did try walking into the water and never coming out, I might not be so accommodating.
I hugged her closer. “You can say everything. You can say nothing at all. You know that.”
“I’m just so over it. Why can’t we just sit here in this moment forever?”
“Well, we’re certainly not in any hurry to go anywhere, are we?”
“We can’t stay here forever,” she argued.
“Maybe not. But we can stay here as long as you like.”
