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“Thought you could do with a coffee?” Pip’s voice startled me out of my muddy thoughts. I tripped over Savanna and bounced out onto the grass.
“Ow, fuck!” I wailed, pain shooting up from my elbow.
“Bad word!” Savanna said from behind me. “Pay up.”
“What?”
“We have to pay a dollar for every curse,” Pip said.
“A dollar!?”
“She’s probably going to have enough for a car by the end of next year.”
“Well, I don’t live here, and thus do not live by your rules.” I was hit with an impressive scowl considering the kid was only just four. “I also don’t have any cash… can I owe you?”
“She’ll remember that,” Pip said and handed me my coffee. “Daddy’s got pancakes ready, baby.”
Savanna squealed and ran inside, but not before giving me a hard look. I had a feeling I’d be paying my dollar with interest.
Pip sat and sipped her coffee and I tried to ignore the elephant between us.
“We’re having problems,” she blurted and I almost choked on my scalding mouthful.
“I—uh—”
“It’s been a few months now.”
“Months!?” I said with a little more volume than I intended to. “Sorry, sorry. It’s just a surprise.” I cleared my throat and took another smaller sip.
“I know, for us too.”
I dropped into the chair beside her. “You two, you’ll work it out, though, right?”
She shrugged. “I don’t know. We just—maybe we’ve grown apart...”
“Pip, you are like the ultimate couple.”
Her hollow laugh chilled me. I had no idea what to say here. I wasn’t good at relationships. Literally every guy I’d ever dated had bailed just when things were starting to get serious. I was the absolute last person to be having this conversation. If it was anyone else, I’d say cut and run. But this was Pip and Tim. Their relationship was immune to all the bullshit the rest of us dealt with. Wasn’t it?
“Sorry. I shouldn’t have said anything.”
Fuck. I was making it worse. “No, no, it’s fine. I—I’m here if you want to talk.”
“I don’t even know what I want to say,” she said with a heavy sigh. “We’ve been seeing a therapist.”
“That’s good. Everyone needs therapy sometimes.” I’d considered going more than once. But always ended up too scared of all the old wounds that would get yanked open.
“I’m not sure it’s working.”
“Oh.” I took another large gulp of coffee.Say something comforting, for god’s sake!
“Can you...” She shifted, eyes darting to me then away. “Just don’t say anything to Mack, please?”
My stomach pitched and rolled at the thought of keeping this from him, but it wasn’t my secret to tell. “Of course.”
“Thanks.” Her shoulders curled forward.
“Pip, it’s fine, honestly. And, hey, if you need to talk, or a night in the city, my couch is awful to sleep on, but it’s yours.”
