AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“It’s okay,” Dylan said.
“Nothing is okay.”
“Not today maybe, but next week it will be better.”
Piper bathed Grace with Dylan watching, then it was bedtime again.
“I got a book in there somewhere. Melody said she’d want a bedtime story.”
Dylan got it for her, and fixed the bottle. Piper went into the bedroom and sat with Grace on the bed. He heard her soft voice talking as she fed Grace the bottle.
Hell of a day, he thought. But one he would walk away from unscathed, unlike Piper.
Dylan cleaned up then went out to his car to retrieve his wallet, which he’d left in there. Piper was on the phone when he came back.
“Joe,” she said, finishing the call. “He’s worried.”
“Understandably.”
“You okay to listen for her, and I’ll shower? She’s sleeping.”
“Of course, and I got you a T-shirt and toothbrush, plus some other girlie stuff.”
“Oh, Dylan.” She didn’t continue, instead taking the bag he held out to her and heading for the bathroom.
He spent some time clearing his emails, of which there were plenty. When he surfaced, close to forty minutes had passed and Piper still hadn’t returned.
He gave her another ten minutes, then knocked.
“You okay?”
He got no reply, but the shower had stopped running.
“Piper?”
Something muffled came back.
“I’m coming in.”
She didn’t reply. Pushing open the door he found her on the floor, arms wrapped around her legs, crying. She wore a towel and nothing else.
“Hey.” He dropped down before her. Stroking the damp black curls, he talked softly to her until the tears eased.
“S-sorry.”
“No need to be. I’d weep if I’d been through what you have today.”
“Joanie was my friend, and I should have tried h-harder—”
“To do what? You couldn’t have stopped her unless she wanted to, Piper. You have to know that.”
“But I could have tried, and I knew something wasn’t right that day.”
She was exhausted, all defenses down. The sassy side to Piper Trainer had been momentarily snuffed out, all fight gone.
“But she told you she was doing good, didn’t she?”
“Y-yes.”
