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“Then what more could you have done?”
“I should have called her more often.”
“Guilt is going to play a natural part in this, Piper. You’re alive, and Joanie’s not. But none of this is your fault. She took the drugs, not you, and unless you’d been with her 24/7 you couldn’t have stopped that.”
“When the grief has eased slightly, I’m going to be angry with her again.”
“And likely she deserves that.” Dylan continued to stroke her head while he attempted not to notice the damp skin and curves rising above the towel.
The woman did not need that from him now. Not when her life had just fallen apart. The hell of it was, he couldn’t seem to get his body to behave.
Chapter 22
“You go on now and get into bed. I’ll take the floor.”
“Dylan, we’ve had sex, we can share a bed,” Piper said as he pulled her to her feet.
“Okay, sure, but I was being nice.”
“Thanks, but... but it’s okay,” Piper said, instead of what she wanted to say.Don’t go too far away from me right now, Dylan. I really need to know you’re close.
Fear was eating away at her. Fear that she was now responsible for a small child, when sometimes she struggled to look after herself.
“I’m dyslexic,” Piper blurted out as Dylan led her to the bed.
“Okay.” He grabbed the shirt he’d bought and handed it to her.
“How can I help Grace with her schooling if I don’t understand it?”
She struggled into the shirt, then pulled on underwear.
“When were you diagnosed?”
Piper watched him pull back the bedcovers and urge her onto the bed.
“I was a teenager. I’m a lot better now after years of working with people, but still sometimes, it’s a struggle.”
“I’m sure it is, but I think you’ll be better than most parents at helping Grace because of it, Piper, and if not you have a house full of adults who can help too.”
Piper didn’t speak, she just watched him go and grab something from a shopping bag as she struggled to grasp the fact that this morning she’d woken up worrying about what to wear, and tonight she was going to bed a... a mother.
“Here, eat this, but you have to save me some.”
She caught the bar of chocolate, and then he was gone. The bathroom door had shut, and seconds later Piper heard the shower.
Opening the chocolate wrapper, she ate it straight from the block while she thought through what needed to be done. What she would need to do for Grace.
“I do that.”
Dylan came out of the bathroom, hair damp, jeans sitting on his hips, but no shirt. Even with all the stuff going on in her life at that moment, her mouth still went dry. She knew he had a nice body, because she’d seen it wet, in the shower, but seeing all those wonderful slopes and planes of muscle had her aching to touch him again.
“What?” She dragged her eyes up his body to his face.
“Eat the bar, instead of breaking it off.”
“I don’t at home, because I have to share.”
“Ah, see I don’t have to do that, because I live alone.”
