AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“It does as far as I’m concerned.”
Piper waves her away with her good arm. “I’m fine.”
“You were on fire,” her grandmother reminds her, as if we somehow forgot.
Piper has to lean forward and arch her back to look over her shoulder and meet the old woman’s eyes. “I’mfine, Gram.”
She’s not wrong about that. Her jeans mold to every inch of her long, toned legs. With her oversized sweater in ashes on the floor, I’m convinced she should wear nothing but tissue paper thin tank tops from this day forward. I can even make out the dimples pressed into each side of her lower back.
My mind fills with images of throwing her on top of the island, parting her legs, and devouring her until she screams again and again. She’d taste sweet, I know. She’d taste like fucking honey and sin.
“Fine” is an understatement.
Gram makes a clicking noise in the back of her throat. “Nuh-uh. Nope. You don’t get to catch on fire and say you are fine. We’re going to the hospital.”
“I don’t need to go to the hospital.”
“I’ll call a cab,” Gram says. “Or maybe we can borrow a car from you, Timofey?”
“Her burns aren’t serious. But if you all insist, I can drive her and the two of you to—”
“No!” Piper jerks upright, pulling away from the sink to face her Gram. “I am fine, Gram. Listen to me: I. Am. Fine.”
The woman’s already creased face wrinkles even further. “I think you should get checked out just in case. You have no idea what kind of damage this could do. Or scars it could leave. The thought of you in danger…I can’t handle it.”
“You handled it fine for the first ten years of my life.”
The words land like a physical blow. I actually watch Piper’s grandma stumble back against the edge of the counter like she’s been shot. Her lips move around words she can’t give voice to.
“Don’t act so surprised. You knew my parents were shit. You knew what your daughter was doing to me,” Piper hisses, a venom I’ve never heard before seething through her words. “And you let it happen. You ignored it until I found my way to your doorstep and begged for help. Until my claustrophobia was so bad I had to sleep on top of my blankets because if I didn’t, I’d have nightmares about being choked and smothered. Sonow, when I’m telling you I’m fine,you should probably listen.”
The chaos of a few moments ago is sucked out like through a vacuum. The room is void.
Frankly, I’m enjoying the sudden reappearance of Piper’s backbone, but I can tell Ashley and Gram are shaken to their core. I’d imagine they would be.
We might’ve just witnessed the first time Piper Quinn has ever stood up for herself.
“Piper,” Gram finally says, her name coming out in a whisper. “Piper, sweetheart, you can’t—I didn’t—”
“You two shouldn’t have come here,” Piper interrupts. “This is my job. My place of work. I want to be professional, and I can’t do that when you’re showing up with crosswords and flirting with my coworkers.”
“Hey!” Ashley complains. “We came here because yourbossasked. Take it up with him.”
Piper’s spine stiffens. “I will. Butyoushould have checked with me first.”
“You were in jail! Were we supposed to leave a message with the officer manning the front desk?”
“Just leave,” Piper says firmly. She tacks on a “please,” but it’s pure courtesy.
Her grandma looks deflated. There’s no fight left in her. Ashley, however, narrows her eyes. “I’ll call you later, Pipe,” she says. The promise sounds more like a threat.
Piper nods. “Fine.”
The two women pack up and leave, tossing glances over their shoulder as they head toward the front door.
Then it closes, and they’re gone.
31
