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Kenneth announced hisintentions to run for city council president the night of the ball. He hadn’t even discussed it with me yet, but I know our lives will be scrutinized now. With Marco’s threat hanging over my head and knowing the public will look closely at Kenneth and me, I can’t breathe.
There’s an ominous cloud hanging over my head most days, and on others, I feel as if I’m buried under a ton of sand. There’s no one that I can talk to. Telling Kenneth the truth would destroy him and damage us, leaving Rashida.
She’s so pro-Marco I know that she’d run and tell Kenneth herself to get him to leave me. She loves me, but sometimes I think she hates Kenneth more.
Of course, I can’t talk to Marco because he wants me bad enough to hurt Kenneth.
I stare at the papers in my hand again, and my stomach knots up. I’ll confront Kenneth about this tonight when he comes to my place. How dare that asshole try to sell my shop from under me.
Lucky for me, the owner of the antique shop next door has connections. Ron Walker came to my shop earlier this morning with some paperwork he’d received from his friend. Apparently, Kenneth has been negotiating to sell my shop behind my back.
The document is a contract with a realtor permitting him to find a buyer for my shop. Sadness fills my heart when I look at the hastily scrawled signature closely resembling mine.
I swipe at the tears filling my eyes when I hear the chimes tinkle over the shop door. It’s a few minutes after eight on a weekday, earlier than our normal opening time.
“Hey,” I greet Marco as he locks the door behind him.
I called him last night and asked him to meet me before the shop opened.
He sits in the chair opposite mine, his eyes narrowing as he watches me closely.
“Am I the reason for those tears?”
“No,” I say softly, smiling at him as I place the document on the counter behind me. “There’s so much going on in my life right now, Marco.”
“Your fiancé?”
“Among other things.”
“All you have to do is—”
“I know, Marco. Say the word, and you’ll give me the world. Unfortunately, when I wanted the world from you, you weren’t willing to give it to me.”
“What do you want, Piper?”
“I want to know why you showed up in my life again. I want to know why you’re coming after me and don’t respect that I’m getting married.”
“Are those questions you need an answer to?” he asks, glaring at me.
“Yes.”
“I think you already know the answers. When I walked away, I thought I was doing the right thing. I thought I was protecting your heart, and all I did was make a mistake that cost us years apart.”
“We should never have been, Marco. You know this as well as I do.”
He stands and comes to lean against the counter behind me. I swivel in my chair to face him.
“We always should have been.”
“All we had was hot sex, Marco, and the thrill of being together, knowing we shouldn’t have been. It was nothing more than an adrenaline rush between two people. People could have gotten hurt...if they didn’t,” I add, thinking about his wife and myself.
“People did get hurt. I hurt you. I hurt... losing you hurt me more than staying did. It was what I was willing to do to give you what you thought you needed.”
“It was what I needed to become stronger, Marco. You didn’t need me.”
“Yes, I did.”
“For what? You could have had any woman to have sex with.”
