AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“What about John and Mabel?”
“What about them?”
“Are they like co-owners, or…”
“I own the land. They live here.”
“That’s…nice,” Piper says, and there’s something close to admiration in her voice. And I want it from her, but not for this.
Mabel and John stayed to keep an eye on my mom while I was off partying and performing. Letting them live here rent-free was the least I could do.
“Two of my brothers live with my mom,” she continues. “Saves them money on rent since they all work crazy hours.”
“What do your brothers do?”
“They’re cops.” She clears her throat. “My whole family is actually.”
I glance at her, surprised. “Yourwhole familyis?”
“Yep.” She pops the P, then shakes her head. “It’s…a lot. What about you? Do you have any siblings?”
Piper asks that question with an earnest expression, which tells me she hasn’t read any of the articles about the little girl who attended one of my shows.Yearsago, and there’s still speculation. It’s a reminder of everything I’m trying to get away from. Everything she’s here to push me back into.
I press the brakes—hard because she distracted me and I drove closer than I meant to. “Gate.”
Piper huffs and stands, her leg brushing against my arm. There’s not enough space up here to keep any sort of physical distance, but it’s the first time we’ve touched since leaving the bay. My fingers tighten around the wheel until all color flees from my knuckles.
“Just say you’re incapable of having a pleasant conversation next time.”
I exhale, watching her jump down and stomp toward the gate with long, angry strides. Most of her hair has already fallen out of the bun, red strands flying around.
My eyes focus on her ass without permission, so I drag a hand down my face to forcibly remove the sight since my eyes seem incapable of looking away on their own.
The chain clangs against the metal as she shoves it open.
And that’s when it occurs to me that I’ll have to get down and boost her back up again.
Andthat I’ll have to do it atevery single gate.
I drive through the break in the fence, keeping my eyes straight ahead. More clangs as Piper closes the gate behind the tractor. I exhale, then shift into park.
I cuss out Duncan in my head as I climb off the tractor.Help, my ass. What little time she might have saved with the gates has already been eaten up with this one stop.
Piper swings over the gate with impressive agility. If we were on better terms, I’d compliment her form.
But we’re not, which is obvious when she stalks over and snaps, “I don’t need your help.”
“We both know you do.” She isn’t short, but the tractor is tall. It took me the summer before junior year to figure out how to smoothly swing up into the seat, and I’m a few inches over six feet. “So, we can stand here and argue about it until you admit that you do, or you can let me help you to avoid wasting even more time.”
Her jaw clenches so tightly that it looks painful. “Fine.”
She mutters something under her breath as I step closer to help her up. All I catch ispromotion.
My eyes narrow as I pause. “That’s why you’re here. They offered you a promotion.”
I knew it wasn’t voluntary. But this stings more. Knowing that she wasbribedto come here.
There’s a flash of what looks like embarrassment on Piper’s face. But then her chin juts defiantly. She glares at me. “Not all of us make enough money to retire before we hit thirty.”
