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“I bled on my pants,” she said shyly.
“It happens to all of us.” Pippa waved her hand in front of her face. “Nothing to be embarrassed about.”
“I don’t . . . I don’t know what to do,” the girl admitted.
“Well, it’s a good thing I have a lot of experience in this department.” Pippa walked to the cupboard by the sink and pulled out the box of pads and tampons she kept under there just in case someone needed one. Empty.
“Crap. Well, I don’t have any pads or tampons because I use a cup.”
“A cup?” The girl’s eyebrows rose in question.
“A menstrual cup. It’s a reusable silicone cup that you . . .”
The young woman’s panicked eyes frantically moved around the room.
“Hey. It’s okay. This happens to everyone with a uterus at some point. I’m gonna help you out so you can feel prepared. I’m Pippa, by the way. What’s your name?”
“Aspen.” She sniffled and then her cheeks bloomed red. “I don’t want to tell my dad. This is the most embarrassing day of my life.” Her tears started again.
Pippa pulled her into a hug, holding her while she cried. “The first time I got my period, I was in class, and everyone laughed at the huge blood stain on my pants. No one told me. Not one person stopped to let me know. I went to three classes before a teacher noticed and told me to go to the nurse’s office.”
Aspen pulled away. “Oh my God.”
Pippa nodded. “Then I had to call my dad and tell him why I needed him to come get me, and then he had no idea what I needed and came home with these giant pads. I was mortified.”
“Where was your mom?” Aspen asked.
Pippa took a deep breath. The pain had faded with time, but it was still there, a hollow ache inside. “My mom died when I was a kid.”
“Mine died when I was a toddler. I don’t even remember her,” Aspen admitted.
“That sucks.”
“Especially right now.” Aspen’s voice was a whisper.
“I’m gonna help you so you don’t have to go through all the embarrassment I did. But there is no shame in having your period. This is something that is normal and natural, and it happens to more than half the earth’s population.” Pippa smiled, hoping to help alleviate some of Aspen’s concern.
“Will you tell my dad for me?” The young girl tucked a piece of her reddish-blond hair behind her ear, her blue eyes pleading.
“Where is he?”
“At the Stardust Café across the street.”
Pippa smiled. “I’ll do better than that. You go sit at the front desk and use the sweater I have draped against the seat to wrap around your waist. I’ll go get him. What’s his name?”
“Mason Wright.”
“Okay. I’ll be right back.”
Pippa led Aspen to the front desk. She took a quick turn around the store, checking that no one else was inside before she left. She locked the door behind her and then crossed the street, holding on to Lady’s leash.
Opening the door to the bakery, she had one thing on her mind: helping a young girl out and saving her some of the pain and embarrassment she’d endured growing up. It was so hard being without a mother in times like that. Pippa ached for little Aspen. If only she could do—
She slammed into something hard and warm. Hot liquid burst from a cup. Pippa jumped back. Coffee drenched the mountain of a man in front of her. Lady barked sharply.
“Fuck!” he yelled. His deep voice sent a shiver through her.
Pippa looked up into the deepest sapphire-blue eyes she’d ever seen. His full lips turned down only half of his face. Thick, pink scars marred the other side of his profile, twisting his flesh. Her head tipped upwards—this man towered over her five-foot-one frame. He must have been more than six feet. The scars continued down his thick neck, disappearing under his plaid shirt. Her gaze wandered down his bulky chest to the massive arms with defined lines of muscle. She swallowed, her lady parts waking up, alert and hungry. Her eyes flicked back to his.
