Brendan started a little. “You didn’t know her at all before this trip? No phone calls, or—”
“No.” Her cheeks colored slightly. “I never would have known about her, either, if we hadn’t come here. She’s just been sitting in her apartment all this time, grieving my father. Knowing that kind of makes my life in LA feel like make-believe. Blissful ignorance.” A beat passed. “She had some differences of opinion with my mother. We didn’t get into it too deeply, but I’m guessing my mother wanted to put it all behind her, and Opal wanted to . . .”
“Live in the fallout.”
“‘Fallout’ is a nice way of saying ‘the real world,’ but you’re right.” She looked down at her lap. “Me and Hannah went to see the memorial for Henry, and I didn’t know what I was supposed to feel, but I didn’t think it would be just nothing. It stayed that way right up until today when we found a whole collage of pictures in the bar. Behind some plywood. He was laughing in one of the photos, and that’s when . . . there was finally recognition.”
Brendan studied her. This girl he’d pegged as a silly flirt on day one. And he found himself pulling her closer, needing to offer comfort. Wanting her to lean on him for it. “What does the recognition feel like?”
“Scary,” she said on an exhale. “But I have some guilt over ignoring this place, the past, even if it’s not entirely my fault. It’s causing me to lean into the scary, I guess. In my own way. So I gave Opal a faux hawk, and we’re giving Henry’s bar a makeover, starting tomorrow. If there are two things I know, it’s hair and partying.”
When had his thumb started tracing the line of her shoulder?
He ordered himself to quit it. Even if it felt so fucking good.
“You’re dealing with a whole lot of new information in your own way,” he said gruffly. “Nothing wrong with that. You’re adjusting. I wish I had more of that mentality.”
Piper looked up at him, her eyes soft and a little grateful, turning his pulse up to a higher setting. They stared at each other three beats too long, before both of them diverted their gaze quickly. Sensing they were in need of a distraction from the building tension between them, Brendan coughed. “Hey, remember that time you were the only one I followed on Instagram?”
She burst out laughing, such a bright, beautiful thing, that he could only marvel. “What were you thinking?”
“I was just hitting buttons, honey.”
More laughter. This time she actually pressed her forehead into his shoulder. “It makes me feel better about the world that someone out there isn’t playing games.” She drummed her fingers on her bare knee. “So which pictures did you look at?”
He blew out a long breath. “A lot of them.”
She bit her bottom lip and ducked her head.
They sat in silence for a few moments. “Which girl are you? The girl in the pictures or the one sitting next to me?”
“Both, I think,” she said after a pause. “I like dressing to the nines and being admired. And I like shopping and dancing and being pampered and complimented. Does that make me a bad person?”
He’d never met anyone like her. These luxuries weren’t part of his world. He’d never had to think about anything but fishing, working hard, and meeting quotas, but he wanted to get the answer right because it was important to her. “I’ve been on a lot of boats with a lot of men that do too much talking about women. And it seems to me that most people like being admired and complimented, they’re just not as honest about it. That doesn’t make you a bad person, it makes you truthful.”
She blinked up at him. “Huh.”
“Let me finish.” He palmed her head and tucked it back against his shoulder. “I didn’t think you’d survive one night in that apartment. Piper, I wouldn’t even have stayed there, and I’ve slept in bunks with unwashed men for weeks on end. But you stuck it out. And you smiled at me when I was being a bastard. You’re a good sister, too. I figure all of that has to balance out your carrying around that ugly purse.”
Piper sat straight up and sputtered through a laugh, “Do you have any idea how much this ugly purse cost?”
“Probably less than I’d pay to have it burned,” he drawled.
“But I love it.”
He sighed, pushed a hand through his hair. “I guess I wouldn’t burn it, then.”
She was looking at him with soft eyes and a lush mouth, and if it were any other night, if the timing was better, he’d have kissed her and done his best to bring her home. To his bed. But he couldn’t yet. So even though it pained him, he stood and helped Piper to her feet. “Come on, I’ll make sure you get home all right.”