Oh.
My heart.
“That’s so sweet,” I said softly. “Do you see them much?”
“Whenever I can. Abby is fifteen now and reads redacted versions of my books.”
“Redacted versions?”
“Yes. My sister gets an early copy, reads it, and puts Post-It notes over the sex scenes with a warning not to read them.”
My lips twitched. “Does she listen?”
“She buys the books on her Kindle and reads them there.”
“Does your sister know?”
He snorted. “Nobody has ever told her. And I’m not going to tell her. I’m no idiot.”
I laughed. “That’s amazing. Surely your sister knows?”
“Did your mom know what you were reading when you were fifteen?”
“Probably. I wasn’t the stealthiest teenager in the world.”
“There you are, then. I’m sure Beth knows, but it’s easier for everyone to keep up the ruse.”
“Hey, like the ruse my parents keep up.” I smirked.
“Do you really never need them?”
Boy, that was a loaded question.
“Yes,” I said after a moment, my mind flashing back to my ordeal in Vegas. “There was a time… in Vegas… before I moved back home, that I really hated being so far away and that my parents weren’t there to comfort me. I had some therapy and had to work through a little hatred of them that came on the back of my issues.”
Concern darkened his eyes. “It was that bad?”
I sighed. “After I graduated, me and my college roommate got an apartment together. It made sense since she’d gotten a job and the bakery job I had was pretty stable. After a couple of months I realized I’d never have enough money to own my own bakery by just working in someone else’s, so I started picking up some bartending shifts in the casinos and stuff. Well, one of them took me on permanently and my boss…” I trailed. “Wasn’t a nice person,” I finally settled on. “He didn’t like to take no for an answer, and he harassed me and some of the other staff members. We tried reporting him but nobody believed us.”
Maverick’s jaw clenched.
“He followed me home one night, and after a couple of women in the bar said he was making them uncomfortable, we realized we had to do something before he did more than just make people uncomfortable. So we all got together and reported him to the police. The casino owner was so furious that human resources hadn’t handled the situation that he paid for our legal fees and gave us all extremely generous settlements. A couple of the girls considered not taking it and pursuing legal action against the human resources department, but I wanted to get out of Vegas, so I took it.”
“Shit. I’m so sorry, Piper.”
“It’s fine. I handled it, and the settlement from my old boss meant I could fulfil my dream of owning the bakery. The worst part was that my parents weren’t there and I was completely alone.” I pushed my hair from my face. “But I worked through that, too, and I accept it. Traveling makes them happy, and I’d rather they got to follow their dreams. They raised us well, and the reason they keep the house is so me and Josh have an inheritance one day.”
He slowly nodded. “So what do they do for work? Do they just travel all the time?”
“Pretty much. Mom makes some money off some blogging, which is weird. She started her blog and Instagram as a diary for herself when she realized that carrying about eleven thousand notebooks wasn’t a good idea.”
“I can confirm they start getting heavy after a while.”
A small laugh broke out of me. “Of course. You’d know.”
“That’s why my laptop and phone go everywhere with me. I always have a notepad, but it’s not really that helpful if you get inspired in the grocery store. People look at you like you’re weird if you whip out a notebook and pen in the bread aisle.”
“You get inspired in the grocery store?”
“Sure. Why not? There’s inspiration everywhere, Blondie. You just have to look for it.” He held my gaze for a long moment. “And sometimes, the inspiration feeds you cake.”
My lips parted, and the fire that burned in my cheeks made me dip my head. I knew it was all about research, but I actually inspired him?
Wow.
My stomach was fluttering again.
“Can I ask you a question?”
“I’ve asked you enough over the past few days. Go ahead.”
I look back up and met his eyes. “Out of all the places in America, all the amazing small towns and cities and just cool places to visit, how in the ever-loving hell did you end up in the middle of nowhere in Montana?”
He grinned. “I have absolutely no idea.”
CHAPTER NINE – MAVERICK
RULE NINE: IF YOU CAN MAKE A WOMAN LAUGH, YOU CAN RULE THE WORLD.
THE PART OF THE WORLD SHE LETS YOU RULE, ANYWAY.
Piper threw her head back and laughed. “You don’t know? What did you do? Get in your car and just drive until you found somewhere you ended up?”