“My colony.”
“That makes it worse, it being your people. Well, I know you. I’ve seen you fight. You’re a beast, and I know you can protect her now. And you have a whole crew of fighters backing you up that would help you do that with everything in them. I guess all that leaves is winning her back over. Looks like you have your work cut out for you.”
Cammie headed back inside, bumping his shoulder with hers as she went. He stayed silent, acknowledging to himself that she was right. Winning Piper back was going to take everything in him, and even then, it might not be enough.
We got this.
Jax nodded at his eagle’s words, but he felt like crossing his fingers and wishing on a falling star as he thought about the upcoming battle he was going to have on his hands. This was going to be the hardest and most important fight he’d ever fought, but the prize at the end was priceless.
“Why do you always wear your hair in braids? I’d call you Pippy, but your hair is plain brown, not red.”
Piper glared up at the boy in front of her. He looked like he was a couple years older than she was, but she wasn’t going to let that stop her. Taking a few steps forward, she puffed herself up, trying to look bigger and older than her six years.
“You. Take. That. Back,” she spat out.
“Okay,” the boy said in surprise, backing up a step. “I won’t call you Pippy again.”
“I don’t care about that,” she said with a sniff. “My brown hair is not plain.”
“I didn’t mean to hurt your feelings,” he said slowly. “I didn’t mean it was ugly. I just meant it wasn’t red, like the real Pippy’s.”
“Oh,” she said softly, abashed and feeling bad for getting worked up.
She’d been at this new school for three days, and this boy was the first kid to try and talk to her on the playground. Thinking hard, she decided it must be because of her braids, since he pointed them out. She quickly pulled the ponytail holders out and unwound the braids, finger combing her long hair until it hung in waves to her waist.
“Oh, wow,” the boy said softly. “I didn’t mean for you to take your braids out, but I like it down. It’s pretty.”
Cheeks heating in a blush, she glanced down at the ground before looking back up. “Thank you. And I just thought maybe no one was talking to me because I wear braids too much.”
“Don’t take it bad. We just don’t get many new kids, and they’re probably scared to say hi. See that girl over there?” he asked, pointing to a small blonde sitting at a picnic table. “That’s Kelly. She’s really nice. Maybe go say hi to her. She’ll talk to you.”
Feeling hopeful, Piper grinned at the boy she’d thought was mean but turned out to be nice, forgetting for a moment that she didn’t smile anymore because she lost her front teeth last month. “Thanks!”
“You’re welcome,” he said, his smile reaching his pretty dark green eyes. He stuck his hand out at her. “I’m Jax, by the way.”
Feeling like a grown up, she put her hand in his and shook, basking in the warmth of his gesture. “I’m Piper. It’s nice to meet you.”
Jax’s smile stretched into a grin. “Piper is awfully close to Pippy,” he said with a laugh.
Glancing at him bashfully, she said, “You can call me Pippy if you want.”
The bell rang, and Jax started to walk back inside. “It was nice meeting you, Pippy!”
Smiling so big her cheeks hurt, Piper followed the others back inside. It looked like she’d just made her first friend in Eagle Creek, and he was nice. He even showed her someone else she might be able to make friends with. She wasn’t really a big fan of Pippy Longstocking, but he could call her Pippy any time. He earned that right today.
Piper smoothed conditioner through her hair, making sure it was in there good. Moving back under the spray, she was halfway through rinsing it out when the hot water suddenly disappeared, and she was drenched in cold water. Yelping, she shot forward, slipping and almost busting her ass.
“Son of a bitch,” she exclaimed, sucking in breath and bracing herself to get under the spray long enough to check the faucet.
Frowning when she adjusted the hot water knob and the spray remained icy, she twisted the cold water knob until it was all the way off. To her dismay, the spray of water remained the same temperature. Scowling, she eyed the water with disgust, but there was nothing more to be done. She had to suck it up and finish rinsing her hair in the ice cold water. Dammit all to hell.
Taking a deep breath and thanking her lucky stars the rest of her shower was complete, she turned and leaned back so only her head was under the spray. Sucking in a breath at the shock of cold water, she forced herself to stay under the shower until all the conditioner was gone. Breathing a sigh of relief, she jerked her body away from the stream of water and squealed when her long wet hair smacked against her back, sending a shock of cold through her.
Muttering a string of curse words under her breath, she stuck her foot out and used her toe to shut off the flow of the shower, quickly bending over to shut the faucet off. Shivering, she yanked open the shower curtain and dried herself off as fast as humanly possible before rushing to dress. She longed to blow dry her hair and use a little of the heat to help her warm up, but she needed to try to figure out what was going on.
Thankful her grandparents renovated the basement years ago, she went down the stairs, Snickers following at her heels. She went to the breaker box and flipped the switch labeled hot water, and then went to the sink and turned on the hot water, waiting for it to warm. Nothing happened, and she frowned as she walked to the water heater. When glaring at it revealed no instructions on how to check if it was broken, she huffed a breath and walked back upstairs.
Walking to the board with various numbers tacked to it, she searched in vain for anything that hinted of a handyman, but all she could find was Jax’s cell phone number. Not likely. Turning away, she opened the drawer where the phone book was always kept, frowning when she came up empty. Shutting the drawer, she searched through the kitchen, then moved to her grandpa’s old study, finally ending up back where she started.