Chapter Thirteen
Reeve
Dropping Piper home is the hardest thing I’ve done in a long time, if ever, but it’s the end game I’m working towards.
Eyes on my prize.
I don’t just say G’night and drive home to an empty house and even emptier bed, no.
I circle the neighborhood a couple of times before finding just the right spot.
Nestled behind some trees, my truck hidden from view, I have the perfect view of not only Piper’s house but her bedroom window from my new vantage point.
You think I’d just have an evening like that, staking my claim on my girl and just leave her at home?
Never.
She’s mine now and like anything beyond replacement, I’ll guard her life with my own, every night of our lives starting tonight.
My cell rings through the quiet car.
It’s Rhys.
“Hey buddy,” I answer, keeping my cards close until I know why he’s calling.
Rhys is no dummy. In fact, he’s the smarter of the two of us, even though I could wipe the floor with him if we weren’t such close friends.
“Hey, champ,” he greets me, an edge in his voice telling me he’s on his guard to for some reason.
“Piper get home okay?” he asks, giving himself away before the next card’s even dealt.
Clara’s obviously called him already, filling him in on what’s been happening.
All she knows, anyway.
“Yeah, just headed home,” I tell him, half truthfully. My truck is pointed in the direction of my house, and ‘just headed home’ could mean tomorrow morning if I wanted it to.
“How ‘bout you?” I ask, turning the tables. “Sort it out with Clara? She said the wedding’s been moved up to Tuesday,” I exclaim, surprised they’d go with that, but it sounds way better than his original idea of postponing the whole thing.
Better for me and Piper too.
“Yep. I think I just had pre-wedding jitters,” he says, making me crinkle my nose.
Wondering since when does a Marine from our regiment get ‘the jitters’ over anything?
I make a low sound, trying to agree but not wanting to draw too much attention to myself right now.
“Piper just told her mom you offered her a job?” he adds, suspicion in his voice. I can tell he’s been holding it back but not anymore.
“Yeah, I did,” I answer truthfully. “We need someone with real manners and a personality to answer calls, do some basic bookkeeping, that sort of thing,” I remark casually.
“Uh huh,” Rhys says.
“Something wrong?” I ask, a near snarl in my voice as I pick up on Rhys’s sarcasm.
“Nothing wrong, buddy,” he says in a too casual voice. “Just looking out for Clara’s only daughter is all. Thought it might be better if she did something like that after the wedding, not days out from it,” he replies coolly.
“You wanna come help out at the office instead?” I quip, forcing myself to laugh. Forcing myself to keep it light.
If he doesn’t know already. If he hasn’t figured us out, Rhys is the first person I’ll tell about Piper and me.
But not now. Not right this second when he’s so wound up over his own relationship issues and pending nuptials.
“Well, I guess maybe I’m just jealous,” he draws right back, playing tit for tat in the cool, calm, and collected stakes.
“Jealous?” I ask in a low tone.
“Sure. I was thinking of asking Clara if Piper would like to come work for me a few days a week. Y’know? Earn a little something to help pay her keep?”
I’ve only ever been mad at Rhys a handful of times in our whole lives.
Tonight is two of those times.
Once for not just asking me if he wants to know something, and two for this.
Making out like he wants to hire Piper, just to get my back up.
And I walk face first into heavy fire.
I feel my eyes narrowing and my hand flexing on the steering wheel.
“Well, buddy. Hate to burst your bubble, but Piper is all mine,” I growl. Unable to stop the words as they fly out of my mouth.
“Gotta go champ, duty calls,” I finally snap and smash my fist against the wheel, wondering if Rhys is really with me on anything anymore.
Since he announced his marriage or rather since Clara did. He’s been more and more whipped by the minute.
He’s still the same old Rhys, most of the time though.
But tonight, it feels like an invasion of the body snatchers, and my best buddy of more than two decades is fading like an old photograph in the sun.
I feel all the dumber for our conversation too. I walked right into his trap, acting out when he suggested he wanted to offer Piper a job.
Something I know when I really think about it that he’d never do.
He’s a do-everything himself guy, with limited and outsourced staff for everything.
But boy, he sure knows how to get information, I’ll give him that much.