Almost Just Friends

by Jill Shalvis

  “Was your mom young?”

  “Yes, very. And bipolar.”

  Her eyes went soft and sympathetic. “That must have made things really difficult for you.”

  He shrugged and ran a hand down her back. To soothe, he told himself, but she was still cold, so he wrapped both arms around her, and for the longest moment, they just stared at each other, sharing air. Until, once again, lightning lit up the room for a single heartbeat, with the inevitable crack of thunder right on its heels.

  Piper remained rigid, silent and tense enough to shatter, until he slowly pulled her in closer, sliding a hand up her back to palm the nape of her neck, where he rubbed at the muscles that were tight with tension.

  “I lost my parents in a storm like this,” she whispered.

  A shock of surprise went through him. “Ah, Piper. No.”

  “It was in the DRC—the Democratic Republic of the Congo. It was a crazy storm, and my siblings and I got sent home to Wildstone just as it started up because one of my brother’s friends had just been killed by rebel forces.”

  Okay, and now he understood her earlier mysterious bomb comment, far more than he wanted to.

  “My parents decided it was no longer safe for us kids,” she went on. “Gavin was . . .” She shook her head. “In shock. Devastated. We all were.” She drew in a deep breath. “So plans were made for the three of us to come here and live with our grandparents. We got out okay, and our parents were going to follow within the week, but . . .” She closed her eyes. “There was crazy flooding. The clinic was over capacity when the water rose unexpectedly and everyone inside died. It was a whole bunch of years ago, but violent storms like this one seem to bring it all back. The guilt and everything.”

  Yeah. He knew exactly. “If you’d stayed, you’d have died too, and Gavin and Winnie.”

  She nodded. “I know. But it’s small comfort sometimes.”

  “I get that.” So much more than she could possibly know. “Anyone who’s been through what you have would be triggered by tonight’s insane storm.” His hand was still on the nape of her neck. Her skin was soft and he stroked his thumb back and forth, trying to comfort her, which wasn’t something he’d thought himself capable of.

  “I usually try to sleep through storms like this.” As she said it, her hands slid up his chest. He wasn’t even sure she was aware of what she was doing. “But my mind won’t shut up,” she whispered.

  “No?”

  She gave a slow shake of her head, watching her hands move on him.

  Okay, so she was aware of what she was doing.

  “Cam?”

  “Yeah?” he asked, voice unintentionally low and husky.

  “I need a distraction.”

  Several choice options came to him, all of them requiring a lot of nudity. Before he could get ahold of himself, her fingers dug into his biceps and she kissed him.

  At the same exact instant, there came another bright flash of lightning and then thunder, but several seconds later this time. The storm was moving off. Still, he felt an instant rush, though he wasn’t sure which to attribute it to, the storm or Piper’s hot, sweet mouth.

  When she let out a soft little whimper, he pulled her even closer, his hands making slow passes over her back, honestly meaning only to calm her. But she made another sound, a moan of desire that went straight through him, and suddenly it wasn’t about comfort at all.

  But so much more.

  And then she shifted and one of his thighs slipped between hers, and things went straight to DEFCON 5. His fingers tangled in her hair as he deepened the kiss, which swallowed them up in an instant, combustible explosion of hunger and desire. There in the dark, they went at each other, their hands grappling for purchase, her heart pounding against his, assuring him she was in this every bit as much as he—until they broke apart for air to stare at each other.

  She swallowed hard. “Scary.”

  “Yeah.” Terrifying, actually.

  She let out a huff of laughter. “Didn’t expect you to admit it.”

  “What, that you’re scary as hell?”

  She laughed again and tilted her head back against his arm as she touched his mouth. “Maybe it’s you that’s scary.”

  “And maybe it’s this.”

  She didn’t try to pretend not to know what this was. Instead, she tucked her face into the crook of his neck. The safe zone, he presumed. As if anything about their chemistry was safe.

  “You’re quite the distraction,” she whispered.

  “I’ve been called worse.”

  He felt her smile against his skin. “So you’re not insulted?”

  “Seems like a win-win to me,” he said.

  “Mmmm.” But instead of taking things further, she exhaled slowly and sagged into him as if she felt boneless, claimed by apparent exhaustion. With her breath puffing softly against his throat, he let his own exhaustion claim him as well. His last conscious thought was that it’d been a long time since he’d held anyone. Not since Rowan, as he lay dying in Cam’s arms.

  Chapter 5

  “Next time put a sock on the door—leave me a sign!”

  Mornings were always weird for Piper. One moment, she was deeply asleep, dreaming about a warm beach and her sexy, shirtless surfer— Hold up. Not a sexy surfer, but a guy in cargoes.

  She opened her eyes and stared up close and personal at an Adam’s apple and a scruffy jaw. A scruffy jaw with a deep cat scratch.

  Then she realized she was wrapped around the body that came with that jaw, like he was her own personal body pillow.

  Oh, shit.

  Everything came back to her from the night before: going over to check on Emmitt, finding out his son was none other than the new Hot Guy, who then rescued Winnie’s silly cat, and . . . the kissing. Good Lord, the kissing.

  He’d then apparently kept her warm all night.

  She wasn’t sure what to do with that. He hadn’t said much, but he’d held her in a way that had made her feel shockingly safe. He might be stoic and guarded and a little mysterious, but he was also capable and sure of himself in a way she strived to be and usually failed.

  Plotting her exit strategy, she shifted, inadvertently rubbing up against him and . . . oops . . . not all of him was stoic and guarded and mysterious . . .

  Her body parts liked this. A whole lot. But her brain was sure of only one thing—if he opened his eyes right now, she’d most definitely kiss him.

  Again.

  She didn’t know what it was about him, but he kissed like someone who knew the act of mouth on mouth was meant to be erotic and sensual, and the means by which to take someone down in the very best possible way.

  She was still off-center because of it.

  Okay, so the bad news was that she wanted him. But there was good news too. And that was that he was temporary here, and temporary was her specialty. She didn’t have the brain power to allocate to anything more. She was still staring at his throat, running the What-If game through her head, trying to decide if she was going to bolt or make the first move, when she heard someone clear their throat. She looked up to find Winnie standing by the couch, dripping rainwater all over the floor.

  “What are you doing here?” Piper whispered.

  Winnie shook her head. “Oh, most definitely you first,” she whispered back, looking annoyingly amused. “Although I think I can guess. It’s the same reason why you didn’t want me to come home for your birthday. You had your own celebration planned. Did you know you’ve got mud on your nose?”

  Piper put her fingers to her nose and indeed felt dried mud. She tried to imagine what she must look like and decided it was probably best not to. She could also tell by Cam’s alert body beneath hers that he was most definitely awake. She slid a look to his face, and yep, his eyes were open.

  And on her.

  “Oh my God,” Winnie said, and slapped her hands over her eyes. “Gross!”

  Piper looked down and saw that around their mid-body area, th
e blanket was moving rather suggestively. She lifted the blanket and Sweet Cheeks crawled out. “It’s the cat.”

  “Sure it is,” Winnie said, her hands still over her eyes. “You know, I wanted you to get a life, but next time put a sock on the door—leave me a sign!”

  “It’s not what you think!” Impervious to the drama, Sweet Cheeks was head-bumping Piper, demanding food, which got her booted to the floor, where, with narrowed feline eyes, she meowed her annoyance and stalked off, tail twitching.

  “Hey,” Winnie called after her. “Where’s the love?”

  Piper stood up and the blanket fell away, revealing she was fully dressed.

  Cam sat up, also dressed. Well, mostly. He was still shirtless, and his cargoes seemed dangerously low on those sexy hips. And then there was the shaggy bedhead, which looked good on him.

  As he moved, Piper’s journal hit the floor, and Winnie burst out laughing. “Okay, now I know nothing happened. Seriously, Piper, for your sex life’s sake, join the twenty-first century and switch to the note app on your damn phone. Or better yet, figure out how to use the iPad that Gavin and I gave you for your last birthday.”

  Piper slid a look at Cam, who appeared to be holding back a smile.

  Winnie wasn’t holding back anything; it wasn’t in her DNA. She was almost a mirror image of Piper, with the same shoulder-length light-brown hair—although Winnie’s tips had been dyed blue—the same green eyes, and the same curvy build that never seemed to respond to exercise or diet.

  But only Winnie had black circles under her eyes.

  “Hey,” Piper said. “You okay?”

  “Peachy. Just wanted to wish you happy birthday, but you never answer your phone.”

  “There was no electricity last night. And we’d agreed you weren’t coming home.”

  “No,” Winnie said. “You agreed. But then I heard about the storm and you’d gone dark, so I got worried.” She smiled at Cam. “Hi. And obviously, I’m the nice, considerate Manning sister.”

  With a sigh, Piper gestured to Winnie by way of introduction. “Cam, this is—”

  “Winnie,” he said.

  Winnie smiled. “Hey, Camden.”

  Piper paused. Blinked. “You two know each other?”

  “I met him at Rowan’s funeral,” Winnie said quietly.

  Surprised, Piper glanced at Cam, who was giving nothing away, so she turned back to her sister. “You went to Rowan’s funeral?”

  Winnie’s eyes filled, but didn’t spill as she nodded. “He was my best friend.”

  “I know.” Ignoring the ache in her own chest, she moved to Winnie and hugged her. “If you’d told me, I’d have tried to find a way to go with you.”

  “We talked about it at the time, remember? We couldn’t afford for all of us to go, and I didn’t want you to feel bad. Plus, I wanted to do it alone.”

  Then she and Cam exchanged a look that Piper couldn’t translate. There was tension there. Not sexual, or at least she didn’t think so, but that might’ve been wishful thinking on her part. Telling herself it didn’t matter, she strode to the wood stove and stoked the fire back to life, adding wood, taking a moment to hold her hands out to the flames. Not that she was cold. Nope, Cam had been her own personal heater. She was just sorry she’d actually slept and slept hard, and hadn’t taken a moment to enjoy being in someone’s arms again.

  “You shouldn’t have come home just because of me,” Piper said. “The flights are too expensive.”

  “I didn’t fly.”

  Piper craned her neck to stare at her. “What do you mean you didn’t fly?”

  “I drove.”

  This took Piper aback. “You drove the POS we bought you in Santa Barbara, the one that was only for getting you around town?”

  “And it got me around.” Winnie smiled. “It got me all the way here. Well, to the gas station anyway. From there I had to walk in. Too many downed trees on the road.”

  “Are you kidding me? Do you know how dangerous that was, especially in the storm?”

  “The storm’s over. And think of it this way, if someone’s stupid enough to steal the car, they deserve it.”

  Piper had a lot more to say about this, but she could feel Cam watching them curiously. “We’ll finish talking about this later.”

  “Oh, goodie,” Winnie said. “Because talking always works out so well for us.”

  She didn’t know how her sister did it, how she managed to step on Piper’s one sore nerve every single time. Step on it, stomp on it, kick it . . . “I didn’t want you missing any classes.”

  “It’s teacher conference week, or something like that,” Winnie said with a shrug. “I’m not missing anything.”

  “You should be studying—”

  “Piper, I’m twenty, not twelve. I think I know how to handle my life.”

  “Gee, I must be home,” came a new voice. “Because there’s fighting. Also, I didn’t fly either. I took a bus. Because when you’re alive, Piper, you answer your damn phone.”

  Gavin . . . ? Piper whirled toward the door. Yep, her brother stood there with that always-present easygoing smile he gave the world.

  Winnie made a happy sound and flew at him for a hug.

  Gavin sighed dramatically, but hugged her back. “Win, you look like shit. You okay?”

  “Wow.” Winnie pulled back. “If you ever want to be humbled, ask your brother how you look.”

  “Happy to help.” Gavin looked just like Piper and Winnie, except to Piper’s ever-loving annoyance, he was lean to the point of looking underfed.

  She’d never looked underfed a day in her life. “My phone died,” she said, and hugged him too.

  “There’s a bunch of mud and downed trees blocking the street. Took me forever to walk in.” Gavin looked at Cam. “Who are you?”

  “This is Cam Hayes,” Winnie told him. “Emmitt’s son.”

  Gavin immediately lost his smile. “Hey, man. I’m sorry about Rowan.”

  Cam gave a short nod and rose to his feet. “How bad’s the road?”

  “Mud slid down the creek and into the lake. Missed your dad’s house and the entire marina, and this place too, thankfully. But yards are decimated and the street isn’t going to be operational until the county gets out here with a crew.”

  Cam nodded. “I’m going to go check on my dad.”

  “Let me know how he’s doing. And . . .” She grimaced. “Sorry about both the cat and me trying to kill you.”

  He met her gaze, and she felt herself blush. He smiled, then headed to the front door.

  “I’m going to go get some stuff from my car,” Winnie said, and followed Cam out.

  “Didn’t she just say she’d left her car at the gas station?” Gavin asked.

  Piper rubbed her forehead. “Yes, which means she’s lying to us about something, but hey, what’s new.”

  Gavin nodded with a low laugh. “Like I said, home sweet home.”

  Piper shook her head. “You hate it here. You couldn’t wait to leave.”

  “I was a child.”

  She laughed. “And now you’re not?”

  He looked at her, not amused, his eyes far more grown-up than she’d ever seen them. “I’m twenty-seven. I might’ve taken the long, slow route to Adultville, but even I had to grow up sometime.”

  True, but the last time Piper had seen him had been eight months ago when she’d had to bail him out of a DUI.

  Clearly reading her mind, he grimaced. “The really long, slow route.”

  She sighed. “None of us knows what we’re doing. We’re all just stumbling through.”

  “Huh.” He gave her a half smile. “That’s actually almost comforting.”

  “Good. So are you going to tell me why you’re really here?”

  He let out a breath and met her gaze straight on, which was terrifying, because he only did that when there was bad news. “Maybe I just needed you.”

  She laughed. “You barely even like me.”

  “We�
��re family,” he said simply.

  This was true. Gavin and Winnie were all she had in the entire world. And past her gruff exterior, past all those years of being the bad guy while attempting to mold them into decent people, she loved them both madly. “Tell me, Gav.”

  “I took some time off. I . . . needed to be home.”

  “But you’re okay?” she pressed, worried, always worried.

  “I’m okay. But you should probably know, whatever the opposite of having your shit together is? I’m also that.”

  Her heart started pounding. There’d been many, many years where she’d truly doubted she could get him to adulthood alive. If there was trouble to be found, he found it, and shockingly easily too. But she’d thought after he’d gone to IT trade school and gotten a solid job, that he was in the home stretch. “Are you in trouble?”

  “Not at the moment.”

  Okay, that was something, then. She let out a relieved breath. Maybe he and Winnie really were back for just a visit. “How long are you staying?”

  “Couple of weeks.”

  Couple of weeks was no big deal. And it wasn’t as if they were coming back to stay. She could do anything for two weeks. She was pretty sure anyway.

  CAM SHUT THE front door of Piper’s house and stood on the covered porch a moment, surveying the crazy destruction of the storm. It was still raining, though very lightly now, while at the same time a good part of the sky had cleared. Branches, leaves, and debris littered the wild grass acreage between the house and the lake, as well as the distance to the marina and his father’s place.

  He’d been to a lot of places in a whole bunch of countries, but even with the mess, this view was one of the most breathtaking he’d ever seen. From where he stood at the top of the slope looking down at the water, he could see miles and miles of green rolling hills dotted with sprawling oaks, and a very weak sun trying to rise above them all, leaving the land cast in a golden glow tipped with orange flames. The sky was awash in mingled shades from the entire family of blues, light to dark, and tumultuous gray.

  After the night before, it all seemed . . . quiet. Just the sounds of the light rain hitting the already oversaturated ground and a couple of squirrels having a tiff in the trees.