“I missed you soooo much!” she said into my hair. I closed my eyes and soaked all of her into me.
“I missed you too, honey,” I whispered back.
“Well, I’m glad that’s all settled.” Vicky collapsed into one of the chairs across from us. Max’s father leaned his forearms on her chair back, giving me a chin lift and a wink.
Meanwhile I had my Piper back. Having her in my arms, I rested my cheek on top of her head and started to gently sway back and forth. In response, she kicked off her shoes and curled into my lap. I slowly looked up to find three pairs of eyes on us. Vicky was attempting to suppress a big smile on her face by pressing her red-painted lips together. Jack seemed to take the scene in stride.
The look from Max was new: intense and focused for sure, but there was something more going on, an emotion I couldn’t quite place, but I already wanted more of it. That one look from him made me calm, settled. Loved.
I patted her on the back and Piper got up. “Dad said he was going to make things right and he did,” she said, taking both my hands in hers.
“Oh he did, did he?”
“Yep, said so that night after we overheard your conversation in your office.”
Max cleared his throat. “All right there, baby girl.” He leaned over and gave her a playful swat on the behind. “Give Nana and Pop-Pop their hugs. They’ve got to head on out.”
“Okay!” She bounced over and gave hugs and kisses. Max also got up to walk them out. I stayed behind, not sure what to do or what my place was in this new family configuration.
“Max’s right, we’re going to see my sister in Boone,” his stepmother said. “Otherwise, we’d stick around, have ourselves a proper visit.”
“Another time,” Jack chirped, giving a nod while keeping Piper in a bear hug. He tickled her, making her wail and scream in hysterical laughter.
“Okay! Okay!” Her face was all red from the excitement. “I give up! You’re the tickle master!”
“Aha! Then I release you!” he declared, letting Piper go. She gave Vicky her share of love, then walked back over to me.
“I’ve got some homework to do, but maybe we can hang out later?”
I cupped her chin in my hand and put on my most mock-serious face.
“Well, I was going to practice some of my cake decorating skills later this afternoon. Have you ever worked with fondant before?”
Again, those pale green eyes of hers, just like her dad’s, got all wide. “That’s the stuff they use on Cake Boss and Cake Wars.”
“It is indeed.”
“Whoa,” Piper said. “That’s, like, professional.”
I placed my hand on her shoulder, nodding. “Totally. All the more reason why I could use some help.”
“Oh I’m in, Ms. Jessica,” she agreed. “I’m all in!”
I gave her a smile. “Perfect. Now go get your homework done and your chores. Then we’ll do our thing.”
She jumped up and down and clapped like a seal, then dashed to her room, singing some unintelligible song.
“Don’t lose this one,” Jack mumbled to his son.
“I’ll try not to, Dad,” he answered. “Go on now. You’ll hit traffic.”
* * * * *
I helped with the dishes after breakfast, in quiet shock that one man making a meal for only two people could utterly destroy a kitchen the way he did. I prewashed and loaded and there were still a couple of smaller pans that needed a good soak. As I was wiping down the counters, Piper came out of her room, trash bag in hand, going for the kitchen garbage.
“I see you take out the trash. What other chores do you have to do?”
“Well, I also have to keep my room and bathroom clean,” she replied as she hoisted the plastic bag up high, then smacked and spun it so she could tie the end. “I also help dust the bookshelves once a week. That’s it for now.”
“Do you get an allowance?”
“Ha! That’s funny.” She laughed, holding a garbage bag in each hand. “No, Dad said grownups shouldn’t have to pay kids simply to clean up after themselves. Says it builds a nation of ‘entitled little S-H-I-T-S’ but I’m not supposed to say that word.”
“Uh…oh okay. No, definitely don’t curse,” I agreed while trying hard not to break out in a big smile because she was adorable.
“That’s one of the zillion things he likes about you, you know,” she added.
“What?”
“The fact you don’t curse, like, ever,” Piper explained. “He said to me he knows it makes him a hypocrite because he has a dirty mouth, but Dad told me he’s never liked seeing a pretty, smart woman using bad words.”
“Oh, well, um…good to know.” I didn’t know how to respond. I certainly wasn’t surprised he felt that way.
Piper was quiet, studying my reaction. “That’s not, like, the number-one thing about you that he’s into. You know that, right?”
Good Lord, she thinks she has to serve as our go-between. This is going to be fun to navigate. “I do. I have many fine qualities. I don’t want you to worry about any of that, okay?”
“Okay.” She seemed satisfied, for now. She took the trash out, just as Max was sauntering back into the room after seeing his parents off in their truck.
“Good job, Pipe.” He sounded impressed. “Didn’t even have to remind you.” He moved like a sinewy panther across the room. My hair was in a messy bun on top of my head and I didn’t have a stitch of makeup on my face and yet, with the way his gaze devoured me, I had never felt more beautiful. As his body came closer, his heat and scent intoxicated me.
I wrapped my arms around him, burying my nose into the middle of his chest, rubbing my face back and forth, like a kitten. Max rested his lips on top of my head.
“How is it humanly possible you smell this good without having a shower yet today? It’s just not right,” I complained as he chuckled, his whole body vibrating with mine.
“I could say the same to you.”
“Oh no, I’m totally rank. In fact—” I pried myself away from him, “—I’m going to go back to my place, have a long, hot shower, and give you some time with that awesome daughter of yours.”
He snagged my wrist and pulled me back. “Have a shower here. I’ve got everything you need to get clean. Then dirty.” Both hands cupped my ass, lifting me up to sit on the raised bar of the countertop.
“Ah! Didn’t expect that.”
“This is good. Now we’re eye level, which means I get more access to this,” he said through a smile, tilting his head to kiss and suck the curve of my neck. His finger also maneuvered under my blouse, his nails scoring the skin of my sides, making me purr for him.
“I love the way you touch me, Max,” I whispered as I arched my neck, squirming in my shorts. “I’m also not wearing any underwear.”
His fingertips came around, grazing my nipples, teasing them in a circular motion, followed by a short, quick pinch. “Oh yeah,” I moaned into his mouth. As his tongue and lips explored my mouth, he kept teasing my nipples, and along the undersides of my breasts. I shuddered, feeling the wet gathering between my legs. Holy hell, he turned me on like nothing and no one before him.
“I think you should go without wearing a bra from now on,” he groaned, giving one of my breasts a slap. But then, he broke the kiss, his ear toward the door. In a flash, he grabbed under my armpits and put me back on my feet, then pulled my blouse down.
In the next two seconds, Piper scampered in, her hair sticking out all over the place, looking like she had stuck her finger in an electrical socket or she was starring as the sun in a school play.
“Dad, Ms. Jessica, I know I said I’d help you with the baking, but Lucy and Samara from down the street invited me to play with them!” She started jumping up and down and clapping again, followed by a high-pitched squeal.
“That
’s great, Pipe, but you may want to take it down a notch. Play it cool,” Max advised. “Maybe run a comb through your hair before heading back out.”
“Oh yeah, sure!” she said, jogging to the bathroom. I could see what she was doing from where I stood. Piper wetted her brush, shook it out a couple of times, and calmed down the follicle beast. I was expecting her to trot right back out, but instead, Piper remained still. Max was about to say something, but I silently motioned him to keep quiet.
She stared at her reflection in the mirror, her forefinger nervously tapping on the basin. “You can do this,” she told herself, her voice so soft, I strained to hear her. “Just relax. You’re normal. Really. You. Can. Do. This.”
I reached for Max’s hand and dug my nails into his palm, just as she came out of the bathroom. I offered her what I hoped was an encouraging smile.
“Are you sure you’re okay I’m not baking with you this afternoon?”
Is she just asking to be polite or is she looking for an out? Before I had to figure out her true meaning, Max jumped in. “She’s just fine, kiddo. Go have fun. Get home by dinner.”
“Okay, good,” she answered, the tension in her shoulders dropping. But she still didn’t move from her spot and she was biting the side of her lip.
Max walked over to his daughter and crouched down, resting his weight gracefully on the balls of his feet. He cocked his head to one side, then the other, all while squinting one eye, wearing a lopsided grin. Whatever tension Piper held immediately dissipated as she broke out in a fit of giggles, covering her mouth with both hands. He smoothed his features but wasn’t laughing along.
“What was that about?” he asked while carefully prying her hands off her mouth and holding them in his. She cast her head and eyes downward, making her hair fall forward, effectively hiding her face. I know that trick, I thought. He cupped her chin and gently tilted her up.
“You never need to hide from me, Pipe,” he promised her. “I love all of it. Remember that.”
Her eyes searched his, in a way only a child’s could, in order to determine if a grownup was telling the truth or not. Max held steadfast, seeming to understand what his daughter was doing, and it took my breath away. I hadn’t been a teacher for long, but still, I had already encountered hundreds of adults who worked with, and on behalf of, children. Most of them didn’t get what Max instinctually did: children know what’s true and can read your soul.
“Usually kids don’t like me,” she finally choked out. “This is the first time I’ve been invited for a playdate and I…I…I don’t want to mess up.”
There it was. Her guts on the floor, and my stomach twisted right along with hers. I wanted to wring the neck of every kid who was giving Piper a hard time. I wished I could dive into the center of her being and pour all the love she’d ever need. Fill her up until she forgot the meaning of pain or rejection.
“I’ve always given it to you straight, right?”
She nodded, completely riveted, with her chest up high, looking as if she was holding her breath. He placed his palm flat above her breastbone and gave her a big smile.
“Breathe, baby.”
She let out a gust of air and nodded. “Okay.”
“All right, that’s better,” he said. “Pipe, you’re good. You’re all good.”
Her brows came together, forming a deep line between her eyes. “Huh?”
“I mean, you’ve got everything going for you. You’re smarter than most people out there. Not a huge accomplishment, but it’s something,” he said with a wink. “You’re funny as hell, you’ve got a creative way of doing things, and you’ve got a good heart. But here’s the kicker: none of that matters unless you know that here.” He pointed to her forehead. “And feel it here.” He emphasized by pointing to the center of her chest. “I’ve seen people with a fraction of what you’ve got who own the world and I’ve also seen people with more than you sleeping in the gutters. Guess what differentiated them?”
Piper’s face went blank, those eyes of hers nervously blinking, darting over to Max’s. But once she realized he wasn’t judging her, that he was in no rush for the answer, I witnessed her gradual transformation: her blinking slowed, her shoulders dropped, and the tension left her little face.
“The difference is what they believe about themselves.” He gave her a moment to let that soak in. “That’s it. That’s everything.”
She gave a slight nod. I used every bit of willpower I had not to cry.
“All right now.” He straightened his legs. “Get going. They’re going to think you forgot all about them.”
“Oh, right!” she exclaimed. “Bye!” She ran out the door. Just before it slammed behind her, she yelled, “Love you, Dad!”
“Me too, baby.” His voice was real low, raspy. He took a deep breath, and I came up from behind, wrapping my arms around him. I pressed my cheek against the middle of his back and felt my man exhale.
“You did good there, Dad.”
“Yeah?”
I was surprised there was even a tiny shred of doubt. “Know it,” I said.
His body was still, motionless with me, but I could feel his mind going in a million different directions. Even though we were a couple, I had a difficult time reading him and I wondered if it was because while he was a man comfortable in his own skin, he was, nevertheless, a man living in a house that didn’t belong to him, in a neighborhood he would have never chosen if it weren’t for his daughter.
He turned around so he was facing me, keeping me in an embrace. “You telling me I’m doing right by my girl means something to me.” He brought his hand up to the side of my face, cradling it in his palm. “You mean something to me.” I pressed my cheek into his touch, closed my eyes for a couple of seconds, and smiled. Savoring his warmth and his words.
“So, I’ve got good news and bad news for you,” I offered. “Which do you want first?”
He took his hand away, threading his fingers together at the small of my back. “Bad,” he immediately answered. “Definitely the bad first.”
“Okay, well, the bad news is, from what I hear? It’s going to get worse before it gets better. She hasn’t even reached the teen years yet.”
“Right,” he acknowledged with a quick shake of his head. “What’s the good news?”
I gave him a wicked, Cheshire grin. “We’ve got the afternoon free and the place to ourselves. Got any ideas?”
He broke out in the widest, happiest grin I’d ever seen from him. He started walking me backward, right toward his bedroom. “I have a feeling a really big idea is already coming up.”
Chapter Eight
All Hallows’ Eve
“I swear, for the life of me, I have no idea what you’re supposed to be, but I can also say, without a shadow of a doubt, I have never seen you look more beautiful.”
“Really?”
“Swear to God, Pipe.” Max crossed his heart with his finger, then pressed the palm of his hand into his chest. “I just got you, and you’re already growing up too fast.”
“Ah geez, Dad. I’m going to a Halloween party, not to my senior prom. Chillax.” She groaned and turned away, but not before I caught the tears that had welled up in her eyes without spilling.
“Piper, honey,” I interrupted, “I still need to secure some of the rhinestones in the flowers.”
“Okay, I’ll be right back,” she said while trotting into my bedroom to change. I had my sewing machine and kit set up on the dining room table. I still had plenty of Samantha’s wedding-planning paraphernalia stacked in piles but admittedly hadn’t touched any of it since our argument weeks ago. She had called a few times, but we hadn’t really moved on, which was so unlike us. I hated fighting with her and the old me would’ve apologized just to regain the peace.
But not this time. No way.
“So are you gonna tell me what t
he heck she’s dressed up as? Because I want to say something like the Home Depot garden center but I don’t think that’s it and I’ll just piss her off if I guess wrong.”
That remark got a crooked smile from me, which made Max’s eyes glimmer bright as he grazed his bottom lip with his teeth. He sauntered over to where I was, leaning his jeans-clad hip against the edge of the table. A simple stance, meaning nothing to him, but I couldn’t help but marvel at the sinewy grace in his frame, admire how he seemed to bend light and space and gravity to suit him.
Maybe someday I’d get over how beautiful and powerful he was, but—to paraphrase Aragon in The Lord of the Rings—today was not that day. Another smile snuck up on me, making Max raise that wonky eyebrow of his. He pushed his weight off his hip and crouched down on his knees in front of me. He wrapped his arms around me, settling his warm hands right by my bottom, partially tucking them under me.
“What’s going on in that fairy tale–spun head of yours, Gingersnap?”
“I just like you. That’s all,” I answered, immediately digging my fingers into his hair. I scratched his scalp along the sides, the way I knew he liked, and his eyes fluttered closed, a guttural sound between a moan and a growl emanating from the depths of his throat.
“Fuck, I like that,” he whispered.
Then I heard Piper yell from across the house. “Jessica! I have the dress off but I can’t find any good makeup for you to put on me!” That meant she was in my bathroom vanity. I stopped scratching, doing a quick mental inventory of what I had in there, then breathed a sigh of relief. All my sex toys were in the bottom drawer of my nightstand. Locked with a special key I kept hidden away.
“Bring me what you’ve got! You’d be surprised how a little can go a long way!”
His hands tightened around me and I cradled his head, feeling his soft lips graze the skin of my throat and around to my chest. I shivered. Leaning in toward his ear, I whispered, “To answer your earlier question, your daughter and her friends are currently obsessed with all things related to Greek mythology. She chose Chloris, the goddess of flowers, so in fairness to you, you weren’t as far off as you’d imagined.” I gave him a quick kiss just above his ear and backed away as Piper skipped into the room, and while Max pivoted to face her, he still kept a hold on me. For some reason, that meant something to me, that he didn’t hide from his girl how much he liked me and how he managed to show both of us in a way that felt natural, seamless, as if I had always been right by his side.
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