Since the last thing she needed was to give herself more material to fantasize about—not that she ever fantasized about Jax, of course—she let Snickers back in. Getting out his kibble, she poured him a bowl and gave him fresh water, watching as he dug in. The sound of boots climbing the stairs hit her ears, and she turned to call out a warning, but she was too late.
Not looking down, Jax was wiping his hands on a rag as his eyes sought her out. He was opening his mouth to say something when his boot knocked into Snickers’ food dish. She winced, expecting her dog to go after his boot, thankful it seemed sturdy and Jax wouldn’t feel the inevitable bite. But Snickers had other plans.
With a snarl, he turned toward Jax and lunged upward, mouth open to bite. Cursing, Jax stumbled backward out of the way, and Snickers just missed the chance to clamp down on a very sensitive part of Jax’s anatomy. Slapping a hand to her mouth, Piper stifled her laugh, but she couldn’t stop her shoulders from shaking with laughter. She watched as Snickers turned back to his food bowl, satisfied he’d made his point, and her shoulders shook harder as Jax glared at the dog.
“Jesus! What the fuck, Piper! Your demon dog just tried to bite my dick off.”
Unable to hold her laughter in, she shrugged when Jax turned his glare on her. Dropping her hand from her mouth, she said, “Sorry?” The word coming out more like a question than an apology.
“Sorry sure as hell doesn’t cut it, and it doesn’t count when you’re laughing, anyway. What the fuck. Did you train him to do this shit to men you don’t like?”
Quelling fresh laughter, Piper attempted a solemn expression as she shook her head. “Snickers is actually mild mannered, and people friendly, men included.”
Shooting her a look of blatant disbelief, he snorted. “Yeah, right. People friendly dogs don’t try to have a man’s dick for lunch. And here he was so calm when I saw him the first time.”
Fighting a smile, she said, “No, really. He just gets very upset if he thinks someone is trying to mess with his food. I tried to call a warning, but I was too late. It wasn’t you. He would have done that to anyone.”
“Yeah, sure. Even you?”
Holding out her arm, she said, “Even me.”
Stalking closer, he took her arm in his hand, and she felt his grip tighten when he noticed the faint silvery scars on her forearm. “He bit you?” he gritted out, hand reflexively squeezing her arm as he looked up at her.
Swallowing hard, she took in his blazing green gaze swirling with gold around the pupils. Ignoring the heat and tingles racing across her skin from his touch, she willed her voice to have substance.
“It was my own fault,” she replied, stopping to clear her throat when her voice came out on the breathy side. “I got Snickers from a rescue organization when he was about five months old. His former owners had starved him, so he’s very territorial about food. He had one of those double-sided dishes, and I reached down without thinking one day to fill up the water side. He thought I was taking it from him, and reacted to that. That’s why he has separate dishes for food and water now.”
Frown easing, he searched her eyes as the green slowly overtook the gold. Rubbing his thumb over the bite marks absentmindedly, he turned his gaze back to Snickers, watching as he ate. “That makes sense. Poor guy.”
Clearing her throat, she pulled her arm from his grip and fought to calm her racing heart, feeling the swipe of his thumb in phantom touches. “Yes, well. He leads a charmed life now. I’ve had him for six years, and he’s a well-adjusted dog. He’s only touchy at meal time.”
Nodding, Jax replied, “That’s good.” As he continued to watch the dog. Brow twitching, he said, “What’s with his fur? The way it’s longer on the bottom, and shorter on the top. Is that some weird side affect from his time with the shitty owners?”
Piper couldn’t help her laugh. “No, that’s a Schnauzer cut.”
“A sch—what?” Jax asked, frowning at her.
“Snickers is a Schnauzer. That’s his breed. And that’s the haircut they give them. Actually, I have the groomer tone it way down, and keep the bottom half just a touch fuller, because I love it when he’s fuzzy. The normal cut is much more drastic.”
“People do this shit on purpose?” he asked, voice incredulous.
She laughed again. “Crazy, right? The normal cut is ugly as sin.”
Jax shook his head, and Piper abruptly became aware that they were conversing like normal people. She was even laughing and smiling, and no, this was the last thing she needed. She couldn’t forget who Jax was, what he did to her in the past. Forgetting would only lead to heartbreak when she inevitably let her guard down and let him back in, and she could already feel herself longing to do just that.
Clenching her fists, she forced the hard tone back into her voice, and clipped out, “Did you fix the water heater?”
Glancing over at her, his eyes burned, but other than raising his eyebrows slightly, he didn’t react. She could tell he knew that she’d remembered herself, but he said nothing about her change of pace, just rolled with it.
“It can’t be fixed, unfortunately. You’re going to need a new one. I’m sorry. I’ve fixed it a few times already, and I warned Helen it wasn’t going to hold out much longer, but you know your grandmother. Stubborn to the last moment, and pinching every penny until it cried out for help.”
Lips curling up in a sad smile as he described Helen to a T, she nodded. “It’s okay. She left more than enough money to cover fixes like this. Do you know where I can pick up another one? Maybe find a place that delivers?”
“I already found a new replacement, and I can go pick it up in about a half an hour. I brought my truck, so I got it. You can come with me, or just write me a check, and I’ll go by myself. If you trust me enough, that is,” he replied with a smirk.
Rolling her eyes, she turned to get her checkbook, saying, “Of course I trust you to get the water heater.” Bending over to write the check, she murmured to herself, “It’s my heart you can’t be trusted with.”
She heard a swiftly inhaled breath, like he’d heard her, but when she turned around to hand him the check, he was standing there with an easy smile. But it didn’t reach his eyes, she noticed. Her remark had struck home, it was clear, and even though she hadn’t meant for him to hear it, she should have every reason to be happy that it hit so strongly. But she couldn’t help the tendril of guilt that wound through her belly at the thought of hurting him.
Pushing those ridiculous thoughts out of her mind, telling herself he deserved those words and more, she said, “There you go. I left it blank. Just fill it in with the amount of the water heater, plus whatever my grandmother would have paid you for installing it.”
“I never would have let Helen pay me,” he said easily, accepting the check and folding it before tucking it in his pocket.
“I’m not comfortable with you doing this for free,” she replied with a frown.
“We can argue about it when I get back. I’ll be probably about an hour or so. Ian’s going to meet me at the store, help me get it loaded and unloaded here, and down the basement stairs.”
“Works for me. I’m going to run to the grocery store while you’re gone, but I’ll make sure I’m back before you return.”
“No need. I know where the spare key is hidden,” he said with a wink before turning and striding back through the house.
Piper stared after him, feeling a little like she’d been stunned stupid by that wink. Shaking herself, she turned to make sure the back door was locked and grabbed her purse off the table. As soon as she got back, she was getting that damned key from its hiding spot.
But she couldn’t even make herself care about that right now. She was still dazed from that wink.
“What the hell is wrong with you, McCoy?” she asked herself as she made her way to the front door.
But she was scared to learn the answer to her own question. Her bitterness, her anger with Jax faded more with every moment she spe
nt near him. And in their place was growing fear. Fear because she could feel the walls she erected against Jax crumbling, and fear because she could so easily fall for him, and get her heart broken once again.
She struggled to feel the anger she usually felt, and she found it, but it wasn’t directed at Jax—it was for herself, for feeling fear to begin with. For not being able to stick to her guns. For letting herself forget, even for a moment, that good men were just a myth, and none really existed.
“You’re freakin’ Piper Boss Bitch McCoy. You let nothing, and no one, scare you. You haven’t since you left Scott. Remember that shit,” she muttered as she started the car.
But the mantra she’d repeated to herself every day since her divorce did nothing to bolster her up and make her feel like she could handle anything that came her way, the way it normally did. Instead, the fear continued to creep in around her, its invisible tendrils snaking around her heart and burrowing deep.
Jax pulled up to Piper’s house just as she was opening her trunk. Jumping out of his truck, he rushed to her side. “Here, let me get these.”
He expected her to protest, but she eyed him sideways and nodded, surprising him. “I’ll never turn down an offer to help carry groceries inside. No matter who it’s from,” she added before turning to walk away, hips swaying.
Eyes glued to her ass in the tight shorts, he jumped when Ian cleared his throat next to him. “Shit. A little warning before you do that,” he said with a glare. “I thought you were still in the truck.”
“Because your entire being was focused on watching her walk away,” Ian replied, amused.
Jax rolled his eyes, but he couldn’t argue that. It was the truth. He was just reaching in to grab grocery bags when he heard Piper squeal, the sound loud against his sensitive shifter ears. Jerking out of the trunk, he rushed toward where she was jumping up and down, shaking her hand.
“What? What’s wrong? Are you hurt?” he asked rapid fire, scanning the surroundings for anyone lurking or running away from the scene.
“Not hurt. That was just fucking disgusting. I need to go stick my hand in bleach,” she said, voice coated with disgust.
Frowning, he looked at her, watching as she continued to shake her hand, her expression grossed out. Reaching out, he grabbed her arm to hold her still so he could look at her hand and check for injuries. “What the fuck is this brown shit on your fingers?”
“It’s shit. Literally,” Ian replied, laughter in his voice.
Glancing over, he saw Ian standing a few feet away, looking at a paper bag on the ground. “What the hell are you talking about?”
“The bag was on the porch stairs,” Piper said. “I bent down to pick it up, and it was wet. The bag ripped open and I instinctively tried to catch it right as the smell hit my nose, and I couldn’t get my fingers out of the way fast enough,” she said with a shudder, holding her hand as far away from her body as she could.
Now he saw why Ian was laughing. His lips quirked up, but laughing at this wasn’t going to win him any points with her. He lectured himself sternly, but it did no good.
“Damn, Piper. You’ve been back what, two, three days? How’d you make an enemy so fast? What did you do to deserve a bag of shit on your porch?”
Turning her glare toward him, she spat, “Fuck you, asshole. You know it was probably neighborhood kids, doing it for shits and giggles. Literally,” she said sourly. “Ugh. I need to unlock the door, but I don’t want to touch anything right now.”
“I’ll do it,” he said, reining in his laughter and attempting a solemn face.
“You are not sticking your hand in my pocket for the keys,” she said, glaring again.
“I didn’t know that was an option,” he replied, keeping a straight face until he was past her and she couldn’t see his smile. “I was going to get the spare key.”
Glancing around to make sure no one was watching, he grabbed the spare key and quickly unlocked the door, pushing it open before shoving the key back into the planter.
“Thank you,” she said grudgingly, walking past him.
“Need any help?”
“I’ve been successfully washing my hands since I was, like, two years old. I think I can handle it.”
He watched her disappear down the hallway to the half bath tucked under the stairs, and eased the door mostly closed, leaving it cracked open.
“Get rid of that,” he told Ian, nodding at the bag of shit on the lawn as he passed.
“What? Why me? And since when do you give the orders?”
“Since we’re at Piper’s house, and this ain’t your playground, son.”
Jax reached into the trunk and grabbed several bags in each hand. When he emerged again, Ian was unmoving, looking at him in surprise.
“This is a side of you I haven’t seen in a very long time,” Ian murmured in approval. Then his eyes darted to the bag on the ground, and he frowned. “Just wish you showed it some other time than right now.”
Smirking, Jax let himself in and deposited the bags on the kitchen counter. He turned around and saw Snickers waiting at the backdoor patiently, and Jax swore the silly looking dog was staring at him expectantly. “All right, all right,” he grumbled, opening the door to let him out.
He walked back out the front and saw Ian at the water hose, scrubbing his hands. “I grabbed some of the soap from the back of the truck.”
“Hurry it up. No slacking on my watch.”
“Dick.”
Smiling, he got another load of groceries, Ian joining him and getting the last of them. They were just setting them on the counter when Piper came out of the bathroom and headed straight to the hand sanitizer on the window above the sink, squirting a healthy amount in her palm.
“My hands will never be clean again,” she muttered. Raising her voice, she said, “And not a word from either one of you. Don’t you two have work to do anyway?”
“That we do,” he said in acknowledgement. “I let Snickers out earlier. Might want to leave him out until we get the water heaters switched out, since we’ll have the door open.”
She nodded, and he and Ian went back outside. The water heater was on a dolly, but this was still going to take some maneuvering. Forty minutes, a string of curses, and Ian’s smashed thumb later, they finally had the new water heater in place, and the old one loaded in the back of Jax’s truck.
“You need any help installing it?” Ian asked.
“Nah, I got it. You can head on home.”
Hesitating, Ian looked at him closely. “You look like you’re in a better mood than usual. Things must be going well.”
Jax let out a bark of laughter. “She’s a heartbeat away from telling me to fuck off. Come to think of it, she already has, in so many words. We’re only here right now because she didn’t know who else to call.”
“She could have found someone if she tried. Asked the neighbors, asked at the store. She had options, but she still called you.”
Jax nodded, glancing down and trying to hide the smile forming. “Yeah, she did.”
“I’ll leave you to it, then. Make the most of it.”
Jax watched his friend walk down the street, headed back to where his truck was parked at the hardware store. With a breath, he went back inside and headed down the stairs. Piper was busy in the kitchen, and he wanted to think things over before he tried to talk to her.
He had no experience with wooing women. He’d known Piper since he was eight years old, and it was all so natural with them. Their friendship, then their growing feelings, and the friendship turning into a relationship. Of course he’d put effort into finding sweet ways to show her how he felt, but he never had to win her. From the time they were kids, they belonged to each other.
And after Piper… well, after her, he had no desire or interest in starting anything with another woman. He’d never been able to see a woman in that kind of light. And his eagle would have shredded him to bits if he tried to move on with someone who wasn’t his
mate.
Working on getting the water heater set up, he tried to come up with some kind of plan, but he kept drawing a blank. This was something he had no experience with, and Piper wasn’t the typical woman, anyway. She’d fed that fire he’d seen in her, even as young as six years old, and become the badass she always was inside.
Looked like he was going to have to wing it. Something else he didn’t have much experience with, but he had to do what he could. Finally finishing up the installation, he double checked that it was all hooked up and ready to go. Satisfied with it, he began gathering trash to take outside.
The smell in the kitchen hit his nose halfway up the stairs, and he paused in the doorway to watch Piper. She was bustling around the kitchen, baking something, and he just stood there, watching her. Her black hair was wavy, hanging halfway down her back, the purple streaks gleaming in the light. His eyes dropped to her ass, mesmerized with watching it as she moved around the kitchen.
Eyes narrowing, he saw more of the tattoo that wrapped around her thigh. It was a bird of some sort, because he could see the feathers stretching down. Pushing the irrational jealousy he felt over her having a bird inked onto her body that wasn’t him, he cleared his throat.
Jumping, she whirled around, slapping a flour covered hand to her chest. “Dammit, Jax. Don’t go sneaking up on me.”
Lips curling at hearing his name on her lips for the first time in years, he arched an eyebrow. “So I’m Jax again?”
Her eyes went wide for a split second before she narrowed them. “Don’t push your luck. Are you all finished?”
“Yep, I was just going to take the trash out. I bought one of the fast heating ones, so you should be able to tell soon if it’s working or not. I’m going to go run this trash outside.”
She nodded, and he pulled the boxes and plastic out of the door, dragging them to the curb, since he knew tomorrow was trash day. Taking a deep breath, he gazed around the quiet street before heading back inside. The smell of her baking was stronger now, and he stopped inside the doorway, unable to stop a grin from curving his lips.
Fight Song: A Paranormal Shifter Romance (Rocky River Fighters Book 3) Page 5
