by Tara Mills
“They’re in the bags over there. Any one will do.”
He led the girl over to the prize table and let her reach in herself. When she skipped off he thought he might as well plant himself there but Angela called him back.
“Chad, would you mind playing the music for musical chairs?”
“Why not?” Could this party get any worse?
Angela had an old-fashioned record player and small seventy-eights, the songs so lame he wanted to grind his teeth. He set the first record spinning and turned away from the action so that he could stay impartial. After all, his daughter was playing, too.
Slowly, chairs crowded around him until they were finally down to one still in play. One of the contestants happened to be Cassidy, the birthday girl, and when she won, an ugly battle broke out between Angela and her daughter over letting the other girl have the prize because Cassidy was already walking home with all the presents. It wasn’t a pleasant situation and for a while it wasn’t clear who was sulking more, Cassidy or Chad.
Angela sent Chad on a drink-finding mission while they played the clothespin game. He returned to the party room with a tray of Cokes and little enthusiasm. He set a glass at each place setting.
When the last game was finished Angela brought out the prize bag and invited any girl who hadn’t already won something to come up and pull a prize. At least she had the foresight to bring enough for all the girls. Missy’s arm was buried to her armpit when Chad went back out to the counter to wait for their pizzas.
He was standing off to the side when Piper and Joy walked in.
Chapter 26
“Hey!” Piper broke into a happy smile. “I’ve been trying to reach you.”
“I’ve been busy,” Chad said coolly, hardly looking at her.
Chad in a bad mood was something new and it unnerved her.
She frowned. “Didn’t you get my message?”
“Yes,” he snapped. “Didn’t you get mine?”
Piper glanced at Joy, clearly bewildered. “I don’t understand. I told you I was sick yesterday. By the time I woke up it was too late to call.”
“Markland?” the man behind the counter called out.
“Here.” Chad waved his hand and walked away from Piper without another word. He picked up the pizza. A second slid beside it. “Two?”
The man nodded.
“Fine. I’ll be right back.”
He strode off with the pizza, leaving Piper and Joy completely puzzled.
“What’s with him?” Joy whispered.
“I don’t know.” Fear and icy dread were wringing out her insides.
“I’ll get our sandwiches,” said Joy.
“Thanks.”
Joy walked away leaving Piper alone. When Chad came back out the glare he gave her was so sharp Piper nearly fell back.
Knowing it was all show Piper walked courageously over to him and said hotly, “Are you going to tell me what’s wrong?”
He laughed; a bitter, unpleasant laugh. “I can’t talk about it right now. It’s not a good time.”
“You’re starting to scare me,” she said softly, her anxiety multiplying by the second.
A piranha in open-toed heels walked up behind him and curled her manicured fingernails over his shoulder possessively. “Chad, aren’t you coming?”
Piper’s blood chilled and the women faced off like rivals.
“Angela, this is Piper,” Chad said. “She’s just a friend.”
His emphasis on the word just stung. They were more than that.
Angela’s cold sneer spread into an insincere smile. “Any friend of Chad’s…” She let the rest trail off and slipped her hand through his arm. “I could really use you in there.”
“I’ll be right with you. Could you grab the other pizza?” he asked.
“Sure. Don’t be long,” she said intimately, throwing Piper a dismissive look before sashaying off with the second pan.
“What’s going on?” Piper demanded angrily. Tears were welling in her eyes and her heart was constricting in agony but she refused to back down now. He owed her an explanation, damn it.
Chad glared back at her, boiling with rage. “Don’t you dare Piper!” he growled. “Don’t you fucking dare! We’ve been playing by your rules all along. So now that I’ve wised up and realized that you actually meant them you have nothing to say about me being here with Angela. If I want to take out another woman I’m damned well going to because you made it perfectly clear that I wasn’t taking you out.”
Piper was shocked by his venom, stunned by his vulgar language, and rendered speechless by his argument. “Chad,” she said, trying desperately to hold onto her composure, “I don’t know what’s going on here but this is not how friends treat each other.”
He snorted. “Yeah, like you know how a friend behaves. You treat me like a fucking sex toy when the mood hits but you won’t open yourself up in any other way.”
Piper recoiled as if he’d struck her.
“I’m sorry,” he continued, “but I can’t play that way. I won’t. We don’t have a friendship. I don’t even know what you’d call this but it doesn’t resemble any friendship I’ve ever heard of.”
A manager came up and in an urgent whisper, asked them to please take their argument outside.
“We’re done here,” Chad told him.
“No!” Piper burst out.
“We’re done,” he repeated firmly. “You created this mess so don’t act like I’ve hurt your feelings. You got everything you wanted out of me. I don’t think you should call me again.”
“You pursued me,” she reminded him helplessly.
He shook his head and finally smiled. It wasn’t reassuring. “You’re right. I should have left you alone when you asked. I’m sorry I didn’t listen.”
Angela poked her head around the corner. “Chad, are you coming?”
He gave her a quick nod and walked off.
If anything, his smile disturbed Piper even more than his temper. There was a finality to it that chilled her.
“I’m going to be sick,” Piper said when Joy came back with their dinner in a bag.
“No shit.” Joy took Piper by the arm and dragged her out; shaken, raw, and utterly devastated.
• • •
“Dom, I’m going to stay with Piper for a while. She’s not doing so hot.” Joy hung up the phone. “Okay, that’s mine taken care of now let’s work on your relationship.”
“I don’t have one.”
“You did. What happened?”
“I wish I knew.”
“I thought the mixed signals were a bad idea.”
Piper glared at her with red puffy eyes. “He seduced me!”
Joy gave her a speculative look. “Whether he did or didn’t doesn’t matter. You kept going back to the candy dish for more even though you’d put yourself on a diet.”
“You don’t know anything about this.”
“I know enough to see that you blew it.”
Piper screamed into her pillow and kicked her legs.
“Feel better?” Joy asked.
“No.”
“So what do you want from him?”
“Everything,” Piper whispered.
Joy broke into an ecstatic smile. “I knew it! You love him!”
“Why can’t we decide when we want to fall in love?”
Joy ruffled Piper’s hair. “It wouldn’t be called falling then. You can’t choose when the right guy is going to come along but when he does, it’s your responsibility to recognize him. You chose to fight it instead, confusing yourself and Chad in the process. Not something I would’ve done. Maybe he’s just had enough.”
“I’m so confused. I never expected anything like this. I didn
’t know he could get so mad.”
“I, I, I, I.” Joy frowned. “Do you hear yourself? I have to remind you of something here. Do you remember how you described your perfect guy?”
“When?”
“When I asked you to go on a blind date with Dom’s friend.”
“Vaguely.”
“I remember. You said he had to be employed, considerate, responsible, and mature. You also wanted both sides of Santa’s list.”
“What?”
Joy smiled. “That’s how I remembered it. You said he should be naughty and nice.”
“God, that’s right. Did you tape that conversation or something?”
“No, I just paid attention for future reference. I thought if I kept my eyes open I might be able to find you a guy that fit it. But you found him first, all by yourself. What amazes me is that you still don’t believe it.”
“As I recall, I said I wasn’t looking.” Piper rolled onto her back and stared at the ceiling.
“Honey, love doesn’t work that way.”
“If he’d just been patient until I was ready…”
“Did you ever wonder if maybe he isn’t confused about his feelings? What if, deep down, he knows yours even better than you do? Did you ever talk about it? And as far as patience is concerned, need I remind you that he’s been alone for years? Just how much patience do you expect him to have?”
“I just didn’t want to hurt him.”
“That worked out, didn’t it?”
“What do you mean?”
“What else would make a man so angry?”
“You think he’s in love with me and I hurt him somehow?”
Joy nodded. “I’d lay money on it.”
“What should I do? Chad doesn’t want to see me again. He told me not to call him.”
Joy shook her head. “He wants to hear from you. Maybe not right now, but believe me, he’s going to be looking for an explanation.”
“Good, so am I. I want to know what just happened.”
• • •
Angela’s proposition came while they were loading the birthday presents into her trunk. She was nothing if not predictable.
Angela placed her hand on Chad’s arm and said, “Looks like you could use a little grown-up company about now. What do you say? My bar is fully stocked. You’re a Beefeater’s man, as I recall.”
“Not for a long time.” Chad stepped back and her hand fell away. “Angela, I appreciate the invitation but I’m not up to it. I have a splitting headache.”
She considered him quietly and finally accepted his excuse.
“Chad, we’re old friends, right?”
Chad nodded. Outright denial would be rude.
“Then talk to me. Get it off your chest.” Her eyes strayed to his chest for a weighted moment. “I guarantee you’ll feel better. I’d be happy to help with whatever it is that’s upsetting you.”
Reading her true objective wasn’t hard. Chad gave it ten minutes, tops, before she turned her sympathy into a sexual advance. Her transparency made his skin crawl. He’d had enough of friends like that. Besides, she wasn’t above using any advantage to slash at Piper in order to win his confidence and move into the vacancy she could smell like blood in the water. Even he could see, as pissed off as he was, that wouldn’t be fair to Piper. If there was going to be a cat fight they should at least do it face to face, in the open, and let him get the hell out of their way.
• • •
On the way home, Chad stopped to pick up Kenny from his friend’s house. Missy was still wired when he sent her up to bed but she went willingly enough. She could see her dad wasn’t in the best mood again.
Kenny caught Chad in his bathroom swallowing a few tablets.
“Headache?” the boy asked.
“Yeah.” Chad shut off the tap and grabbed a hand towel, pressing it to his face.
“Can I have ice cream?”
“Now?”
“I didn’t get to go to the party.”
Chad tossed the towel onto the counter and rubbed his eyes hard with his fingertips. “Okay,” he said with a heavy sigh.
He followed the kid down the stairs, asking him once along the way to please walk a little quieter. They went into the kitchen and Chad scooped him up a bowl.
“Ben’s mom and dad are getting a divorce,” Ken said in between spoonfuls.
“I’m sorry to hear that. How’s he taking it?”
“He’s mad at them.”
Chad nodded.
“Dad, if Mom didn’t die, do you think you would have gotten divorced?”
Chad stared at his son, taken aback by the question. “It’s hard to say,” he finally answered. “We were happy, very happy, but I just don’t know. Things can change. I hope we would have stayed together. I would have worked really hard to make it work.”
“That’s what I thought,” Kenny said with a smile of relief.
Chad ruffled his hair. “Hurry up, it’s time for bed.”
• • •
Kenny’s question and confidence plagued Chad for the next few days. Would he have given up on Chelsea so quickly? If he really cared about Piper, and there was no denying that he did, didn’t he owe her the opportunity to come clean? He’d been so shattered, so sure she played him false that he wasn’t even open to listening when they unexpectedly ran into each other. No, he yelled, bullied, and swore at her. The memory shamed him. Then he issued a warning to stay away from him for Christ’s sake, even though he picked up on her confusion right away. But he stamped out those niggling doubts and bludgeoned on.
He could still see Piper’s happy smile when she saw him, the sheer pleasure alight in her eyes then the slow and painful pull of gravity as the muscles released, going slack so that her lovely smile vanished into a shocked “oh.” She’d transformed right before his eyes. He did that to her.
Piper may have hurt him first but he retaliated in a cruel and very personal way. His was a vicious frontal assault, no ambiguity, no passive-aggressive bullshit. Now, he couldn’t get her eyes out of his head, or forget her pain and confusion. They haunted him more because he’d made her cry.
By Friday Chad finally broke down and called her. He was glad that he had to leave a message. It was easier.
Chapter 27
Piper expected his call, Joy guaranteed she’d get one, but she was afraid and not sure she wanted to take it. She hoped she’d get his voicemail, too, but unfortunately Chad picked up right away.
“Piper? Thanks for calling back.”
“What do you need, Chad?” Her voice was flat, weary.
“I think we need to clear the air. Would you meet with me?”
She waited a beat before saying, “Where?” Piper heard his sigh of relief.
“I don’t care. I can call my mom and have her take the kids tonight if you want to come over to my place.”
“So you can have the home field advantage?”
“That’s not why I suggested it. I’ll come over to your place if that would make you feel more comfortable.”
“No. I’ll come by. What time?”
“When are you through with work?”
“I have an hour left.”
“Good. I can knock off early, too. Let me call my mom and see if she can take the kids. I’ll call you back as soon as I know.”
• • •
Joy cheered when Piper cancelled on her.
“That’s okay. We’ll go windsurfing another time. But seriously, you’re going over there? Do you want a referee?”
Piper shook her head. “I’ll be fine.”
“I saw how pissed he was at you. I’d be nervous.”
“He would only hurt me emotionally.”
“But th
at’s just as bad.”
Piper gave her an anxious smile. “I know.”
• • •
A number of emotions hit Chad in succession when he opened the door to Piper; annoyance, disappointment, helplessness. Why couldn’t one of them be positive? It hurt so much to drink her in and yet he needed that painful swallow to soothe his raw throat even though it burned going down. He blamed her for the pain. He blamed himself even more because he gambled and lost when he didn’t take her warnings seriously.
“Hi. Come in.”
“Back up first,” Piper said, spearing him with a wary eye.
She waited for Chad to move back from the door before she ventured inside. He shut out the daylight behind her.
“Why don’t we go back to the kitchen?” Chad suggested.
“So you can be closer to the knives?” The acid comment felt good. Even if it wasn’t the best thing she could do right now she was in the mood to provoke him.
“Funny.” He was already familiar, thanks Mom, to that kind of sarcasm.
She followed him back and took her usual stool. When she looked settled he asked, “Something to drink?” He pointed to a bottle of wine on the counter.
“I’d prefer water.”
“Coming up.”
So, Piper wasn’t going to make this easy. But then, he supposed coming here wasn’t easy either. She was probably waiting for the next shoe to drop. Could he blame her?
Piper took only a quick sip then held her glass in front of her with both hands, ready to raise it like a shield or fling it if necessary. She faced him with a somber expression.
Chad took a deep breath. “I suppose you know why I asked you over.”
“I’m not into guessing games.”
He sighed. “I thought I should hear you out. Give you a chance to explain yourself.”
“Me!” she burst out. “If anyone’s owed an explanation I think it’s pretty clear you owe me one, along with a big juicy apology.”
Chad’s mouth fell open. Oh, this was rich!
“How can you sit there and play innocent?” he asked in disgust.
“If I’m guilty of something it’s customary, at least in this country, to let the accused know the charges against them. What is it exactly that I did? I’m a little confused here.”
