Nate nodded.
“But it’s not what I want, Nate. I want to be with you. I love you.” She looked away from him. “I don’t expect you to tell me you love me, too. I know you’ve already moved on to someone else.”
“No, I haven’t.”
Piper swung her head up. “You haven’t?”
“No. I don’t even know who you’re talking about.”
“Vanessa.”
“Vanessa? What about her?”
“Um…” She’d told him she’d be honest. “I might have seen the text she sent you at the restaurant. It sounded like you had plans that night. She said she missed a certain part of your anatomy.”
Nate laughed.
Piper didn’t see the humor.
“I haven’t even seen Vanessa for over a month. She heard from Ty that we were having trouble, and she thought she could hook up with me again. I immediately shut her down.”
Piper couldn’t stop the grin from forming on her face. “Really?”
“Yes. I told her my heart belonged to you.”
“It does?”
“Yes, Piper, it does.” He grabbed her hand and linked their fingers. “You were right about our lunch. I was trying to give you what I thought you wanted from me. I never wanted to be just friends. And I’m sorry about our fight, too. I knew something had happened, or you would have never gone outside to think. I shouldn’t have pushed you. Instead, I should have listened to you when you needed someone to talk to.”
Piper got up from her seat and went to sit on Nate’s lap.
“I smell,” he warned her. “I’ve been working all afternoon.”
“I don’t care,” she said as she cuddled into him and breathed him in. “I love the way you smell.”
He rubbed his hand along her leg. “So, about that Jordan thing. The signs. Did you ever get one?”
“Oh, yeah.”
“You did. What was it?”
She lifted her head and looked at him. “I’m pregnant.”
There was noise coming from Nate’s house, and seconds later, Luke and Elise walked through the sliding glass doors.
“Hey, guys,” Elise said. “We brought food.” She set the paper bags on the patio table and opened them. “Chinese food and chicken noodle soup for you, Piper.”
Piper stood from Nate’s lap. “Thank you.”
“Don’t thank me. It’s what the doctor ordered.” She pointed to her husband. She looked behind Piper. “What’s up with him?”
Piper looked behind her. Nate was still sitting in his chair, staring off into space.
“Nate?”
Nate seemed to come back to reality. He looked at the three of them, got up from his seat, grabbed Piper by the hand, and said, “I need to talk to Piper alone. Give us a minute.”
He pulled her inside and locked the sliding glass door before leading her into the living room where Luke and Elise couldn’t see them.
“You’re pregnant?”
She gave him a big, fake, cheesy grin and held out her hands. “Surprise.”
“When did you find out?”
“After our lunch.”
“Oh, Piper,” he said and pulled her into his arms. “I’m sorry.”
She leaned back and looked at him. “It was a shock to the system, but I had actually gone to the doctor because I was worried something was wrong. When I hadn’t gotten my period, like after Jordan died, I’d thought something would stop me from having kids.”
He stared down at her belly. “I can’t believe it.”
“Me either. Are you mad?”
He looked up at her face. “Hell no.” He smiled and kissed her. “In fact, if those two weren’t in the backyard, I would show you just how not mad I am.”
Piper kissed him again and put her hand on his thick erection. She squeezed him and said, “I don’t care if they’re out there. I want you inside me.”
Nate took her mouth again and walked her backward until her butt hit the couch. He broke the kiss and asked, “You sure?”
“Oh, yeah.”
He grinned and spun her around. “Bend over.”
She did, so he pulled down her pants to mid-thigh.
“God, I want to touch you, but that will have to wait until later.” He paused. “Shit, I don’t have a condom.”
“You don’t need one.”
“Oh, yeah.”
She heard his clothes rustle, and then, with one hard push, he was inside her.
She clutched the back of his neck. “Oh God, that feels so good.” She hadn’t had an orgasm in over three weeks. She was overdue.
Nate groaned and thrust into her. Because her pants kept her legs together, he felt even bigger inside her than normal. He hit her G-spot over and over again, and she knew she wasn’t going to last long. And she knew it was going to be messy.
With the last of her stable senses, she asked, “That pile of laundry in front of me, is it clean?”
“Yes.”
“Oh, thank God.” She let go of his neck and grabbed a towel. She shoved it between her legs just in time because she exploded. Everywhere. She dug her nails into the couch cushion and rode the wave of her climax.
Nate grabbed her hips and slammed into her a couple of more times. He held her ass to his pelvis.
“Damn, I can feel you throbbing around me. That must have been one hell of an orgasm.” He slowly pulled out of her.
She used the towel to clean herself up and turned around. “That’s what happens when you don’t orgasm for three weeks.”
“I suppose.”
She studied his face. “So, you’re telling me that you haven’t gone three weeks without coming?”
“Give me the towel. I’ll put it in the laundry.”
She handed it over.
“I’m a guy. Of course, I haven’t gone three weeks without coming,” he said like she was crazy.
He went to the basement where the washing machine was and came back a minute later.
“So, you’re telling me you jerked off?” she asked out of curiosity.
“Yep.” When he reached her, he cupped her cheeks. “If it helps, I thought of you every time.”
She grinned. “I suppose it does. Not that I would ever deny you self-gratification.”
Nate laughed. “Thanks. I think.” He moved down her body, kneeling in front of her, and put his ear to her belly. “I can’t believe our baby is in there.”
She ran her hand over his bald head. “Me either. Most days, I don’t feel like I am even pregnant.”
There was a rattle as someone tried to open the door.
“We’d better go back out there.” Nate unlocked and opened it. “We’re coming; we’re coming.”
Piper walked past him and said in a low voice, “Technically, we already did.”
Nate laughed at her lame joke.
The four of them sat around the table, and Piper slowly ate her soup. She didn’t want her stomach to rebel by eating too fast.
“Is everything okay between you two?” Elise asked.
“Yes. We made up,” Piper answered.
“Woohoo!”
“And, right before you got here, I told Nate he was going to be a father.”
Elise set her fork down. “Shut up.” She looked at Luke. “Can you believe it?”
Luke shoved some food in his mouth with his chopsticks. “Yep.”
Elise’s shoulders dropped. “You already knew, didn’t you?”
That caught Nate’s attention, and he looked at his friend.
“I can’t say anything,” Luke said.
Piper helped him out. “Yes, Luke knew. He was my doctor this morning, so it was kind of hard for him not to know.”
“I can’t believe you didn’t tell me.”
“Elise, you know I can’t. I could get fired. Or sued.”
“I wouldn’t have told anyone.”
Luke just looked at her.
“I wouldn’t have,” she insisted. “We did date for over a month
without anyone knowing, except Nate because you couldn’t keep a secret.”
Piper lightly smacked Elise in the arm. “That’s what I told Luke this morning.”
“Thanks for sticking up for me.”
Luke rolled his eyes. “Elise, when it comes to one-half of our livelihood, I’m not risking anything.” He nodded toward her abdomen. “That baby isn’t going to pay for itself.”
“Fine, you’re right,” she reluctantly agreed.
“I’m just glad Nate came over this morning. I don’t know if I would have made it to the ER on my own.” That reminded her. She looked at Nate. “Why did you come over this morning out of the blue?”
Nate swallowed a bite of food. “To talk to you. Luke and Ethan both sent me texts that you were going to move, and I panicked.”
Luke’s brows furrowed. “I didn’t text you.”
Nate looked at his friend. “Yeah, you did.”
Luke pulled up his phone while Piper noticed Elise was being very quiet. He started reading from the screen. “You need to go talk to Piper. Three exclamation points? She is planning to move. Four exclamation points?” He put the phone down and looked at his wife. “When have I ever used an excessive amount of exclamation points?”
Elise shrugged. “I don’t know how you two talk to each other.”
“If you had scrolled up and read a few messages, you would have known that guys don’t talk like that.”
Elise balked. “I can’t violate your privacy like that.”
Luke raised his brow. “Yet you can sneak into my phone and message Nate, pretending to be me.”
Elise raised her chin. “It was an emergency. They needed to get back together.”
Luke shook his head. “Elise, what am I going to do with you?”
Elise grinned. “Love me.”
Piper suddenly remembered something from the night before. “Is that why you and Kayla were whispering in the corner?” she asked Elise.
Elise shrugged. “I figured, if all of us had misunderstood your moving houses to moving away, then Nate would, too.”
“Sneaky,” Piper said with a grin.
“I thought so.”
“So, you weren’t planning to move away?” Nate asked.
Piper shook her head. “No. I was just thinking of selling the house.”
Nate looked crushed. “Why?”
“Because it reminded me too much of you.”
Nate smiled sweetly at her.
“Plus, my backyard is a mess.”
“Don’t worry, babe; I’ve got that handled.”
Piper carried two cups of coffee outside to where Nate was sitting in her finished backyard.
He’d been working overtime to get the project done, and with the help of his dad and some volunteers, they’d finished.
It was beautiful and more than she could have ever imagined. Last night, they’d had a deck-warming party instead of a housewarming party. It had been a great time, and they’d stayed up late, so she had been surprised to wake up in bed alone.
She found him sitting outside. He hadn’t even made coffee, and she had to wonder how long he’d been sitting out there.
She knew he’d had fun last night, yet something was off with him.
“Hey,” she said as she came up behind him.
He looked over his shoulder. “Oh. Hey.”
“Here.” She held out one of the mugs.
“Thank you,” he said as he took it from her and drank.
She sat next to him. “Whatcha doing out here?”
“Thinking, I guess.” Nate looked down at his hand, and Piper’s gaze followed.
Is that a…
“Is that a ring?”
He flipped the top open, and a beautiful solitaire diamond lay inside. “Yes.”
“Is that—is that for me?”
“Yes. I wanted to give it to you last night in front of everyone, but…”
“But what?” It was obvious something was bothering him.
“I need to tell you something first.”
Piper put a hand on Nate’s arm. “You know you can talk to me about anything.”
He smiled ruefully at her. “Thank you.”
“Now, tell me what is bothering you.”
Nate set the ring box on the arm of his chair and stared at it. “It’s my fault that Jordan died.”
“What? That’s ridiculous.”
He met her eyes. “It’s not ridiculous. It’s true. I was the reason that Jordan didn’t come home after work. It was my idea to go have a beer. I was the one who let him drive. If I had never asked him to go out after work, he would have been home, safe. With you.” He rubbed his hands against his jeans. He hadn’t realized they were so sweaty.
“What do you remember about the accident?”
What does she mean by that?
“We were driving home when we hit someone, knocking Jordan’s car into the middle of the intersection. That was when someone else hit us.” He still didn’t understand how the third car hadn’t seen the accident ahead and hadn’t slowed down before coming upon them.
“When did you learn all this?”
“When I was in the hospital. Although, to be honest, I don’t remember much about the conversation. I was on pain meds, and I had a concussion.”
“And no one talked to you about it later?”
“No. I think everyone was afraid to bring it up much.” He looked at Piper. “How are you not mad at me?”
She cupped his cheek. “Oh, Nate. You are too hard on yourself.”
“I don’t know about that.”
“Well, as someone who loves you, I do.”
He smiled at her despite everything they were talking about.
She dropped her hand and took a sip of her coffee. She was allowed only one a day, and she made sure to get the cup every day.
“How often do you think you and Jordan went for drinks after work?”
He shrugged. He honestly didn’t know the number.
“At least several times a month. There was nothing special about that day. You didn’t force Jordan to do anything he didn’t want to do. He was a big boy. He could have told you no. He wanted to go with you that day. And Jordan was responsible for his own drinking. You were not his father.”
Her words made him feel a little better.
“Also, you have been misinformed about the accident, and I feel bad that we never talked about it. I suppose it was a topic that made us both uncomfortable.”
“Misinformed?”
“The accident was not your fault. The accident was not Jordan’s fault. The person who hit you was a guy who was speeding and trying to get away from his girlfriend. The second person who hit you was the girlfriend.”
“How did I not know this?”
Piper tilted her head. “You knew she got sentenced with reckless driving, right?”
Nate nodded. “Yeah, I was kept updated about that. I knew she was charged and sentenced in court. But no one ever talked about the specifics of the case with me.”
“It’s probably because they already knew.”
“Although hearing the boyfriend died makes much more sense now. I always thought he was in the car with her.” He shook his head. “I feel so stupid.”
Piper grabbed his hand. “Hey, no, don’t feel stupid. You were in a major accident. You were injured. It’s not your fault that you don’t remember everything.”
“I feel like I’ve been in the dark for so long.” He looked at Piper. “What about Jordan? He had a few beers.”
She shook her head and smiled. “He was under the legal limit. He did nothing illegal. It was simply the wrong place, wrong time sort of thing.”
He squeezed her hand. “I’ll probably always feel a little responsible, you know.”
“I know, baby. But that’s why we need each other. To keep each other’s guilt at bay.”
“That, and because we love each other.”
“Definitely because we love each other.” S
he grinned. “So, does that mean I get the ring now?”
Nate laughed. “Nope. We have to wait for the next big party.”
Her mouth dropped open. “But we don’t have any parties.” She narrowed her eyes. “You’re just messing with me.”
“Of course I am.” Nate slid off his chair and got down on one knee. He grabbed the ring box and flipped it open to face her. “Piper Donovan Stevens, will you do me the honor of marrying me?”
She threw her arms around his neck. “Yes.”
Several Years Later
Piper stared at the stick in her hand and sighed. She looked up to the ceiling and said, “Okay, Jordan, you can stop sending signs. We get it already.”
She walked out of the master bathroom, paused to pick up baby Luka from his bassinet, and went into the kitchen.
Nate was leaning over with an elbow on the counter, trying to convince their one-and-a-half-year-old to eat her vegetables. “Come on, Soph. Please eat for Daddy.”
Sophia laughed and shook her head.
Nate glanced up at Piper and straightened. “What’s wrong?” He could read her face too well.
She was about to tell him when she heard what sounded like a cat dying from the living room. Not again.
She quickly gave Nate the baby and the stick and marched into the living room.
“Wyatt Jordan, how many times has Mommy told you not to climb on the kitty like that?” She leaned over and pried the three-year-old’s thirty-five-pound body off the cat. “Fred doesn’t like it when you smother him.”
“But, Mommy, I love the kitty cat.” Wyatt stuck out his lower lip.
“I know, honey. You just have to love the kitty gently.”
Fred walked behind Wyatt and gave Piper the stink eye.
Piper pointed a finger at him. “You’re the one who’s always begging for love. Don’t look at me because it’s not exactly what you wanted. Be careful what you wish for, Fred.”
Fred turned his back on her and walked out of the room, and Wyatt’s crystal-blue eyes lit up as he ran after the cat.
Nasty (Naughty #2) Page 23
