by Ali Parker
Piper stared up at them as we passed under one particularly large tree with a wide canopy. The leaves that had already fallen crunched beneath the soles of our shoes. “It reminds me of home here. The trees. The air. It’s nice. And my favorite time of year.”
“Mine too.”
Piper crammed her hands into the pockets of her jacket.
“You’re sure you’re not too cold?” I asked.
She shook her head. “No, I’m good. I like the cold.”
“There’s a coffee stand around the bend here. We could grab mochas.”
“Lead the way.”
Piper and I stopped at the pop-up coffee stand run by a couple in their fifties. They used to own their own storefront about three blocks away from the park, where they served specialty coffee along with teas and spices shipped from their family in Italy. But as the economy began to shift, they had to make some changes to keep their business alive. They sold their shop and moved to this little pop-up stand that they pulled behind their old Ford Ranger.
It was like a food truck, minus the truck.
The stand was fashioned like an old red barn with white trim and a sign mounted above the sliding barn door where you placed your order that read Mick and Mary’s Coffee Stand. Neither of them seemed to look at their situation in a negative light, however. They loved their little pop-up stand.
I ordered Piper and me each a mocha from Mick, who smiled graciously as I tucked a five-dollar bill in their tip jar.
“Appreciate that,” Mick said, tipping his head to me.
“Good coffee and service deserves a tip. Besides, I don’t want you two wandering off and starting a shop somewhere else. I want you close to home.”
Mary, who was busy steaming milk, shot me a smile and shook her short curly hair out of her eyes. “We’d never dream of leaving this little spot. It’s perfect. Except for the holidays. You know we have to move around a lot.”
“Of course, of course.” I waved her off.
“Who’s your friend?” Mary asked.
I pulled Piper up beside me. “This is Piper. Piper, this is Mary and her husband Mick. I’ve been buying coffee from them since I started at Harvard.”
Mick beamed. “Smartest customer we’ve got.”
“And the cutest.” Mary winked.
Piper giggled. “Don’t flatter him. His ego is already big enough.”
Mary clicked her tongue. “Oh, I like her. Watch yourself, Christian.”
Piper laughed, and I draped an arm over her shoulders, tugging her playfully into my side. “I’ll keep a close eye on her, Mary. Don’t you worry.”
Piper and I collected our coffees when they were done, popped the lids on, and waved goodbye to the couple. I could feel their eyes on our backs as we walked away, following the winding path through the park back in the direction where we’d come.
Piper was looking at me, too. I could feel the heat of her gaze.
“Yes?” I asked without looking down at her.
She looked away. “Nothing.”
I shot her a sideways look.
Piper smiled bashfully. “Did you take me to see them on purpose?”
“Whatever do you mean?”
“I mean,” she said, stressing the words, “did you bring me to them to show me that shifting gears and making a change to make a family business work isn’t necessarily a bad thing?”
“Is that what you thought that was about?” I asked, making wide, innocent eyes at her. “That was a coincidence. I swear it. I just like their coffee.”
“Uh huh.”
I smiled as I lifted my cup to my lips.
Piper sighed. “Regardless of your intention, I appreciate it.”
I shrugged. “Not everything has to be the way people think it does. Maybe when this is all said and done, your father will have a fresh perspective. Maybe he’ll find a way to continue his legacy without letting it become a financial burden. Do you think?”
“Maybe.”
“That didn’t sound very optimistic.”
She shrugged. “I’ve learned not to get my hopes up too high where the restaurant is concerned. But I know what you’re saying about there being other paths to pursue. It’s a good suggestion. Even though it’s coming from a guy who clearly followed a very clear-cut path to have a career as a professor at Harvard.”
“Are you taking a jab at me?”
Piper’s eyes twinkled mischievously. “I don’t know, am I?”
Grinning, I asked, “What makes you think my path was clear cut?”
“Oh, you know, the classic beautiful home, the family unit, your job, all of it.” She gestured at me up and down. “You can’t tell me this isn’t clear cut.”
I nodded. “Fair. But even though my parents helped me get into this field, it wasn’t easily won. This isn’t what they wanted for me, you know?”
She arched an eyebrow at me. “You mean they had grander plans for you, other than becoming a Harvard professor of archaeology?”
“Yes,” I said simply.
She stopped walking. “Shut up.”
I laughed. “I’m serious.”
“What on earth could they have possibly wanted instead? This is every parents’ dream.”
“Yes, well, not mine. They wanted me to pursue a career in law.”
“Law?” she asked sharply. “That’s so not—”
“My style? Yeah. Tell me about it.”
She frowned over the lid of her coffee as she processed this. “So, why law?”
“Family business.”
“Right. Of course.” Piper sounded bitter as she shook her head in disbelief.
“From their side of things, I always understood where they were coming from,” I said. “My father was a self-made man, you see. He started from nothing. He grew up in a really financially challenged family with four siblings and an alcoholic father who spent most of their money on beer and strippers.”
“That’s horrible.”
“Yeah. But my old man made something of himself from nothing. He worked hard in school and earned scholarships. He kept going through college, studying law until he got into Harvard. Everyone doubted him. His family included. They weren’t there when he graduated, but my mother was. A fellow law student at that.”
“Ah,” Piper said knowingly. “So they were both lawyers?”
“Yep. And it was established when I was a boy that I would follow that path and join the family practice. My life’s road map had been colored in before I could walk. So, when I started expressing at the end of high school that law wasn’t really what I saw myself doing, they cracked down harder on me. I caved under the pressure and followed through.”
“Then what happened?” Piper asked, her eyes flicking back and forth between mine. Our pace had slowed dramatically as we became immersed in the conversation.
“I dropped out after my first year of law school.”
She gasped. “No. They must have been furious.”
“Livid. They shunned me from the family for a long time. Over a year. I wasn’t allowed at the house. I wasn’t invited to any family events. It was like I’d never existed to them. It was the hardest year of my life.”
She touched my arm. “Christian, I’m so sorry. That’s horrible.”
“It was,” I agreed. “But every season has an end. And eventually, they came around.”
“When?”
“When they realized that success didn’t look the same to me as it did to them. And when they saw that the path I wanted for myself was just as worthy as the one they’d always dreamed I’d follow. It took a long time. And there were days where I didn’t think they would ever forgive me. Those were the worst ones.”
I stared down at the cracked pavement beneath our feet as we walked, and I recalled that year. It had been the longest year of my life, full of uncertainty and self-doubt and regret. I lifted my chin.
“But they came around in the end. And they helped me open doors at the university I wasn’
t capable of opening myself. Sure, it sucked that it took so long for them to prioritize my happiness over theirs, but I still have them in my life, and I have the career of my dreams. I think it helped our relationship that they retired in Florida. Distance makes the heart grow fonder, right? And you remember the good things about people when they’re farther away.
Piper stopped walking, and I slowed to look back at her. She tucked a strand of hair behind her ear. “You’re a rare breed, Christian.”
“No,” I said, going back to her. “I just followed my heart. And I’ve trusted its judgment ever since.”
I reached out and grabbed her by the jacket to pull her close to me. She let out a surprised gasp, but I silenced her with a deep, slow kiss beneath the changing autumn leaves. She smiled against my lips and stretched to the tips of her toes as my tongue slipped between her teeth.
Yes. This heart of mine had never led me astray.
Chapter 17
Piper
I let out a small sigh as I twirled a strand of hair between my fingers.
Christian was at the front of his class, hosting yet another fascinating lecture, and I’d become as engrossed in him as his other female students. Like me, they were more intent on watching the way he moved as he paced the front of the auditorium than paying attention to the lecture itself.
His jeans fit him perfectly. There was something about a man in a pair of jeans with legs as long as his that set my teeth on edge with desire. There was a swelling sensation of pressure below my belly, a very familiar one, and I willed it away as Christian called on a young woman in the front row to answer whatever question it was he’d just posed to the class.
Something about Site A7 on the image of The Valley of the Kings.
As she answered, I watched him. I’d been watching him for days, imprinting every movement, every crooked smile, every eye wrinkle into my memory for later, for darker days when I needed something bright to reflect on.
He was wearing his boots, as per usual, and his checkered blue and white shirt was tucked into his worn brown leather belt. He wore no tie like a lot of the other professors I saw wandering the university hallways. He left the top button of his shirt undone for a more relaxed look. That paired with his vest was panty-dropping.
Damn him.
Did he have a clue what he was doing to the poor girls in his classes?
Maybe. A man like him might get a kick out of the whole thing. Then again, he had more respect for education than that. Or that was what he wanted me to think.
He slid his hands into his pockets and rocked back on his heels as he considered the student’s answer. His eyes slid to me, where I sat in the third row. I no longer liked to hang out at the back. I wanted to be close enough to see him perfectly, to analyze his eyes and see what he was thinking.
To be seen by him.
I didn’t know when it happened, but at some point over this month, he’d wrapped me around his finger, and I was there to stay. Like a loyal little lap dog.
At least until the end of the month. Then this little romance of ours would be left behind, and I would close the door on it at the end of December.
I looked down at the desk in front of me. Little marks had been carved along the edge by whoever had sat there and endured endless hours of boredom so thick and real, they’d gouged little slices into the wood. With a key perhaps. I ran my fingers over the edge.
Then Christian clapped his hands together at the front of the room. I nearly jumped out of my skin.
“All right,” he announced. “That’s it for today. Clear out. Go on. Go on. Have a good weekend, everyone.”
The room erupted in conversation as everyone got to their feet, collected their stuff, and began making their way down the stairs to the door. They filed out one by one, some of them hanging back to say goodbye to Christian—most of whom were young women—until the only people left in the room were me and him.
I reached down to pick up my purse from the floor.
Then someone else entered the room. It was the coppery-haired woman from the bar. She stood in the doorway, framed in light from the hall at her back, and leaned against the frame with her arms crossed beneath her breasts.
“Hey you,” she said.
Christian was at his desk, packing up his own bag, and he looked up and saw her. “Hey, Heather. What’s up?”
She pushed off the doorframe and walked languidly into the room. Each sway of her hips seemed to become more and more deliberate, creating long sweeping lines of her body, an adventure for the eyes.
Christian, bless his soul, never broke eye contact with her.
She stopped a few feet away from him in front of his desk and pressed the tips of her fingers to it. She traced a slow circle there before looking up at him. “Nothing is up. I just wanted to pop in and say hello. We missed you earlier this week. Is everything all right?”
“Yeah,” he said, shrugging. “I had some personal things to attend to.”
Her perfectly plucked eyebrows arched. “Personal things? Is everything all right?”
He nodded. “Yes. Otherwise, I wouldn’t be here.”
She smiled graciously. “Of course.”
He was smooth. If he knew she was flirting with him, he was doing an admirable job of shutting her down.
Heather shifted her weight to her other foot, popped her hip out, and rested one hand upon it. I had to give her credit where credit was due. She was a very attractive woman.
“I’ve been talking with some of the others,” she said, “and we were thinking it might be nice to have a dinner party. You know, go someplace where it’s just us Harvard nerds? No strangers. No distractions. No need for—”
“Are you implying I should host a dinner party, Heather?” Christian asked skeptically.
She smiled and nodded, taking a step toward him. “That’s a brilliant idea.”
“It was your idea.”
“Was it?” She pursed her lips and pressed a finger to her chin. “I don’t think it was. I think that was all you. And why not? You have the space to accommodate all of us, don’t you?”
“Sure, but—”
“And you can’t deny it would be a good time. All of us in one place. Good food. Wine. And there’d be no need to call it early when the bar closes. We could stay as late as we wanted.”
Wow. She was shameless. It might have gone over Christian’s head, but it hadn’t gone over mine. She was implying she could spend the night.
I actually admired her lady balls.
Christian took his leather jacket from the back of his chair and draped it over his left forearm. “Sorry, Heather. I’ve got company for the month.” He nodded toward me sitting in the auditorium.
As if on cue, I got to my feet and adjusted my purse on my shoulder. I waggled my fingers at Heather. “Hi.”
“Oh, Piper,” she said, her smile as artificial as her long nails. “I didn’t see you there.”
I moved down the stairs and joined them near Christian’s desk. “That’s all right. It’s nice to see you again.”
“You too,” she said too quickly. Then she ran her hands down her thighs and turned back toward Christian. “Well, I have to run along. Think about it. It could be fun.”
He watched her leave and was the first to speak once she rounded the corner. “Well, that was awkward.”
I laughed. “Really? I didn’t notice.”
He raked his fingers through his hair. “I’m glad you were here. Heather has been barking up my tree ever since I started teaching here. She’s a nice person, and we were friends—are still friends, I guess. But it messes things up when one person wants more, you know?”
“Must be those baby blues of yours,” I said.
He chuckled and shook his head at me. “Stop it.”
“Or the Indiana Jones vibes.”
He laughed louder. “I still don’t get what you’re talking about with the Indiana Jones thing.”
“Really? The boots. The vest.
The old shit all over the place.” I pointed up at the picture of The Valley of the Kings above our heads. “You’re like a real-life version of him. And I can confirm what all the girls are wondering.” I stepped in close and grabbed the front of his vest.
He gazed down at me, a smile lingering on his lips. “And what’s that?”
“That you’re just as yummy out of your teaching clothes as you are in them.”
Christian ran a thumb along my jaw. “Don’t tempt me to break rules, Piper. Keep talking like that, and I just might bend you over this desk right now and teach you a real lesson.”
The pressure below my belly doubled. “You could always become a lawyer.”
He cupped my neck and pulled me close for a deep kiss. He groaned softly into my mouth, and I succumbed to his hand roaming up my side. When he broke the kiss, he pressed his forehead to mine and took a few deep breaths. “If I go further than this, I won’t have the will to stop.”
I released his vest and smoothed it out with my palms. My voice shook when I spoke. “Me neither.”
“Tease.”
Giggling, I stepped away. “So you’re not interested in hosting a dinner party for your coworkers?”
He shrugged. “Not particularly. It always sounded like a lot more work than it was worth.”
“But you have me to help you.”
He arched an eyebrow. “You want to throw a dinner party?”
“It could be fun,” I mused. “We could play host together.”
“Oh yeah?” He stepped in close again and put his hands on my hips. “We could fill up appetizer platters and fill people’s wine glasses all evening?”
“Yeah. What’s so bad about that?”
“I’d rather be filling you up all evening, not their stupid wine glasses,” he growled.
“Christian.” I laughed, pushing at his chest.
“What? You started it. You’re too sexy to tease me like that. Now I need to get you home. And get you in bed. On your knees. Where you belong.”
My cheeks burned.
He chuckled deeply. It vibrated through his chest under my palms. “It seems like someone else might want the same thing.”
