Page 41

PATRICK

The moment I got her text, I sighed in relief. I hadn’t actually expected Piper to jump on a plane and run in to rescue me, but now that she had, I was brimming with excitement. She was coming to town to save the day, and hopefully, I’d get laid.

There was just one problem. I couldn’t get myself to the airport. I’d have to rely on Chase for that.

Need a ride to the airport.

Going somewhere?

Piper is on her way.

She’s not bringing her fiancé, is she?

She’s rescuing me. It’s a long story.

Not hard to figure out. You cried about Mommy, and she’s coming to save the day. End of story.

Just get your ass over here.

“Mom! I’m running to the airport to pick up a friend!” I called out, grabbing my crutches and hobbling toward the door. I thought that would be enough to get her off my back, but I should have known better. She walked out of her room, rollers still in her hair.

“What friend?”

“A lady friend.”

Her eyes lit with excitement. This was exactly what I wanted. “A lady friend. Well, I’d better come with.”

I remembered her text about being drunk and quickly shut that down. “She’s not a great flier.”

“Oh, nonsense. I don’t care about that.”

“Mom, I’d really like to meet her on my own. I haven’t seen this woman in weeks.”

If anything, that only made things worse for me. “Weeks is nothing. When I met your father, he was in the military. My father wouldn’t let me see him without a chaperone. I was lucky if I saw him alone for ten minutes before the wedding!”

“There is no wedding!” Panic hit hard at her words. She didn’t really think I was going to get married to this woman, did she? Crap, that was not my intention. I just thought I’d brush the whole thing off and get my mother to back down.

“Patrick, I’m not saying you have to marry this woman, but if she’s flying out here when she knows your mother is visiting, she must be pretty special. I just want to be there to welcome her.”

My heart pounded in my chest as I thought of all the ways this could go wrong. My mother was not supposed to be there with me when I met Piper. I thought I’d have at least a little time with her to myself to explain the situation.

“She’s shy!” I shouted, taking my mom by surprise. “I just think it would be easier for her if she just met me at the airport. She knows she’s meeting you, but maybe it would be better if it was just one person at a time.”

That seemed to finally get through to my mother. “Oh, well, that’s perfectly understandable. While you pick her up, I’ll get dinner going for tonight. I’ll make something really special.”

“Perfect. And if you need anything, just give Nick a call. He can drive you to the store. His number is on the fridge.”

“I’ll do that.” I gave her a peck on the cheek and then I was out the door, heading to Chase’s vehicle.

“What the fuck took you so long?”

I shoved the crutches in the back and slid into the passenger seat. “You’ve been waiting a whole two minutes.”

“Two minutes where I was bored out of my mind. I almost thought I was gonna have to go in there and talk to your mom.”

“Hey, there’s nothing wrong with my mom,” I scowled.

“I know that, but that doesn’t mean I want to get dragged into another conversation where she tells me I should be having kids and taking them to Sunday school.”

She had done that to a few of the guys. “She tried to come along. I had to get her to stay back.”

“How’d you do that?” he snorted.

“I told her Piper was shy.”

“Ha! Fat chance getting Piper to be timid around your mother.”

“All I have to do is tell her to be shy at first. Her true personality can come out once my mom’s warmed up to her.”

“Yeah, like that’ll ever happen.”

“Thanks for the vote of confidence.”

“So, are you excited to see her again?”

That felt like a very leading question—one that he would never ask. “Why?”

He shrugged, glancing out the window. “Just wondering. You’ve been talking to her.”

That was true. “I guess. I mean, she’s saving my ass. My mom already thinks Piper’s the one just because she’s flying out here.”

He nodded. “So, uh…what about that boyfriend?”

“Who? The fiancé?”

“Yeah, him.”

“You already know this. They’re broken up.”

“I know, but…”

“But what?”

“All I’m saying is…maybe she’s still hung up on him.”

Hung up on him? “What the fuck are you talking about? We already discussed all this. I told you what happened.”

“Right, but sometimes…” He winced slightly, shaking his head. “Sometimes women have feelings for men that are…running deeper than…they knew. And maybe she’s not…really over the fiancé.”

“Trust me?—”

“Maybe she just thinks she’s over him, but really…she’s just being strong. For you.”

I swiveled in my seat, trying to figure out what the fuck he was getting at. Not only did we never talk about shit like this, but I personally made it a point to never delve into their relationships so they wouldn’t do the same to me.

“Is there some reason you’re saying all this shit?”

He winced again, rubbing his ear.

His fucking ear.

I lunged at him, wrapping my arm around his head as my fingers slipped into his ear and yanked at the earbud inside.

“Ow! Dude, get the fuck off me!”

“A fucking earbud? Who the hell is on the other end of this thing?”

“Mercy,” he grumbled. “Geez, it was her idea! She just wanted to know what was going on with you and Piper!”

“You’re spying on me? What happened to the bro code?”

“It went out the window the moment I took vows. I swear to God, you have never seen a woman on a mission until you’re married.”

I flung the thing at him, satisfied when it bounced off his face. “I can’t fucking believe you. You’re supposed to be on my side!”

“You’re not the one who gives me head. And by the way, that’s all I’ll be doing for the foreseeable future, thanks to your mom’s little talk.”

“Hey, it’s not like I can control her. I’m in this shit just as deep.”

“You’re a fucking coward, is what you are. That’s why your ex-lover is coming out to save your ass. Because you’re too much of a pussy to do what needs to be done.”

“Have you ever tried arguing with a woman like my mother? It gets you nowhere and then the tears come out and the memories of my dad. You have no fucking clue what it’s like.”

“Because my mom isn’t like that?”

“Because your mom isn’t Debra Cook. I’m telling you, if you thought it was bad when she forced you to go to church, you haven’t seen anything yet.”

He scoffed at me, but dropped the subject.

We drove the rest of the way to the airport in complete silence, but my mind was on Piper the whole time.

I was excited to see her, and I didn’t want to examine too closely why that was.

I never got excited about women. Sure, I liked them, but that was it.

Maybe this whole idea was bad. What had I done by inviting her out here?

Would she get ideas? Think that I wanted to start a relationship with her?

“You’re awfully quiet over there,” Chase noted as we got closer to the airport.

“I think I made a mistake.”

“With what?”

“Telling Piper about my mom being out here.”

“Okay…This is kind of the wrong time to decide that. We’re ten minutes from the airport, and she’s already on that flight.”

“I know!” I snapped, angry with myself for writing to her.

“Whoa, what caused the sudden change of heart?”

I groaned, rubbing my forehead. “Piper’s cool. You saw that, but…why the fuck did I tell her about my mom?”

“I have no fucking clue. This isn’t one of those times where I understand a fucking thing you do.”

“I didn’t even think about the fact that she might jump on that plane and come rescue me.”

“Wait, I thought you wanted that.”

I turned to him and scowled. “My mom is here.”

He widened his eyes at me. “Yeah, I’ve met her.”

“My mom is here and wants to hook me up with a woman.”

He sighed, already pissed at me. I knew this was going the long way about getting to the point, but I was hoping he would see the bigger picture. “These are already things we know. If there’s a point to any of this?—”

“I knew that and I still wrote the damn letter. She readily jumped on a plane and came out here. It’s all working out so fucking well!”

“So, what’s the problem?”

“It’s all working out so fucking well. I set a trap that would lure my mom into a state of comfort. She would spend time with Piper and fall in love with her. Then she’d get off my back and leave me the fuck alone.”

“Right,” he said slowly.

“Except, I didn’t account for the fact that Piper might very well fall for the trap as well!”

“Oh,” he frowned. “Shit.”

“Exactly. Right now, this is all fun and games, but when she starts playing house and talking to my mom?—”

“Things could go sideways fast,” he finished.

“What the fuck am I going to do now?”

He turned down the road to the airport and glanced over at me.

“Well, you’re going to pick her up and reiterate that this is all for show.

You’re going to tell her you never want to get married, but this is to appease your mother.

And then you’re going to thank her for being so understanding about that, reaffirming that you don’t want to get married, while also letting her think that you’re not worried about any of this.

That way, it doesn’t look like you’re freaking the fuck out. ”

“Everything’s normal,” I murmured, getting on board with his plan.

“Right. You just pretend like you’ve already had this conversation a million times and you’re just talking it out.”

“I have had this conversation with her a lot.”

“Which means it won’t be weird when you tell her again.”

I nodded in agreement and blew out a harsh breath as we pulled up to the pickup lane. I was actually feeling really light about the whole thing now. This was gonna be good.

And then I saw Piper leaning heavily on some guy’s arm, draped all over him like he was her fucking boyfriend.

“What the fuck,” I snapped, flinging open the door.

I was just grabbing my crutches when I heard Chase groan. “Here we go.”