Page 53

PATRICK

I stood at the top of the stairs and listened as Piper told my mom she was going. Part of me itched to run down there, to stop her from leaving me. Yes, we had started as friends with benefits, but now I couldn’t imagine my life without her in it.

And she was walking away.

“Thank you so much, Debra. I really did enjoy every second with you.”

My eyes slid closed at her words. She enjoyed her time with my mom.

Not with me. No, she only spent her hours with me in bed, using me for sex.

Meanwhile, I had trouble not running to her every chance I got and sliding my hands over every inch of her body, desperate just to touch her skin to tell myself she was real and I could convince her to stay with me.

No, it hadn’t been like that from the start, but deep down, I always knew this was more than fucking.

Something about her called to me, drawing me to her every chance I got.

And it was fucking obvious to me in every way, from how she chose to decorate my house to the way she handled my mother.

And at night, when she would wrap her body around mine, my heart slowed and the day just slipped away as if it meant nothing now that she was in my arms.

How could that mean nothing?

I heard the snick of the door and grabbed my crutches, hobbling down the stairs. My mother’s gaze slowly drifted to mine and a sad smile touched her lips.

“Piper’s gone.”

I nodded and headed over to the coffee pot. “I heard.”

“Why didn’t you come downstairs?”

“Why didn’t you ask her to wait?” I snapped, knowing this wasn’t her fault.

“Honey—”

“It’s fine,” I cut her off. “It’s not like it would have worked anyway. She has her life and I have mine. She never would have liked it here with the gigantic spiders,” I said scathingly.

I took a sip of my coffee and tried not to let the anger wash over me, but it was fucking hard.

I’d never, not once, considered that I might actually want to be in a relationship.

Never. Until her. Until she swooped into my life and saved me from a bear.

Until she stayed by my side when I was burning up with a fever from the infection, and she refused to leave.

Not even to get help. And then she wrote me those fucking letters, those cute, fucking adorable letters that wormed their way into my heart.

She got on a plane and flew out here for me.

All to save me from my mother. She did that for me, and then she just walked out the door without a goodbye.

“Honey…”

I turned to my mom and saw the smile on her face, confused when she slid her hand over my cheek. “You love her.”

“What?”

“You love her, sweetie. Fight for her.”

“She doesn’t want me to fight for her.”

“Are you kidding?” She laughed, shaking her head at me. “She’s scared. Yesterday really scared her.”

I rolled my eyes. “The fucking spider? It was just a?—”

“It wasn’t the spider,” Mom groaned. “Patti, honestly, you can be so dense sometimes. She was terrified. You ran out of here and we got a notification to go on lockdown. Don’t you understand? All of this—she’s scared of loving you when you might not come home.”

My jaw dropped at her words, but they couldn’t be right. “No, she…she’s not scared of anything. We slept outside with bugs crawling all over us and?—”

“And she wasn’t scared of spiders then, was she?”

Realization dawned on me at her words. “This makes so much more sense,” I murmured.

“Well, it took you long enough to realize you weren’t fighting over a spider,” she sighed.

I shoved a hand through my hair, completely baffled as to how I missed that. “She isn’t leaving because of the sheets.”

“No, honey. She’s not.”

I chuckled, remembering the way she got all riled up. She was so fucking cute.

“She left you this.”

She held a brown package out to me, and I took it, tearing at the wrappings. The moment I saw the book in the picture frame, I started laughing.

“She wanted to give you this the day we decorated, but it didn’t arrive in time.”

“ I Survived The Attack Of The Grizzlies. That’s so Piper.”

“Patti?”

“Yeah?” I said, still smiling down at the picture.

“Are you going to stand here or are you going to get her back?”

“Get her back,” I said without a second thought. I grasped Mom and pulled her into my arms for a hug. “Thank you.”

She chuckled, patting my back. “Go get her. I still want grandkids.”

I went as fast as I could on crutches, but it wasn’t enough. I needed someone to drive me and some fucking idea of where she was. I pulled out my phone to dial Dash, waving down Edu as he drove to work.

“Hey!” I shouted, letting out a loud whistle.

He pulled over just as Dash picked up. I tossed my crutches in the back. “Dash, I need to find Piper!”

“Isn’t she with you?”

“If she was with me, I wouldn’t be asking!” I snapped, hauling my ass into the passenger seat.

“Sure, get in. I have nothing better to do,” Edu muttered.

“Alright, alright,” Dash grumbled. “I’m pulling up the footage. Uh…it looks like she got in Chase’s truck.”

“What?”

“Yep, had a bag in her hand. Dude, what the fuck did you do to make her flee on foot?”

“We got into an argument over a spider. Where is she going?”

“Over a spider? Who fights over a spider?” Dash asked.

I put it on speakerphone and hooked into the truck’s GPS while he yammered on. “It wasn’t about the spider. It was about me being in security.”

“But you just said it was about the spider,” Edu pointed out.

“Forget about the fucking spider!” I snapped. “Get me some damn coordinates.”

We headed for the gate, but before we could leave, Scottie flagged us down, cursing as he kicked at the flat tire on his truck. Edu pulled over like the idiot he was.

“No! What are you doing? We have to catch her!”

“So, you want me to leave him on the side of the road?” Edu asked as Scottie opened the door.

“A flat tire is not an emergency,” I snapped.

“I beg to differ,” Scottie grumbled. “I was on the way to the grocery store to get food for when Quinn gets in tonight.”

“Nobody gives a shit!” I yelled. “Piper is leaving and I have to stop her!”

Scottie pushed between the seats and grinned at me as Edu peeled out of the drive onto the road. “Dude, you’re finally building a fire? That’s fucking awesome!”

“I’m not building a fire. There’s no fucking fire, only a wildfire that’s burning down the fucking forest.”

“Alright, it looks like they’re headed to the airport,” Dash said, crunching on something over the line. “I can’t believe she’s getting on a plane to escape you after what you two went through. She must really want to leave.”

“Not fucking helping,” I snapped at him.

“What you really need is some good music,” Scottie said, shoving to the front as he pressed buttons on the screen. “Where’s the good music? Edu, did you seriously get rid of the 80s channel?”

“There will be no fucking 80s music in this truck ever.”

“Come on,” Scottie said, trying to find a station as Edu slapped his hands.

“Just get me to the fucking airport!”

“I would if he would stop playing with the music.”

A song blared through the speakers and I groaned. “This is not a helpful song.”

“‘She’s Gone’. Hall and Oates . Beautiful,” Scottie grinned. “I’d say it’s perfect.

“Yeah, fucking perfect,” Edu grumbled. “Let’s remind him that the love of his life is gone.”

“Not the love of my life. Well, maybe. Fuck, I don’t know.”

“You don’t know?” Scottie snorted. “Dude. Either you know or you don’t. Which is it?”

“She is! Fuck, yes, she’s the love of my life!”

“Congrats, man,” Edu grinned, flipping the station. “We definitely can’t listen to this shit. No 80s music in here.”

“It’s not 80s. That was 1973, and it was an excellent fucking group.”

“Not in this truck,” he said, searching for a song.

“We don’t need fucking music!” I said, my head pounding as stress hit me hard. I needed to get her back. Hell, I’d get on a plane and follow her across the United States if it meant keeping her.

“Yes!” Scottie shouted as Edu took a hard right and roared onto the interstate, pressing the pedal down.

“What the fuck is this?” Edu shouted.

“Good music!”

I couldn’t even pick it out. I had no fucking idea what it was. “What is this shit?”

“‘What The World Needs Now Is Love’,” Scottie grinned.

“This is what you want to listen to while we chase down the love of his life?” Edu snapped.

“It’s the perfect song!” Scottie laughed. “Remember in My Best Friend’s Wedding ?”

“No!” I shouted. “I don’t have a vagina!”

We hit a bump on the bridge, and the truck hit the air for all of two seconds. I gripped the dash, holding on for dear life as Edu pressed harder. “We’re gonna make it!”

“You’re gonna make it,” Scottie grinned, clasping my shoulder.

“Not with this fucking song!”

“Don’t you dare change that station,” Scottie snapped. “This is during the car chase. Jules is chasing what’s his face and she jumps out of the bread truck at the station to catch him!”

I thought back to the movie that I’d seen only once. “Wait, she doesn’t get him in the end.”

“Well, no but?—”

“Fuck that,” Edu snapped, flipping the station. “That’s just bad fucking juju.”

“The song doesn’t matter!” I shouted, but Edu kept fiddling with the radio, nearly crashing us into another vehicle as he searched for the perfect song.

“I think you should listen to I Don’t Want To Miss A Thing, ” Dash said as he continued to chew on something. “Fucking brilliant song.”

“From a movie about the end of the world,” Scottie snorted.

The radio screeched as Ain’t No Mountain High Enough came on. “Now this is what I’m talking about!” Edu laughed.

“Fucking yes!” Scottie grinned, giving him a high five. “Yes, so fucking perfect!”

“ Bridget Jones !” Edu laughed.

“Right? Running in the snow to Mark Darcy. Fucking brilliant!”

I could only stare at them as they bonded over the movie and the song.

“And then she kisses him and everything’s fucking perfect!”

“Well, for the next two movies. We’ll see what happens,” Edu chuckled.