Page 6

Richard Charles Kappers the Third pulled up to the curb in his overly huge, flashy black truck.

I watched him hop out and round the front, dressed in hodgepodge mix of athletic and street clothes—joggers, unlaced boots, a white hoodie, a black peacoat, and an old baseball hat, making his dark, longish hair splay out in that typical way all hockey guys wore their hair.

As soon as his eyes landed on me, he grinned at me with his stupidly perfect smile, making a jolt of heat hit me right in the chest, and I hated it. I hated that he still affected me.

“Hey.” Sticking his tongue out the side of his mouth, he searched around me. “So, where’re your bags?”

Annoyance sparked to life inside of me. “Ha fucking ha,” I sulked, crossing my arms over my chest. “Real funny.”

His face cracked in confusion. “Come again?”

Glaring up at him, I realized he was actually genuinely confused. “Thought you were making fun of me,” I grumbled, pulling my hat lower.

He rubbed his jaw to hide a chuckle. “Not this time. I’m kinda clueless right now.”

Just right now? The quip was on the tip of my tongue, but I swallowed it down. He was the only one here to help me, after all .

His eyebrows tugged together. Before I could react, he reached forward and lifted the brim of my hat. “Is this Piper Wyndell-Hamilton?”

Rolling my eyes, I batted his hand away.

“I just gave you the perfect opportunity to insult my intelligence and you didn’t take it. I’m confused,” he said with an amused grin.

I just shrugged. This was definitely the part I was supposed to thank him for coming to get me, but something in me just would not let me say it. “My bags are probably somewhere in Chicago by now,” I muttered instead.

His dark eyebrows flew up. “Oh shit.” One hand went to his jaw, the other to his hip—his thinking stance. “Okay, we’ll have JP pick ‘em up. C’mere.”

“Huh?”

Before I could grasp what was happening, he pulled me into a big bear hug, smushing my cheek against his scratchy peacoat material.

His usual bonfire plus clean laundry scent enveloped me, and bittersweetness tugged at my heart.

I clung to the familiarity of him and his warmth for a minute, but I couldn’t let myself enjoy it for long.

Because it wasn’t a genuine hug. It was a pity hug.

“Get off me,” I muttered against his chest, but he held me so close that my voice was muffled.

“Huh?” His low voice rumbled.

“G’ off. Me.” I pushed at him.

“Why—”

I jabbed him in the gut the way I’d learned at my weekly jiu jitsu classes.

He immediately doubled over with a groan. “Why, Piper? I was trying to be nice.”

The sight of him keeled over, holding his stomach, made me crack a grin for the first time all day. “That made me feel better. Thank you.” I lightly patted his big shoulder. “I did say to get off, you didn’t listen. What’s a girl to do?”

“I’m sorry?” He shook his head. “How does this always happen? You hurt me and then I’m apologizing. How do you do it?”

“I guess I’m just evil,” I dropped before dashing outside into the cold rain to his truck. Maybe it was true, maybe I really was evil. People in the figure skating world dubbed me “the ice queen” long ago. I always thought it was a joke, but maybe there was some truth to it .

Kappy calmly folded his large frame into his truck and immediately started it up and blasted the heat. “No, you’re not.”

It took me a second to realize he was responding to what I said. “You call me Piper the Viper,” I deadpanned.

He scoffed. “That’s just a joke.”

I rolled my eyes. I was not in the mood to fight with him.

But he wasn’t letting it go. “You do know that, right?” His eyebrows pinched together.

He faced me head-on. It was the first time I’d seen him clean-shaven in a while.

Even when briefly I saw him at Mer and Colt’s wedding, he insisted on keeping a mustache.

Now I wished I hadn’t made fun of his stupid facial hair because he was way too good looking this way.

He had the perfect jawline and cheekbones to be on the cover of magazines.

“Piper,” he said again.

My traitorous heart beat a little erratically at the sound of my name coming from his lips.

“You know that’s just a joke,” he pushed, his face looking a little pained. “Right?”

Fighting off a blush, I faced forward and rubbed my arms for warmth. “Can we just go?” I asked quietly. “My parents have a hotel in Detroit, you can just drop me off there.”

With a sigh, he shifted into drive, making the lights inside his truck dim. “So, what’s going on? Colt was half asleep when he called me,” he said, driving toward the airport exit. “He barked at me to go get you and then hung up.”

“Someone stole my purse, so I missed my flight.”

“Oof.” His face scrunched. “So, no money, no phone?

“Nope.”

“Is there anyone there to help you?” His dark eyes quickly flashed to mine before settling back on the road. “At the hotel?”

I shrugged. “I’m sure someone will.” To be honest, I just wanted to get to a comfy bed. I’d figure out the rest of this mess tomorrow.

“Why don’t you come to my mom’s place with me? You can use my phone and laptop to cancel everything there.”

“Cancel everything?” I asked, fighting off a yawn. His truck was comfy, I’d give him that, and it was the first time I’d felt any sort of warmth after a full day of travel.

“Yeah, put a freeze on all your cards and stuff.”

“But…” My eyes shifted to his side-profile. “I don’t know the passwords. ”

His eyebrows tugged together. “Where do you keep the passwords?”

“In my phone.”

“Shit.” He cringed. “Well, we’ll figure it out. How about we go to my mom’s and sit down and sort it all?”

I shifted uncomfortably. As nice as that sounded, suspicion snaked down my spine. Why would he , of all people, go through all that trouble for me?

“Why are you helping me, Kappy?”

He flinched slightly. “Still calling me Kappy, eh?”

“That’s your name, isn’t it?” I asked, feigning innocence.

He ran his tongue over his teeth in his closed mouth. “Not to you, it wasn’t.” His dark eyes bore into me for a second before he shifted his gaze back to the road again.

Awkward silence filled his dark truck. For the next few minutes, I leaned my head against the cool window and stared out into the dark Michigan night. The exhaustion of the day was quickly catching up to me, and I found it hard to keep my eyes open.

I’m not sure how long we drove before his voice woke me up. “Last chance before I decide, my mom’s or Detroit?”

The back of my head pounded with a headache as my sleepy eyes drifted to the split in the highway. “I… I don’t know,” I stammered. I used to be so sure of my every move, but lately, I was making all the wrong ones. My confidence was fucking rattled, and I felt all sorts of discombobulated.

He nodded before easing to the right, toward the Canton exit, toward his mom’s house.

I hated to admit it, but relief caved in on me. As soon as he dropped me off, I was going to be utterly alone again, and deep down, I just wasn’t ready.

Kappy cleared his throat. “To answer your earlier question, I’m helping you because I like you, Piper.”

“No, you don’t,” I said, feeling my guard fly up.

He just laughed incredulously and took a sip of his coffee, making me feel more prickly.

“What’s so funny?” I demanded.

He pulled to a stop at the red light and looked over at me.

The dark cast shadows on his face, but his eyes still sparkled with their usual mischievous glint.

“You’ve been the same person since when we were kids.

You know how rare that is? Everything’s always changing, but not you. I like that about you.”

My shoulders slumped and I sunk even further into the seat.

“Figures,” I mused, looking out the window again.

“The one thing you like about me and it’s completely false.

” How could I tell him that the girl he once knew was long gone?

My competitive edge and will to win was currently getting squashed by the world.

“I don’t believe that for a second,” he said softly.

I looked at him like he lost his ever-loving mind. This was just so unlike him—saying anything quietly . I was used to the obnoxious version of him always poking fun at me. This nice, soft-spoken version of him was throwing me all off-balance.

I shifted in my seat and crossed my arms over my chest. “You’re just helping me because Colt and Mer, right? Because if something happens to me then Mer will be upset, and then Colt will kill you, right?”

He barked out a laugh. “I am not scared of Colt.”

“Then why?” I demanded.

An amused grin touched his lips. “Why can’t you just accept that I like you?”

I snorted. “Yeah, because that worked out so well for me last time.” My eyes slammed closed. Fuck . Why the hell did I just say that aloud? I had no desire to revisit the past, especially not after the kind of day that I just had. “Never mind. Please drop it.” I added quietly. “Please.”

His jaw tightened and his knuckles went white from gripping the wheel. After a beat, he rolled back his shoulders and said, “My mom will love to see ya.”

Yeah, right, I thought sarcastically. “I doubt she even remembers me.”

Growing up, his mom, Teresa, managed the concession stand and Campioni’s, the restaurant housed on the second floor of Centre Ice.

Teresa was always kind, always lovingly rolling her eyes at her son.

She was one of the few people at the rink who had any sort of compassion.

It was a wonder how a tiny, kind woman like her birthed the large man-child sitting next to me.

“Who could forget you, Piper?” He cracked a grin.

Right . I stared straight ahead and blew out a sigh. She probably remembered me for bad reasons. Because I threw a fit at the rink, or yelled at her son, or better yet—because of my latest mental breakdown splashed all over the internet .