Back To Us (Shore Secrets 3) (16 page)

Her head jerked up. Her eyes blazed. “Giving it my best shot doesn’t mean giving you a free pass for being an idiot.”

“‘’Course not. And right back at ya.” That drained some of the fire from her. Enough that she dug the toe of her boot into the grass. Classic Piper stall-to-think tactic. He’d seen it a million times over the years. Just never aimed at him. Weird that she’d have to think carefully instead of spitting out the first thing that came into her brain. Maybe she was giving this a real shot after all.

“Yes. Of course I wanted your distillery to get a mention in the magazine. I did want you to talk to Hiromi. I...I just didn’t want you to keep
me
from talking to him.”

He let go and took a step back. Gave her space. Gave himself some breathing room, too. Because talking through shit was
hard
. “Fair enough. But can you see how that’d be confusing for me? That I thought you were giving me the green light?”

“Maybe.” Piper scrunched up her face like the time he’d tricked her into sniffing a barrel full of rye. “But Ward, you took off with him. You took—stole, really—the only time Hiromi had allocated and used it all up on yourself.” She twisted her wrists. Interlaced her fingers. Rocked back and forth on her heels a bit. And then looked him straight in the eyes. No more fidgeting. Just a clear pronouncement. “It feels a lot like you cheated on me. Again.”

Now they’d gotten to the heart of it. Ward still didn’t agree about how she got there. But he did understand why. God, were they going to keep getting sucked into rehashing their past? That was a speed hump their relationship didn’t need. One dumb mistake shouldn’t define him to Piper. He got that it made her cautious. Still—how many other adults were judged by the idiotic choices made at nineteen?

Ward tamped down his frustration. Letting it out wouldn’t help the situation any. This time. He refused to let her keep wielding that particular bat at him anymore after today. Slowly, carefully choosing his words, he said, “I’m sorry he’s not doing your feature right away. I’m sorry if I played any part in that. But you’ve got to believe I didn’t do it intentionally.”

After a couple of beats, Piper gave a short nod. Let her hands fall to her sides. “Okay.” And lifted one eyebrow in a way that had always driven him nuts. “You were just being a clueless man?”

Back to normal. Just like that. Well, two days of a silent snit, carrying her off bodily to deal with it, one apology, and they were back on track. “I’m not going to let you tar and feather all men like that. Not unless I get to call you a temperamental redhead.”

“Don’t you dare.”

“Don’t you pull that crap, then.” He took two steps forward to tower over her. To force her to tilt her head back to look at him. “Don’t shut me out. And I don’t just mean during this thirty-day experiment. Dating or friends, we can’t solve anything if you don’t even try. If you don’t let me try. Would you throw out a batch of wine without tasting it?”

“No. But I was seething. Pouting a little, too. I didn’t want to talk to you.”

“Christ, Piper, you know I hate hashing shit out. I’d rather have the forward for the New York Rangers bash out my wisdom teeth with his hockey stick. You think I
want
to be standing here doing this?”

A wan smile flitted across her face. “No. In fact, I’m quite sure you don’t. So you propose we take comfort in suffering together?”

“Something like that.” He waved his hand, palm-up, in an ‘anything else’ gesture. “Are we good now? Air all cleared?”

“Almost.”

Ward barely managed to keep from groaning. “Now what?”

Piper held out her hand, and when he took it, started walking back toward the festival. “I accept that you didn’t mean to hurt me. Nevertheless, you did.”

“And I apologized.”

“True. But I don’t think that’s enough. Who knows when
WWLL
will come back to do a feature on me, if ever? That’s a huge disappointment. You’ve got some penance to do.”

“Like what?” He scrambled to think of options. “Want me to wash your car? Or better yet, how about I play out a sexual fantasy of yours? Any one you want. Sky’s the limit.”

“Nice try. Can’t really bargain with sexual favors until we’ve had sex. How do I know you’ll be good enough to make them worthwhile?”

“Babe,
good enough
doesn’t come close to the truth of it. I’ll be the best you ever had.” Ward felt her hand spasm around his at his words, as though she couldn’t help it. Looked over to notice that her lips had parted. And despite the fact that they were on the fringes of the gathering crowd, he pushed a little harder. “You trying to pick a fight? Start something so I throw you down on the grass and make you eat your words right here, right now?”

“Nooooo.” She held onto the word a little too long. Long enough that Ward knew the picture he’d painted had definite merit in her eyes. He whirled around. Picked her up by the waist and tossed her in the air, high enough to make her gasp and suck down a squeal, just like she had back in high school when he did it.

Piper’s legs locked around his waist. Her hands locked in a death grip around his neck. Funny, since she knew there was no way on earth he’d drop her. And then she threw back her head so all that glorious red hair streamed like liquid fire in the sunlight, and laughed.

Right then and there, Ward knew he’d had the best moment of the whole day. No matter what else happened. Not even if he and the guys won the sculling race at twilight. Nothing could compare. Not if he went through every damn case in his distillery. Not even if Frank Rogers got down on his knees and begged Ward to take a loan from his bank. Her infectious laugh and undiluted happiness filled him up.

Then she jerked her head up and twisted around. Pointed. “That’s your penance.”

All Ward saw were the normal booths and festival vendors. “I know none of these yahoos can compete with your wine, but tasting it isn’t exactly a punishment.”

Another gurgle of laughter. “Not the wine booths. Not the cinnamon nuts. The one in the middle. With all the people in front of it.”

Ward surveyed the line of booths. Saw the semicircle of apron-clad vendors and tourists in front of tall, orange bars that looked like a jail cell. Oh, crap. “You want me to go in the dunk tank?”

“I do. Very much so.” Every year it was the hit of the festival. All the heavy-hitters in town took a shift in it, from Dawn to the principal of the high school. The money went to charity. This year, according to the sign, the proceeds would go to the homeless shelter. A worthy enough cause to risk getting drenched.

He set Piper on her feet. Probably a mistake, as she immediately tugged at him. No doubt that he’d go do it. It’d make her happy. It did seem like a fair enough price to pay for not thinking through all the angles the other day. Plus, Piper couldn’t drop a grape in a wine barrel if she stood right over it. He’d never seen someone with such bad aim. Didn’t mean he’d go without a little fight, though.

Dragging his feet, Ward said, “I’ve got my own booth to run. Zane’s expecting me in the boat for his big race. I can’t spend the day taking hits for charity.”

“Of course not. All I ask is five minutes. No, scratch that. Five tries. You let me take five shots at dunking you, and then we’ll be square.”

“Fair enough.”

The crowd parted way too quickly. And then stuck around to watch the show. Piper got him installed on the plastic bench in a matter of minutes. She had a cocky gleam in her eye. One that would disappear once he climbed down, dry as a bone.

To help stack the odds in his favor, Ward stripped off his shirt. Catcalls and applause spread like wildfire. Piper stopped in her tracks. Dropped the softball she’d just picked up. Exactly as he’d hoped. Chuckling, Ward extended his arms to grip the clear sides of the cage. Yeah, it flexed his biceps and his pecs. Which should keep her off-balance for all five tries.

She bent over to retrieve the ball from the grass. “Ward, are you trying to distract me?”

“Babe, I’m not even trying. It’s just working.” That earned him a round of laughter and applause from the crowd.

“You think...what...I’ll look at you and tremble with—”

The yell from the bartender at the Manor’s pub cut off Piper. “Anticipation,” Dani said with a suggestive shimmy that made everyone laugh. Especially since she had three wineglasses strapped to lanyards hanging across her chest.

“Do you not see those abs?” cut in the barber. Trent had hit on Ward the first time he’d gone in for a trim. Ward talked him into joining their pick-up basketball team instead of a date. “If Piper’s got her eyes and her hormones in working order, then she’s all a-quiver with primal animalistic need.”

“How about you keep your eyes off my girlfriend’s quivering anything and everything?”

“Trust me, the only thing I’m staring at is your tan line.” Trent hooked one hand around the orange bars. “Sure you don’t want to take off your pants, too? So you don’t have to stand around in wet clothes all day?”

“Nice try, Trent. Maybe you should be the one to take my seat. Seems like you need to cool down a little.”

Word had spread through the festival. From his higher perch, Ward could see vendors streaming from their booths. Guess everyone wanted to watch Piper take her shots at him. Didn’t matter. The more people, the more noise, the more chance that all of Piper’s balls would fly wide of the mark. Plus, he was having a blast baiting her.

Piper swung her arm in a circle a few times. Cleared her throat. Even mimed adjusting herself and spitting some chaw. Hysterical. “Are you ready for me to get you wet, Ward?”

“You’ve got things backwards, babe. The question is, are
you
ready for me to get
you
wet?”

Her cheeks flushed more red than her hair as whistles and laughter erupted loud enough to scare a flock of geese off the lake into a flapping, screeching vee formation low in the sky. Without any further stretching or even a little sass back at him, she winged the ball with all her might.

Holy fuck
,
she did it
ran through Ward’s brain as the hard plastic jerked out from below his ass. His feet scraped the bottom of the tank. Guess it was made for people shorter than six foot three. Still, cold water covered his head. One hard push with his arms brought him to the surface. Once he pulled himself up to hang on the edge, Piper was already there, grinning like crazy at him.

Ward shook his head, sending water spraying onto her. Piper jumped backward with a squeal. “No fair. You’re the only one who gets wet. I dropped you, fair and square.”

He boosted himself up and out. Straddling the edge, one leg still in the water, Ward couldn’t wait another second. He asked, “How did you do that?”

Jumping from one foot to the other, Piper said, “Gray’s been teaching me to play darts. I wanted to surprise you—well, beat the pants off of you, actually—when winter rolled around and we started our annual competition. Using my new skills today is an even bigger surprise, I’m thinking.”

“If I had a hat on, I’d take it off to you.” He bowed with a big arm flourish.

“Take your pants off instead,” Dani yelled.

Piper shook her head. “Oh, no.”

“Doesn’t give a guy much hope for our next date if you’re dead set against my taking off my pants.”

“That’s a different conversation,” she said, cheeks adorably flaming once more. “I meant that you can’t take them off yet because you’re headed straight back into the tank. I get five tries, remember?”

Piper was just as stubborn as he was. Didn’t give an inch. No wonder he was crazy about this woman.

Chapter Twelve

Piper enjoyed getting ready for a date. The fussing, the anticipation. Pulling out her best jewelry, her sexiest outfits and glamming it up. Dancing in front of the mirror. She did
not
enjoy when her boyfriend-for-now showed up at her door, unannounced, on a Wednesday night when she’d already changed into her sloppy, comfortable clothes. It took away several fun aspects of the date. Plus, she looked like crap. Whereas Ward, in his tight navy tee and jeans, looked edible, as always.

“I don’t understand how you can even call this a date. Or why you’d want to. Not when I’m in this state.” She twitched at her long grey skirt made from sweatshirt fabric. It was barely one step up from pajamas. Comfortable and cozy. And even less sexy than a shapeless satin choir robe.

Dropping onto the couch, Ward clasped his hands behind his neck. It stretched his shirt tight across his pecs and dried out her mouth. “Piper, you look great.”

Huh-uh. She wasn’t even in the neighborhood of good, let alone great. “Don’t lie. It’ll prevent me from believing any future compliment you may dole out.”

“You look...real. Approachable. Like you’re comfortable with me, instead of trying to impress me.” Ward shot her the universal double-eyebrow raise of approval. “That’s hot.”

“Great. Let me just go throw out all my garter belts and black lace lingerie, then.”

“No need to go overboard.”

Piper paced in front of the fireplace. Because sitting down next to him, cuddling up, felt awkward. Equal parts easy and awkward, actually. They’d jumped through a bunch of the normal dating hurdles—albeit for the second time—already. Holding hands in public. Sharing meals. The phone calls every night that lasted for hours.

This was different. This was more than six feet of man sprawled all over her couch. Him filling the room. Shrinking it. There was an intimacy to being utterly alone with him, just a single flight of stairs from her bed, that jumpstarted their relationship up about ten levels. To a level that required carefully chosen lingerie and freshly shaved legs. Piper had shaved
yesterday
. For God’s sake, Ward’s three best friends in the world were female. He should know this stuff.

She tapped her fingernails—still the same deep burgundy she’d painted them to match their top-rated Cabernet for last weekend’s Festival—against the glass candleholders on the mantel. “This is a pop-in. Something universally frowned upon in polite society.”

“Come on.” Ward propped his sock feet on her coffee table. He looked utterly at home. Which was good. Except that for as comfortable as he seemed, Piper felt just as uncomfortable. Which wasn’t fair at all. “You, me, Ella, Casey...we don’t schedule a time to show up with beer and pizza after a tough day. We just do it.”

“Your point doesn’t apply to the current situation. My best friends have pop-in privileges. My boyfriend does not.”

“I don’t want the perfect girlfriend version of Piper. I want my best friend version of Piper.” A wicked wink. One that, with the dark beard and mussed hair, gave him the air of a pirate. Or at least a rogue. “With kissing privileges.”

Self-conscious, Piper tucked her hair behind her ears. Then changed her mind, pulled it forward and fluffed it instead. “What’s wrong with the other me?”

“Nothing.”

“Come on. Give it to me straight.” Otherwise she’d just panic and obsess all night. Or for the whole rest of the week. Piper had worked for years refining her image. Polishing it. What on earth could Ward find wrong with it?

Ward sighed. Sat up straight and put his feet back on the floor. “You were always beautiful. Insecure about it, because your parents have always ignored what a treasure you are. Now you’ve got this glossy sheen. Elegant. Sophisticated. A little too bright and shiny, like when the sun stabs off the lake and blinds you.”

“So I’m stabbingly unapproachable. Just what every girl longs to hear on a date.”

“You asked. I answered. Told you when we started this that I wouldn’t lie to you.”

True. Which she appreciated, and more important, believed. In theory. Piper crossed her arms over her loose cream shirt as she stalked closer to scowl at him. “Much like pop-in privileges, I think the lying rule needs to be amended.”

Ward stood. Reached out a hand to caress her cheek with the back of one finger. “Blinding beauty is not a bad thing. It’s just different. Really different than the last time we dated. What’s with the transformation?”

It was tempting to make a snarky comment about usually having the time to brush her hair before seeing people. Shrug it off as just part of growing up. Get all sultry, channel her inner sex kitten and tell him this is what a woman looked like. But in the spirit of their fresh start and all-honesty approach, Piper told him the truth.

“I stopped standing in your shadow.”

His hand dropped back down to his side as fast as if she’d burned him. “That’s harsh, Piper. I never put you down.”

“No, of course not. But you’re right about my parents. They made me horribly insecure.” Piper hugged herself even tighter. “They still do. You were the big, shining star of our high school. I didn’t bother trying to stand out at all, because no matter what, you’d eclipse me. That was fine. But once we split up, I had an epiphany.”

“Big word. Sounds like a big deal.”

She shook her head. Turned her back on him and walked over to the window to get some space. To not have to look at him through this conversation. Because staring out at Mrs. Brantley walking her cat down the sidewalk with that ridiculous turquoise sequined leash was better than facing Ward. Because apparently, for all her talk about being a strong, independent woman, Piper was a bit of a coward at her core. Oh well. Something to obsess about tomorrow. “You don’t want to talk about this now.”

“Sure I do.”

She flailed another attempt to go no further. Fisted her hand against the glossy white window frame. “We don’t need to get mired in the past.”

“Sounds like we already are to some extent. Spit it out.”

Okay. Fine. They’d be all mature, full-on adults about this. Time had passed. Wounds had healed over. Maybe this was one of those things they had to discuss in order to move forward. Piper had learned over the past eleven days of pseudo-dating Ward that he’d changed. Still not a talker. He’d never be that guy at the bar telling stories to everyone within earshot. But he was more...thoughtful in his responses. Delved deeper. They probably couldn’t have had this conversation a few years ago. But now, she thought they just might make it through.

“When you hooked up with
that girl
—”

He broke in swiftly. “I didn’t hook up with her. It was only one kiss. What you saw was all that ever happened.”

Piper whirled around. “Really?”

“Yeah.”

She’d always assumed that he’d had sex with
that girl
. Probably a ton of times. Because that was the sort of self-flagellation one indulged in after being cheated on. Piper had never come out and asked him. It didn’t matter how far they went. Cheating was cheating, to her mind.

Except...maybe it wasn’t. Maybe it was a single slip. One Ward would’ve regretted and stopped all by himself. Without them ever breaking up. Maybe they could’ve been happy together for all these years. Sheesh. Talk about self-flagellation. Rewriting the past was impossible. Pointless to go there even in fantasy.

“She was pretty,” Piper said in a low voice.
Pretty
was an understatement. Big boobs. Waaay bigger than Piper’s. Blond hair that fell in perfect waves down to her ass. Angora sweater maybe two shades darker pink than her skirt. Above-the-knee boots to die for. The entire ensemble had burned itself onto Piper’s retinas and into her mind.

“So?” He looked genuinely confused. And she loved him a little more for it.

Forget the lingerie he hadn’t given her a chance to slip on. Piper was waving her emotional underwear in his face. With flaming cheeks, she continued. “So I was sure that you hooked up with her
because
she was prettier than me. Better than me.”

In a flash, he moved in on her. Grabbed her by the arms. Lifted her almost to her toes. “No—” It came out an anguished growl that Piper cut off with a palm against his lips.

“Let me finish. I was certain that you were in the market for an upgrade, all the way round. Believed it to the innermost part of me. And for that, I didn’t fault you. My own parents had shown me a hundred different ways that they wanted a better version. Why wouldn’t you?”

Ward gathered her in to an embrace so tight it puffed the air from her lips like a popped balloon. So tight that it squeezed all the old hurt and insecurity right out of her, too. “God, Piper,” he murmured against her neck. “There is no upgrade from you. You’re the top-of-the-line model, babe.”

Well, he’d have to say that now, wouldn’t he? “Thanks,” she said in a tone that would’ve been more appropriate to him telling her she had head lice.

“Don’t. I’m not feeding you a line.” His embrace loosened just enough for him to pull back and look her in the eyes. “I wouldn’t be right here, putting my heart out for you to stomp all over, if I didn’t mean it.”

“I know. Really.” With a fast dip of her head, Piper added, “That is, I know you mean it
now.
But you asked why I changed, and that’s the answer. I didn’t think I was good enough for you.”

Eyes narrowed, he asked, “We split up, though. Why would my supposed taste in girls matter enough after that to make you change?”

As if his opinion could
ever
stop mattering to Piper. “It planted a seed. Then, the more I thought about it, I didn’t think I was as good as I deserved to be. As I could be. I didn’t want there to ever be a situation where I felt that I didn’t measure up for lack of trying. So I made myself over. Subscribed to ten different fashion magazines. Got a makeup consultation from every counter in the department store.” Arms raised, she twirled away and
chasséd
over to the chaise. “Even took a semester of ballet to learn how to walk more gracefully.”

“I would’ve liked to see you in a leotard and tutu. Was that fun?”

“No.” With a bitter laugh, Piper sank onto the velvety cushions. And grabbed the cream throw off the back to cradle against her stomach. Even revisiting the memory of the class required a little extra comfort. “It was horrible, actually. Madame Girard was old-school. She taught by demoralizing and yelling. I ached so much I had to soak in a tub after every class.”

“Why’d you stick it out?”

Ella and Casey had asked her the very same thing, on a nightly basis, as she moaned and whined her way through the class. “Because when a grudging
très bien fait
slipped out of her lips, I knew I’d rocked it. Felt like I’d earned a medal. Better, I’d earned her approval. After surviving Madame Girard? I’d never again wonder if I could be good enough.”

“You never needed polishing, to my eyes. But you sure as hell sparkle now, Piper.” Approval warmed his tone and heated his gaze. Heated her, straight through to her core.

It meant a lot that he’d noticed the difference. And that he didn’t seem put off at all by her current, un-sparkling state. Right now, Piper felt flatter than tap water. “I try.”

“You don’t have to. Not with me.”

“You’re saying you’re not worth my effort?”

“I’ll appreciate the effort. Don’t need it all the time, though.” Ward crossed to her bar setup. Picked up the corkscrew and grabbed a Cabernet Franc out of the back row. “You like your own wine, right?”

“Morrissey Vineyards wine? Of course. That cab franc in particular pairs equally well with pizza and steak—”

He cut her off. “Skip the sales pitch. It’s good. So good that it wins awards. How much does your most expensive bottle go for?”

“Our Reserve is forty dollars.”

“You enjoy the hell out of your forty-dollar wine. But once in a while, you like to live it up, hand over a Franklin and get a Châteauneuf-du-Pape, right?”

The cork popped out, punctuating his surprisingly on-target metaphor. Piper still wished that she’d gotten the chance to shave her legs. But she was much more relaxed about Ward seeing her in her comfily shapeless clothes. “Message received.”

“That’s sort of in the same ballpark as to why I came over tonight.”

“You wanted to raid my wine rack and open a really expensive bottle?”

Ward hooked a thumb at the foyer. “Please. I brought my own beer to drink with the pizza. This fermented grape juice is all for you.”

She tossed the blanket to the floor and sat up, curling her legs beneath her. “Then hand it over.”

“Dating’s a big deal. You try to come up with fun things to do together. Over-the-top special dates. Sort of like a divorced dad taking his kids to an amusement park every other weekend and stuffing them full of cotton candy until they puke.”

Piper froze, mid-reach for the glass. Looked down at her shining, immaculate floors and fluffy white area rug. “Coincidentally, two things definitely not allowed in this living room are cotton candy and vomit.”

“Hey, they’re not on my agenda for the night.” Ward retrieved his six-pack from the foyer and cracked a bottle open.

“So what is?”

“Being normal.” He sat on the end of the chaise, legs spread wide and looking eight hundred percent too masculine for such a girly piece of furniture. “After the first excitement wears off, most couples don’t twist themselves in knots trying to win the best date award. The real test of whether or not a relationship will last is how you hold up to the everyday stuff. We’ve only got nineteen days left in this experiment. I jumped ahead to what a normal Wednesday night will look like if we keep going. Two people, hanging out, sharing their day over pizza. No bells or whistles. Just us.”

It was exactly the element that reality dating shows always left out. Which was probably why most of those couples didn’t last. Without the distraction of fabulous trips, they discovered they had no framework to build a relationship on. It was a good reminder of Ward’s ability to see through all the bullshit and discern what really mattered.

“That’s rather brilliant, Ward.”