Breathe With Me (The Breathe Series Book 3) (33 page)

Glancing down hurriedly, half in a panic to find something to deter her thoughts from the day everything crumpled before us, my eyes wander back to the picture before her
. Damn that little girl looks familiar
.

Before I can open my mouth, Piper shakes her head and starts again, “Anyways…” She snickers, completely insincere and so obvious that she’s trying to cover up her emotions. Tapping her finger against the photo album, she looks back at me. “So, yeah, I was so happy to see you out that day. I thought for sure your grandpa was going to kill you when he found me in your camper.”

I smile, joining her on that memory. It’s so clear, that I can almost feel the sun’s searing touch move across my skin; I can nearly see her as she walked across the ground, right down to the beach, with a smile on her face. I knew she was happy to see me; I was happy to see her. As soon as she left with her dad that day, I thought for sure her ass was grass.

“I thought the same thing,” I say with a chuckle.

“So whatever happened?”

My chest vibrates, thinking back to the conversation I had with Grandpa. It definitely went beyond the typical birds-and-bee’s discussion that most parents have with their children. Grandpa always cuts to the chase; no use beating around the bush, I guess. “Actually, he told me if I wasn’t going to keep my pecker in my pocket, that I better damn well wrap the sucker.”

Piper cracks up, tossing her arms around her stomach and swaying backwards on a breathy laugh that catches in her throat. My smile grows as I watch her happiness, relieved that this entire walk down memory lane can go in a new direction.

Snickering to myself, I go on, “Oh he was pissed off alright…said that if he ever caught me doing that again, he’d beat me within an inch of my life.”

She laughs harder, clearly enjoying the shit I got that day. Come to think of it, I recall getting reamed about every chance Grandpa got. It was always, ‘Get your ass to bed, Evan and don’t even think about sneaking any girls in that camper’, or ‘How’d you sleep, son or did you stay up late, sneaking some girl in there.’ He literally acted like I had been doing that for years; like I had been caught countless times with some girl in my camper; like it hadn’t just been innocent and someone I was around all the time…my best friend.

“Yeah, I don’t think he was ever fully convinced that we didn’t do something in there.”

Piper’s mouth drops open, “Are you serious?! We were twelve! It’s not like we would’ve even known what we were doing.” We both laugh, but Piper quickly fades off, looking as though she’s thinking way too much into that thought.

I act fast, “Who on earth is this?” Pointing down at the picture, I finally draw her attention to the family portrait that looks to be about thirty plus years old, judging by the kids lame and pretty damn dorky attire. “I know I’ve met some of your family, or at least seen them here through the years, but that face just looks familiar for a different reason.” I tap my index finger over the little brown haired, green eyed girls face.

Her face falls to the picture and quickly scrunches up with concentration, a deep line between her brows and her piercing brown eyes staring at it as if the little girl may just jump up to tell her exactly who she is.

“Well,” she draws out her word, possibly still trying to figure it out herself.
Maybe she doesn’t know who that is
. “I know the little boy is Dad and these are my grandparents.” Her finger moves across to the older couple above the kids. “So I’d have to assume that the little girl is Dad’s sister.” She sighs looking over at me quickly. “I think she died when she was little or maybe ran away or… I’m not really sure. I know he has a sister. He would always tell me stories about when they were growing up, but he usually changed the subject if I would ask, ‘where is she’ or ‘can I meet her’. I gave up a long time ago asking about her. He has pictures of her up in the house, but it’s just a closed-off topic.”

I press my lips together, drawing my brows in.
That’s odd
. “Hmmmm, she looks awfully familiar, doesn’t she?” Staring down at the picture, I thumb through every single thought in my mind trying to process where I could know that face from. I look back up at Piper, considering for a moment that maybe I could be seeing just a bit of that little girl’s features in someone that has been on my mind for nearly half my life. After all, similarities do tend to run in a gene pool, but as I study the picture, looking over the deep dark brown tint of her hair and the bronze color of her skin that looks as if she spent every day out at the beach, I come up empty. Piper shares far more traits with her mother than that of her dad, Pete. She has pale ivory skin, jet black hair and even her eyes are a completely different shade
. Hmmm, Pete, did you ever consider that your wife may have been fooling around with the mailman
?

“Who knows,” I shrug, “I guess it’s just some family resemblance that I’m picking up on…” I stop short, almost seeing an entirely different picture as I look at the girl’s eyes; bright green eyes that look almost identical to Tristan’s. I focus in on the structure of her face and it comes to me. “Whoa, that’s some crazy shit there.” Staring harder at the picture, another one comes up in my mind; one of Tristan and his mom from when he was pretty small that has occupied a place on their living room wall from the first day I ever came in their house.

“What is?” Piper sits up, at complete attention, staring down at the picture.

“Doesn’t your aunt look familiar at all…think of the biggest smartass you know.”

Once Piper dips her head back, scrunching her face up in confusion, I have to laugh.

“You?” She draws her word out sarcastically, and I chuckle
. Oh well, I guess Tristan is the biggest smartass I know.

“No, no, no. Well yeah, but other than me.” I tap my finger to the picture. “Look at those eyes. Maybe I am just making things up in my head or something, but I swear she looks just like Tristan.”

Finally, recognition sparks across Piper’s face. Her eyes go wide and her mouth drops open. “Oh my gosh, it does. She looks just like him.”

“Yeah they even have a picture right in their living room and I swear that is an identical liking of him.”

“That’s kind of neat…”

Lifting my butt off the floor, I scramble to pull my phone out of my back pocket, scraping my knuckles against the rough denim with a slice and a sting. I grip my phone hard, urgency coursing through me as if I’ve stumbled upon something undiscovered
. I have no clue if my hunch is correct; I could have this all wrong,
but what if I don’t
. Moving my phone with the edge butted up against my palm and my fingertips securely holding onto the back of it, I hit the menu button and unlock it quickly before clicking on my photos icon. The very first picture to come up, which is the very last picture I was looking at, is a snapshot of the photo I have laying by my bed; of Piper I glance over at her quickly, barely catching her look away
. Great
.

Swiping my thumb over and over across the screen, I go through what few pictures I have stored on my phone, looking for one in specific. My eyes quickly scan over pictures of the lake, pictures of sites around the property that need to be fixed up, a few screenshots of receipts for purchases for the company, but very few personal shots. I’ve just never been a big picture taker. I guess if I hadn’t lived most of my life right on a dock, I’d probably be soaked up in the technology era just like everybody else. However, seeing how water and phones don’t mix too well, I tend to leave mine in the glove compartment of the work truck.

Finally, my eyes land right on what I was looking for: a picture of Jake and Judd wrestling in the living room of their house. Jake had a death grip on his brother, with his bicep bulging around his neck and looking like he was cutting off his air supply. It was a day last summer, when we were all fooling around and having plenty of laughs. Judd started off confident, claiming that Jake could not take him in a fight; Jake proved him wrong. I was busting at the seams, and made sure to get photographic proof of little bro kicking my buddies ass.
It was epic.

Right now as I look at the photo, my focus is completely pulled to the picture on the wall right behind them. There perfectly framed, just like it came with the house, is the one single image that drifted into my thoughts as soon as I saw the family portrait in Piper’s album. Taking my index finger and thumb, I place it on my screen and pull them apart to expand the picture in the background. As soon as it’s blown up, my eyes widen.
Wow
!

“Here…” I speak quietly, almost talking to myself as I slide the phone closer to Piper so she can take a look. “This is the picture I was talking about. That’s almost creepy how similar she and Tristan look.”

“Tristan? The little girl is almost the spitting image of the woman in that picture. I mean, that could nearly pass for what she’d look like as an adult, don’t you think?”

My level of curiosity swiftly changes to astonishment as I look closer at the two faces and come to the same conclusion that Piper did. “Damn you’re right.” I quickly click on the main button of my phone to get out of my photos, then move my thumb up to click on the camera. “What did your dad say her name was, when you’d talk about her?”

“I don’t even remember. It’s been years since we even talked about her and even then I think he called her by a nickname… Ohhhhh, what did he call her?” She whispers more to herself. Looking down, Piper continues to rack her brain as I snap a quick shot of the family portrait. “Hmmm… I keep wanting to say it starts with an ‘A’, but I’m just not sure.”

Moving my fingers across my phone to pull up my messages, I add three contacts to the image I’m sending, the whole while wondering if this is a huge mistake. It’s probably a simple case of ‘everyone having a twin’ out there in this great big world, but I just can’t help the gut feeling I have. My luck Tristan will probably come back pissed off as hell, then Judd very well might get ticked off at me for ruffling his feathers.

“Do you think that’s a good idea? Really, what are the chances.”

“So your dad said she died years ago?” I question her comment from earlier.
There’s a big difference between dead and ran away
.

Piper snaps her head over, frowning. “I can text him and ask him what her name was and what happened…If you really think there’s a possibility that this could be…”

I speed type as she talks, sliding my fingertips from one letter to the next, eager to get a reply back.

Me: Hey guys, stumbled upon this picture in one of Piper’s albums and I thought there was just a crazy resemblance between the little girl in this picture and your mom…Not even sure why I’m sending it, just thought you guys might want to see.

Clicking send with only half of what I wanted to say typed, dread, anxiety and excitement all rush through my veins as I wait to hear back from just one of them. I glance over at Piper, busy typing something on her own phone.

“Okay done,” she says, lying her phone beside her on the wood floor with a quiet tap. “I should hear back from him pretty fast.”

My jaw tenses as the dread portion of my feelings overwhelms me.
We could very well be opening a whole can of worms for nothing. What are the odds?

“So do you think that’s really her…their mom?” Her voice is flooded in disbelief and it only spikes my nervousness over Tristan’s possible reply.

Dipping my brows, I point back at the facts. “Well there is no denying the obvious. I wasn’t so sure when I was focused on Tristan, but when you pointed out their mom, I don’t know…that’s just too crazy of a likeness, in my opinion at least.”

“Oh, I agree too.”

My eyes wander the image for a minute, before trailing their way back up to Piper’s face. Once again she nibbles on her lower lip with a small smile and a gleam in her eyes.

I chuckle, “What?” I breathe out. “You look awfully excited.”

Her teeth fully come down on her lip, biting softly as a big smile emerges across her face. “I am.” The enthusiasm is evident in her voice. “Well, I guess it’s two things that kind of has me…I don’t know…” She trailed off. Hoisting my brows, I lean my head forward in a silent nudge for her to go on.
What on earth has her so giddy?
“Think about it. If there is even a chance that this could be their mom, then that’s kind of cool for Dad and me. I mean wouldn’t it be?” Her eyes light up and her voice kicks up to a squealing, happy tone that makes everything inside of me smile.

Slowly nodding in complete agreement, my curiosity peaks. “And what’s the second thing?”

Piper drops her head back, with the huge grin and a girly giggle as if she’s gabbing with her BFF. “Nothing.” She darts her eyes to me for just a second, looks away then back at me again with a loud sigh. “Oh, all right…” She relents, but I swear this whole time my facial expression never changed. I laughed to myself at how little of a fight she put up.
This could be good.
“I guess I was just a little excited that you had a picture of me on your phone.”

Now I feel like her giddiness is contagious. A warmth settles in my chest, causing my heart rate to excel and a shockwave of delight to tickle across my skin.
She needs to be kissed.
I move in, pulling my hand up and placing it beneath her chin. The moment my skin touches hers, the warmth in my chest consumes me, spreading like lava over my entire body. I move in closer, eager to taste her lips; wanting to be just like we were last night, against each other, closer. Her breath catches and as soon as her hand moves across my forearm in an unspoken gesture to keep going…I do. As she slides her other hand across the back of my neck, I move forward in hungry anticipation, wanting to devour her. I’m not sure what’s come over me. The guessing game we have of ‘What’s her name?’ and ‘Is this the same girl?’ should not be affecting me like this, however, with Piper here, there is always the possibility for the impatient python to peak his head out.

No sooner than my lips touch hers, with a warm vibration of an over-anxious need mixed with the softness of her lips, I feel a different vibration and jolt; an unwelcome one at this point. Piper flinches at the chime of my phone, breaking our connection and shooting down all my hopeful horniness like a kamikaze pilot
out of the
sky
. Dammit; I had to be waiting for a text or call right now!