Seeing is Believing (Cuttersville #3)(18)
Author: Erin McCarthy

“Getting dusty just like their mama did when she was a little girl. Lilly more so than Emily, but they’ll both be filthy by noon.”

“They do take after me, don’t they?” she said ruefully. They attracted dirt like a Hoover. “It’s too bad none of the kids are neat like you.”

“But I love all of you anyway. Now come on. I want you drunk and going down on me in the hotel room by dinner.”

Shelby sucked in her breath. Yep. Still toe curling. “I think that can be arranged.”

* * *

PIPER SAT ON THE BACK PORCH OF HER PARENTS’ house, a glass of iced tea in her hand, as Lilly and Emily were hanging out on the play set with her brothers, Logan and Jack. The sun felt good on her arms and she tried to feel and act normal, not like a woman with a big, old, dirty secret.

It had been disappointing that Brady was still sleeping when she left. But on the other hand, she wasn’t sure she could face him in the light of day in front of the girls, his eyes slumberous, his feet bare. She wasn’t a good actress, and she was a lousy liar.

Which was why she was rocking, rocking, rocking, anxiously waiting for someone—mostly her mother—to figure out that she had had sex the night before. Excellent, intense, orgasm-causing sex. The kind that made her want to do it all over again.

Her cheeks felt hot and it wasn’t even that warm of a day. Piper took a sip of her tea and almost choked.

Lilly was dangling upside down on the trapeze bar. “Piper! Look at me!” She let one hand go to wave, before her shirt slipped down over her chin, baring her round belly.

“Great job,” Piper said, waving back.

“I’m so glad you never did that,” Amanda said, sitting in the wicker chair next to her, inspecting her manicure. Her dog Baby was at her feet, snoring gently. “All I can think is that she’s going to fall on her head. It scares the crap out of me.”

“She’s a total monkey. She’s not going to fall. And I wasn’t much of a risk taker as a kid.” Nor was she normally now. With one notable exception. Piper felt the burn of embarrassment when she thought of how she had dropped her robe for Brady in the hallway the night before.

“Well, thank you for that. I appreciate it. You never gave me a single gray hair.” Piper’s stepmother glanced out at her two boys. Logan was beating something in the yard with a stick and Jack was standing on the swing instead of sitting in it. “Your brothers on the other hand . . . What do you think Logan is hitting with that stick?”

“I think it’s a garter snake.” The scene was chaotic, dogs running all around, one of them tripping Emily and sending her down to the hard-packed dirt, Jack leaping off the swing in a superhero move that resulted in him accidentally kicking one of the other dogs, who darted away with a look of alarm.

“Eeeww. Why do boys like snakes so much? Is it Freudian?”

Piper had long ago given up trying to figure out boys, young or old. “If it is, that seems a little counterproductive to be slapping it with a stick.”

Her mother was about to speak, then seemed to think better of it. She just crossed one long leg over the other, her tribal maxi skirt effortlessly stylish, her gold sandals and pedicure immaculate. Her hair was shorter now than it had been when Piper was a kid, but it was still just as blond as ever. As far as Piper knew, she’d yet to need to dye it to cover any gray.

When Piper had first come to live with her father, when Amanda was hired as her nanny, Piper had favored simple, tomboy clothes. She had wanted to downplay her looks, disappear into the background. Standing next to Amanda had made that easy, and Piper had taken comfort in holding her hand, knowing that Amanda would always command attention in any room they walked into, and people wouldn’t see the little girl with the eyes too big for her head. They had been quite a pair, the expensively dressed heiress from the city and the bald, abandoned kid. But it had worked, and while her father had been falling in love with Amanda, Piper had as well. Amanda was truly the woman she thought of as her mother, and when she’d hit her awkward middle-school years, she’d tried to imitate Amanda’s style, with disastrous results. A gawky thirteen-year-old wearing tangerine orange skinny jeans and big gold hoops with a suitcase of a handbag had been a sight to behold, especially since she had still been painfully shy. Fortunately, that phase had been short-lived and she had settled on a feminine style that suited her, consisting mostly of skirts and dresses and simple jewelry.

She wondered what kind of woman Brady was attracted to. She’d taken extra care with her hair and light makeup that morning, but she’d been forced to leave before he’d woken up because the girls had been restless. The note might have been a little wordy, now that she reflected on it, but she had wanted him to feel welcome.

Oh, yeah, she definitely wanted him to feel welcome. She supposed dropping her robe had accomplished that, all right.

“So, would you like to tell me who he is?” Amanda asked.

“What?” Piper glanced over at her mom, startled out of her thoughts. “Who who is?”

“The man who has you smiling that secret smile.”

Yikes. Piper tried to look innocent. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.” But she could feel her cheeks burn even hotter. She must look like she’d been slapped with a box of blush at this point.

“Oh, come on.” Amanda wasn’t known for her patience or gentle coaxing. “You know you can tell me. I hope he’s hot. Is he hot?”

Piper laughed. “It’s not what you’re thinking.” Actually, it was probably exactly what she was thinking. She hesitated, because saying his name out loud would surely give her away. But not saying anything about Brady would make it even worse when her parents did find out he was in town. Which they would, sooner than later.

“It’s just that Brady Stritmeyer showed up at Shelby’s last night and it was a shock to see him, that’s all. I was thinking how weird it is that he came back after all these years.” That hadn’t precisely been what she was thinking, but it was close enough to the truth to sound legitimate. She was curious about his return. That was no lie. It just wasn’t her primary concern at the moment. Things like how long he was staying and when she could kiss him again were occupying far more of her thoughts at the moment.

Amanda sat up straight in her chair. “What? Brady is in town? Why? And why do we still have these damn wicker chairs? It’s like sitting on a bale of straw.”