Seeing is Believing (Cuttersville #3)(23)
Author: Erin McCarthy

Jessie smiled. She was right again. As usual. Piper Tucker wanted her grandson, and Brady was never one to pass up a pretty skirt.

If all went well, he’d have her knocked up by Christmas.

If Piper was maybe getting the raw end of the deal with Brady, well, Jessie wasn’t going to worry about it. Her priority was her family, even when they were idiots. Well, except for Brady’s mother. But she wasn’t blood. And anyway, it wasn’t like Brady was a bad catch. He just wasn’t necessarily the freshest. But Piper could throw some breading on him and he’d grill up just as nice. There was a lot of potential there.

Jessie put her e-reader down. She was suddenly hungry for catfish. Maybe she could hit the Busy Bee Diner for lunch. Manipulation worked up an appetite in her.

* * *

AMANDA LAY IN BED WITH HER BIG, STRONG HUSBAND and pouted. Her leg draped over his, she said, “I can’t believe Piper just decided to move out. Just like that. Sayonara, Mom and Dad. See ya. Wouldn’t want to be ya.”

She knew it was the right thing for her stepdaughter, to have her own space, her own social life, but it still sent a pang through her heart. She was going to miss her. Piper had made Amanda a mother, and she was used to her constant, quiet presence.

Danny sighed, his hand resting lightly on her backside. “It had to happen sooner or later, I reckon. But yeah, it caught me off guard. But we still have a couple of weeks before she moves out, and she’ll be in town nice and close to Shel and Boston so they can keep an eye on her. Plus she won’t have the drive to work in the winter. I do worry about that, and now she’ll be five minutes from the school.”

“What prompted it, do you think?” Amanda trailed her fingers over Danny’s chest and worried. It had been so sudden, Piper just announcing she was moving out, that it made her feel like something was wrong.

“I don’t know. She is twenty-four. Maybe Daniel Logan hitting puberty made her feel old. Or maybe it’s the smell in his room. It’s like wet dog and old cheese in there. It’s disgusting.”

It was. There was no denying it. Her sweet little baby boy had sprouted armpit hair and an attitude. “I don’t think that’s it.”

“Well, you could ask her.”

Amanda rolled her eyes in the dark. “Why are you always so damn logical?”

“One of us has to be.”

She stuck her tongue out at him.

“I saw that.”

“How could you see that? It’s pitch-black in here.”

“Because I have tiger eyes.”

She laughed. It still amazed her how much she loved this man, and how content she was on the farm. They had traded houses with Danny’s parents when Jack was born, to give them more room, and Amanda loved lying in the four-poster bed in their bedroom with the window seat, the soft breeze wafting in through the window, bringing with it the scent of her lavender plants. Danny had thought she’d gone overboard with them, but if three were pretty, wouldn’t thirty be even prettier? It wasn’t like they didn’t have the space.

This was her home, the place she had found herself. So had Piper. Amanda just couldn’t imagine the farm without her.

“I’m going to miss her,” Danny said, his voice tight. “But this isn’t about us, hon. It’s about Piper. Maybe she just needs to spread her wings a little. I guess we should be proud we helped her regrow her wings, because when she came to me, they were clipped tight.”

“I know.” Amanda kissed his shoulder. “You’re a good father.”

“You’re a good mother. And a hot one to boot.” He smacked her ass.

Normally that was a good indicator that friskiness would follow, but Amanda was still too distracted to take the bait. “I feel this huge emptiness inside me.”

“I have something I can fill it with.” He placed her hand on his erection.

Really? Not that she was surprised. He was a man, after all. “Pervert.” As if she really minded. She had to say she was pretty pumped that after all these years and kids, they still couldn’t keep their hands off of each other. “I’m having a moment and all you can think about is sex.”

“That’s because it’s real simple. When women are stressed they want to talk about it for three days straight. A man wants to be distracted thoroughly so he can ignore his feelings. And what’s a more thorough distraction than sex?”

He had a point. “Maybe I could use a distraction myself.” Otherwise she might burst into tears.

“Really?”

He sounded so hopeful it was cute. “Really. Show me what you got.”

Amanda knew her husband was the kind of man who liked to rise to a challenge. Literally.

“Oh, I’ve got it. And you’re going to like it.”

He was a man who always spoke the truth.

Amanda most definitely liked it.

* * *

PIPER SAT ON THE COUCH AT SHELBY AND BOSTON’S, a novel in her hand, and glanced at the clock on her cell phone for the sixth time in six minutes. It was almost ten and Brady wasn’t there. She hadn’t heard from him all day. Not a single peep, text, or appearance. Not that she had necessarily wanted him to show up at the farm. It would have been damn near impossible to pretend that nothing had happened between them, and her parents would have been closely watching her. It would have resulted in a very uncomfortable afternoon.

But that didn’t mean she didn’t want him to want to be where she was.

Or to at least acknowledge in some way that they had swapped spit and a whole lot more the night before.

Though how he was supposed to do that, she wasn’t exactly sure. She wasn’t a one-night-stand kind of girl and she wasn’t sure what you did the day after, though if she had to puzzle it out, she supposed you didn’t do anything the day after. Hence the phrase “one-night stand.”

But she’d thought he would feel a bit obligated to see her again, even if it didn’t involve more sex. He was staying at Shelby’s house and they shared family. They weren’t strangers who’d met in a bar.

Maybe he had found somewhere else to stay for the night, like the house on Swallow Street.

Which was highly disappointing. Or maybe he wanted to stay with his grandmother. She understood. But it would be nice if he told her, so that she didn’t have to anticipate his key in the door every time she heard the slightest noise in the house. She could give up pretending to read her book, change out of her sundress into her pajamas, and cleanse her pores. Not that he owed her anything.