Seeing is Believing (Cuttersville #3)(24)
Author: Erin McCarthy

Yet at the same time, “It was nice to see you” went a long way. That was it. That was all she needed. Just some sort of acknowledgment of something. That was it.

Piper shifted on the couch, annoyed with herself. Her thoughts were running in a circle and it was completely pointless. She should just put the pj’s on. She glanced at her phone. Two more minutes. At ten she would go change.

She wondered whether Jessie Stritmeyer had told Brady that she was the renter moving into the house on Swallow. Piper guessed that he was helping his grandmother out on his vacation time, which was very sweet of him. Most guys his age wouldn’t devote all their free time to tearing out an old lady’s weeds. It made her like him all the more. Not that she needed much help in being attracted to him. She did have to wonder if Jessie had told him that she was going to be at the house helping out as well, and how exactly he felt about that.

Truthfully, Piper wasn’t sure how she felt about it. Calling Jessie had been impulsive, something she normally wasn’t. Change wasn’t something she ever sought out—in fact, she avoided it. But standing in chicken poo with her little brother, who was not so little anymore, Piper realized that change had to come sooner or later and she might as well be the one driving the truck towards it. At least then she was making her own decisions, not reacting to decisions made for her.

Plus it had definitely occurred to her that if she ever wanted to have a sex life again, she couldn’t exactly do that while living with her parents. And she did. She really, really wanted a sex life, regardless of Brady going back to Chicago. Last night had proved that she had certain physical needs and that maybe it was time to start dating. Create a sex life for herself. Lord knew her parents had one. She had heard a thing or two she would have preferred missing many a night on her way to the bathroom.

She appreciated that until now, no one had suggested she move out. They had assumed, and rightly so, that when the time came, she would tell them. But her parents had been stunned to hear that she wanted to move out now. Not in three months, or after Christmas, or when her car was paid off. Just now, in a couple of weeks. Suddenly, with no real plan.

Yet she hadn’t changed her mind, even hearing the words out loud, or when seeing her parents’ astonishment.

A key turned in the front door. The relief she felt embarrassed her. She had put far too much stock into Brady coming back. Plus she’d been letting her imagination run away with her as she’d sat there picturing working on a house with him for three weeks, thinking things she had no business thinking.

Maybe she needed to keep her paintbrush and roller tucked away until Brady went back to Chicago, because she had a feeling that playing house with him wasn’t going to be good for her state of mind. Or her libido, if he treated her like a casual friend.

Like someone he couldn’t be bothered to call or text all day after they had sex.

Yeah. She was losing it. So probably, to keep her sanity, the less time she spent with Brady, the better. She had just learned a very valuable lesson. She sucked at casual sex. She may have gotten exactly what she wanted, a hot interlude with Brady Stritmeyer, but she was going to be flip-flopping between gratitude and regret for weeks.

“Hey,” he said, giving her a smile as he appeared in the doorway of the parlor, wearing jeans and a T-shirt, a bottle of wine in his hand. “How was your day?”

The day before, Piper hadn’t given any thought to Brady Stritmeyer. To moving out or dating or strolling into a man’s bedroom to attempt to seduce him.

Now she was melting at his smile and picturing him as her boyfriend, husband, father of her children.

It made her completely annoyed. That she was still so vulnerable, so needy, that she would jump from A to Z without a pause at any letter along the way, even when she gave herself fair warning not to be ridiculous.

“Good. How about you?” To her own ears, she sounded clipped, but to anyone who didn’t know her—and Brady most certainly didn’t know her—she imagined she sounded perfectly fine.

“I spent some time with my grandmother and then my stepmom. The kids like the farm?” He moved into the room, sat down in the chair across from her, set the wine on the coffee table.

“Yes. They usually do. How is your grandmother?” And had she mentioned Piper’s plans to him?

“She’s good. Same as usual. Full of fire and whiskey.” He shook his head with a laugh. “I asked to crash with her for a few days and she said no. It seems she has a standing Saturday-night date.”

“I guess she’s earned her right to privacy.” Piper bit her fingernail. “So are you going back to Chicago tomorrow?” She knew he wasn’t, of course, but she didn’t want to come right out and ask him how he felt about them working on the house together. And she didn’t know what else to talk about, anyway. She kept looking at him and picturing him over her, his erection pushing inside her, his eyes dark with desire.

“No. I’m actually going to stay a few weeks in my grandmother’s rental house. She said it’s empty but I can stay there for free if I do some work around the place.”

Piper waited for him to elaborate but he didn’t. She also thought it was strange that the work was in exchange for rent. Like Brady was the one in need, not his grandmother. “So . . .” She hesitated, but then just went ahead and asked, “Are you on vacation from work?”

“Nope. I got laid off. The economy sucks, you know.” He stood up. “I brought us some wine. You like Pinot Grigio? I’ll get us a couple of glasses.”

“Oh!” Brady had lost his job and he’d brought them wine. She wasn’t sure what to make of either one of those things. So she started with the obvious. He must feel bad about losing his job. “I’m sorry about your job.”

Though he didn’t look particularly upset. In fact, he smiled as he moved past her and reached out to tug a piece of her hair. “Come into the kitchen. It’s cozier in there. For the record, my job sucked. It’s no great loss, but I will miss the paycheck.”

“Are you moving back here for good?” The thought made her want to throw up, but in a good way. Piper stood up and smoothed the front of her sundress down as she followed him towards the kitchen.

“No, just until my vacation pay runs out. Three weeks. But then I’m going back and hopefully I’ll have a job sooner than later.”

Piper’s gut fell back down to its approximate appropriate location. “That sounds like a good plan.” She needed to break it to him. What had seemed like a perfect arrangement a few hours ago now seemed like the dumbest thing ever, right after eyelid lifters and pajama jeans. “So did your grandmother tell you she rented the house on Swallow to me?”