Seeing is Believing (Cuttersville #3)(65)
Author: Erin McCarthy

“Hi, Piper,” Brady said, and there was a tone she didn’t recognize. “Who’s your friend?”

Then she knew. Jealousy. That’s what she heard. Maybe, despite her mistakes, there was a chance. She shouldn’t hope. But she couldn’t help it. “Oh, this is Cameron, my friend from middle school.”

“Nice to meet you.” Cameron stuck his hand out and shook Brady’s.

“Brady Stritmeyer.”

Cameron’s eyebrows shot up as he caught on to what was happening. “So, I need a black coffee the size of my head before I have to help my mother figure out her new computer. Anyone else need anything?”

“No, no, we’re good,” Shelby said firmly, when the twins started to offer their needs.

“I need to speak to Piper for a second,” Brady said suddenly. “Alone.”

Piper tried to tamp down the hope that bloomed in her. It could be anything. He might have heard from Stuart. He might want his toothbrush back, the only thing still left at her place after she had sent the rest of his things home with Shelby a few days after their breakup. Just because he wanted to talk here, now, didn’t mean he wanted to talk about them. It was probably about the toothbrush.

“Sure.” She moved over to the stone fireplace in the center of the room and turned back to him. “How are you?”

He shrugged. “I’m okay. How are you?”

Her answer was the same. “Okay.” That was what she was. Fine. Okay. Hanging in there. Making progress. Coming to terms.

But she wasn’t great, amazing. Happy. None of those.

Brady crossed his arms over his chest, like he was uncomfortable. “I wanted to tell you that I don’t want you feeling guilty about not sending a picture of my painting to Stuart. That was your idea in the first place, not mine, and I didn’t really care one way or the other, so truthfully, I think it was your dream for me, not mine. I don’t need to hit it big in the art world to be content with what I’m producing. And I am, for the first time in a long time, and I owe that to you.”

That surprised her. She had been carrying a great deal of guilt around over that. But he was right—it had been her idea. Nodding, she said, “Thank you. I’m glad you’re still painting.”

He nodded.

They were both a couple of nodding fools.

“I’m only on break, and I should probably get back to it, but are you coming to Shelby’s party?”

“Yes.” Boston was having a forty-first birthday party for Shelby because he’d taken her literally the year before when she’d said she didn’t want a fortieth party. This was an attempt at rectifying that mistake. “Of course.”

Brady gave a look she couldn’t decipher. “Save a dance for me?”

As if there was any way she could say no to him. “I’d love to.”

* * *

TAKING A PULL ON HIS BEER, BRADY LOOKED AROUND the yard at Shelby’s and was satisfied with what he saw. He and Boston had spent the day pitching a tent and stringing it with lights. They had rolled out a couple of kegs and put down plywood boards duct taped together for dancing while Gran and Amanda and Willie Tucker and Piper and Shelby’s mom had lined up tables by the house and piled them with food. Now the party was in full swing, and Brady was amazed to realize how happy it made him to see that he knew every one of these people.

No matter what happened with him and Piper, he wasn’t going anywhere.

But if he had anything to say about it, a whole lot would be happening between him and Piper. Watching her all day, seeing how she smiled at all her relatives, how she entertained and counseled the kids, the way she followed directions and never got stressed, it just confirmed for him that she was an amazing woman.

He knew what he’d known all along, and while he’d stepped back for a while, given her the space she’d asked for, he wasn’t doing it anymore. Tonight he was throwing it all out there and she could either take it or leave it. But he had to try.

The air was crisp, and the bonfire he and Boston and Danny had built was blazing away. Kids, jacked up on soda and birthday cake, were tossing marshmallows into the fire and watching them explode. Piper was supervising, keeping the overexcited single-digit set from falling face-first into the flames.

They had of course spoken, greeted each other, made various random comments to each other as the day had gone by, just like anyone else there. But that was it, and Brady had been waiting for just the right moment to approach her.

When the music blaring through the speakers changed from fast-paced country-line dancing to an old-school eighties love ballad, Brady knew this was his chance.

Since he’d never gotten anything by hanging back and waiting for it to fall in his lap, Brady went over to the fire and moved in close to Piper, too close for two people who weren’t dating. Her reaction was what he expected. She turned, flustered, and grabbed her throat. She was bundled up in a winter coat with a fake fur collar, and he wanted to grab those lapels and kiss her until the sun came up.

God, he had missed her. He couldn’t live without her. He couldn’t. She was a doorway to the purest happiness he’d ever known, to a contentment he’d never even known existed.

“Oh! Brady.”

Intertwining his fingers in hers, he said, “Dance with me?”

With a flustered look at the children, then over to the dance floor, she took a deep breath and said, “Yes.”

For the first time Brady realized Cameron was on the other side of the fire. “Watch the kids, Cam,” she said. “And hold my drink, please.”

“Yeah, because that’s exactly what I want to do,” Cameron said, looking anything but pleased as he took the cup from her.

Brady led her to the dance floor. Piper’s cheeks were pink from the heat of the fire, and she looked so alive, so juicy, he was having a hard time holding an erection at bay. When she wrapped her arms around his neck and they started to sway, Brady was overcome with a sense of certainty. This was the woman he was meant to be with.

“I miss you,” he told her simply as he stared down at her.

Piper swallowed hard. Her voice was hoarse, tight. “I miss you, too.”

“See, the thing is, Piper, nobody is perfect. I think there probably isn’t a person alive who is totally and completely done growing and changing as a human being. So I don’t see any reason why you and me can’t do that growing and changing together.”

He figured he had about three and a half minutes left of this dance, and he wanted to just get down to it. He was in love with Piper and he was going to tell her before the night ended.