Seeing is Believing (Cuttersville #3)(2)
Author: Erin McCarthy

A couple of heads taller than her, he had short, dark brown hair and a rangy, muscular frame. Droplets of water trailed down his temple and dripped off his stern chin. She couldn’t see his eyes in the hazy darkness of the porch, but she knew they were green. Many a pubescent fantasy of hers had been built around those green eyes.

“This is really embarrassing,” he said with a half smile. “But you obviously know who I am and I don’t recognize you.” He stepped into the house, glanced around the hallway, turned back to her, and shrugged. A charming grin flashed at her. “I was thinking about faking it, but you look like you’re already onto me.”

“That’s okay. You’ve been gone a long time.” And never once in twelve years had he come back to visit. Piper wondered why he did now, without even calling his family first.

She tucked her long hair behind her ear and leaned on the door she’d closed. “I’m Piper Tucker.”

His eyebrows shot up. “Little Piper? Danny Tucker’s daughter?”

When she nodded, he ran his eyes over her, looking a little more closely than she was comfortable with. He smelled like rain, his shoes squeaking on the hardwood floor, and God, she did not want him to see in her face that she’d once cared about him. That she’d wanted him to sweep her off her feet and make her his wife, with the sort of vagueness towards details that thirteen-year-olds are so good at.

“Damn,” he said. “You’ve done some growing since the last time I saw you.” He held his palm out in front of his waist. “You couldn’t have been much more than this tall when I left.”

Plucking at her tank top, trying to pull it lower over her stomach, Piper gave a nervous laugh. “Well, I was only eleven and I was always kind of short.” Puberty had come late for her, which the pediatrician had speculated could have been the result of poor nutrition in her early developmental years.

“It looks like it all worked out for you in the end. You turned out just fine, Piper.”

Well. That was probably meant to be a compliment, but it landed on her ears offensively. Like while he wouldn’t go so far as to call her pretty, she should be lucky she hadn’t turned out plain old ugly either. Piper had never had any illusions about her attractiveness. She’d always been gangly and awkward, with eyes too big for her head. A head that had been bald from age six to nine, with hair long enough to ruffle not appearing until she was nearly eleven.

No, she’d never been beautiful like her stepmother, Amanda, but hearing Brady’s offhand remark drew out a vulnerability she hated. It lived in her all the time, those deep-rooted childhood insecurities, but most of the time, she ignored them. Having them arise now made her frustrated.

“Thanks,” she said briefly, afraid to say anything more.

Brady popped his head into the parlor. “Damn, this place hasn’t changed one bit. A new couch, maybe, but everything else is the same. So, the kids all asleep? Is Zach in his room watching TV? I’ll go hang with him for a while.”

“He’s actually at a friend’s house. At fourteen, the idea of spending the weekend with his little sisters and a babysitter was just too mortifying, I guess. He’ll be around during the day tomorrow but he won’t be sleeping here.”

Brady was wandering into the parlor, so Piper followed him. He had pulled a doily off an occasional table and was twirling it around on his finger. “Well, at least this way I won’t have to sleep on the floor.”

Piper crossed her arms over her chest, distracted by the way his jeans clung to his backside. “What do you mean?”

“I can sleep in Zach’s bed tonight.”

It took her a second, but when his words filtered through her brain, Piper bit her lip nervously. “You’re spending the night?”

“Yep. It’s too late to go to my grandmother’s. I don’t want to wake her up. And I don’t get along with my father, so I’m not exactly welcome there. My sister Heather moved to Cincinnati when her husband couldn’t find a job here.” He held his arms out, doily included, and smiled, a charming, confident smile. “Sorry. You’re stuck with me.”

Oh, Lord. That’s what she was afraid of.

A completely innocent slumber party with Brady Stritmeyer.

That was called a cruel irony.

* * *

BRADY SET THE DOILY DOWN AS PIPER GAVE HIM A very forced smile. Clearly, she wasn’t thrilled about the idea of him spending the night. He wasn’t sure why it mattered. He was thirty-one years old—it wasn’t like he needed her to cook for him or anything. Maybe she’d planned on painting her nails or waxing her bikini area and couldn’t if he was hanging around.

But even if he had another place to stay, he wasn’t sure he wanted to go anywhere. It was fascinating to watch Piper, to study all the changes twelve years had brought to her face and her body.

Jesus, her body. She had just that right combination of curves that told a man this was definitely a woman, without being overblown and distracting. Her little cotton shorts were hugging her round ass, and despite the fact that she kept crossing her arms over her chest, he had seen the outline of her full br**sts. Caught a glimpse of her taut ni**les.

And when she’d first opened the door, and the light from the hallway had hovered behind her, all that hair had tumbled down over her shoulders and br**sts and he’d felt a kick of sexual awareness. An instant attraction.

Now that he knew it was Piper Tucker, the hair amazed him even more. He remembered her as a shy little girl clinging to her father, her bald head covered with a hat all the time. No wonder he hadn’t recognized her.

Piper was a sensual, exotic woman now.

“Sit down with me, Piper, and tell me what you’ve been up to for the last twelve years.” Brady dropped onto the couch and patted the seat next to him. He would behave himself now that he knew who she was. He was confused enough about his life without dragging someone else into it, and Piper was too young for him anyway.

Not to mention that her father was bigger than he was.

Yet it annoyed him when she sat in the chair across from him, instead of on the couch. She crossed her legs and hugged them to her chest and shrugged.

“Well, you know, there was middle school and high school. Then college. Now I’m one of the two kindergarten teachers at the grade school.”

“Hey, that’s cool. You must like kids if you teach school and still babysit on the weekends.”

“Well, Boston and Shelby are like family, and I love Emily and Lilly. I like spending time with them. And it’s only the first week in September, so school’s only been in for two weeks. I’ve had all summer to rest.” She gave him a shy smile that challenged his decision to be nothing more than an affectionate cousinly sort to her.