Almost Just Friends (Wildstone #4)(17)

“You should be studying—”

“Piper, I’m twenty, not twelve. I think I know how to handle my life.”

“Gee, I must be home,” came a new voice. “Because there’s fighting. Also, I didn’t fly either. I took a bus. Because when you’re alive, Piper, you answer your damn phone.”

Gavin . . . ? Piper whirled toward the door. Yep, her brother stood there with that always-present easygoing smile he gave the world.

Winnie made a happy sound and flew at him for a hug.

Gavin sighed dramatically, but hugged her back. “Win, you look like shit. You okay?”

“Wow.” Winnie pulled back. “If you ever want to be humbled, ask your brother how you look.”

“Happy to help.” Gavin looked just like Piper and Winnie, except to Piper’s ever-loving annoyance, he was lean to the point of looking underfed.

She’d never looked underfed a day in her life. “My phone died,” she said, and hugged him too.

“There’s a bunch of mud and downed trees blocking the street. Took me forever to walk in.” Gavin looked at Cam. “Who are you?”

“This is Cam Hayes,” Winnie told him. “Emmitt’s son.”

Gavin immediately lost his smile. “Hey, man. I’m sorry about Rowan.”

Cam gave a short nod and rose to his feet. “How bad’s the road?”

“Mud slid down the creek and into the lake. Missed your dad’s house and the entire marina, and this place too, thankfully. But yards are decimated and the street isn’t going to be operational until the county gets out here with a crew.”

Cam nodded. “I’m going to go check on my dad.”

“Let me know how he’s doing. And . . .” She grimaced. “Sorry about both the cat and me trying to kill you.”

He met her gaze, and she felt herself blush. He smiled, then headed to the front door.

“I’m going to go get some stuff from my car,” Winnie said, and followed Cam out.

“Didn’t she just say she’d left her car at the gas station?” Gavin asked.

Piper rubbed her forehead. “Yes, which means she’s lying to us about something, but hey, what’s new.”

Gavin nodded with a low laugh. “Like I said, home sweet home.”

Piper shook her head. “You hate it here. You couldn’t wait to leave.”

“I was a child.”

She laughed. “And now you’re not?”

He looked at her, not amused, his eyes far more grown-up than she’d ever seen them. “I’m twenty-seven. I might’ve taken the long, slow route to Adultville, but even I had to grow up sometime.”

True, but the last time Piper had seen him had been eight months ago when she’d had to bail him out of a DUI.

Clearly reading her mind, he grimaced. “The really long, slow route.”

She sighed. “None of us knows what we’re doing. We’re all just stumbling through.”

“Huh.” He gave her a half smile. “That’s actually almost comforting.”

“Good. So are you going to tell me why you’re really here?”

He let out a breath and met her gaze straight on, which was terrifying, because he only did that when there was bad news. “Maybe I just needed you.”

She laughed. “You barely even like me.”

“We’re family,” he said simply.

This was true. Gavin and Winnie were all she had in the entire world. And past her gruff exterior, past all those years of being the bad guy while attempting to mold them into decent people, she loved them both madly. “Tell me, Gav.”

“I took some time off. I . . . needed to be home.”

“But you’re okay?” she pressed, worried, always worried.

“I’m okay. But you should probably know, whatever the opposite of having your shit together is? I’m also that.”

Her heart started pounding. There’d been many, many years where she’d truly doubted she could get him to adulthood alive. If there was trouble to be found, he found it, and shockingly easily too. But she’d thought after he’d gone to IT trade school and gotten a solid job, that he was in the home stretch. “Are you in trouble?”

“Not at the moment.”

Okay, that was something, then. She let out a relieved breath. Maybe he and Winnie really were back for just a visit. “How long are you staying?”

“Couple of weeks.”

Couple of weeks was no big deal. And it wasn’t as if they were coming back to stay. She could do anything for two weeks. She was pretty sure anyway.

CAM SHUT THE front door of Piper’s house and stood on the covered porch a moment, surveying the crazy destruction of the storm. It was still raining, though very lightly now, while at the same time a good part of the sky had cleared. Branches, leaves, and debris littered the wild grass acreage between the house and the lake, as well as the distance to the marina and his father’s place.

He’d been to a lot of places in a whole bunch of countries, but even with the mess, this view was one of the most breathtaking he’d ever seen. From where he stood at the top of the slope looking down at the water, he could see miles and miles of green rolling hills dotted with sprawling oaks, and a very weak sun trying to rise above them all, leaving the land cast in a golden glow tipped with orange flames. The sky was awash in mingled shades from the entire family of blues, light to dark, and tumultuous gray.