Almost Just Friends (Wildstone #4)(55)

“Nice diversion,” Gavin said, but smiled. “And yeah. He took me back. For now anyway.”

“I didn’t realize you two had even remained in touch,” Piper said carefully. Gavin had been the one to leave CJ, but that didn’t mean he’d gotten off pain-free. Because he hadn’t. And in fact, he still grieved over losing CJ, and she wasn’t sure he was strong enough to survive it again. “I’m not sure this is a good idea—”

“Stop,” Gavin said gently. “You’ve spent enough of your life worrying about me. You don’t need to do that anymore. CJ and I both know what this is, and what it isn’t.”

She hoped that was true, because she didn’t want to see either of them hurt. But then again, she and Cam also knew what they had and what they didn’t, and that wasn’t going to stop her from being hurt when it was over.

“Seriously,” he said quietly, giving her a one-armed hug. “You’ve got other things to worry about.” He jerked his chin in Winnie’s direction.

“Hey,” Winnie said. “I’m fine.”

“Right. We’re all just fine.” Piper sighed. “Who’s the baby daddy?”

Winnie’s smile faded. “That’s one of the things I don’t want to talk about right now.” Or ever, her expression said.

Piper paused, surprised. “Why not?”

“Because it doesn’t matter.”

Piper was confused. “Of course it matters.”

“It doesn’t,” Winnie insisted. “I’ve got this, Piper. I do. I mean, how hard can it be?”

“To be a mom?” she asked in disbelief.

“Yeah.”

Piper didn’t want to scare her, but neither did she want her to look at this with rose-colored glasses, with absolutely zero idea how hard parenting could be.

Winnie was watching her and shook her head. “Don’t discount me, not on this.”

“I’m not trying to, Win. I’m trying to be supportive.” While not freaking out completely. Because she’d already raised two chicklets. She was in the home stretch of being free. Or at least, she had been. “What about college? You’ll need a degree if you’re going to raise a kid. You could get another semester under your belt before you give birth.”

Winnie shrugged. “Maybe I’ll do it online, but I like fixing things. I want to do that instead.”

“You’re getting good at it too,” Gavin said.

Winnie beamed at him.

“We’re selling this place,” Piper burst out.

Her sister gasped. “What?”

“Why?” Gavin asked.

“Think about it,” Piper said. “We’d each get a third of the money. Winnie, you’d be able to pay off some of the college debt and have a nice nest egg for your baby. And, Gavin, you’d have financial security.” She paused, expecting excitement.

“But I want to raise my baby here,” Winnie said. “Be a family. Like we were.”

Gavin looked like he agreed with that.

Okay, so no excitement. What was happening?

Gavin drew a deep breath. “God knows, you deserve to get something out of all the work you put into this place. But if you’re doing this for me, don’t. The last thing an addict needs is financial security and discretionary money burning a hole in his pocket.”

“Okay.” Don’t panic. “So what do you need?”

“Honestly? To be right here in this house with both you crazy people.”

Wow. This was not how Piper had seen this going. At all. “So we’re, what, going to live together, until we’re old and gray?”

Gavin and Winnie looked at each other and then at Piper. “Yes,” they said in unison.

Winnie put her hands on her still-flat belly. “I need this, Piper,” she whispered.

Gavin nodded, and at the touch of fear in his gaze, Piper softened. Ached. “But—”

“We’re a unit,” he said. “The three of us. We’re all we have left because our parents are gone. And I get it, that very fact forced you to become the Fixer, and don’t get me wrong, you’ve always done the right thing by us. You put your life on hold to make sure we grew up okay, but you’ve never liked it. Even now I can see you panicking on the inside, scrambling to figure out how to get us gone again.” He hesitated, and when he spoke, his voice was unusually solemn. “Do you have any idea what it feels like to be a burden to someone you love?”

God. He was right. As awful as it was, there’d been times when she’d felt overwhelmed and out of control, and had looked at them as a burden, and that was all on her. She wanted to reach out, hug him, say something to ease the pain in his eyes, anything, but they’d never been a huggy sort of family. And now she knew that it was her fault they weren’t.

“You were my mom, my dad, my friend, and oftentimes also my enforcer,” Gavin said. “But you’ve never been my sister. You’ve never let me be your brother. You’ve never let me be there for you, Piper, not once. You need to stop protecting me. I’m grown, I’m good, and that’s all thanks to you. But I want to be siblings. I want to be equals. I want to be the one to help you for a change.”

“I don’t need help.”