Take the Fall (Take the Fall, #1)(34)

“We can work on your confidence, but the other…it’s not you.”

Piper frowns. “I can be just as—”

“No. You are not changing for a man. Change the way you are because you need to be different, not turn into some man-eater because you think Jase would want you.”

“Tonight he asked me if I would spend the night with him if he got rid of Giselle.”

My jaw drops and she blushes. “That *.” Yeah, he’s my brother and I love him, but my God, do men have to be ruled by their dicks all the time? “I hope you told his punk tail off.”

She averts her gaze, staring at a spot over my shoulder. “I said I didn’t know.”

Nonplussed, I stare at her for a moment. “That’s bold for you, but you’re worth more than a momentary lack of clarity.”

A flash of hurt covers Piper’s face. “You’re right. I don’t know what I was thinking. Momma—Mother—has enlisted the help of a matchmaker to find someone suitable for me.”

“Like a personal dating site consultant?” The lifestyles of the ultrarich never cease to amaze me.

“Yes. I had to give her access to all my social media accounts so that a profile could be created based on my user preferences.” She sounds so rehearsed that I feel sorry for her. “Then they’ll find the perfect man for me—socially and financially.”

“What a promise,” I mutter.

“I’m supposed to meet with them next week to go over my potential matches.”

“Sounds awesome.”

“If awesome means horrible.”

“You can say no, Piper,” I gently remind her.

She blows out a breath. “Rowan, if it was so easy to say no, then I wouldn’t be living at home. I’d be like every other twenty-three-year-old who has an apartment and privacy.”

This is true. Between her mother’s rules and her father’s status as chief of police, Piper has little to no privacy. Nannies raised her, and she was allowed only certain types of friends.

Until me.

I’m still not sure how that happened. “How did you get your mom to let you be friends with me?” I ask.

She bites her lip. “It’s not very nice.”

“You threatened her? Omigod. Spill.”

Piper looks at the floor. “I told her that being friends with you would be good community service,” she mumbles. “I was fourteen. I didn’t know what else to say.”

“Why, Piper Whitley Ross, how very crafty of you.”

Her gaze jerks up to mine. “You don’t think I’m a snobby bitch?” In true Piper fashion, she whispers the word bitch, like her mother will come storming into the room if she heard her.

“Girl, you are a total badass bitch in the making.”

Piper’s posture changes. She throws her shoulders back and gives me a confident smile. “I really could be, couldn’t I?”

I nod. “One badass step at a time.”

“Good. I’ll move in with you tomorrow.” She jumps to her feet and runs to her closet, dragging out three huge suitcases. “I already packed.”

My jaw drops to the floor again. “What?”





Seth


I’m half out of my mind with worry and jealousy as I channel surf. It’s not easy to be involved with someone who doesn’t let you know about the little things, like when she’s not coming home for the night. Rowan can be with anyone—any guy—right now.

My phone buzzes with a text alert and I scoop it up from the coffee table. “About f*cking time,” I mutter.

Rowan: Houston, we have a problem.

Me: ?

Rowan: Piper is moving in with me tomorrow.

Checking the time on my phone, I grimace. Two a.m.

Me: It is tomorrow.

Rowan: Thanks, Captain Obvious, but seriously, she’s moving in. What do I do?

Me: Help her unpack?

Rowan: But you’re thinking of selling the house.

Yeah, I am thinking of selling it. I don’t need it, but Rowan might. Even if everything works out, she needs a place to live while I finish up my contract.

If everything works out. Rubbing my hand over my face, I text, Don’t worry about it.

My phone rings. I answer it immediately.

“?‘Don’t worry about it’?” she screeches into my ear, except she’s whispering.

“Yeah,” I say just as softly. “Why the hell are we whispering?”

“Because I don’t want Piper’s mother to hear me.”

I should have known she was staying at Piper’s. “They don’t allow talking at normal levels over there?”

“They don’t allow their only daughter to move out.”

“You sound panicked.”

She makes the most adorable sound, sort of like a growl. “I am panicked. I don’t want to get into the middle of a power struggle with Piper and her parents, but she’s also my best friend. She stayed my friend when no one else would, Seth. People were cruel when you and Jase went to prison. Really, really cruel. She became an outcast for me.”

Pain slices through me as I imagine what Rowan must have endured as a sixteen-year-old girl from the wrong side of the tracks at our snobby-ass school. All because of things out of her control.