When We Fall (Take the Fall, #2)(15)
Without a backward glance, she unlocks her car and gets in. I wait while she does whatever her routine is before she finally starts up her car and pulls onto the highway. I follow her home, but instead of pulling in after her, I take off, needing time to get my shit together.
For the first time in my life, I have no idea what to say to a woman.
Chapter 5
Piper
When I realize that Jase isn’t pulling in behind me to park his motorcycle in the detached garage, I put my car in reverse and drive straight to Rowan’s house. It’s after seven, so she and Seth should be home from work by now. They don’t eat out a lot since they’re saving for a wedding and an extra-long honeymoon. Rowan has never traveled anywhere and Seth spent the last seven years traveling to war-torn countries. They are so adorably in love that I can’t help but root for them to be together forever. Or for me to find my own true love one day. Maybe Jase will—
Stop thinking that way. Life is hard. It’s not a fairy tale, no matter how much you wish it were.
Rowan is outside when I pull up to the curb. She’s messing around in the flower beds out front, something I never thought I’d see her do—until I realize she’s holding a golf club.
“Show your head again, damn vole, and I will knock it into the next county,” she shouts as I get out.
“Is this a bad time?” Please don’t let it be. I’m holding on by a thread. The urge to cry is weighing down on me so hard that I can barely walk to her. If I didn’t know better? I would say this felt worse than an asthma attack.
She whips around, her long blond hair flying as her scowl turns into a genuine, dazzling smile. At five feet eleven, Rowan has the looks of a supermodel and the mouth of a sailor—two reasons why Seth is attracted to her. At least in my opinion.
However, the reason he loves her is her heart. It’s big and full of love for those she holds dear. I thank God every day that I’m included in her small circle.
“Oh, shit. That son of a bitch hurt you,” she says, dropping the club and running to me. She wraps me up in a tight hug. “You haven’t even been there for twenty-four hours. I’m going to kill my brother.”
Immediately, I begin to sob all over her, finally giving my pent-up emotions free rein. “I told him how I felt and he just…he only thinks of me as his kid sister.” My heart pinches at the admission.
“So soon?” Rowan gasps, then shakes her head. “I’m sorry—it doesn’t matter when you told him. You were brave to tell him.”
Sniffing and wiping my nose, I shake my head. “I was stupid for admitting my feelings. It’s obvious I’m not his type.”
“Yes, you are. He probably doesn’t want to—”
“I don’t care what he wants. For once I want it to be about what I want.” I pull out of her embrace and stalk to the back door, not even bothering to wait to see if she’s following me. All I know is that I need to get inside because I won’t make a further spectacle of myself by crying on the front lawn.
“Piper, calm down,” she says as I open the back door and go inside.
“Don’t tell me what to do. If I want to throw a hissy fit over a guy, I will!”
Rowan grabs my shoulder, and I have to stop in the middle of my stomp-off. “I’m concerned about your asthma flaring up, that’s it. If you think you’re good to go, then I’m here to listen to you.”
Almost all of my self-righteous anger leaves me, deflating my body. “I wasn’t thinking about my asthma.” Mother likes to pretend I don’t have such a disgusting problem while my father barely notices anything about me at all. “Rowan, it was so embarrassing. Right after I told him how much I cared for him, he flirted with the hostess and got her to give him her number so he could invite her to a stupid party he’s having next Friday night.”
“Is that all he did?” she asks, letting go of me.
I move to the living room, kicking off my shoes so that I can curl up on the sofa. “Yes.”
“He didn’t ask her out?”
I give her a look. “Does he ever ask women out?”
She shrugs before sitting beside me. “Honestly, I don’t think so. Mostly, from what I remember and what I’ve seen since he’s been out, they chase him.”
“I’m thrilled to be counted among that number now.” I drop my head into my hands. “What was I thinking?”
“That you wanted to take life by the balls and go for it, instead of letting it happen to you,” she says firmly.
I peek out at her from between my fingers. “Life sucks.”
“What happened after his invitation?”
“He stopped flirting with her and we ate dinner, then he drove me home. Well, I rode on the back of his motorcycle because my car was at the shop.”
Rowan gets a thoughtful look on her face. “He only invited her to a party, stopped flirting with her, and allowed you to ride his bike—a first, by the way.”
“No, I’ve been on his bike before…before he went to prison,” I say, then blush when Rowan tilts her head to one side to study me.
“He’s never had any woman but you on that bike. I’ve never ridden that bike, and now you’re telling me that it wasn’t the first time for the two of you?”