Back To Us (Shore Secrets 3) (14 page)

Suddenly, breaking out in song felt like a great idea.

Chapter Ten

Piper looked in the mirror over the tasting room’s bathroom sink. She’d already spent half an hour vacillating between outfits at home. Getting out the door—and away from the full-length mirror in her bedroom—had required a self-bargain of bringing six jewelry options to try with the navy and white silk windowpane blouse and wide-legged pants. Because the right jewelry could change the whole tone of the outfit. Make her look warm and welcoming, or businesslike and buttoned-up. Too bad she didn’t know which look would play better to the readers of
WWLL.

So after the opening bustle of customers, she’d sprinted in here to try the heavy gold links and anchor pendant. Between verifying time cards for both the winery and vineyard staff—since her father certainly wouldn’t waste his time with anything paperwork-related—she’d slipped on a waist-length knotted silver chain. And now she’d stolen a moment to look at the choker sparkling with clear and blue glass from the Corning Glass Museum right down the road.

Vacillating wasn’t Piper’s style. She strategized. Weighed the options and made the prudent decision and stuck by it. Maybe she’d caught some of Maria’s flibbertigibbet-ness from last night’s movie. More likely, though, that for once nerves were getting the best of her famous poise. This feature with
WWLL
could be the start of something huge both for her personally and for the family vineyard. It could even be the start of a new, less-grudging respect from her father. It was
everything.

“Piper. You’ve got a visitor.”

Great. Running out of time had made the decision for her. On the plus side, Piper could spin this into a conversation about the appeal of the Finger Lakes region, and the local skill of handcrafters in the area. She filled her pockets with the other necklaces, slipped on the matching blue glass earrings and hurried out the door.

The sunny tasting room held a handful of tourists, clumped around Penny as she started her spiel about Morrissey Vineyards before taking them on a tour through the winery itself. Jeffrey walked by with a crate of clean glasses. Nobody seemed to be waiting for her.

“Hey.” A tap on her shoulder sent her jumping almost straight out of her patent navy platform pumps. Then her heart just about thudded out of her chest when she got a look at Ward.

He wore a faded blue-and-white University of Kentucky tee. Average enough, since fifty percent of his wardrobe consisted of plaid flannel and the other fifty percent was tees. But Ward had clearly bulked up since his campus days. The thin cotton stretched so taut across his pecs and ribs—and holy hotness, one
heck
of a six-pack—that he might as well be naked. Sweat plastered it to his belly, too. Piper wanted nothing more than to lift it up. To run her hands over the dark line of hair she knew ran down his belly, beneath the waistband of his jeans. To feel that sweat-slick skin against her own.

“You’re looking at me the same way you looked at that piece of chocolate pecan pie after the movie last night,” he murmured.

“That’s not surprising. I wanted to gobble it down. And all I can think about right now is getting my mouth all over you.”

Ward’s eyes darkened. He didn’t shift his stance, but she could tell all of him tightened. Came to attention. Piper had the feeling that if one of the display cases of wine tipped over, then took the other six down with it like a stack of dominos, Ward still wouldn’t move or look away from her. That kind of focused attention was a heady thing. Addicting.

It didn’t seem possible to forget something about Ward. Not when they saw each other for breakfast practically every day, on top of all the other times they hung out. But that sort of daily interaction had occurred when they were in the friend zone. Piper had forgotten—although now, in this moment, she couldn’t
imagine
how—just what a powerful thing it was to be at the epicenter of Ward’s world. Warm. Tingly. Needed.

Mouth suddenly dry, Piper licked her lips. “Hi.”

He crossed his arms. Gave her a quizzical grin. “You’re conversation backtracking. We’re way past ‘hi.’”

Right. She knew that. Just like she knew that their new “arrangement” had unlocked parts of her that had been in cold storage for a very, very long time. “I’m distracted.”

“Missed you at breakfast today at Cosgrove’s. Did you sleep through your alarm?”

What, like some drunk college student? Like she didn’t get up and run a business every day? “Have I ever?” Piper snapped.

“Seeing as how we’ve never spent the night together, I wouldn’t know.” His tone was calm. Matter-of-fact. Pointed, sure, but deservedly so. The polar opposite, in fact, of her shrewish response.

“Damn it.” Guess her nerves were even less under control than she’d realized. “I’m sorry.”

“For not sleeping with me? Or for biting my head off?”

“Both. Definitely both.” Piper knew Ward had taken a lot of flak from his teammates about spending his senior year dating a virgin. Not that he’d ever told her about it, or pressured her at all. No, he’d been remarkably patient for an eighteen-year-old boy.

Piper had been petrified to tell him that she wanted to wait. Especially since—in her capacity as one of his best friends—she’d learned that he’d dated other girls who
did
put out. But there were lots of pressures pulling both of them in different directions their senior year. Her friendship circle with Ella, Casey and Ward had been her foundation, as necessary as chocolate and air. Dating Ward had been risky enough to throw into the equation. Sleeping with him? That cranked the complication factor up exponentially.

Then, of course, they’d gone and fallen in love. The sort of deep, desperate, all-consuming first love that all others would forever be measured against...and found wanting. It should’ve been reason enough to throw caution to the wind. But then Piper worried about the end of the year, and whether or not they’d survive the transition to college. So she’d held him off even longer. Longer still once college began, with him in Kentucky and her stuck at Cornell.

Ironically, the weekend she’d gone out there to surprise him? Her overnight bag had been stuffed with a dozen condoms. It was time. It was supposed to be their first time. Ward hadn’t known. It was supposed to be a romantic jolt to his system. It was supposed to be magic. Instead, Piper had been the one to get the unforeseen curveball straight to the head. And the heart.

If Piper hadn’t made him wait so long, would Ward still have kissed that other girl? She didn’t know. In the course of this dating experiment, it was probably something they should discuss. Not that discussing the what-ifs would change the past, but it might give her the closure they’d never achieved.

“Want to start over again?” she suggested with an apologetic pat of his arm. “All the way back at ‘hi’?”

“Depends on if it’ll turn out any different this time.”

Oh, she’d make sure of it. Piper let her hand linger on the dark hair of his forearm. “Well, we’ve had two official dates, shared five breakfasts and burned up the phone lines into the wee hours for three nights. In the dating rule book, that means we’ve hit a certain level.”

The corners of his mouth twitched. “Which is?”

“That you should want to be greeted with a kiss.”

“Babe, I don’t care about a rule book. If you’re in front of me, I want a kiss. Simple as that.”

Even better. Piper moved in. Slid a hand up his slightly damp shirt. Stood on her tiptoes. And then jerked away just as his stubble grazed her cheek. “Wait. We can’t. Not now. Not here.”

Ward’s head lolled in a slow circle. Behind his closed lids, she was pretty sure his eyes were rolling, too. “Want to tell me what’s got your panties in a twist?”

“I’m sorry.”

“Yeah, you’ve covered that much already. What the hell is wrong with you this morning? You’re not just acting weird. You’re not Piper.”

He’d nailed exactly what was wrong with her. “I’m not, am I? I don’t even feel like myself. And it’s kind of pissing me off.”

“Who do you feel like?”

“A caricature. A cartoon?” With a swift shake of her head, Piper said, “No, a recipe. That’s what I feel like. Two parts independent modern woman, one part family legacy, three parts winery manager, one part port entrepreneur...” Her voice trailed off. “It’s the interview with
WWLL.
I’m all twisted up about it. They’ll be here any minute. That’s why I can’t kiss you. That’s why I’m acting so weird.”

“What happened to my Piper? The cool, collected woman who always has a plan? Who knows exactly what she wants?”

“Pretty sure my nerves tied her up and are holding her hostage in some dank basement of my brain.”

“You worried about how you’ll come off in the interview?”

“I’m worried they’ll twist my words. That I won’t give enough credit to the long legacy of my family. That I won’t say enough to set us apart from all the other vineyards in the Finger Lakes. Or that women reading the article will wonder why I’m lolling on the family laurels. Why I haven’t gotten up the gumption to strike out on my own. Why I waited so long to start Grandpa’s port line.” It was a relief to say it all out loud.

A deep line furrowed between his dark eyebrows. “For fuck’s sake, Morrissey, pull your head out of your ass.”

“Excuse me?” Ward might not think he needed a dating rule book, but clearly he needed a refresher in how to be a good boyfriend. Or perhaps just a reality check on her wholly reasonable expectations. “Shouldn’t you be soothing me in the midst of my deep inner turmoil? Offering a sympathetic hug?”

He shifted his weight to one leg. Shrugged. “That’s not what you need.”

“I beg to differ.”

“You want someone to pat you on the head? To help you wallow? I call Not It.”

Mindful of the clump of browsing tourists two shelves over, Piper lowered her voice to a furiously harsh whisper. “Why? Because you only want this deal of ours for the fun times? Because it’s too much trouble when things get less than sunny?”

“No. Because you’re being an idiot. And I care enough to go to the trouble to point it out, which is the only way to get you to fix it.”

Piper threw her hands up in the air. “More name-calling. Great. Just what I always wanted in a boyfriend.” This looked to be the end of their little experiment. Oh, well. They’d had a good six-day run. Honestly, they’d lasted longer than she’d anticipated.

“I’m your friend first and foremost. Being a painfully truthful friend takes precedence over raking in the boyfriend perks, nice as they might be.”

“Don’t concern yourself with those perks. You’re about to lose
all
of them.”

Ward snagged her by her sleeve and towed her around the corner into the relative privacy of the hallway. Then he scrubbed a hand over the thick stubble on his cheek. “Look, Piper, you’ve got all these hopes and expectations making a sticky mess of your thoughts. You’re trapped in them right now. It sucks. I get that.”

“Really? This is you being empathetic?” Ward was famous for not pulling any punches. But even he should know that a little sugar-coating was sometimes required. Piper would let him spit out whatever else he had to say. And then she’d turn on her heel and walk away. Because she needed a boyfriend who understood her, not one who bullied her.

He barreled right on, skimming his hands up and down the outside of her stiffly held arms. “But at your core, Piper, you’re stronger than hundred-and-eighty proof pot-stilled rum. You know exactly what you want to get across to the readers of
WWLL.
You’re always thinking five steps ahead, if not five years. So cut your way clear of whatever crap has you all tangled up. Stop wasting time and energy fussing. Remember that you’ve
got
this.”

His words were an electric cattle prod, burning through her jumbled-up stress and apprehension. And they were a gift, too. A romantic one. Because they proved that Ward absolutely totally did understand her. “I’m sorry.”

“For what, the twelfth time in five minutes? Now what?”

“For snapping at you. For putting you in a position where you had to be the bad guy.” Piper wasn’t sure if she should laugh or give him three cheers with a hearty
job well done.
But her morning of waffling was officially over. So she went with a simple, “Thank you.”

It took a second for him to register her utter sincerity. When he did, Ward gave the stupid, sharp head bob that men always did instead of simply saying you’re welcome. Guess he’d used up all his words on steering her back on course. Well, Piper had plenty more she wanted to share with him.

“You’re a hundred times more useful than a gooey-centered, marshmallow-y boyfriend. I guess I didn’t realize that I needed some who’d push back, instead of someone I could push over. It’ll take me a little time and practice to get used to.”

“Take all the time you need. I’m willing to negotiate an extension on our dating deal. Indefinitely.”

Laughing, Piper threaded her arm through his and led them back into the tasting room. “That won’t get my port vines planted.”

“See? Five steps ahead.”

“I’m very glad you swung by this morning. But why did you?”

“Brought you something. Checked the fence line this morning and found these.” Ward loped ahead to the shelf he’d first been standing by, and turned back around with a glass bowl brimming with berries darker than her best reserve Cabernet. “I remembered you used to stuff yourself until your lips turned blue on them.”

Piper snatched one from the top of the pyramid and dropped it on her tongue. So good. So sweet that he remembered. She hadn’t plucked berries from the fence between their properties in years. She tried not to go near it, actually. Too many memories. But it didn’t hurt to sift through those memories anymore. Not with the past quickly being eclipsed by an even better present with Ward.

This bowl of berries was better than a dozen roses. Uniquely thoughtful, without being fussy. So very, very Ward. She definitely owed him big time now.

“But it’s September. Only the thorny blackberries are still in season.” She set down the bowl, grabbed his hands and flipped them over. Scratches crisscrossed every inch, from the base of his nails down past his wrists. “Your poor hands! They must sting like the devil.”