~Reed~
“One more book.”
Piper looks up at me with pleading, brown eyes, but I remain strong in my resolve.
“I read one more book twice,” I remind her and scoot off of her bed, then tuck her in. “And you can hardly keep your eyes open.”
“I’m not sleepy.”
Her eyes are closed now, her face softening as slumber begins to take over. I take a moment to watch her, the way her dark lashes lie on the soft white skin of her cheeks, her pink lips slightly parted. Her bunny is tucked under her chin.
My daughter is the prettiest little thing I’ve ever seen.
I turn off the light and quietly walk to the door, leaving it ajar several inches so I can hear her if she needs me.
The lights of Seattle wink at me through the glass of the windows. I was so excited when I bought this condo five years ago. I never thought I’d leave it. Imagined the heart of the hustle and bustle of the city was exactly where I’d always be.
I didn’t do relationships and, in hindsight, I regret the way I treated Vanessa. I never lied to her, she knew the score, and if you’d asked me at the time, I would have said I wasn’t doing anything wrong. She eventually got tired of me and moved on. At least, that’s what I thought.
But I didn’t do anything to stop her.
I also didn’t respect her enough to ask her if she was okay. I was too self-absorbed to think of it.
Having Piper with me has jerked me out of that self-centered mindset. Made me consider more than my job, my needs. It’s made me have more care with those around me.
Jesus, I feel like I was sleep-walking for the first thirty years of my life, and I’m only now fully awake.
I’m not proud of it. If I think of a man treating Piper the way I did Vanessa, well…it makes me want to punch a hole in the wall.
I wish Vanessa were still here so I could apologize to her. She deserved better than what I gave her.
I hear Piper cough, so I go poke my head in to check on her. But she doesn’t wake up, she just turns to her side and goes right back to sleep.
The only thing I can do for Vanessa now is to make sure Piper is not only well taken care of, but also loved more than anything. And it’s more than a little surprising for me to admit that I’ve fallen more in love with Piper than I ever thought I could.
She’s mine. My flesh and blood.
There are days that it feels like it’s still sinking in.
My phone buzzes with a text from Noel, and I sit on the couch, facing the lights of the city, and smile at my screen.
Noel: How was your pizza?
Rather than text her back, I call her.
“If the story about pizza warrants a phone call, it must not have been good,” she says into my ear. She sounds sleepy.
“Are you in bed?” I ask her softly.
“I’m lying here reading. It’s a little early for sleep, even for me.”
“What are you reading?” I ask her.
“It’s a romance novel.”
“I probably haven’t read it.” I feel my lips twitch.
“No, I don’t think you have. So how was the pizza?”
“It was fine. The conversation I was having with a certain interior designer was better than the pizza.”
“Yeah? How come?”
“I got naked photos of her.”
She laughs. “I know for certain I didn’t send you a naked photo.”
“You were in a towel, that’s close enough. I can use my imagination.”
She sighs in my ear and even that quiet sound has something stirring inside me. “You’re quite the flirt, you know that, right?”
“I never really have been before,” I admit. “But I like talking with you. What are you doing tomorrow?”
“Hmm, let me check my schedule. Ah, yes, that’s right, I’m decorating your house.”
“Do you have a tree picked out for the living room yet?”
“Yes, I have all of the trees.”
“Is it real?”
She’s quiet for a moment. “No, they’re all fake trees. They can be reused that way, and you don’t have to worry about watering them. Also, no fire hazard.”
“Well, I think Piper should have a real tree in the living room.”
“I don’t have—”
“And you should go with us tomorrow to pick one out.”
I hear her sigh again. I lean my head back on the couch, wishing she were sitting next to me rather than a block away.
“Reed, I have a full day ahead of me.”
“Duck out around four,” I urge her. “That’s not too early. I’ll pick up Piper, and we can go get a tree. We’re learning to make time, remember?”
“Right,” she says. “Okay. I’ll leave at four, just for you guys.”
“Thank you, Noel.”
“You’re welcome.”
* * * *
“There’s snow!” Piper exclaims as I help her out of the truck I borrowed from Elijah and set her on the ground. She’s bundled up in boots and a pink snowsuit, and her face is lit up like the Fourth of July. “I’ve never played in the snow.”
“You’ve never seen snow?” Noel asks, and Piper shakes her head no.
“Piper and her mother lived on the coast, so they never got any snow over there,” I say.
“I love snow,” Noel says. I picked her up from my house thirty minutes ago. She wouldn’t let us near the place. Instead, she met us at the end of the driveway by the road.
She’s been very secretive when it comes to her work.
This tree farm is up near Snoqualmie, higher in elevation, where they get much more snow than the city does.
“Maybe we should leave Mr. Bunny in the truck,” Noel suggests and squats next to Piper to talk to her. “You don’t want him to get dirty while we play and look for a tree, do you?”
“I don’t wanna leave him,” Piper says as she holds him tightly against her chest. “He’ll be sad.”
“He can sit on the dash and watch us,” Noel says. “Here, let me show you. And if you don’t like it, we’ll take him.”
Piper begrudgingly lets Noel take the bunny. Noel sits him in the window of the truck so he’s facing the tree farm.
“See? He can see everything, so he’s not sad. And he’s safe in there.”
“He’s probably warmer in there, too,” I add, and Piper nods her head.
“He doesn’t have a snowsuit,” she says. “Okay, he can stay there, as long as he can see us. He’s never been away from me. Ever.”
Piper told me not long after she came to live with me that Vanessa gave Piper the bunny when Piper was a baby. Piper said the stuffed animal still smells like her mother.
The thought of it pulls at my heart.
We walk through the snow to talk to someone about borrowing a saw and a wagon, I buy the girls some hot chocolate, and then we’re off, looking for the perfect Christmas tree.
“What about this one?” Noel asks about twenty yards down the path.
“It’s not tall enough,” I say, and she turns to me.
“You have a twelve-foot ceiling in that room.”
“Exactly.”
She laughs. “This tree has to be about eleven feet tall.”
I shake my head and lead them farther down the path. Piper looks as if she’s having a hard time trudging through the snow, so I lift her into the wagon and pull her behind me.
“This is fun!” Piper exclaims, drinking her little hot chocolate as Noel and I look for a tree.
“She gets to ride,” Noel mumbles.
I’ve got something you can ride.
Of course, I don’t say that out loud, but if I have my way, I’ll whisper it to her later when my daughter isn’t listening to every word we say.
Finally, after about thirty minutes of looking, I find the tree I want.
“This is a Christmas Vacation movie tree,” Noel says with a laugh.
“You’re nuts. It’s perfect.”
“It’s way too big,” she insists, but then holds her hands up and steps back. “But it’s your house, your tree. I just won’t be held responsible when it takes up the whole room, and a squirrel comes flying out of it.”
“It has a squirrel?” Piper asks, excitement in her brown eyes.
“No, honey,” I say with a laugh. “No critters in this tree. Now, you ladies stand back while I cut it down.”
I have to wade my way into limbs, but once I get my footing, it doesn’t take long to cut the trunk and have it fall on its side.
Rather than make Piper get out of the wagon, I grip the trunk in my arms and begin to drag it.
“Isn’t this what we have the wagon for?” Noel asks and grins.
“Let her ride,” I say, shrugging. “You pull her, I’ll drag the tree.”
“You’re a softie,” she says, but the words are gentle, and her golden eyes shine as she reaches for the handle of the wagon. “I kind of like it.”
She walks toward me, and I stop her, run my hand over her coat-covered hip, and kiss her cold forehead.
“I’m glad,” I say and then step back to follow the ladies to the truck.
Noel doesn’t say anything more, but she swallows hard before leading me down the path.
Once I’ve paid for the tree and have loaded it into the bed of the truck, we head back toward the city.
“We’ll drop the tree off at the house.”
“You can put it in the garage,” Noel says sternly. “It’ll warm up in there. No going inside. And don’t look too hard at the outside, either.”
“Yes, ma’am.”
“I mean it.”
“I won’t look. I swear.” I laugh and enjoy the ride, with Piper in the back talking to her bunny, telling him about our adventure, and Noel next to me.
She fits in so well with us, it’s as if she’s always been here.
I pull into the driveway, and when I open the door, she opens hers as well.
“Wait for me,” I instruct her, then walk around to the passenger side of the truck. I offer her my hand and help her down to the concrete. Before she can walk away, I pin her against the door, the way I did yesterday, in this same spot. “Come to my place tonight. Have dinner with Piper and me.”
“Reed, I want to—”
“Great.”
“But I have—”
“Work,” I finish for her. “You have to eat, and my place isn’t out of the way.”
I see her softening. I lean in closer and press my lips to her ear.
“I want to spend time with you. Say yes.”
“Yes. I’ll come.”
Hopefully, I’ll have her coming sooner rather than later.
I kiss her, just below her ear, and breathe in her citrus scent. Her hair is soft against my nose.
I want to crush her to me and devour her. God, I’ve never wanted anyone the way I want Noel.
But that’s for later.
“I’ll text you my address,” I say as I pull back.
“I’ll be there in an hour.”
* * * *
“How did you know that Broadway Bar & Grill is my favorite?” Noel tosses the empty to-go containers in the trash.
“I didn’t. It’s my favorite,” I reply with a smile.
“I always get the BLT,” she continues. “And you somehow knew to get that for me. Are you stalking me?”
“I don’t have time to stalk you,” I reply as I lean against the countertop, watching as she tidies the kitchen. I told her she didn’t have to do that, but she just shrugged and did it anyway.
Honestly, I’m too tired to argue. If the woman wants to clean the kitchen, I say, let her.
This time.
“I’m ready,” Piper announces as she walks into the kitchen. She’s in her jammies, ready for her nightly reading time.
“I should go,” Noel says, and my stomach tightens.
I don’t want her to go.
Not yet.
“I want Noel to read to me,” Piper says. “Please?”
“Oh, I suppose I can do that,” Noel says with a surprised smile. “Sure. Do you have a favorite book?”
“Yeah, come on,” Piper says, taking Noel’s hand and leading her to her temporary bedroom. I can hear their voices as they get settled on the bed.
I tidy up, putting Piper’s snow suit and boots in the closet, her socks in the laundry. I reach for a damp sponge and wipe down the countertops.
Once all of that is done, I walk to the bedroom and listen as Noel finishes the first story.
“You read good,” Piper says around a yawn.
“Thanks. Does your daddy read to you at bedtime?”
“Yeah, he reads good, too. I like stories. Mommy used to read to me.”
“I like to read books, as well,” Noel says.
“What kind of books do you like?”
“Hmm. Fairy tales for grown-ups, I guess.”
“I like princess stories,” Piper says and yawns again.
“I think you’re ready for sleep.”
“I’m not tired.”
It’s the same every night, and it seems it doesn’t matter who’s tucking her in.
Good to know.
“Goodnight, sweet girl.”
I walk into the kitchen and pour two glasses of wine, just as Noel returns from Piper’s room.
“She’s beautiful,” Noel says.
“Thank you.” I pass her a glass and take a sip from mine.
“I’d like to know more about both of you.”
“Well, then, let’s sit and talk for a while, shall we?”