How could he have been so wrong about Piper?
Joe staggered back from the woman he’d almost confessed to loving. Boy, would that have been a huge mistake. Now, as he stood there staring at her, a tear splashed onto her cheek, but he was too devastated for it to affect him. His mind and body were on overload.
He barely recognized her as the sweet thing who had baked him a bear claw each morning or listened to him bare his scarred soul to her. Before him stood a meddling stranger. Someone who’d stolen his future from him.
Grief and pain collided within him. “Why? Why would you do this?”
“I didn’t mean to—”
“Was I not nice enough to you? Were you that worried about the competition?”
“No. No. It...it wasn’t any of that.”
He pressed his hands to his waist and blinked repeatedly. “I don’t understand how someone who says they’re my friend could do this.”
“I’m sorry. I...I’ll fix it—”
“No! You won’t! I don’t want your help. Every time I have something that’s important to me, someone I’m supposed to be able to rely on, to trust, comes along and destroys it. And in the process, they destroy a little piece of me.”
“I...I’m sorry.” She blinked and swiped at her cheeks. “I would do anything to erase this whole night.”
“I shouldn’t blame you. I should blame myself. I trusted you more than anyone. I opened up to you about the most painful experiences in my life. And that’s all on me. If I hadn’t, none of this would have happened.”
Piper staggered backward.
He glared at her. “Stay away from me. I don’t ever want anything to do with you.”
A sob tore from her throat. She held a hand to her mouth and took another step back.
Good. She was finally getting the message.
In one night, he’d lost his home, his business, and now the woman he’d thought he loved. How could he have been so foolish? He knew what happened when he trusted others—what always happened—he paid a steep price.
“We were all wrong for each other. Just go away.” He turned his back to her.
Joe’s body started to tremble. He folded his arms across his chest as his gaze took in the black soot stains trailing up his building. Everything was ruined.
“Here. You need this.” A gentle female voice said before the woman draped a red blanket over his shaking shoulders.
He glanced over at the woman. Her warm smile and short, silver hair looked familiar, but he couldn’t put a name to the face. His thoughts were a jumbled mess. Nothing was making sense.
“Can I get you anything else?” The older woman sent him a worried look. When he shook his head, she said, “I think I should call the paramedics and have them take a look at you. I think you might be suffering from shock.”
Was that it? Was that why he’d been a monster to Piper?
“Come on.” The woman gave a tug on his arm.
At last, he regained his speech. “Thanks. I...I’m fine.”
She sent him a look that said he was about as far from fine as a person could get. And he couldn’t argue with her. But he didn’t think there was a thing the paramedics could do for him.
He continued to stand there. A tremor raced through his body as the shock and anger drained away. Adrenaline fled his veins, allowing exhaustion to take its place. The weight of grief and guilt settled on his shoulders, pushing him down, making it hard to keep standing.
His gaze sought out Piper, but she’d already disappeared. Good for her. She got away from him, because right now he didn’t even recognize himself. He couldn’t even recall half of the things he’d said to her. He knew whatever the words had been, they’d hurt her. The pained look in Piper’s eyes was the one thing his memory retained.
His gut reaction was to go after her, to apologize for his overreaction.
But he couldn’t do it. As hard as it was for both of them, it had to be this way. He’d been foolish to think he could have a relationship with Piper, with anyone. Past experience should have been lesson enough. People changed, and in his experience, it was never for the best.
Then why did it feel like she’d walked away with his heart in her hands? And why did it feel as though he’d just pushed away his one chance to write his own happy ending?
“Do you have someplace to go?” The woman was still standing there, as though watching over him.
She obviously didn’t trust him to his own devices. And he didn’t blame her. He’d taken a horrible situation and made it unbearable. No one should be around him.
Realizing the woman was staring at him expectantly, he decided he better pull it together long enough to answer her before she called 911. “I...I can go to my mother’s.”
“You’re Martha’s boy, aren’t you?”
He nodded.
“Can you walk there? Or should I find you a ride?”
His mother lived only a few blocks away. He’d walked there many times. “I’ll make it.”
“Lead the way.”
“But the building, I need—”
“You need to go rest before you cause more damage. Someone else will watch it.” She took his arm, and they started walking.
So she had heard how he’d spoken to Piper. He wanted to ask her what all he’d said in the heat of the moment, but he didn’t dare. He wasn’t sure he could cope with the guilt. He’d deal with it tomorrow. He’d deal with everything tomorrow. It surely couldn’t be as bad as tonight. Could it?
“We’re here.” The woman’s voice was calm and reassuring.
He glanced up to find they were standing on the porch of his mother’s small bungalow. The porch light flicked on, and then his mother was standing there in her robe. She ushered them both inside.
The two women spoke in hushed tones as he headed to the small guest room where he’d stayed when he’d first moved back to town. He’d just lain down on the bed when his mother rushed into the room.
“Thank goodness Mrs. Noel was there to bring you home.” His mother held out two pills and a glass of water. “Here, take these.”
He didn’t have it in him to argue. He’d done enough of that tonight to last a lifetime. He never ever wanted to raise his voice again. He never ever wanted to be responsible for putting such a pained look on someone else’s face.
His mother turned off the light and closed the door.
The events of the night played in his mind, blurring together into a gnarled mess.
Then the blackness of the night mercifully sought him out.