She sniffled and then burst into tears. Piper took her in her arms. I felt murderous at the sight. That douche bag had made my sister cry. I was going to kill him. I was going to fucking wreck his life.
And Tamara. I seethed. The way she had acted around me got on my nerves, but I hadn’t realized she was capable of such deception. And I still had to work with her. It wasn’t like I could fire her for hurting my sister.
“Let’s get you home,” Piper encouraged.
“No,” Nora said with a sniffle. “I can…I can get an Uber. I don’t want y’all to miss the party.”
“Hey, it’s okay.”
“We don’t mind at all. You shouldn’t have to take an Uber or be home alone.”
Nora wiped at her eyes. “Are you sure? I don’t want to be a bother.”
“Shush now,” Piper said, holding her close again. “You’re not a bother to anyone.” She looked up at me. “Go get the truck.”
I nodded and jogged across the parking lot to my truck and drove at illegal speeds to get back up to the front of the building. Together, we helped Nora into the backseat, and then I took off across town.
Piper sat in the back with Nora with her arm around her for support. What I’d felt before for Piper was one thing, but as I looked at her taking care of my sister, my heart swelled almost uncomfortably.
I’d never felt like this before. Like I’d do anything for this girl. To see her give up her night out in that beautiful dress for someone else, someone I cared about…I didn’t even have words for that.
Okay, I had one word.
But I’d never said it out loud to anyone who wasn’t family. I didn’t know if I was ready to say it right now either. Didn’t stop me from feeling it.
30
Piper
“Are you sure you want to go home?” Hollin asked from the front seat. “You should stay in my guest room.”
Nora shook her head. “I want to crawl into my own bed.”
He met my gaze and frowned. “Don’t you live with Tamara?”
She froze. As if the thought hadn’t hit her before that moment. “Fuck.”
I gritted my teeth. I knew exactly what she was going through. I’d lost two friends and roommates to a terrible situation like this. It had been Hollin’s fault all those years ago, and it was certainly August’s fault now. Though much of the blame rested with Tamara as well.
“I’m going to need to move out,” she muttered. “Where am I going to live? What about my lease?” She hit her head on the back of the seat. “Fuck, what am I going to do?”
“You can stay with me for now,” Hollin said. “After that, we’ll figure it out. One day at a time.”
“It’s best not to go back tonight,” I told her. “You don’t want to deal with her if she comes home…or wonder where she is if she doesn’t.”
Nora ground her teeth together and nodded. “Fine.”
Hollin pulled off the loop to head to his house instead of Nora’s apartment. Nora was silent the rest of the way home. I wasn’t sure if she was seething or trying to hold herself together. Either way, I was glad that she wouldn’t be alone tonight. Hollin parked in his garage.
“Do you need anything?” I asked as we entered the house. “Ice cream?”
“No,” she said with a sniffle, rubbing the back of her hand across her eyes. “I’m going to get into bed. Maybe take a shower. Thanks for doing this. Really.”
I crossed my arms and watched her with concern as she disappeared into the spare bedroom. A minute later, I heard the shower turn on.
“Fuck, this sucks,” Hollin ground out.
“Yeah. Poor Nora.”
“What a fucking idiot! He should be glad Campbell wasn’t here. If you think I overreacted for punching him, wait and see what happens when Campbell finds out.”
“I don’t think you overreacted.”
“Yeah?”
“I wanted to punch him, too,” I admitted. “It makes no sense. They were so happy. They were together all the time. I remember him dropping by the winery when she was meeting with Peyton just to bring her Starbucks. How do you go from that to kissing her best friend?”
“I don’t know, but they’ve been doing a lot more than kissing.”
I cringed. “I agree.”
“Fuck.”
Hollin kicked the baseboard in frustration. “This isn’t how I wanted the night to go.”
He walked into the kitchen and pulled out a bottle of wine.
“We need something stronger.”
He glanced up at me, and a flicker of a smile hit his lips. “You’re probably right.”
He replaced the bottle and grabbed whiskey instead. I strode over to the kitchen, sinking into a seat at the island. He poured us each a knuckle’s worth of the stuff and slid the glass into my hand.
I took a sip and flinched slightly. It was good whiskey. I only drank the stuff under extreme circumstances. Gin and wine were more my preference. But tonight had been hard, and we needed hard stuff to go with it.
Hollin chuckled at my expression. “Well, at least there’s some alcohol that makes you pull a face.”
“There’s plenty of alcohol that does that.”
“I’ve watched you toss back tequila shots like it was nothing.”
“It was nothing.”
He shook his head. “You’re some woman.”
“Whiskey has its own particular burn.”
“Tequila gets me naked,” Hollin said.
I arched an eyebrow and swirled the drink. “That so? You were mostly clothed on that tour bus.”
He met my gaze. “That’s true. Maybe it makes me want to fuck.”
“Mission accomplished. Should we switch to tequila?” I winked at him.
It was enough to bring out that cocky smile that I’d somehow come to adore. I didn’t know when it had happened. One minute, that smile had made me want to fight him at every turn, and now, it made me wonder if he was going to take my clothes off right then and there. Had it always been a sexual look and I’d made it seem like this terrible thing?
“I need tequila to get your clothes off anymore,” he teased.
I shot him a challenging look back. “If you’re lucky.”
“Babe, it’s not about luck.”
I laughed at the arrogant way he’d delivered the line. It would have bothered me before, and now, I found it endearing.
I tossed back the rest of my whiskey. He refilled the glass, unprompted, nursing his own drink.
I read the lines of him. The muscular shoulders that fell into the tapered waist. The tuxedo elongated his square build and took him from cowboy to billionaire in the change of fabric. I liked the duality. That he could pull off a suit just as well as his Wranglers and Stetson. The truck just as well as riding around on his Harley. He wasn’t one thing; he was everything.
“How did you want the night to go?”
“Hmm?” he asked, peeping up at me from where he’d been staring into his whiskey.
“You said this wasn’t how you wanted the night to go.”