“Are you listening to me?” she snapped, dragging him back to reality.
He shifted in his seat, trying to get comfortable with a raging hard-on.
Piper stopped at a red light, and her gorgeous green eyes trailed over his face. “Geez, you are drugged up. Look at that goofy grin. How’s your . . . ?” Her eyes moved lower and her jaw dropped. “Oh my God! No wonder you’re smiling. Geez, Harley, what are you doing? Fantasizing about that nurse?”
“That nurse isn’t in this truck.”
“Ugh!” The light turned green, and she gunned the engine. “Do not think of me like that.” She glanced at him and said, “Turn your head! Look out the window. I’m glad I’m taking you home before I get the girls. They can’t see you like this.”
“There’s no time,” he said, still grinning, because damn, he was high as a kite and she was so angry it made her even hotter. “Just head to the school.”
She shot him a death stare. “I told you to stop looking at me.”
He chuckled and tipped his head back, closing his eyes.
“And stop smiling!”
Piper barked orders like a drill sergeant, gave him as much grief as he gave her, and rolled her eyes so often he was surprised they didn’t fall out of her head. She also swore like a sailor, loved sports and beer, and she was the most organized, hardworking, and ornery woman Harley had ever known. Her brilliant mind was always ticking, planning a project, or thinking of her family and friends. According to Piper, who was never too embarrassed to say what was on her mind, she also loved good, hard sex and wasn’t looking for more. Harley wasn’t sure he believed the latter part of that claim, but either way, he’d been utterly captivated by her for the last few years and considered himself lucky to have Piper in his life.
She drove to the middle school, ranting about him getting control of himself. “They probably mixed up your meds and gave you Viagra by accident.”
“No little blue pill, Pipe,” he said with a laugh. “You’re hot and I’m a dude, so . . .”
“Okay, enough of this,” she said with a huff. “What happened to you? And how’d you get to the hospital?”
He turned his head, watching her drive. “Got into a fight with three guys.”
“Bullshit, not on a Wednesday afternoon.” Her lips curved up sassily.
“Wrestled a bear?”
“Nope.” She turned into the school parking lot.
“Come on, Trig. Let me man it up a little.”
She glanced at his crotch and said, “I think you’ve done enough manning up for one day.”
“That was your fault.”
She gave him the narrow-eyed give-me-a-break look she’d perfected as a teenager.
“I fell, okay? No big deal. Jasper was busy, so a customer drove me to the hospital.” Jasper Lennox was one of Harley’s employees. He managed the bar in Harley’s absence. Harley pointed to the line of cars in front of the side doors to the school and said, “That’s the pickup line.”
Piper pulled to the end of the line and said, “A customer drove you?”
“Yeah. She was pretty cool about it. Thanks for coming to get me. I appreciate it.”
“No worries.” She took out her phone and started thumbing out a text.
“Who are you texting?”
“Nosy much?” She continued typing and said, “I need to let Kase know I’m not coming back today.”
Kase seemed like a good guy, and Piper trusted him, which was what Harley cared most about. Piper was as tough as nails, but Harley still worried about her every time she started a new project, working with new clients and subcontractors. He’d seen her hold her own at the pub, and when she was going out with a guy for the first time, she always met him at the pub. She claimed it was a good way to weed out the weak from the strong, since Harley was quick to size them up and get rid of the assholes. But Harley had another thought on why she met them there. Piper was bullheaded enough to bring them by just to get Harley’s goat. She’d never shown any interest in Harley beyond their friendship, but he was sure that was because she simply wouldn’t allow herself to go there. His asshole younger brother had taken care of her trusting men with her heart years ago, much less trusting a Dutch in that way.
He watched her typing furiously, her thin brows knitted in concentration as she sent one text and began typing another. She was completely in control of her life now, but his mind reeled back to a night when she hadn’t been. It was spring of her sophomore year of high school, and she’d been dating Marshall for five or six months. Harley had been home for the weekend, working at the pub. It was dark when he’d left work, and he’d seen the silhouette of a person huddled at the edge of the dock in the marina by the rowboat Piper and Marshall had built. He’d gone to investigate and had quickly realized it was Piper. The image of her shaking with sobs was etched in his mind, as was the mortification on her face when she’d looked up and seen him approaching. He’d also never forget the overwhelming urge to protect her that had instantly consumed him, or the rage that had stormed through him when he’d learned the reason she was crying. His brother had cheated on her, breaking her tender teenage heart. Harley had made sure his brother paid the price for his actions.
Just thinking about that painful night brought a rush of anger and a surge of protectiveness. He tried to push the painful memories away, focusing instead on how Piper had pulled herself up by her bootstraps. She’d lifted her adorably pointy little chin that awful night, glaring at him like he was the enemy as she’d risen to her feet, and said, What the fuck do you want? She’d stormed off without giving him a chance to respond. From that day forward she’d never let anyone drag her down—but just in case, Harley had always had her back. He’d returned to college and had eventually moved to New York City, but he’d come back often and had always checked on Piper, even when she’d gone away to college. It wasn’t until he’d moved back home when his father had taken ill and he and Piper had become closer that his feelings had begun changing from protective friend to interested man. Given Piper’s well-armored heart, he had a hell of a time figuring out what to do with all those feelings.
The school bell rang, pulling him from his thoughts.
Piper shoved her phone into her back pocket and said, “They won’t know my truck.” She threw open her door and stood on the running board. When she spotted his nieces, she whistled. “Jolie! Sophie!” She waved her hands, causing all the kids to look over. “I’m holding your uncle hostage! Get your heinies in the truck; we’ve got things to do!”
Sophie ran toward the truck, waving.
Jolie’s momentary grin quickly settled into a frown, and she trained her eyes on the sidewalk, skulking toward them.
The girls looked like Delaney, with big blue eyes and long brown hair. But while they’d once shared her easygoing demeanor, recently Jolie had become sullen. Their father had skipped town the day Delaney had graduated from law school in New York City, leaving Delaney pregnant and with a baby to care for. She’d moved home to live with her parents while she found her footing and started over. Those first few years were hard on them, and Harley had come home and stepped in as often as he could to help Delaney, and maybe more importantly, to show the girls that they were special and loved and they were not the reason their father had disappeared. But he worried about the changes he’d seen in Jolie lately, some of which were normal for an adolescent girl, but as to be expected, her unhappiness had amplified with her mother’s cancer diagnosis. Her diagnosis had terrified all of them. It had taken several weeks for Harley, Delaney, and their mother to come to grips with it, and they’d done everything they could to help the girls understand that their mother’s diagnosis wasn’t a death sentence. But convincing his young nieces of that was like claiming there weren’t wars going on in the world when it was all over the news. Luckily, Delaney’s cancer hadn’t spread to her lymph nodes, and the surgery had left her with clear margins, which meant they had eradicated the cancer and she would not need radiation. Harley had hoped Delaney’s excellent prognosis would ease Jolie’s bad moods, but he was still having trouble connecting with her.