He didn’t want to taint the arrest or give Keith’s attorneys any ammunition to use to get him off the charges. And Keith had good lawyers, so Brian was sure it was going to be an uphill battle in court.
He closed the laptop and tried to go to sleep, but honestly, he couldn’t. All he could think about was Piper. Something Keith had said kept running through his mind, about not being able to make her love him. He would never try any of Keith’s tactics to get Piper to love him, but he did realize that if she didn’t love him maybe she’d said what she had about children to let him down easy. Maybe she hadn’t loved him from the beginning, and if that was indeed what was at play here, then it might be time for him to move on.
Or, at the very least, go back to Dallas, away from Royal and Piper and the entire Wingate family.
Piper woke to the news that Keith had been arrested. Her entire family was gathered in the kitchen of Ava’s rented house. Her sister was more animated than she’d been since Piper had come back to Royal. She saw relief on her sister’s face, now that they had Keith’s confession.
Beth and Harley stood close to their mom and Piper couldn’t help but think that the worst was probably over now. “What happened? Did Brian get a confession?”
“He did,” Harley said. “Piper, he was great. He didn’t mention Mom at all...just let Keith bring it around to her.”
“I knew he was responsible but hearing the hate in his voice. I had no idea that he’d become so bitter,” Beth said.
“You heard the tape?”
“It’s a digital recording,” Ava told her. “You don’t want to listen to it, Pip. Brian had some things to say about you... I don’t think he meant them, but it’s nothing you want to hear.”
Piper wondered what Brian had said. Ava was correct in that she didn’t need to hear it. She knew what she wanted from the future and anything that Brian had said in order to get Keith to confess was alright with her.
“Where is he?” she asked. She wanted to go to Brian and thank him for what he’d done for their family. Piper would use it as an olive branch to get a conversation going, then...then she was going to take a big risk and just tell him how she felt. Be the woman he’d awoken with his passion.
“Keith?”
She’d been thinking about Brian, but she did want to know where Keith was, as well. Plus she wanted to talk to Brian about how she felt before she let anyone else know—even her family. “Yes.”
“He’s being interrogated at the police station. They brought him in for questioning and then arrested him. I think they’ll be a bail hearing soon,” Beth said. “That’s what I heard from the lead investigator. This is such a relief.”
“It really is. The boys are heading over and I think we are going to issue some kind of statement,” Ava added.
Piper hugged her sister and her nieces before leaving them to talk Wingate business. She pulled her phone out of her pocket just to make sure she hadn’t missed a text or call from Brian, but she hadn’t.
Piper: Thanks for helping my family. Can we talk?
Brian: I’m at the diner if you want to come and join me for breakfast.
Piper: Give me thirty minutes and I can be there.
Brian: Sounds good.
She had wanted a more private place for their talk but didn’t blame him for suggesting the diner. He had been through a lot when he’d come to visit her the last time. She got dressed, fixed her hair and was out of the house in ten minutes. Faster than she’d gotten ready in a long time. But she missed Brian and she was fed up with the distance between them.
Piper knew they had a future. She’d made up her mind when she learned what he’d done for her family. Also she was tired of hiding from life and only pouring her passion into her art. She wanted to live in color with Brian. They brought out the best in each other, and more than anything, she wanted him in her life.
She parked near the diner in Royal and several townspeople stopped her to tell her how glad they were that an arrest had been made, and though some others might have believed the gossip about her family, they never had. Piper had to bite her lip to keep from smiling or saying something sassy as the sentiment was repeated several times. Ava was going to love this reversal of fortune.
Brian was seated in a booth near the back and she made her way over to him. Several people tried to stop her, but she just smiled and waved off their apologies. Royal had been quick to turn on her family, but she knew that was because of the strong sense of justice in the town. They were going to be all over Keith now.
She slid into the booth across from Brian and he smiled when he saw her. He looked tired but was truly a sight for sore eyes.
“Thank you,” she said.
“It was nothing.”
“It wasn’t nothing,” she insisted. “What you did for my family...especially after how I treated you—”
“It’s okay, Piper,” he said. “I’m just glad I could help. Turns out your breaking up with me was just the thing to push Uncle Keith into confessing his plot. So maybe I have you to thank.”
She shook her head, reaching over to put her hand on top of his. “No. I wish I could have handled things better. You have never been anything other than a gentleman and I shouldn’t have gone off like that.”
Brian turned his hand in hers and rubbed his thumb over her palm before drawing back. He didn’t want to touch her, she thought. That’s not good.
This wasn’t going to end the way she wanted it to, and she had no one to blame but herself.
“No, you shouldn’t have,” he said. “But I do understand why you did. I think I was moving too fast, afraid to lose you, and then I did anyway. But we hadn’t been together long enough to have the conversation you needed to have, and I am sorry for that.”
“Me too,” she admitted. She noticed the waitress standing a short distance away waiting for her to look up.
The waitress hurried over, poured Piper a cup of coffee and took her order before leaving the two of them alone again.
“Listen, did you hear the recording of Keith’s confession?” he asked.
“No. Ava said I didn’t need to. She said you had done what you had to in order to get him talking.”
Brian swallowed and nodded. “She is right. I had to convince him that I hated you, Piper, and the only way I could do that was by saying some things that could never be true. You are hardheaded but I love that. So strong and independent, and to me that’s what makes you who you are. To Uncle Keith, those are the very things he hated about Ava. He wanted her to depend on him, to need him and only him.”