It Wasn't Me - Lani Lynn Vale Page 0,55

my face, and swallowed a large gulp of beer before saying, “Yes.”

“Since when?” Sam asked.

I went for another swallow of beer when the bottle was suddenly yanked from my hand. Sam’s wasn’t far behind, and a furious looking Piper glared at both of us.

“What part of ‘no alcohol with the pain meds’ did y’all not understand?” she snapped.

I felt myself smiling, but that smile quickly fell off my face when she said, “This is not funny.”

“I didn’t say it was, honey,” I tried.

She narrowed her eyes.

“And you,” she turned to her father. “This is why you’re in here, isn’t it?”

Sam didn’t say anything, but his eyes were sparkling.

“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” he lied.

Piper’s eyes went to the desk where four empty beer bottles were lined up, along with what looked to be a week’s worth of wrappers from snack foods.

“And you know you’re not supposed to be eating this bullshit,” she said. “Your near heart attack a couple of months ago was a signal that you needed to start taking better care of yourself.”

“I take perfectly good care of myself,” he said. “And I’m fine now. They said that was just a fluke.”

“It might have been, but there’s no reason in the world that you can’t eat better,” she said stubbornly.

“I eat just fine,” he said. “I have gone a full week of eating the shittiest food on the planet. So sorry if I want to eat a goddamn Little Debbie times five.”

Piper rolled her eyes and then took a sip of my beer, making me want to pull her into my arms and lick the taste off of her lips.

I managed to control myself.

Barely.

“What’s that?”

Sam’s question had us both looking at him, but he wasn’t looking at us. He was looking at Piper’s finger.

“Ummmm,” she said, hedging.

Sam’s gaze turned to me.

“Just got married, huh?” he asked.

I felt my lips twitch.

“Yes, sir,” I answered, not sure whether I should stand up and protect myself from the punch that I knew he wanted to throw or not.

“When did this happen?” he asked stiffly.

“While we were in Vegas,” I answered.

Sam’s eyes turned to his daughter.

“You want this?”

Piper’s shoulders sagged.

“More than I want my next breath,” she answered softly.

I felt something inside of me release at her words.

Sam’s eyes once again turned to me as he said, “You hurt her in any way, and I don’t care if I’m dead and gone, I will find a way to kill you.”

I didn’t doubt for a second that he would.

“I won’t,” I promised.

“Daddy,” Piper said.

“Take this to the trash can and go wait outside,” Sam suggested. “Or even better, how about you go tell your mother that she doesn’t get to plan your wedding.”

Piper winced.

“Dad…”

“Now, honey,” I said softly. “I’ll be okay.”

Piper sighed and pressed a kiss to my cheek, but she didn’t leave with just the wrappers from his food. She also left with the beers in her hand, as well as the last two that were in the fridge.

“Damn meddling women,” Sam muttered. “Do me a solid and head over there. Press that picture frame in right there.”

I looked to the side wall from where Piper had disappeared through, then got up stiffly and walked to the wall. After pressing the picture frame in, I was surprised to see the door that appeared as the wall slid to the side.

“Umm,” I said as I stared at the door. “Is this going to lead into a dungeon where you’re going to trap me for the rest of my life?”

“No,” Sam snorted. “It leads to my beer stash.”

And it did.

I opened the door and found the room filled with wall to wall safes, as well as boxes and boxes of beer.

There were also quite a few other essentials, like multiple boxes of Little Debbies.

Grabbing eight—which was all I could hold with one hand—I walked them to the fridge and put them in to cool. Once that task was done, I looked over at Sam with a ‘what now’ expression on my face.

“Grab two more, then go into the break room and pull a few glasses from the freezer,” he ordered.

I did as he asked, following his directions to the break room.

Once I had the glasses in my hand, I walked back to the hidden room, grabbed two more beers, then handed him the frosted glass as well as the hot beer.

“Thanks,” he said. “I like drinking beer from a glass, anyway. I just didn’t want to walk that far.”

Surprisingly, the safe room