stool and said, “I have to go wash my hands.”
He grabbed her hand and pulled her closer. “You’re not a difficult person, Pipe, and whoever made you feel that way deserves to be pummeled for it. Just because you don’t wear your emotions on your sleeve doesn’t make you any less attractive to me. I like who you are and how you handle yourself.”
She nodded and said, “That might change, but thank you.”
He watched her disappear through the ladies’ room door, hurting for her. It had to be awful for her, thinking nobody could love her forever for who she was. He wondered how many asshole men it took to make such a big lie stick like glue.
When she came out of the bathroom, she pulled her wallet from her back pocket and placed money on the bar.
“My treat,” Harley said, pushing the money back toward her.
She didn’t take it. “You don’t need to do that. I earn a fine living.”
“I know you do, but this is what boyfriends do for their significant others.” He pushed the money into the front pocket of her jeans and said, “Just go with it.”
“Fine,” she said. “Thank you.” She grabbed her keys from the bar and said, “I also wanted to say thank you for taking me to the game the other night. What happened after was pretty incredible, too. But the date was the best one I’ve ever been on.”
Her confession felt much bigger than a baby step. He had the urge to do a fist pump, but he knew he had to be careful not to scare her away, so he went with, “I look forward to many more incredible dates.”
She nodded, wordlessly taking a step away, some kind of internal battle simmering in her eyes. She looked down at her keys, then glanced sheepishly at him. In the next second that sheepish look turned confident, and she said, “Seeing you in the middle of the day was almost as good as the wings.”
She turned to leave, but not before he saw the cheeky look he adored.
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
“CAN I LICK the spoon?” Sophie asked, looking up at Piper as she mixed a bowl of cookie dough.
It was Wednesday evening, and Piper was dubbing it the Night Everything Was Forgotten. When the girls were getting ready for bed, Sophie had remembered that she needed cookies for one of her classes and Jolie had remembered that she needed papers signed for an upcoming field trip.
Jolie dropped a handful of papers in the trash and said, “You only get the spoon if I get to lick the bowl.”
“Deal,” Sophie said.
“No deal. There’s more dough left in the bowl than on the spoon. You two need to share,” Harley said from his perch on the couch, where he was elevating his ankle. “I used to pull that on my younger brother all the time, Jo.”
“Fine,” Jolie said, sifting through more papers from her backpack.
Harley had made dinner for the girls while Piper was working on the bathroom, and he’d finally gotten a chance to elevate his foot when the cookie adventure had come about. Luckily, Piper had already put up a vapor barrier and the cement backer board around the newly installed pipes for the shower. She’d just finished taping and mortaring the seams when the girls had run in asking for help. The timing was perfect for her to take a break so Harley could stay off his feet. Not that Piper knew the first thing about baking. The last time she’d baked anything was when she was probably around Sophie’s age. All she’d had to do since then was ask Willow if she felt like baking, and a little while later she had sugary treats to eat. But how hard could it be to make a box of cookies?
“I found the permission slip.” Jolie brought it to Harley.
As Harley and Jolie texted Delaney to make sure the trip to the aquarium wasn’t a problem, Piper sprayed the cookie sheet.
“How do we know when the dough is ready?” Sophie asked.
Piper scanned the back of the cookie mix package. “Who knows. Good ol’ Betty Crocker didn’t include a picture.”
“Once you get all the lumps out, it’s ready,” Harley called out to them.
Sophie giggled. “Thanks, Uncle Harley.”
“I think it’s ready,” Piper said, peering into the bowl.
They scooped spoonfuls of cookie dough onto the cookie sheet, and as Piper put it in the oven, the girls snagged the bowl. Piper tossed the box in the trash and