She Loves Me (Harmony Pointe #3) - Melissa Foster Page 0,65
we weren’t together.”
Jolie pursed her lips. “What changed?”
Sophie sat down on the deck to play with Jiggs and said, “Nachos. Duh.”
“They were good nachos,” Harley said.
Jolie rolled her eyes.
“The nachos were good, yes, but it was more than that,” Piper said, wondering how to explain to a kid something she didn’t even really understand.
“Like what?” Jolie challenged. “What could have changed in a week?”
“Watch your tone, Jo,” Harley warned.
“Adult relationships are complicated,” Piper added. “Harley and I were just friends, that was true. But feelings can change, and you don’t always see it coming. I’m sorry, Jolie. Our lives are so busy. It wasn’t like we thought to give you guys a relationship-status update. We’re not Facebook.”
Jolie’s tough stance relaxed, and Piper breathed a little easier.
“We’d better get those cookies out of the oven,” Harley said to Piper. Then, to Jolie, he said, “One thing you can count on, kiddo, is that I always try to tell you the truth.”
“If you weren’t a couple, then why did you have her pictures on the fridge?” Jolie asked.
“Because we’ve been close friends for a long time, and I really like Piper,” Harley said as they all went inside. “Even though we were only friends, I hoped one day we’d be more, and seeing her picture with our family made me happy.”
Piper glanced at Harley as she pulled the cookies from the oven, catching him watching her adoringly. She nearly dropped the pan. Between her impromptu trip to the bar yesterday and coming out to the girls tonight, her nerves were fried.
“They look perfect!” Sophie exclaimed.
Jiggs went paws-up on the counter, sniffing the cookies as Piper transferred them to the wax paper. “Jiggsy thinks so. Down, Jiggs.” When Jiggs got down on all fours, Piper said, “You’re an excellent baker, Soph.”
Harley pressed a kiss to the top of Sophie’s head and said, “Now that we’re all set for tomorrow, you and Jo run upstairs, brush your teeth, wash your hands and face, and climb into bed. We’ll come up in a sec.”
Sophie dashed upstairs. Jolie wasn’t quite so peppy on her way up.
Harley made his way over to Piper and said, “So the nachos helped, huh?”
“I had no idea what to say, but I didn’t want her to think we had lied to her.”
“What you said was perfect. So . . .” He put his arms around her as she set down the last cookie to cool and said, “Are you on Facebook? Do we need to change your status?”
She pushed playfully from his arms and said, “You know I’m not a social media girl. Get your nosy butt upstairs. Let’s get the girls to bed.”
As she followed him upstairs, he said, “But if you were on social media?”
“Then I’d have been on Tumblr before they banned the good stuff. Don’t you have better things to do than ask me ridiculous questions?”
He looked over his shoulder and said, “As a matter of fact, I do. I have a little girl to ask to a dance. And then there’s a big girl I’d like to kiss beneath the stars again.”
She stepped onto the landing at the top of the stairs and whispered, “Play your cards right and you might even get lucky.”
Fifteen minutes later Harley had a date for the dance, and both he and Jolie had a new light in their eyes because of it. Sophie heard Jolie’s excitement and ran into her room.
“Can you take me to my father-daughter dance when I’m Jolie’s age?” Sophie asked.
“You bet, kiddo.”
Piper hoped she’d be around to see that.
Jolie called Delaney, and Piper could hear her excitement through the phone. Bedtime turned into quite an event, with extra time to write in Jolie’s diary and extra hugs from both girls. It took them half an hour to calm the girls down and say their final good nights.
“They’re lucky to have you,” Piper said on the way downstairs.
“I’m pretty lucky to have them, too. What is that?” He stopped halfway down the steps and waved his crutch in the direction of the kitchen. There were cookie remnants all over the floor.
“Oh no!” Piper ran past him and found Jiggs sprawled out on the kitchen floor, his front paws trapping the waxed paper as he licked it clean. “Thank God we didn’t make chocolate cookies! We need to make more so Sophie doesn’t get upset. I hope he doesn’t get sick.”
“He’s got a cast-iron stomach.” Harley scowled at Jiggs. “Dude, you’re eating up my make-out time.”