to help you with your nieces and to spend every damn minute at your place just to ensure you take it easy so you don’t fuck up your ankle even more! I walk your dog, and I’m renovating your damn bathroom! If that doesn’t scream ‘I’m crazy about you,’ then I don’t know what does!”
“What that screams,” he said in a calmer, though still angry voice, “is that you’re a great friend with a big heart.”
“A great friend who blows you? Who lets you do all sorts of dirty things to my body?” Hurt lodged in her throat. She turned away, her hands curled into fists, and she gritted her teeth, unwilling to fall apart in front of him.
“That’s not what I meant,” Harley said evenly.
She faced him again, struggling against the pain rattling inside her. “I might not be touchy-feely or good with words like you are, but damn it, Harley, those things I’m doing mean something to me. Something huge that I’ve never felt before. But all of this just goes to prove what I told you when we started this crazy shit between us. I can’t be whatever it is that you’re looking for.” Tears welled in her eyes. She willed them not to fall as she reached for the door and said, “And for your information, my bedpost hasn’t seen a fucking notch in months.”
“You’ve never said you were crazy about me before.”
She froze at the strain in his voice, still holding the doorknob. He was standing behind her, and she was glad he couldn’t see the tears in her eyes.
“I don’t play games, Piper,” he said firmly. “But I know you. I know when we’re close, every snarky comment you make is to protect your heart. I get that you have built iron-clad walls around yourself, and I respect that. But guess what? Yours is not the only heart that needs protecting.”
His words hit her like bullets in the chest. She could barely breathe. She was trembling, and the tears she tried to will away blurred her vision.
“If you want to walk out that door, go ahead. But that’s on you, Pipe.” He moved behind her, his presence as familiar as the hurt inside her was foreign. “I don’t want to fight,” he said in a gentler tone. “And I don’t want to change you. I’m willing to wait however long it takes to earn your trust, but I can’t read your mind. You have to clue me in to things sometimes, like what you feel for me. Otherwise I’m just spinning my wheels, trying to guess where your head is.”
She inhaled a ragged breath, debating bolting. She lowered her hand from the doorknob, and without facing him, she said, “It would be easier to walk out that door and never look back, to just pretend we never happened, than it would be to do this.” She turned toward him, tears spilling from her eyes at the pain in his. “But I could never pretend we didn’t happen. Not after you’ve opened my eyes to all that you really are, to us.”
His lips curved up, and he reached for her hand. “Then don’t go.”
“You don’t get it, Harley. I suck at this stuff. I may never be good enough at it to be the person you need, no matter how much I might want to.”
“That’s a lot of pressure to put on yourself. Ever heard of baby steps? So you’d rather give the shirt off your back than confess your true feelings? That’s not so bad. I just need to know what those feelings are so I know if I’m misinterpreting us.”
A choked laugh came out, drawing more tears. “Don’t you get it? I don’t know what to do with everything I feel for you. It scares the crap out of me. It’s like I was a perfectly maintained playing field, and you came in and trampled all over it, kicking up so much dust I have no idea which way to turn.”
Harley knew, could feel, how difficult that confession was for Piper to make. Her words sank beneath his skin, rooting in his heart. “I know you’re scared,” he said softly. “I’m scared, too. What we have is so strong, Pipe. Stronger than anything I’ve ever known.”
She nodded vehemently, tears wetting her cheeks.
He framed her face in his hands and brushed away the wetness with the pads of his thumbs. “What you just said is everything.”
“What?” Confusion glimmered in her eyes.
She really didn’t get