Page 42 of Story Of My Heart

I never thought I’d be asking two of my brothers for life advice. But I also never thought I’d fall in love, either. This week has been full of firsts.

“Um…” Gibson swirls the coffee in his cup in thought, watching the creamer mix into the brown liquid until it becomes an even color. “At the end of the day? Nothing is more important to me than her happiness. I get up each morning with the intention of making her life better because I’m in it.”

“Right.” I nod. “That’s how I feel about Piper.”

“That’s a start,” he offers stiffly. This conversation is just as awkward for him as it is for me. The men in my family haven’t historically been very big on sharing, especially not with each other. That could have something to do with my catastrophic emotional constipation regarding Piper.

I regard my younger brother as I ask, “But what is love, anyway?”

“Well.” He pauses, taking a sip of his coffee. “Avery and I have history…”

“Piper and I have been together for years,” I blurt in frustration. “Working. Practically living together. I can’t stand not seeing her, not knowing what she’s doing. When she goes on a date I want to end the guy and put him where Keith Morrison would never find his body. She’s intelligent and funny. She’s the one person I love arguing with. She’s the one person I have to share everything with.”

Now that I’m saying it out loud, I feel even dumber than I did when I woke up. If love were diagnosable, I just displayed every single symptom. I’m a textbook case.

Gibson chuckles. “That sounds like love. So why aren’t you making it official?”

I look down at my shoes, shoving a hand in my pocket. “Because I didn’t know that was love and I told her I needed more time. I didn’t think I was capable of it.”

“Huh. So. Flawed premise. Garbage in, garbage out.” Gibson nods sagely, mulling over my words. “What would you do if this was one of your projects? Toss it all? Start from scratch?”

My mind races, every pulse point in my body throbbing with the unsaid words clogging my throat. The parallel between my technical work and my personal life, especially with Piper, couldn’t be clearer now that I’ve let truth permeate my brain. Love, much like coding, isn’t about discarding the whole system at the first sign of error—it’s about making adjustments, evolving. With Piper’s image burning brightly in the forefront of my mind, the answer seems obvious, necessary.

I straighten, a resolve firming my voice as I meet Gibson’s gaze. “No, tweak it. Fix it. It’s all about the theory of sunk costs.”

My brother looks at me like I’m the slowest man in the world, patting me on the shoulder with a firm hand. “Then do that with Piper, too. But for the love of God, don’t ever use the word ‘theory’ when you’re talking to a woman about love.”

He’s right. This would just be a lot easier to fix if I had any idea what I was doing. The only thing I can think to do is try and reset our relationship to an older stage, to reboot us and take us back to factory settings. If nothing else, we have to get out of Sunset Lake. Maybe being in a new environment was what messed things up to begin with. Everything was fine in the city. If I take us back there, then things might be fine again. If I can’t make Piper and I work as a couple, I can at least try to make us work as a professional partnership, and hopefully as friends.

But what I can’t do is lose her.

I need to pack, and I need to get out of Sunset Lake as fast as I can.

Chapter Twenty-Two

Piper

I wake up to the smell of coffee. Really good coffee. Coffee so good I forget for a second about everything that happened last night, including how I ended up in this bed. It’s a lot like the other one, but the layout of the room is all wrong. I blink hard, trying to get my bearings and not freak out, until I see Fallon out of the corner of my eye and everything comes back to me at once.

I remember the cruise, and everything after it with Tate. After storming out on him, I had wandered around the resort for an hour or so, not sure where I wanted to go. I didn’t have anywhere else to spend the night, but I couldn’t stomach going back into the cabin with him. Especially not after making such a dramatic exit. My pride wouldn’t allow it. I walked until I couldn’t keep my eyes open, then made my way back to the main lodge and curled up on one of the couches by the fireplace, hoping that nobody would notice me.

Of course Fallon did. And she saved me.

She sits on the edge of the bed, holding two cups of coffee, offering me one with all of the care one would use when interacting with an injured feral cat. I must have been in quite the state when she found me last night.

“I’m so sorry about all of this.” I take the cup from her hands, blowing on the liquid and watching the steam rise in clouds. “You didn’t have to let me use this room. You’ve been more than kind.”

Shaking her head, she cuts me off. “It was nothing. Are you ready to talk now?”

“I should’ve known this coffee came with strings.” I let out a laugh, but it sounds sadder and smaller than I intended, and I can feel my lip starting to quiver and my eyes starting to mist. Funny, I thought I had cried out every tear I had left in my body last night. “I don’t even know where to begin.”

“Well, start with the stuff that happened before I found you curled up on the couch downstairs trying not to cry and after the part where Tate dragged you back to the cabin after the Couple’s Cruise.” She pauses for a second, wrinkling her nose in disgust. “Also, leave out any grizzly deets a sister wouldn’t want to know about her brother. Please.”

I laugh again in spite of myself, much more genuine this time.

“No problem. Um… so we don’t want the same things. In life. In love. There. You’re all caught up.”

“Nice try.” Blinking slowly, she stares at me over the top of her coffee. Spending so much time with Tate over the years has made me forget what it’s like when people are actually interested in your personal affairs, or what it’s like to have friends who care about what’s eating you up inside. “What doesn’t he want? Or even more important, what do you want?”

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