Page 35 of The Wrong Date Deal

Every single time August was at this counter with Piper seemed to be something surprising.

She took a deep breath and looked at Piper. “Hermes, your friend, has a spare room that he’d be willing to let Ford rent?”

“Yeah.” She said it like it was the most straightforward thing in the world.

“Why?”

“Why what?”

“Why would either of you do that?”

Piper grinned. “I didn’t really do anything.”

“You… cared enough about someone you’ve never even met to… talk about him and bring me an alternate solution.”

Piper shot her a puzzled look. “We’re friends. You care about Ford, so I care about Ford.”

August felt like an alien. She’d had friends before, plenty of them. She had friends now. But she wasn’t used to having the kinds of friends who just… stepped up like that. She wasn’t really sure what to do about it. A friend of her friend was willing to live with Ford simply because he trusted what Piper had said, and she trusted August.

It was definitely weird that she was so touched by the gesture.

“I will warn you, though,” Piper said as their drinks were slid across the counter to them, “Hermes asked if Ford was hot. So, you might want to keep that in mind.”

She let out a startled laugh. “Is that something I should be concerned about?”

“No.” She grinned. “I’m sure he was just teasing. Although, you know, he is gay, so I’m sure he would notice if he thought Ford was hot.”

August shook her head, being careful not to spill her drink as she followed Piper towards the window bar seats they’d plannedto sit in last time. “They’re both adults, but I don’t want to think about that.”

“Fair.” Piper pulled her hat off, leaving her hair adorably ruffled. “But, yeah, he said they’d have to meet to check it was a good match, but, assuming it was, his spare room is available.”

August’s whole life had been about self-sufficiency. Her parents’ whole philosophy was about that. It was part of why they were being so hard on Ford. They said they’d have helped more if he’d gone to college when he was ‘supposed’ to, or if he was doing something they considered valuable, but she’d done what they wanted and it had still come with the expectation of self-sufficiency—which was fine as an idea, but sometimes you needed other people. Ford needed her, she needed Ford. They needed to be there for each other—and maybe they needed other people to be there for them too.

“Are you okay?” Piper asked, gently placing a hand on August’s forearm.

“Yeah…” She shook her head and focused on Piper. “Having a revelation, I suppose.”

Her brow furrowed. “Do you want to talk about it?”

“Ha. Just… approaches to parenting and… finding your people, I suppose.”

Piper smiled softly, like she understood what August meant without it needing to be spelled out. Maybe she did. Maybe that was part of finding your people.

August took a deep breath. “I don’t know if Ford’s ready yet. He still seems determined to ride this thing out, and, after the way they’ve all been banding together and trying to pay the bills lately, I think he feels like he owes them something, like they’re in this thing together. And, you know, he still doesn’t want me moving so we can live together, but, maybe if it’s just a random roommate, not his sister, he’d be interested. Someday.”

“I’m sure the offer will still be there when he’s ready,” Piper said, her voice soft and gentle, yet it sounded like the clearest thing in the bustling café.

August placed a hand over where Piper’s was still resting on her arm. “Thank you, though. I don’t even know what to say.”

She smiled. “Yeah, I’m getting that.”

August laughed, a little awkwardly. “I didn’t mention what was going on because I was hoping you’d come up with something like this.”

“I know.”

“Huh. You really are just… nice. And so is Hermes, I guess.”

“Oh, don’t let him hear you saying that out loud. He’ll be worrying about his reputation.”

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