Page 9 of Bidding on a Second Chance
“Not mine. I have no patience for people who can up and walk away.” Or at least, he wished that were true. Since he’d interacted with Piper again, baffled helplessness had haunted him once more. He’d told himself she had ended their relationship because she didn’t love him, but if so, why hadn’t he seen signs of it sooner? Was there more to the story than her excuses about Bryce and danger and his conclusions about her lack of attachment?
Cody nodded slowly. “Then don’t be someone who walks away. Nothing about you and Piper needs to change for you to come through on supporting the Rasinskis.”
Graham scowled.
“Maybe you two can finally move past all this. Move on.”
“What do you think I’ve been doing these last two years?”
“Hunkering down in a corner of bitterness.”
Graham shook his head and laughed, but the memory of the comment he’d made about cooking—and her response about the cabinet—suggested they both still carried some unresolved … feelings. If not bitterness, then at least defensiveness and hurt.
“That foot looked awfully tender at church on Sunday.”
Graham had noticed too. She’d let out a little cry when she’d kicked one of her own crutches. He’d barely resisted the concerned circle that had formed around her. He deserved a medal for not stopping by Second Chances to ask what the specialist had said. Her health wasn’t any of his business.
Cody tapped the poster. “Consider this a double opportunity. You can help a family in need and maybe get your chance at what you didn’t get the last time someone suddenly fell through on you.”
Graham’s stomach hardened in leery expectation. Had he really said enough to Cody that his friend could make the connection between Piper and what happened decades before?
“Your mom disappeared with no explanations, no nothing.” Cody eyed him, no hint of an apology in his voice. Apparently, Grahamhadshared enough. “You never got closure.”
His parents divorced when he was nine. Mom never wanted custody. She preferred to breeze in and out for quick visits. For a couple of years, anyway, until she gave up on that too.
“Maybe you and Piper are over,” Cody continued, “but I know you’ve got questions. With her, you can get answers. Especially if you hang around long enough to do all this.” He tapped a finger next to the line about her donation.
Graham shook his head. If his friend wanted to motivate him, bringing up Mom was not the way to do it. “Not happening.”
He stalked off, but the idea stalked him.
He didn’t want to revive what he’d thought he and Piper had once enjoyed—how could he trust her not to bail again? Closure did hold appeal, but enough to go refinish a bunch of furniture for her?
No way.
ChapterSix
Graham parked under the glow of one of the few lights in the Second Chances parking lot. A few blocks from the square, the store was addressed to Main Street with a parking lot in back. Light shone through the glass door, where the sign remained flipped to “open.”
Crisp air met him as he climbed from his truck. In another two weeks, Thanksgiving would kick off the holiday season. Still, it could be a while before the first real snowfall. Even then, the accumulation rarely amounted to more than a couple of inches and tended to melt quickly, making white Christmases more miss than hit.
Whatever happened here, he usually got to enjoy snowy mountain vistas on the drive to spend Christmas with his dad and siblings. They all still lived a few hours to the east where he’d grown up, near Denver. The year he’d taken Piper with him, he’d gotten just as much joy—maybe more, even—from listening to her contented sigh as she enjoyed the serene white landscape.
About a week after they’d returned to Redemption Ridge, he’d arrested her brother. A couple of weeks afterward, he’d proposed. His chest tightened at the memory, him kneeling in the middle of one of their favorite restaurants, her grimacing as she said, “You know I love you …”
Until then, he’d thought she had. The pain and frustration swelled until he growled to vent some of it before he went in to face her.
“This is for the Rasinskis.” A little more of the pressure ebbed. He took a few deep breaths, then pulled open the door to Second Chances.
“Sit.” Piper’s bright command came from farther inside.
He stepped around racks of clothes and a freshly painted dresser. The shop smelled of cinnamon, pine, and vanilla. The register sat on a long counter made of reclaimed wood. Only the loose pieces of hair flipping from Piper’s clip stuck up over the worksurface until he neared. Her brown eyes appeared, then widened. “Graham.”
Behind the counter, she’d fit a cart loaded with clothes next to her office chair. She wore a cozy sweater, and a walking boot stuck out from under her wide-leg jeans. Opposite the clothes she was sorting, haphazardly arranged boxes encircled Teddy. Piper’s injured foot rested on one such box, and the puppy sat in the middle, waiting for a treat. Piper passed him one, then struggled to her feet. Or, rather, her foot.
He should’ve been thinking up something to say as he walked in, not dreaming of Christmases gone by. Now on the verge of asking if she could handle her donation, he realized how awkward this could be. What was the best, non-offensive way to ask if she’d bitten off more than she could chew?
Piper motioned to Teddy, who attempted to scale the crate of magazines between him and freedom. “He was tired after you left last week. I thought it might’ve been the training.”
