Page 65 of A Man for Mia

"Drew," a familiar female voice started, sounding concerned. "This is Piper. Piper Holliday. It’s after midnight and Mia isn’t home yet. She’s been really quiet the past few days, and I’m worried about her. She’s not by chance over there … is she?"

The message clicked off and he quickly reached forward to erase Jeff’s mistress’s voice from his phone. Since the call had been about Mia, he picked up his receiver and dialed her back.

Piper answered drowsily, five rings later. "Lo."

"Mia’s fine," he said. "You don’t have to worry about her."

There was silence a moment and then she seemed to wake up again. "Oh …" she mumbled. Then, "Right. I know. I drove by your house last night and saw her car in the drive."

He pulled straight. "You drove by my house?"

"Uh huh. I was worried about Mia. The address was on your business card right below the phone number, so I decided to make sure she was okay."

Gritting his teeth, he growled, "Don’t ever come to my house again. Or call here either. My sister visits a lot. I won’t have you bothering her."

She didn’t say anything at first. Then her irritated voice asked, "What? And you dating Mia won’t bother her? It won’t remind her what her husband did?"

He glanced guiltily toward the stairs. He still hadn’t figured out how he wanted to deal with the problem yet. "That’s not your concern," he muttered and hung up.

Closing his eyes and blowing a worried breath, he ran his fingers through his hair and straightened slowly. After one last troubled glance toward the stairs, he started for the kitchen. Cooking was always a good way to keep his mind off certain things. He decided breakfast in bed would be a nice treat for his house guest. He’d just removed the OJ from the freezer and the eggs from the fridge when he heard his front door open.

Thinking Mia had freaked out and was abandoning him, he dropped the carton of eggs on the counter, probably breaking half of them, and sprinted toward the exit.

"Mia?" he yelled.

But as he reached the front room, it wasn’t Mia poised and frozen in the opened front door.

"Mia?" Amanda repeated harshly as she came the rest of the way inside. "Is that who’s car is parked out front? I thought it looked familiar."

"Mandy." His jaw dropped. This was totally not how he’d wanted her to find out. He wasn’t sure how exactly he wanted to break the news, but it definitely wasn’t like this.

To make matters worse, Mia appeared at the top of the stairs, wearing nothing but his T-shirt he’d loaned her to wear to bed.

Both siblings gawked up at her. Mia jerked to a halt as if she realized she’d caused a serious problem. Her eyes apologetically met Drew’s.

"You traitor," Mandy hissed. She whirled around and slammed from the house.

"Mandy!" Drew hurried after her, not even feeling the gravel dig into his bare toes while he raced her across the drive. As she yanked the driver’s side door open, he shoved it closed. "Please try to not to fly off the handle," he panted out. "You know I’d never do anything to hurt you—"

"Then why are you?" she snapped, finally glancing at him to pin with him a glare.

He sighed, took a step back, and ran a hand through his hair. "I know you’re going through a hard time. And I am going to be here for you. Anything you need, you know you can count on me."

She snorted and turned away, folding her arms over her chest. "Yeah, well, I needed you today. It’s Jeffery’s first weekend with the kids, and I’m all alone. I need …"

When he touched her shoulder, she jerked away from him. "Mandy," he murmu

red in soft reprimand. "Don’t be mad at me. Don’t … don’t be upset just because I’m happy and you’re miserable."

"I’m not," she muttered and whirled around to glare at him. "But why do you have to be happy with her?"

His jaw turned hard. "Mia isn’t the one who was involved with Jeff."

Mandy’s eyes frosted over. "No," she agreed in a tight voice. "But I bet she knew it was happening. I bet she listened to her little friend give all sorts of details about my husband. I bet she even—"

"That’s enough," Drew said in a tight voice. "She couldn’t help what her roommate was doing any more than I can help having you for a sister."

Amanda’s jaw dropped and she stared at him with wide eyes.

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