Page 20 of My First Kiss

Piper waits patiently, watching while I eat every last crumb of the cake before setting the plate down on the table with a sigh and picking up my coffee cup.

“You good?” she asks.

I nod. “Yep.”

When several seconds go by and I don’t say anything more, Piper sighs. “Will you just tell me already? How bad is it?”

I keep my gaze on my cup. “Bad.”

Piper reaches out and puts a hand on my arm. “Can Linc fix it?”

I nod. “Yeah, but I need to replace both sinks and some of the plumbing. While I’m at it, I’m going to replace the chairs too. No sense in doing it half-assed. The wiring in the shop is in bad shape too, but I don’t need to rewire the whole building. Just the shop itself. Which will still probably cost most of my savings.”

She looks stricken. “But that means—”

“I know,” I say, stopping her before she can say it for me. “Buying back my mom’s house is on hold. It’s just going to take longer. That’s all.”

Piper doesn’t say anything. She just nods and gives my arm a squeeze. “You’ll get there,” she says. “I know it.”

I’d gotten drunk with Piper one night several months ago and confided in her about all the things that had gone wrong after my mom’s death. She’d hugged me and we’d commiserated over our respective losses. In my case, I’d been all alone when I lost my mom. But Piper had had her older sister to look after her. Granted, I’d been an adult when my mom had died, but that hadn’t made the loss any easier.

When I’d told her about having to sell the house that my mom had worked her ass off to buy to pay off hospital bills, Piper had nearly cried with me. I’ve spent the six years since I sold it saving and waiting for it to go back onto the market. Piper is the one who let me know about the listing she’d stumbled across last week. I know she feels my disappointment as strongly as I do right now. But I need to make a choice. As much as I want to own my mom’s house, I need my business to survive more.

I give her a small smile that isn’t convincing in the least. “Yeah,” I say. “Eventually.”

Piper doesn’t say anything. She just gives my arm another squeeze. I love that about her. She always respects my silence when it’s clear I’m not ready to talk about something. She gets me.

I sip from my cup. “But that’s not all of it,” I say. “The price Linc quoted me for the plumbing doesn’t even include labor. That’s just for the supplies and new fixtures.”

Piper’s mouth drops open. “How much is he charging you for labor?”

“That’s just it,” I say. “He won’t give me a real quote. He says he isn’t letting me pay him for his time or his work. Just the parts.”

Piper smiles. “Well, that’s great. He’s such a nice guy.”

I nod. “Yep. Nice guy.”

Piper’s eyes narrow. “There’s something else?”

I shrug. “Sort of. Not really. He agreed to show me how to do the repairs. In case I ever have this kind of issue again.”

Piper laughs. “No offense, but that sounds like the least fun thing I can think of.”

I laugh with her. “You’re probably right,” I say. “But I can’t afford to have something like this happen again and be helpless to do anything about it.”

“You? Helpless? Ha!”

Piper’s amusement annoys me for some reason. It reminds me of what Linc said yesterday about me never having been helpless before. I’ve worked hard to project that sort of confidence and capability. Fake it ‘til you make it. If my closest friend believes it, I guess it’s working. But it doesn’t mean it doesn’t sting a little for them not to see the truth. Immediately, I tell myself that it’s not fair to be hurt by that. I’m showing them what I want them to see. It’s not their fault if I’m a good liar. Shaking off the thought, I bring myself back to the current conversation.

“You know what I mean,” I say. “I need to be able to fix things myself.”

“I get it,” Piper says softly. “If anyone can, it’s you.”

I smile at her. “Thanks.”

“Before I forget,” Piper says, “Layna said she’ll just stay with us for now. Until everything is settled with your place or she finds her own place. Whichever happens first.”

I wince, guilt washing over me. “Shit. I almost forgot. She can still stay with me if she wants. I promise the place is not the death trap Linc previously suspected.”

---