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Kitty frowned. "But?—"
"We'll be right back!" Piper pushed Declan to the side, and waved at Kitty. "Promise!"
Declan let out his breath as Piper headed to the bar, her grip tight on his hand. She didn't slow down until she found them two seats at the end of the bar. "Sit."
He sat.
She sat next to him, spinning the bar stool so she was facing him. She leaned in, took his hands, and smiled, using her body language to send the message to the room that it was an intimate moment not to be disturbed.
He was impressed.
"You looked like you were about to drop dead on the spot when I walked up." she said. "What's going on?"
He shook his head. "Nothing. It's fine."
"Now, you're the bad liar. I need to know what's going on with you. There are a lot of people around here who are going to start talking to us really soon, and if you're about to crack, I need to be prepared. Do you need to leave?"
"No. Shit. No."
"What is it?"
He swore, his gaze going around the room, at all the fancy dress and artificial conversations he'd left behind. "I haven't been here since my dad died."
Piper blinked. "You miss your dad?"
"Yeah, well, I mean."Shit."I don't want to talk about this."
"Doesn't matter. You're on a job with me, and I need the info required to get through tonight. What's going on?"
Declan ground his jaw, and suddenly the story started tumbling out, words he'd never spoken in his life. "My dad was a cop. My mom was a pop star. They met when he did security for her at a concert in town. They fell hard for each other and got married."
Surprise flickered in Piper's eyes. "That's so romantic."
"It is, yeah. But she wanted him to quit being a cop and go on tour with her. To be her arm candy. He refused. He didn't like this world. This superficiality. He never fit in, but she immersed herself in it as her career exploded."
Piper chewed her lower lip and nodded, listening.
Declan continued, surprised how good it felt to talk about it. "Eventually, my mom filed for divorce, because she felt like he didn't support her. Broke both their hearts because they really loved each other. After a couple years of separation, my mom quit touring and came home here to stay. They got back together, but my dad never came to these things unless he had to, and even then, he hated being here. Then my dad got sick. He died a few years later."
Empathy softened Piper's face. "Oh. I'm so sorry."
"Thanks." Declan became aware of how tightly he was holding her hand, but he didn't loosen his grip. He needed to touch her. "Before he died, he told me to be true to who I was. To not get caught up in the fact I was a trust-fund baby. He told me I still needed to be someone, do something, make a difference."
Piper nodded. "Sounds like a great man."
"He was. He left behind a lot of cases unsolved, so I became a cop. My brother is in my mom's world, but I felt like someone needed to keep my dad's legacy alive. So, that's what I did." He didn't tell her what else his dad had told his kids: to embrace love when you were lucky enough to find it. Never to prioritize ego or career or anything over love.
His dad had always mourned the time he'd lost with his wife, especially when he died so soon after they'd reconciled. "He told us not to waste a moment of our lives. To live the best we could,love the most we could, and to never betray the gifts we were given."
"By gifts, he meant who you are as a person, right?"
Declan grinned. Piper got it. "Yeah."
"And for you, that's being a cop."
"Yeah." Wasn't it? He leaned in, rubbing his thumbs over Piper's palms. "I believe that my dad died of a broken heart. The years he lost with my mom almost killed him, and when they got back together, it was too late. She'd rejected him for his lack of commitment to her money and fame, and he was never able to fully recover from that."
Understanding filled Piper's face. "You resent her for that? And you resent the money because of the tragedy it brought to your dad?"
