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Declan got a text from Dylan as he got out of his truck at his house.We're clear. Thx.
Triumph pulsed through Declan as he slammed his door shut. Hell, yeah. They'd gotten away from the club safely.Anytime. Just let me know.
Will do.
Declan put his phone in his pocket as he strode down the stone walkway to Piper's cottage, whistling cheerfully. It felt so good to make a difference like that. It took so little effort to help someone. Granted, when he'd seen Dick walk out of the room Piper had just been in, he'd had a moment of absolute panic that Dick had hurt her.
But Piper had flashed him that smile, and he'd relaxed.
She was fine.
It had been easy enough to stall Dick long enough for Piper to get to her car, and then he'd followed her home. What a damned night. His mind was still reeling. Starting off from hell, walking into the world he didn't fit. Ending on a high note.
He saw Piper's taillights were still on, so he jogged up to her car and knocked on the window. "Hey!"
She looked over at him, and he saw tears on her cheeks.
Alarm shot through him, and he yanked the door open. "What's wrong?"
She pulled her emotions in and smiled. "It's all good. Did they get away?"
"Yep. They're on their way to the airport." He frowned as he stepped back to let her get out of the car.
Her head was down, her shoulders hunched. "Great. That was fun tonight. I liked helping." She gave him a smile that was a little more real, then turned away. "I'm tired. I'm going to bed."
"No." Declan fell in beside her as she walked toward her house. "What's going on?"
"Nothing! Can't a woman just cry and have it not mean anything at all? I'm happy! I got some good headway on clients. I helped a woman and her kids escape a sociopath." She held up her hand. "I have an amazing ring. Why would anything be wrong? Nothing's wrong!" She flung the front door open and stalked inside, leaving the door open.
There had been a time in his life when Declan would have taken her response as an excuse to walk away and not engage. Many times, actually.
But with Piper, he didn't want to. He wanted to be better.
So, he followed her inside and closed the door behind him, pausing to assess as she paced into the kitchen and grabbed a bottle of water. Her hands were shaking, and her cheeks were streaked with tears.
She sat down on the bar stool and hit her fist on the counter in visible frustration.
He said nothing as he helped himself to water, and then sat down on the bar stool beside her. He faced forward, not looking at her, and drank his water.
She didn't tell him to leave or go away, so he kept sitting there.
Silence sat between them for a while, and it took all his willpower not to start talking at her, demanding she tell him what was wrong, and offering solutions.
But he did it.
She started peeling the label off the bottle.
"I'm installing the new filtering system on Friday," he said casually. "You'll be able to drink the tap water after that. It'll taste good."
She looked over at him. "Why don't you build houses for your job instead of being a police officer?"
He blinked and managed not to react at the edge in her voice. "What?"
"April asked you to build her house. You're amazing at it, and you love it. Why don't you do that?"
Um… He knew that wasn't what was on Piper's mind, but she was talking now, so he went with it. "I never thought about it. I'm not licensed or anything like that. I just do it because I enjoy it."
"Why wouldn't you want to do for a job the thing that you do for fun? Then you have fun all day and get paid?"
