Back To Us (Shore Secrets 3) (5 page)

“A bottle of wine, then.” She jumped up, scribbled a reminder on a sticky note and put it in the middle of her keyboard. “Or you could do me a favor. Call him with some trumped-up problem in the dead of night? Even the score?”

“That’s exactly why I’m here. To do you a favor.”

She’d been kidding. But she certainly wouldn’t look a gift horse in the mouth. Piper sank into her desk chair. “I’m intrigued.”

After an aborted motion that made her wonder if Ward could possibly be nervous, he fig-leafed his hands. “I’m sorry your dad’s such an ass.”

“In general?”

“Yes. And specifically, about your port line. I wish you’d told us you were working on it.”

“Wouldn’t have made a difference.” In fact, opening up to her friends would only have made the whole thing more painful. They would’ve been so supportive. They would’ve been even more upset than Piper at every dead end she hit. And then she would’ve felt like she was letting them down too. Bad enough she was letting down her dead grandfather. “The project’s dead in the water.”

“I’d like to help.”

Sweet. There he went, flashing his big gushy heart again when she least expected it. Piper stood, came around to pat him on the shoulder. “I’d like you to be able to help too, but there’s nothing you can do.”

“There is.” Ward took a step closer, getting inside the bounds of polite personal space. Close enough to have crossed into the “I’ve had my hands down your shirt and up your skirt” territory that they hadn’t revisited in oh so long. “I can make it all happen.”

“Right. Because you have a wish-granting genie at your beck and call?”

“Better. I have land.”

Not
at all what she’d expected to hear. Not crazy at all. The pilot light of hope flickered in her chest. “What do you mean? What land?”

“That field to the east of the barn behind the cherry grove. It had to lie fallow, but now it’s ready to be planted. Kind of surprised you didn’t think of it yourself.”

This was too good to be true. It was definitely too much to take in while standing up, especially with her pounding headache already giving her a touch of vertigo. The wing chair was too far away for her suddenly weak legs. She toed out the desk chair and collapsed into it, head whirling.

She indeed probably should’ve thought of it back when she was making lists of every possible rentable acre in the Finger Lakes. But his empty field wasn’t visible from the road, and she didn’t exactly keep track of the details of what was no longer an active farm.

When his father died, Ward had inherited massive debts. He leased some of the land to vineyards, and a good chunk of it to alpaca farmers who apparently paid in cash above the asking price for their pampered animals. Ward held back a few acres for himself. Piper hadn’t known exactly how many, or what shape they were in...not to mention that she never, in a million years, would’ve asked one of her best friends to get tangled up in a new business venture.

“I...I can’t believe you’re making such a generous offer.”

“Why, because I’m usually such a hard-assed skinflint?”

“No. Not at all. For goodness’ sake, you buy more than your weight in Girl Scout cookies every year, and end up giving them away at the nursing home.”

“Just because I prefer homemade doesn’t mean I shouldn’t help some little girl learn to...what the hell do Girl Scouts earn patches for now?”

“I don’t know. Can we please stop talking about the Girl Scouts?”

“You brought them up.”

The man drove her nuts. Which was yet another reason to pause and think about all the ramifications. Even though a part of her just wanted to jump up and down in excitement and ask how soon they could sign the papers.

“Ward, this would be a huge step. It would be waaaay above and beyond one friend helping out another. It would be
business
. Are you sure you want to jumble up our work with our barely stable friendship?”

“Even more than you know.” His voice had dropped far below his usual baritone. It was down in the rumbly register that either indicated Ward had a cold, or was making a move. The latter couldn’t possibly be true, so Piper made a mental note to take some extra vitamin C when she got home.

“First of all, thank you. Secondly, I have to come right out and say it—are you sure you can afford to go up against my father? He’s made it quite clear that he won’t stand for anyone helping me on this.”

“Your dad’s never liked me. That prejudice has only gotten stronger over the years, even as a bunch of other people in town dropped their cold shoulder toward me. And yeah, I’ll admit that when I’ve come up against a rock and a hard place getting the distillery off the ground, I wondered if your dad was the one putting speed bumps in my way. It can’t get any worse.”

“It might.” It was never wise to underestimate her father. He might be emotionally distant, sometimes even cruel, but no one disputed his business acumen.

“I don’t care. I want to help you. The cost doesn’t matter.”

“Ah. The cost.” Finally, Piper could grasp at a legitimate stumbling block. Something to be discussed and analyzed. Something to keep her from jumping headlong into a partnership that would undoubtedly flay open her scarred heart on a daily basis. She needed that right now. Needed to ground herself in details and not in the shiny hope that she might be able to make her promise to Grandpa Will a reality, after all. “I suppose this is the part where we haggle over price. I’ll tell you flat out what I offered to pay all the other farmers I approached. I want to be fair.”

“I want to be fair too.” Ward dug in his pocket and pulled out a folded scrap of paper. “There’s what I’ll charge you. Two numbers—one if you want to rent the land on a yearly basis, and one if you want to buy it outright.”

It was already intolerably hard to be around him as much as she was. But to be tied to him with a business venture for a year...or more? Could she handle it? Could she handle the extra contact with Ward without Ella and Casey as buffers? Piper wasn’t certain. She was certain, however, that she’d never forgive herself if she didn’t at least try.

“I wouldn’t think of buying it. If you ever decide to sell the property, you’ll need as much acreage as possible. I wouldn’t want to decrease your resale potential.”

“Fine. Lease it is.” He scratched something out, then handed her the paper.

It was a fair price. One that definitely included a friend discount—about 5 percent less than what she’d offered everyone else—but still reasonable enough that they’d both be satisfied with the transaction.

“No haggling needed, then.”

“No haggling allowed.” He snatched the paper back. “Because there’s a condition to go along with it. A make-or-break-the-deal condition.”

Piper could think of only one possible condition that she’d refuse. “I hope you don’t want me to name the port line after you. Grandpa Will already came up with what I think is the perfect name. I really want to honor his memory and bring his dream to life, in its entirety.”

“Not a problem.” Ward planted his hands on the desk and leaned over her laptop until their noses were practically touching. “What I want is for you to date me.”

Piper blinked a few times, clearing her eyes because she couldn’t figure out how to blink clear the words from her ears. Because they made no sense. As nonsensical as painting Easter eggs to look like jack-o’-lanterns. As ridiculous as looking out at the thirty-six-mile expanse of Seneca Lake and saying that you couldn’t see the water.

“Come again? Because I don’t understand.”

“Here’s the actual deal. You have to date me for a month. Not a onetime thing. Boyfriend/girlfriend type of time. Multiple shared meals in a week. Hanging out. Phone calls. Date like a real couple for an entire month.”

Why would he want to do that? Why, after he’d broken her heart, let years go by without talking to her, and only spent time with her since returning when accompanied by Ella and/or Casey,
why
would he make that a condition?
Whywhywhywhywhy?

Piper wanted to shake him. Instead, she rephrased the question hammering in her head in a nonstop loop. In as calm and businesslike a voice as possible, she asked, “Why would I do that?”

He eased away, stood up and spread his arms low, palms facing her. “At the end of the month, if you still want the land, I’ll lease it to you. If you want to keep dating me, then you only pay me half the price.”

That was a very good deal. One she’d be crazy to refuse. But that loop in her head kept playing. So she came at him from a different direction. “How do you know I won’t keep dating you for another few weeks just to save a few dollars?”

Dipping his chin, Ward gave her a look from beneath hooded eyes that plainly said
who are you kidding?
“I know you, Piper. You’re honest to the core. Principled. You’d never game the system like that.”

True. She wouldn’t even stock up on extra Forever stamps right before an announced price hike, because it felt like cheating the post office. But still...”This is crazy.”

“A little. Sometimes crazy works. Consider it an out-of-the-box solution to a long-standing problem.”

“What’s the problem?” Piper held her breath. This had to be the root of it. The reason behind the unbelievable request that had just turned her world upside down. Inside out. And it just figured that whatever it was, Ward labeled it a problem. Probably blamed her for it too.

“I want you.” There went his voice, dropping again into a growl that reverberated through her skin straight to her nerve endings. “I’ve never stopped wanting you. I can’t get you out of my mind.”

“So this month of dating you’re proposing is like getting the flu vaccine. With all this extra exposure to me, you think your attraction will go away?” Piper knew she sounded flippant. But the words flew out in a defensive rush before she could stop them. Because Ward hadn’t just given a nod to the scab around her heart. No, with this offer, he’d stitched up the jagged edges of every slash he’d caused, bandaged them and essentially kissed it to make it all better.

Could he, though? Make it all better? Did he even deserve the chance to try?

Ward came around and crouched in front of her, hands hanging loosely off his massive thighs. “Just the opposite. I’m hoping that your attraction to me will come back.”

It was on the tip of her tongue to admit that it had never left. Not when she was crying buckets of tears every night. Not when she ripped up the notes he’d written her. Not when she made Ella and Casey go out in the middle of the night and spray-paint over the
P
+
W
he’d put on a rock at the edge of the lake.

Piper felt like she was poised on one end of a teeter-totter. Right now, everything could change. Everything had to change. Ward’s offer was out there now, flaring bright in her consciousness. She couldn’t ignore what he’d said. Couldn’t forget it. But was she ready to fall again? Either head over heels...or out of love with him forever? Either way, it would still be a fall.

“I can’t decide right now. You have to give me time. Every business decision should be carefully mulled over for at least twenty-four hours before proceeding.”

Ward snickered. Reached out one long arm to tap the row of business books on her shelf. “Did you read that in one of these textbooks?”

“Maybe.” Absolutely. Quite a few things in Piper had changed since high school. Her utter devotion to research, however, had not lessened one bit. And Ward had always teased her about her fanatical studying. How was this rapport between them suddenly so familiar and easy? “It doesn’t make it any less true.”

“Don’t you ever go with your gut?” He sauntered closer.

“That’s risky.”

A devilish smile flashed across his face. “That’s the fun part.”

“We can argue over business strategies—or lack thereof—later,” she said archly, giving him a disapproving glare down her nose. “I’m going to have to insist on time to weigh the pros and cons.”

“It’s Wednesday. I’ll give you until this time on Friday.” He closed the distance between them in one long stride. “I’ll give you something to start off that pro/con list with too.”

Ward bent, putting his lips on hers before Piper could decide whether to scoot out of reach or not. Probably because a part of her couldn’t believe it was actually happening. There was a very strong possibility she’d passed out from exhaustion and this whole thing was a dream. It was the likeliest explanation for the morning’s strange turn of events.

But the warm slide of his lips pulled her straight out of her head and rooted her firmly in the moment.
This
moment. What she’d dreamed about and hoped for didn’t hold a candle to the reality of Ward,
her
Ward, finally claiming her again with a kiss that seared her down to her core.

He planted his hands at her waist and lifted, lips never breaking contact. Lips, heck—
tongue
never breaking contact. Even as he raised her high enough that her feet left the floor, Ward’s tongue swept around every inch of her mouth. Every nerve-laden inch. Every sensitive, tingling inch.

Piper needed to touch. Needed to greedily take him with the same heat he was lavishing upon her. Her hands fisted in his hair. Ward nipped at her bottom lip in response. So she wrapped her legs around his waist. That elicited a growl, and Ward braced her back against the wall. Then he pushed close. Pushed that muscled chest and those ripped abs against her body. Canted his hips to push something else even harder against the vee where her legs met. At that, they both moaned.

The rasping brush of his stubble burned in an oh-so-sexy way as Ward angled down her neck. At her indrawn breath, he paused to suck and lick at the spot right on top of where her pulse fluttered rapidly. Because, oh, the things he did to her. The shivers that raced through her just from the strong, wide span of his hands at her waist. The way he crowded out all thought as he crowded his body against hers.

Even the roughness, the harsh press of his jeans inseam and the scrape of the hair on his chin and the hard grind of hip against hip surged a sexy thrill from her head to her toes. Piper couldn’t squeeze her legs tight enough, couldn’t rake her nails down the back of his shirt hard enough, couldn’t recapture his mouth fast enough. Nothing was enough.