call in sick tomorrow and Friday. Don’t feel guilty, I haven’t taken a sick day all year and I’ll lose them if I don’t take them in the next two months.” And it wasn’t as though anyone from the office would guess he was with Piper. Though people knew they were friends, Josh’s active dating life was common knowledge.
“You’ll really do this?”
“You can count on me.” Words that were as ironic as they were true. He’d never encouraged a woman to depend on him because the last thing he wanted was to lead one on. Why pretend he might stick around when goodbye was inevitable?
He’d been left too many times, and it was safer if he did the leaving, early enough that no one truly got hurt.
“I know I can count on you. Thanks, Josh.” The poignant expression in her aquamarine gaze made him look away.
He stood. “If I’m going to pack, I should do laundry.”
“Need any quarters?” She sounded uncharacteristically shy. “I did mine last night and still have some change.”
“Nah, I’m good.”
She rose then, hesitating briefly before throwing her arms around his shoulders. “Thank you.”
Awkwardly, he returned the embrace, immediately recalling the last time she’d been this close to him. A few months ago, at a baseball game. They’d both jumped up, cheering as the Astros battled their way from a tie to a win. At the end of the game, Piper had turned to impulsively hug him.
The clean citrusy fragrance of her shampoo was exactly as he remembered. And the underlying womanly scent of her was the same, too.
He released her abruptly.
Piper shuffled back, her expression apologetic. “I just wanted you to know how much I appreciate this. I owe you.”
“How about a lifetime supply of those chocolate chip pancakes you make?” He shrugged off her gratitude with a smile. “It’s not that big a deal, really. How bad can one family reunion be?”
“You don’t know my family.”
“I’m not worried,” he said. “And now you don’t have to worry about this anymore. This weekend, I’m all yours.”
SINCE ALL THE TREADMILLS were taken Thursday morning, Piper began a brisk lap around the indoor track surrounding the mirrored free-weight area. She supposed it was silly to be here so bright and early—okay, pitch-dark and early—on a vacation day, but she hadn’t been able to sleep much after Josh’s visit last night. Even after hours to get used to the idea, she was still surprised by his generosity.
On the surface, his favor might seem like a fairly simple thing. It was only a few days, after all, and a few harmless white lies to people who would never see him again. But Piper knew Josh better than that, realized what this would cost him. He’d heard her talk about her relatives enough to know what to expect—a convergence of people demanding to know his intentions and dragging out the details of the life story he hated discussing.
Knowing that she’d apparently underestimated him left her feeling both guilty and curious. If he was more capable of opening himself up to others than she’d given him credit for, was it possible that—
You’re getting way ahead of yourself.
This was one weekend, nothing more. And Josh’s relationship potential was none of her business, anyway, especially considering she didn’t want a relationship. What she wanted was to prove to the people of her hometown that there was more than one type of success in life. Not having a ring on your finger or a significant other to fill your Friday nights didn’t mean you were a failure.
As she finished her first quarter-mile, Piper spotted Gina Sanchez off to the side, stretching. A pretty woman with long black hair, a habitually wry smile and a collection of colorful T-shirts—including the one she currently wore that said Lawyers Do It Pro Bono—Gina was Piper’s closest female friend. They frequently worked out together and sometimes caught a movie or dinner, but Piper generally turned down her friend’s clubbing invitations to popular Houston hot spots.
Piper slowed her pace. “Morning.”
“What are you doing here?” Gina stepped onto the track. “I thought you were leaving to go see your folks today.”
“Not for another few hours.”
Her friend shook her head, sending her dark ponytail swinging. “Ever heard of the concept of sleeping in?”
“Well, in the town I’ll be visiting, the closest thing they have to a gym are the three machines in the high school weight room, only two of which ever work at the same time. And eating my mother’s cooking for the next few days, I’m sure to come back ten pounds heavier. I figured one last workout would be good for me.”
“You’re so disciplined.”
Piper raised her eyebrows. How was she any more disciplined than her friend, who attended the gym with the same regularity? “You’re here most mornings at six, too.”
“Yeah, but that’s because I want to look good so I can find Mr. Right.”
Piper just didn’t get it. Her cousins she could maybe understand, since they’d been raised in such an old-fashioned setting where their peers aspired to good marriages shortly after high school. Gina’s life was more contemporary than that. An attractive, self-reliant attorney, she nonetheless spent a lot of weekend nights with dates who didn’t deserve her, only to agonize the following week over why they hadn’t called and whether she would ever meet someone.
Piper knew that with her friend, it was more a case of wanting a relationship, not buying into the myth that women needed a man to take care of them. But honestly, why did Gina want something so much when it was usually a one-sided effort that left her grumbling about how there were no good men available?
Friends who’d known Piper post-Charlie had teased her, only half kiddingly, about her militant feminist streak. Maybe she was being too cynical, she thought as she pumped her arms in rhythm with her stride. After all, what was wrong with healthy equal partnerships?
Nothing, if they exist.
At first, Piper had thought that’s what she had with Charlie, until his little manipulations had added up to one big picture. Never complaining that she preferred jeans to a more traditional feminine look, but buying her skirts for her birthday; insisting that children could wait while she built her career, yet managing to make sure she was holding some cute baby at every possible opportunity, hinting that she’d make a wonderful mother.
Charlie was just one example, true, but she didn’t see a lot of counterexamples in the people around her. Gina’s attempts to find a fulfilling partnership had yet to yield any convincing successes, and Piper’s other closest friend, Josh, actively shunned emotional involvement.
Then there were Piper’s relatives, the people she’d grown up watching. One could argue that her mother was happily married, but how happy could a woman really be while doing her husband’s laundry and fixing his dinner and voting the way he voted? Personally, Piper would probably gnaw off her own arm to escape that kind of relationship. Her cousin Stella, divorced three times, obviously hadn’t found the magic formula for true happiness, either.
