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“Dating can be exhausting.” He leaned casually against the doorjamb, his posture matching his informal attire of a faded Astros shirt and jeans going threadbare at the knees. “Sometimes a guy just needs a little peace and quiet.”
“So why not enjoy dinner alone in your apartment?” Piper asked.
It was what she’d planned to do. If she had any groceries. She’d been working so many late nights that she’d once again neglected shopping. Other women in her family were prizewinning cooks; Piper barely remembered to keep her fridge stocked.
“Being with you is even better,” Josh said. “I don’t have to be by myself, but I don’t have to be ‘on,’ either. Besides,” he added sheepishly, “I burned the nice dinner I was supposed to be having alone in my apartment right now.”
She laughed. “Let me grab my purse and put my shoes back on.” As she turned, she patted her French braid to make sure it was still presentable. A few strands fell around her face, but all in all, the braid had survived the day intact.
Good thing she hadn’t yet changed from her tailored blue pantsuit into her comfy sweats. Josh probably wouldn’t think anything of going out in public wearing a sweatsuit, but the casual look worked for him. For instance, Josh’s hair always looked as though it had just outgrown that popular short and gelled style that was slightly spiky on top. Though it was still short, his hair was pleasantly rumpled with no trace of gel. Undeniably handsome when he dressed up for work or an occasionally formal date, he was somehow even more appealing in the rugged laid-back uniform of worn jeans and T-shirts.
The injustice of life. Piper in her oldest jeans was grunge personified, whereas Josh effortlessly resembled a female’s fantasy come to life in any clothes. Probably looks even more like a walking fantasy in no clothes at all.
She blinked. Thoughts like that were trouble she didn’t need, she reminded herself, sliding her feet into a pair of high-heeled navy slingbacks. The shoes were arguably the most feminine part of her wardrobe, but at barely five foot three, she’d take all the help she could get. Especially next to Josh’s six foot one.
Grabbing her apartment keys off the coffee table, she stole a look at her tall, platonic friend. Emphasis on the platonic. She was perfectly happy without a guy in her life, and she’d watched Josh back away from enough relationships to know he didn’t want a woman in his life. Not long-term, anyway.
And short-term’s out of the question. Maybe hot flings with no future worked for some people, but the one impulsive time Piper had flung, she’d found the experience to be more embarrassing than pleasurable. She couldn’t begin to fathom how awkward it would be if she constantly saw the flingee at the office.
Shoes on her feet, purse in her hand and lustful thoughts relegated to the dark mental cellar where they belonged, she strolled back to where Josh was waiting. “All set.”
Once they’d reached the apartment’s parking garage, she turned to ask, “Who’s driving?” But she didn’t know why she bothered.
He’d already pulled out his keys and was striding toward his two-door sports car.
“It’s just as well,” she admitted. “I got another ticket today.”
“Speeding again?” He shook his head. “I don’t know how you manage to even get up to the speed limit with traffic as bad as it is, much less exceed it. Do the other cars just magically part for you?”
She climbed into the passenger side. “Hey, you’re supposed to be sympathetic about my bad day.”
“That’s right. You said it was horrible.” His low voice was full of teasing mischief as he turned the key in the ignition. “There are ways I could help take your mind off your troubles, sweetheart. You just say the word.”
Piper’s breath caught, a quiver of expectation in her abdomen. Josh’s flirting was nothing new—it was his default mode—but tonight, after her earlier wayward thoughts, there was a split second where she forgot that he meant nothing by it.
Then he spoke again, his tone genuinely sympathetic. “Kagle being a chauvinistic creep?”
Although Stanley Kagle was too business-savvy to do or say anything overt she could formally complain about, his attitude was a constant reminder that she was the youngest and shortest on the drafting team. And the only one with ovaries, which he apparently viewed as some sort of handicap. Thank God for Callahan and Munroe to counter his presence, or she might actually have to brave the job market.
Piper sighed. “No, it’s not one of our bosses making me crazy, it’s one of our colleagues. If Smith doesn’t get me those dimensions for the Fuqua building, my blueprints will be late, and you know who Kagle will blame. Then, of course, the traffic ticket on my way home today. And on top of everything, my mother called and…”
She’d been about to say that her mother was driving her nuts, but it seemed insensitive to complain. At least she had a mom. Josh’s mother and father had both been killed in a car accident when he was very young. He didn’t discuss his past much, but Piper knew it involved a lot of foster homes and very little stability.
“Grazzio’s okay with you?” Josh’s rhetorical question was an unnecessary formality. Even as he asked, he was steering his car into the parking lot of their favorite pizzeria.
They ate here an average of five times a month. On nice days, it was close enough to walk the few blocks between Grazzio’s and their apartment complex, but on this rainy October night, she was glad for the warm shelter of the car. They hurried through the falling rain to the restaurant, where Josh held the door open for her.
Inside, the leggy brunette hostess greeted them by name, with a special smile for Josh. “Hey, handsome, when are we going out again?”
Josh winked at the woman he’d taken on a couple of dates back in August. “Ah, Nancy, I’d like nothing more than to sweep you off your feet here and now. But you know George from the sports bar is crazy in love with you. I just can’t break the poor guy’s heart like that.”
The hostess shook her head, laughing. “Well, if you change your mind about being noble, you have my number.”
Piper thought Nancy would be wise to give up on Josh and give George, the bartender at Touchdown, a call. All over Houston, from the corner sports bar to the Astros’ stadium, Piper and Josh ran into women who had briefly been part of his life and wanted to repeat the experience. Piper had been on the receiving end of more than a few envious glares from women, who, unlike Nancy, didn’t know Piper had no interest in dating.
Her last relationship, the only one worth counting since Charlie, had ended when her boyfriend gently complained that her work was more of a priority than he was. She suspected that his intent had been for her to change that, but she’d encouraged him to find someone who would focus on him the way he deserved.
Piper and Josh were shown to an elevated booth with blue padded seats, and she stepped up to slide in across from him. An olive-skinned waiter with a mustache and faint accent took their drink orders and left them with a basket of warm bread. The buttery smell reminded her of her mother’s kitchen, where something was always baking, and the upcoming weekend. Piper should be thinking of a way to get out of her impulsive lie, but the more she considered it, the more she liked the idea of a human buffer between her and Charlie. Piper knew from her sister that Charlie had most recently dated the town librarian, but he’d broken things off a few months ago, apparently deciding he wanted a more outspoken woman. Specifically Piper, the outspoken woman he hadn’t valued enough when he’d been with her.
On her last birthday, he’d sent her jewelry that was too expensive to be justified by their growing up together. She’d returned the gift, but he’d still called her a few weeks later to let her know he was going to be in Houston. She’d told him truthfully that she was too busy trying to meet a project deadline to meet him for dinner and had hoped the reminder of her nontraditional priorities would dissuade him. If it hadn’t, she could be in for a very long weekend.
Josh grabbed a roll. “I’m starving.”
Lost in her own troubles, she barely heard him. She needed to be ready for her family, and she could think of only one way to do that. “Josh, I need a man.”
2
PIPER’S DECLARATION was met with immediate choking on Josh’s part. It wasn’t often she had the satisfaction of catching him so off guard. Quite the contrary, he normally delighted in shocking her.
He recovered quickly, his grin suggestive. “Why didn’t you say so back at your place? Forget the pizza, we—”
She laughed. “That’s not what I was talking about.”
Having decided that balancing the irritation of dating with her more important career wasn’t worth the time and effort, Piper was pretty much living a life of celibacy. Josh’s full knowledge of that was probably why he felt safe enough to flirt with her in the first place. No way would he ever actually go out with her. From what she’d observed, he liked to keep women at a certain distance, and he and Piper had passed that point already.
Though she admired plenty of things about Josh, his love life tended toward the…well, shallow seemed unkind, but the truth was some of his relationships made mud puddles look deep by comparison. Interestingly few of his dates complained, so Piper supposed it was none of her business. Josh didn’t lecture her on her non-dating habits, and she didn’t lecture him on the fact that he had the staying power of a—Actually, from the way ex-lovers swooned when they saw him, Piper suspected he had very impressive staying power.
She gulped down some water. “You know I’m going out of town for a few days, right?”
“Yeah. A family reunion.” He smiled. “See? I listen.”
“Well, I need a guy to go with me.” She exhaled a gusty sigh that ruffled her bangs. “I sort of let my mother think I was dating someone, and she’s expecting me to bring him home.”
His expression turned blank, his mind obviously blown at trying to imagine Piper with a man in her life. “But you aren’t seeing anyone.”
“Thank you, Columbo. Nothing gets by you, does it?”
“Hey, watch the sarcasm,” he said as the waiter returned. “You’ll give me indigestion.”
“Ready to order?” the waiter asked.
Piper and Josh exchanged guilty glances. Her “need a man” statement had distracted both of them from even opening their menus. As the waiter stood by, they debated what kind of pizza to get.
“We can split it,” Josh proposed. “Get half of the pizza made one way and something different on the other half.”
“No deal, Weber. Last time we did that, you tried the Jamaican chicken pizza, didn’t like it and ate all of my half. Besides, I might just get pasta.”
“Pasta?” Josh echoed. “Come on, this is the best pizzeria in Houston. You’re going to come here and not get pizza? That makes as much sense as…you having a love life.”
The impatient waiter clearing his throat stopped her from snapping a comeback.
“Perhaps I return in a few minutes?” the man offered.
Glancing from his menu to Piper, Josh said, “I know how much you like the Sicilian specialty. Want to just get that?”
Piper nodded, and the waiter shuffled off, appeased.
Josh immediately returned to the subject of her faux love life. “I don’t get it. What made you lie to your mom? You never lie. Having witnessed you turn away persistent men at Touchdown, I would even say that you’re sometimes painfully honest.”
Lowering her gaze to the red-and-white checkered tablecloth, she mumbled, “I didn’t set out to lie, exactly. I just exaggerated.”
“Piper, when was the last time you had a date?”
“Okay, fine, I lied. I had to get off the phone! She called to remind me that I’m the unmarried shame of the family, and I cracked. I told her I had to run because I was meeting someone for dinner.”
“And based on a supposed dinner date, she’s now booking a church and auditioning caterers.”
“For a guy who’s never met my mother, you have a very clear understanding of her.”
“You paint a vivid picture.”
Piper bit her lower lip. “I have a real problem here.”
“Nah, this isn’t serious. A problem was Michelle. I can’t believe she honestly expected me to remember her cat’s birthday. And stalking me for two weeks like that after the breakup—”
“Maybe if you took the time to get to know some of these women before you went out with them, you’d pick up on little things like personality disorders.” Piper hadn’t meant to sound so snippy, but it annoyed her sometimes to watch Josh waste himself on a string of superficial relationships. Didn’t he realize he had more to offer than that?
“Piper, people go out in order to get to know each other, and I’m not sure I want dating advice from a girl who hasn’t been on one since the Nixon administration.”
“Ha-ha. As if my family encouraged me to date as an infant.” Though they probably would have if they’d known then how difficult it would be to marry her off.
“What I was saying,” he continued, “is that I don’t see why this is a serious problem. Let your mom think whatever she wants. Tell them he couldn’t make it this weekend. Or that you broke up with the guy. Problem solved.”
If only it were that easy. “I would, but Mom said it would really benefit Nana to see me with—” she groaned inwardly, “—‘a good man.”’
His gaze locked with hers. “How is your grandmother?”
“Hanging in there, but…apparently not doing so well.” She swallowed. “Last time we spoke, I argued with her. She was giving me more well-meaning advice on how to live my life, and I told her I was an adult and didn’t need or want her interference. I shouldn’t have said that.”
Josh reached his hand across the table, and it hovered over hers. At the last minute he grabbed the bread basket as though that had been his intention all along.
She wasn’t surprised that he shied away. Typical Josh. Weird that he dated and kissed and she-didn’t-want-to-know-what-else with so many women, yet simple touches made him uncomfortable. Piper had grown up in a hug-oriented family herself, but she tried to respect the personal perimeter he maintained.
Though she had no trouble telling Josh about the familial reasons for needing a stand-in date, Piper didn’t mention Charlie. Josh knew that she’d once dated Rebecca’s current mayor, but Piper had downplayed the seriousness of the relationship. She was embarrassed that she, a modern independent woman, had been slowly altering everything from her work schedule to the way she wore her hair. It wasn’t something she liked to think about, let alone discuss.
“So.” Josh cleared his throat. “You’re really going to take some guy home with you?”
“If I can find one,” she said as the waiter approached. He set their pizza on the table, and Josh distributed the first cheesy slices. They ate in silence, mulling over her situation. At least, she was mulling. For all she knew, Josh was checking out a cute waitress.
To some, asking Josh to accompany her might seem an obvious answer. He’d certainly been willing to do her favors in the past—from free labor on her car to late-night assassinations of Texas-size spiders in her apartment. But this was different. While Josh came across as a people person who could shoot the breeze with anyone, he was intensely private. Piper had watched more than one woman lose him after pressuring him to “open up.” A few days of Piper’s meddling relatives interrogating him would doubtless be his idea of hell. Besides, how insensitive would she have to be to invite a man who’d never had a real family to a large family reunion?
So, with Josh out of the question, who was she going to ask? Instead of eating with her usual gusto, she nibbled her food, thinking out loud. “Most of the men I know are from work, and I can’t ask any of them.”
Josh nodded. “They might misconstrue the invitation, and you’d be in violation of the company’s fraternization policy.”
Plus she couldn’t ask any of them for a huge favor when she wasn’t exactly Ms. Popular at the office. She couldn’t afford to chat in the break room when she was determined to prove herself, to get ahead in a field dominated by men. And she deliberately minimized any feminine assets, which some people had interpreted to mean she was aloof and hard. Though she and Josh had always gotten along professionally, they hadn’t truly become friends until they’d run into each other in their building’s laundry room.
“You know any nice guys?” she asked.
“I keep in touch with a few frat brothers from college, but I’m having trouble picturing you with anyone I once watched do a keg stand, then throw up on the front steps.”
“What about that guy you coach softball with every spring? Adam?”
Josh worked with kids from underprivileged neighborhoods from March to June, and Piper had met Josh’s co-coach during last year’s district playoffs. Good-looking man, but she and Josh had agreed never to date each other’s friends after an awkward situation when he’d broken up with one of Piper’s former college classmates—another casualty of the Joshua Weber charm. Piper really pitied those women.
An unexpected thought struck her. Sure, she pitied them now, but how would she feel toward his dates if he ever showed a real attachment to one of them? Her stomach churned, but she told herself it was just the stress of her reunion predicament, nothing more.
“Adam would actually be a great choice for you to take to your parents,” Josh agreed, “but he’s in Vancouver on an extended business trip until after Halloween. Besides, what would I say? ‘You remember my friend Piper—she needs a fake boyfriend.”’
“I have to find someone.” She sat back, staring blankly across the table.
What would happen if she just told her family the truth—that she was single and liked it that way? You know what would happen. Charlie. The man had blond, all-American good looks and had been born into Rebecca’s top social level. Granted, Rebecca wasn’t big enough to have many levels, but the point was, he was used to getting his way. He’d seemed more bemused than upset when she’d broken their engagement, and she got the impression he was waiting for her to come to her senses.
Josh swallowed nervously. “Exactly why are you looking at me like that?”
Blinking, she chuckled at his wary tone. “Relax. I’m not asking you to come with me. I just needed a sympathetic ear.”
He quickly replaced his guarded expression with a smile meant to be casual, but his relief was so palpable it was practically a third person in the booth. “Hey, here’s an idea, what about a man from the gym? You’re there every other morning. You’ve gotta know some guys.”
“No, I spend most of my time with Gina. Or working out alone. I avoid eye contact with men so I don’t end up trapped on the treadmill, fending off unoriginal lines like, ‘Come here often?”’
“I can’t help but notice you avoid men most everywhere you go.”
“The last thing I expected from you is the Piper-needs-a-man speech.” She drummed her fingers on the table. “I get it from plenty of other people.”
“Sorry, I didn’t mean to imply that. You definitely don’t ‘need’ a guy. You’re the most together woman I know.” He flashed a wicked smile. “And I know lots of women.”
She rolled her eyes.
“Give me something to work with,” he prompted. “What did you tell your mom about this mystery man?”
“I told her he had dark hair—”
“Good. Thousands of guys must have dark hair.”
“—and that he was tall—”
He laughed. “Compared to you, everyone’s tall.”
