It was strange how he’d started thinking “we” when talking about him and Piper. When had he stopped being an “I”?
Piper ran into the kitchen, dragging her stuffed cat with her. The real cat followed, her sharp claws skidding across the tile. Cameron briefly wondered if he should, like, feed the thing. Maybe give it some water? Cats drank water, didn’t they?
Shit, he didn’t know. There was no way they could keep it. He was barely fumbling his way around Piper, without adding a deranged cat to the mix. A cat who was currently attacking Cameron’s shoes. Without thinking, he scooped the shoes up and plopped them on a barstool.
While Piper helped herself to the pantry, because she had already learned where he kept his food, Cameron snagged his cell off the kitchen counter and snapped a photo of the cat. He texted it to Brandon, with the caption:
Found a buddy for you.
Cameron placed the phone down and scrounged up some breakfast for himself and Piper. His gaze flickered to the guesthouse, briefly wondering if he should check on Audrey. Would she still be sleeping? Showering? The image of her standing beneath the hot spray, water cascading down her damp skin…damn. Cameron needed to pull himself together, lest he embarrass himself in front of his niece.
He and Piper had just started cracking eggs in a bowl when his cell vibrated. Cameron checked it, already knowing what Brandon’s response would be.
If you try to leave me with that thing, you’ll have to enroll in witness protection. What the hell is it? It looks like a shell-less turtle.
Cameron thumbed his reply. It’s a cat. Just show the picture to Stella.
His phone buzzed.
No way. She’ll bully me into taking it. Sorry, bro, but you’re stuck.
Cameron set the phone back down and accepted his reality. He was officially a single guy with a niece he was still unsure about and an alien creature who’d already developed an obsession with his shoes.
Oh, and let’s not forget the woman you want to bang and then take out to dinner.
Cameron had never wanted to take a woman out to dinner before, unless he was trying to get into her pants. But with Audrey it was more than that. More than romancing her with an endgame in mind. He wanted to take her somewhere nice so she could put on something other than skinny jeans. Not that her ass didn’t look damn fine in denim, but he wanted to see her in a skirt. Or a dress. Either was optimal for sliding his hands up the back of her thighs…
“Can you use chocolate chips to make a smiley face on my pancakes?” Piper asked, interrupting his R-rated thoughts. “My mom used to do that.”
Cameron slanted a look at Piper at the mention of her mom. Piper had only mentioned her mom one other time. The conversation he had with Audrey about this very thing came to Cameron’s mind. But he also wondered if he should be doing more. More…well, he wasn’t sure exactly what. Maybe talking to Piper more about it? Asking how she felt, if she was all right?
“Did your mom used to make you breakfast?” Cameron asked, keeping his tone light.
Piper swung her legs back and forth on the counter. “Sometimes. Mostly she just made me cereal or toast.”
Cameron flipped a pancake in the pan. “You said your mom used to make you breakfast every Sunday.”
Piper scratched her nose. “Yeah, but just on Sundays. But mostly she was always sick.”
His heart gave a painful squeeze at Piper’s casual tone. Realistically, he knew Piper was anything but casual about her mother’s death, but the way she said it, with such calm acceptance…Cameron was more torn up about it than he thought he’d be.
“Your mom was real sick, huh?”
Piper nodded and kept her attention on the pancakes cooking in the pan.
Cameron wanted to ask more, but the words stuck in his throat. He didn’t want to send Piper into a fit of tears, because female tears…damn. He didn’t have the faintest clue about that one.
However, she was his niece. Shouldn’t he be more comfortable talking to her? He would need to know these things if the two of them had a chance in hell surviving on a long-term basis.
“You know…” Cameron cleared his throat and ordered himself to find his balls. “If you ever want to, you know, talk to someone about your mom, you can come to me.”
Piper blinked up at him as though she didn’t understand.
Cameron tried for a different angle. “Do you think about her a lot?”
Piper’s legs stopped their swinging. “Yeah,” she said after a moment.
Cameron scooped three done pancakes off the pan and set them on a plate. “What do you miss most about her?”
“The way she used to read me stories with all the voices,” Piper answered. “And her hugs.”
Cameron swallowed past the lump in his throat, feeling more emotional than he thought possible. “She gave good hugs, huh?”
Piper nodded and scratched her bare knee.
“What was your favorite story she used to read to you?”
Piper thought for a moment, then answered, “Pinkalicious.”
Cameron nodded because he didn’t know what the hell that was. “I could read that to you sometime, if you’d like,” he found himself saying. “I don’t know if my voices would be as good as your mom’s, though.”
Piper inhaled deeply. “Audrey reads it to me. She does good voices.” Her legs resumed their swinging. “She gives good hugs too.”
Yeah, he bet Audrey gave good hugs.
Dude, you’re talking to a six-year-old. Chill on the sexual innuendos.
“Sounds like you like hugs a lot.”
Piper plucked a chocolate chip out of the bag. “Just from my mom and Audrey.”
So she had some touchy-feely issues. Cameron could understand that.
He cleared his throat and decided a change in subject was needed. The mood was plummeting downhill fast, and that hadn’t been his intention. He’d simply wanted to gauge Piper’s emotional stability, and he realized she had some deeply buried sorrow for her mom.
“You
