Dara held Piper’s gaze for a second longer before she turned and disappeared down the pathway.
“Never to be seen again,” Piper said with a sigh.
“One can only hope.”
Startled, Piper whirled around. She found Levi waiting with a cup of coffee in each hand. Her surprise turned to despair.
“How much did you hear?”
“I came in just after the opening credits,” he said. “I’ll give your mother props for one thing. She knows how to play a scene with gusto.”
“She’s had a lot of practice.”
Piper sank onto the swing. Levi joined her. Placing his arm around her shoulders, he kissed her temple. Immediately, she felt better. Not great. Dara left a hangover effect that wasn’t easy to shake.
“Since I heard everything. I’m not sorry,” he said when Piper winced. “I feel the need to respond.”
“To which part?”
“The beginning. The middle. The end.” Levi sighed. “Should I start with the money? Don’t care. Never have. Never will. Let your grandmother leave every cent to charity.”
“She will if I don’t make a proper marriage.”
“What the hell constitutes a proper marriage in the twenty-first century?” Levi asked with a perplexed frown.
“According to me, my mother, or my grandmother?” Piper sighed. “Three generations of Engels, three different philosophies.”
“I heard your mother’s ideas,” Levi said. “Sorry, but what grandma wants doesn’t interest me in the least.”
“I knew there was a reason I liked you.”
“My pretty face?” he asked with a quizzical expression. He rested his head against hers. “How do you see marriage?”
“I haven’t given the idea a lot of thought—not on a personal level.” Piper took a moment and sipped her coffee. “I don’t want what my mother had with my father. Lust couched as a love that morphed into seething hate.”
“Yikes,” Levi said.
“When she married the second time, Mom had money—until my stepfather gambled away most of his family fortune. Divorce, again,” Piper told him. “She took back her maiden name and turned her focus to marrying me off to the first spineless doofus who came along.”
“Now I understand.”
“Explain it to me,” she insisted. “I’ve never been able to figure her out.”
“My powers are strong, but even a superhero has his limitations,” Levi said with a chuckle. “I meant that I understand why you were reluctant for us to go beyond friendship. Your mother is a vicious harpy.”
“You don’t deserve her wrath.” Piper took a deep breath. “What she said about you and Dylan. I don’t know where she picked up the idea that you’re gay.”
“Dylan and I joke all the time with each other, with the team, about how close we are.” Levi shrugged. “No big deal. But you mentioned Monte Oliver.”
“He came to my office the day you left for Atlanta.” Sensing Levi wasn’t happy, Piper rushed to explain. “I meant to tell you. By the time you returned to Seattle, I was so focused on you that I forgot he even existed.”
“If he ever shows his face to you again, tell me immediately,” Levi said. “Doesn’t matter if I’m at home or in Timbuktu.”
“The Knights have road games in Timbuktu?” Piper asked, hoping to lighten the mood. Levi smiled, but he wasn’t ready to laugh quite yet. “Monte seems like the most likely source of your mother’s misinformation. His jokes about Dylan and me were always a bit too pointed.”
“I’m not sorry we’re together.”
“Why would you be?” Levi wanted to know.
“My mother won’t stop,” Piper said, worried that someone who should have wanted the best for her put money above all else, even her own daughter. “I don’t know if she’ll tell the world that you’re gay.”
“I don’t care,” Levi said. Piper nodded.
“Mom will try something else eventually. Until my grandmother is in her grave and the family fortune distributed, her machinations won’t stop.”
“You think I can’t handle whatever she throws our way?” Levi asked, a touch of hurt entering his dark eyes. “You should know me better than that.”
“I was worried,” Piper admitted. “In the end, I wanted you too much to care. Which makes me just as selfish as my mother.”
“Not even close.” Levi gripped her hand, kissing the tip of each finger. “Selfish is doing something to benefit only yourself without worrying about anyone else.”
“Sounds like me.”
“Now you’re starting to piss me off,” he said.
Piper knew she sounded pitiful, but she couldn’t stop. The best thing for him would be if she walked away. Even if she did, Levi wouldn’t let her unless she could say with absolute certainty that her feelings had changed.
“If I didn’t love you, you’d let me go.”
“Yes,” he agreed. “But you do.”
Levi didn’t ask. He knew her heart as well as she knew his.
“What should we do about my mother?”
“People like her are happiest when their bad deeds make them the center of attention,” Levi reasoned. “If we ignore her, hopefully, she’ll stop. At least for now.”
“Logic doesn’t work with Dara Engels.” Piper knew. She’d tried. “But I agree. We can’t spend our lives looking over our shoulders. We should wait until she makes the first move. Then…”
“Yes?”
“We’ll tell Grandmother.” When Levi laughed, Piper felt her heart lighten. “I’m not joking. The one who holds the purse strings rules my mother’s world.”
With one foot, Levi set the swing in motion. Drinking his coffee, he curled a lock of Piper’s hair around his finger, his gaze locked on the outcropping of trees.
“Your mother sounds like a sad, sad woman,” he said. “In another life, maybe I’ll be able to stir up some sympathy for her.”
“But not now.” Piper sighed.
“I’m grateful to her for one thing.” Levi smiled. “She gave birth to you.”
“Sometimes I wonder,” Piper said. “She and I look nothing alike.”
“You mean…?” Levi gave her a questioning look.
“Not possible, I’m afraid.” Piper shrugged. “If Dara weren’t my mother, she would have tossed me out and eliminated the competition for Grandmother’s fortune long ago.”
“Speechless doesn’t begin to cover my reaction.” Levi rubbed Piper’s
