“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