“Right. Drew’s a friend. I don’t want Drew to be my rebound.”
“But you are going to find a rebound?” he asked, that chest pain back.
“Tired. Of. Talking. Good night, Ollie.”
Then she closed the door in his face.
3
The next morning, Ollie was the last one to enter the conference room.
On purpose, though, rather than because he’d forgotten the meeting and he no longer had an assistant to remind him.
He knew he had this meeting. He usually loved this meeting. He and his four best friends got together almost every single morning before going their separate ways to work, even though they were now not even all working in the same building.
He did not want to have this meeting this morning though.
He’d barely slept. He’d tossed and turned all night thinking about what Piper had said. And how she’d felt. How she’d tasted. How she’d sounded. How she’d smelled.
And now he was about to face his business partners, and best friends, without her. And without any caffeine or muffins.
Because Piper brought him coffee and muffins every morning.
And as pathetic as it was, he couldn’t make coffee.
Well, he could. But his coffee sucked. Piper had the magic recipe for exactly how he liked it. And he didn’t know the right mix.
He took his seat next to Dax.
Thank God Dax was here. Dax wasn’t an owner anymore, but he showed up for the meetings as a “consultant” and more as a guy who liked to start his day with his best friends.
And coffee and muffins.
“Oliver.”
With a mental groan, Ollie looked across the table at Grant. “’Morning.”
Grant lifted a brow. “What did you do?”
Busted.
“What do you mean?”
Dax snorted beside him.
Yeah, everyone knew that Ollie knew.
“Where’s Piper?” Aiden asked. He was giving Ollie an I-know-you-screwed-up look.
“She’s… not coming in this morning.”
“You’re in so much trouble,” Dax muttered to him.
Yeah, yeah. And these guys weren’t even his biggest problem.
“And why is she not coming in?” Aiden asked.
“Why do you assume I know?” Ollie asked.
“Because in the past when she’s been sick, she’s called me,” Aiden told him.
“Maybe she just needed a day off.”
Grant leaned in, his expression serious. “Did she?”
Well, yeah. But not just one day. He blew out a breath. “Fine. She quit.”
Aiden and Grant both sighed.
“What did you do to her?” Grant asked again.
Kissed the hell out of her. Felt her bare ass cheek. “Piper loves me.”
Aiden sighed and sat back in his chair. “Yeah, yeah. We all love you, Ollie. But what did you do, or say, or not do, or whatever, that made her quit?”
Ollie shook his head. “That’s what happened. I guess. She fell in love with me.”
The other men all looked at one another. Cam leaned in. “Uh… she told you that?”
“Yeah.”
“And”—Cam cast a look at the other guys—“what did you say?” He asked hesitantly, as if afraid of the answer.
“Hey, I tried to talk her out of it.”
Dax gave a choked laugh. “How’d that go?”
“She kissed me.”
The guys all froze.
Okay, that wasn’t exactly the way it had gone, but those were definitely the highlights.
Grant, Aiden, Cam, and Dax all exchanged looks again. Ollie gave them a minute to let that all sink in.
“And”—Dax shifted on his chair and cleared his throat—“then what?”
“I asked whether she’d come back to work if she could get over me.” He looked around the table. “She said yes, by the way.”
Aiden rubbed the middle of his forehead. Grant seemed to be considering that. Dax snorted.
“And then?” Cam asked.
“Then she told me she was tired of talking to me and kicked me out of her room.” He skipped the part about rebound boyfriends and Drew fucking Ryan.
Dax nodded thoughtfully. “And that leaves us…”
“Without Piper. For now.”
Grant sighed heavily. “That’s not acceptable.”
“Well, I don’t know what to tell you. She won’t not be in love with me right now so… I’ve done what I can do.”
Grant gave him a look that said you’re a dumbass.
Aiden opened his mouth but then shut it.
“I…” But Cam clearly had nothing to add either.
“Dude,” was all Dax said.
Ollie spread his arms out. “She has bad taste in men. What can I say? That’s not my fault. I’m just sitting here, being me, and she fell in love with me anyway.”
God, he was such a dick. But no one had ever been in love with him before. And he’d certainly never been in love with anyone. These four men were the closest he’d been and they were like brothers. They knew his limitations and they, thank God, also had each other, so the stuff he wasn’t good at, someone else was. It worked in their personal relationships as well as their business partnership.
But, as Piper had said yesterday, all of that was in flux now. And yes, Ollie was feeling restless and kind of pissy about it.
All of the other men had interests outside of their business now. Fluke still existed but they didn’t own Warriors anymore. Hot Cakes was fine, but that was definitely more Aiden’s interest than anyone else’s. Plus, he was all into helping Zoe with her bakery.
Dax had divested himself of his Hot Cakes shares and was running a nursing home now, of all things, and had become an instant family man, getting involved with Jane’s dad and sister and stepsister. He’d even handled a bunch of stepmother drama. Grant had his side business in financial consulting and was all distracted by Josie and her new business. Cam was back together with Whitney and helping with her grandmother.
They all had other stuff going on, including being in love.
And Ollie was just here. The same as always. Which was more boring every day.
Now Piper wasn’t here either. Everything was changing. It sucked.
He’d admit that coming into work this morning had felt off. Wrong. Bad. Not seeing her at her desk when he rounded the corner at the end of the hall, not hearing her morning greeting, not having her in the room now, picking up papers, delivering coffee and water. It wasn’t the coffee and water that he wanted. It certainly wasn’t the papers that he wanted. He wanted to see Piper.
Not seeing her behind her desk that morning had made him realize that he had always been eager to see what she was wearing, how she had her hair done, what bright colors she’d put together.
Then he’d immediately flashed to how she’d looked answering her door in her short robe with the towel on top of her head.
It had been like looking at someone new. Someone who maybe didn’t have every single thing together in her life. Someone who could be caught off guard. Someone who didn’t know every thought in his head before he had it. Someone he could touch.
Piper was too… much… for him usually. She was too good, too on top of things, too perfect. She didn’t screw up, she didn’t get things wrong, she didn’t doubt herself.