Play It Again (5 page)

He’s the guy I saw on the monitor.

“Um, yeah, but uh …” Piper starts, but
stalls, glancing at me. “But Vance won’t be staying. He’s got a …
um … meeting to get to.”

I glance at Piper, cocking an eyebrow. “I’ve
got a meeting?”

Piper says nothing, but she slowly nods,
refusing to meet my eyes. She fidgets with the strap of her tank,
and then tugs on the bottom of her shorts, as though attempting to
make the skintight fabric look longer, before moving on with an
attempt to tame her bedhead.

She’s nervous.

I stand there watching her fix her
appearance, feeling oddly satisfied that it’s my presence that’s
making her nervously fidget and not
Jimmy the
photographer’s
.

Silence swallows the room.

It isn’t until the front door opens and
closes a few seconds later that she finally looks up.

“You’ve got to be kidding me,” she says,
shaking her head, her gaze shifting from me to Wes. “Is Jase going
to walk in any second, too?”

Wes ignores her, his attention focused on me.
“You get here in time?”

“False alarm,” I tell him. “It was Jimmy the
photographer. He’s making breakfast.”

“Jimmy the photographer,” Wes repeats,
frowning, and I nearly laugh. He looks just as confused as I felt
when she first told me who was here.

“Yes,” Piper snaps, and she points to Jimmy,
who’s still standing in the kitchen doorway watching us curiously.
“That’s Jimmy. He’s a photographer. He’s also a friend of mine.
What is so hard to understand about this?”

“It’s five in the morning, babe,” Wes says
seriously. “You usually work until one, and then sleep until
nine-thirty. You don’t get visitors at five in the morning.”

“How do you even know that?” she asks, and
then right away she shakes her head and says, “Never mind. I don’t
want to know.”

Wes regards her for a moment, before shifting
his hard gaze to Jimmy. “What the fuck are you doing sneaking
around her house at five o’clock in the goddamn morning?”

Jimmy cringes. “My ex changed the locks on
me, and then when I got here, I found that Piper did the same.” He
frowns, shaking his head. “It really hasn’t been a good night.”

“You and Tara broke up?” Piper asks, swinging
her now worried gaze to him.

“I emailed you about …” he stalls, stuffing
his hands in his pockets. “Right, I didn’t send you that email
either. Okay, long story short, I met someone else. She’s perfect.
She’s amazing. She’s a photographer, too. As soon as I met her, I
just knew, you know? I knew she’s what I’ve been missing, so I
broke it off with Tara before I left for Denver because it wouldn’t
be cool to stay with her when I have these feelings for someone
else. I thought she was cool with it, but she locked me out so I’m
guessing she’s not.”

Piper stares at him for a moment, with what
looks like pity. She opens her mouth to say something, but stops
herself, turning to look at me. “You should probably go before
you’re late.”

“Late for what?” Wes asks, once more sounding
confused. “I thought Jimmy was making breakfast.”

I hesitate, contemplating how to respond to
that, wondering if I should humor Piper and play along since she
really doesn’t seem to want us to stick around.

“He is,” I say, “but we can’t stay. We’ve got
that meeting.”

Wes shakes his head, smiles at Piper, and
then not missing a beat, he says, “Right, I forgot about that. I’ll
meet you at Heaven Here in twenty, yeah?”

“I’m right behind you,” I say, “but the
meeting is at Sunnyside.”

Wes laughs. “Right. Sunnyside Eatery,
five-thirty. Got it.”

I roll my eyes, and he laughs again, before
saying a quick goodbye to Piper and walking out the door.

She smiles at me when he leaves, mouthing a
silent
thank you,
and for a second, I’m struck by the sight.
She’s so damn pretty. Even just waking up, her hair knotted and
disheveled, she’s pretty.

For a second, I find myself wondering why
I’ve never asked her out before, but it’s a senseless thought,
because I know the answer. She’s Kim’s best friend and that
could’ve been awkward and messy with them living together, and she
also had a man for most of the time I’ve known her.

But she doesn’t have a man now.

She hasn’t for six months.

And she hasn’t lived with Kim for six months
either.

“Have dinner with me tonight,” I say.

Her eyes widen, but she doesn’t hesitate,
doesn’t even take a second to consider it, shaking her head
quickly. “Um ... I can’t,” she says. “I have plans.”

My eyebrows raise at her quick shut down, my
expression no doubt betraying my shock.

Well, shit. I thought she’d at least consider
it.

“Kim and I are going out for drinks,” she
blurts suddenly, as though she feels the need to explain. “Girl’s
night.”

The corner of my mouth turns up in a half
smile, and then it spreads into a full-blown grin. “Then have
dinner with me tomorrow.”

“I, uh ... I don’t know if that’s a good
idea,” she says. “I’m kind of behind with work right now.”

She’s right, it’s probably not a good idea,
but I’m not sure I care about that anymore.

Reaching over, I cup her chin, tilting her
head up to look at me. I can see raw vulnerability in her eyes.
“It’s just dinner. Work or not, you’ve still gotta eat.”

“I know, but ...”

“I’ll pick you up at seven, honey,” I say,
stopping her before she can make up another excuse.

Pink tints her cheeks as she rolls her eyes
and she nods, a small smile on her lips. “Okay.”

I smile, brushing my thumb over her bottom
lip, before letting my hand fall away. “I’ll see you tomorrow,
Piper,” I say, and then I walk out the door to go meet Wes for
breakfast.

Piper

“Okay, I’m confused,” Kim says, wrinkling
her nose overdramatically as she comes back from the kitchen,
handing me a fresh beer. “Why is Jimmy staying here?”

“Out of everything I’ve told you, that’s what
you’re confused about?” I ask and laugh, before taking a deep sip
from my drink.

It’s nearly six o’clock, and we’re both well
on our way to a happy buzzed place. She got here about an hour ago
and I’ve been filling her in on what I’ve dubbed the
Vance
Conundrum
ever since
.

She sat and listened as I told her about the
crazy alarm system he installed, and the lecture I received from
the guys yesterday about not already having one.

She giggled when I told her about Jimmy
showing up here this morning, and then she full out laughed when I
told her about Vance and Wes showing up shortly after and that
Vance kept a key to my house.

Then she squealed when I informed her that I
now have a dinner date tomorrow night.

But other than the sound effects, she didn’t
make a single comment as I filled her in, only stopping me to
refill her margarita, and now that I’m done, the only thing that’s
confusing her is Jimmy?

“Well, yeah,” she says, giving me an odd look
as she drops down unceremoniously beside me on the couch, propping
her feet up on the coffee table. She takes a dainty sip of her
drink, and sighs, before continuing, “Vance monitoring your alarm
and keeping a key to your house isn’t confusing. He did the same
for our apartment. And as for going to dinner, all I can say about
that is it’s about damn time he made a move. He’s had a thing for
you for years. But Jimmy … that’s confusing.”

Wait … what?

I cock my head. “He’s had a thing for me for
years?”

Kim snorts back a laugh, waving her
strawberry margarita in my direction. “Are you kidding me? It was
so obvious. The way he watched you anytime he came around and the
way he always glared at Colton like he was a bug that needed to be
stomped on. He’s wanted your attention since he met you.”

I consider this for a moment, wondering how I
never noticed, but it’s a senseless thought. I know why. I was too
nervous around him, too busy trying to pretend I didn’t notice him
to notice he was noticing me. Grandma Owen always said I was
oblivious to boys, too. Maybe I need to pull my head out of my ass
more often and notice what’s going on around me.

“Huh,” I say finally, slightly reluctantly.
“Okay, I guess maybe it was kind of obvious.”

“Vance isn’t going to like Jimmy staying
here,” Kim says seriously. “He should go to a hotel or stay with a
friend.”

“I am a friend,” I point out, raising an
eyebrow. “And it’s really none of Vance’s business. Jimmy can stay
here as long as he needs.”

Speaking of Jimmy …

My eyes shift to him as he walks into the
living room and sits down in the recliner, a beer in hand. He takes
a gulp of his drink as he leans back, popping out the leg rest on
the chair.

“Thanks for letting me use your office,” he
says once he’s settled.

“Not a problem,” I say. “Did you get
everything you needed done?”

“Yep,” he says, taking another sip of his
beer, before he cuts his eyes to me again. “So I was thinking about
this situation you have and I’ve come to the conclusion that the
person that’s been vandalizing your place has to be a woman.”

Kim looks at me with a blank face, and when I
only shrug, she turns the same expression on Jimmy. “How do you
figure that?”

Jimmy shrugs a shoulder, and takes another
pull from his beer. “Most men wouldn’t bother with chopping up rose
bushes or spray painting vague warnings on garage doors. They’d
take a more direct route to get the message across. A man would
actually tell you what the message is. This petty shit just feels
like a woman’s behind it.”

“I think I should be offended,” I say, and
Kim laughs at me.

“As much as I hate to admit it, he’s probably
right,” she says. “This whole thing feels like a woman with a
grudge, but what about the brick through the window? That has to
have been a man.”

Jimmy shakes his head. “The person broke the
window, but didn’t try to get in, right?”

I nod. “Yeah, that’s right.”

“It’s a woman,” he says. “A man probably
would have taken it a step further, but by that point he would have
already warned you off, so you wouldn’t be guessing who was messing
with you, you’d know.”

I open my mouth to protest, because his
reasoning, although for the most part makes sense, also sounds
absurd, but Kim holds up a hand, stopping me, her expression
uncharacteristically serious.

“I’m not sure I get where you’re going with
the whole window breaking part,” she says. “If it’s a man, he could
just be trying to scare her, but the rest of it …” she stalls,
frowning. “When you think about it, it does seem like a woman,
doesn’t it?”

“So you both think it’s a woman?” I ask, my
eyes darting between them.

Kim nods, and Jimmy shrugs.

“You need to make a list,” Jimmy says. “Write
down all the women you’ve pissed off since moving to
Sacramento.”

Ugh. I hate making lists.

I take another long pull of beer, finishing
off the bottle, and then sigh dramatically as I set the empty
bottle on the table. “Okay, I’ll make a list, but I need another
beer first and we definitely need to order pizza.”

Kim rolls her eyes unsympathetically. “Look
on the positive side,” she says. “We’ve ruled out all the men
you’ve pissed off over the years. We’re making progress.”

We order pizza, Hawaiian for me with extra
pineapple, pepperoni for Kim, and a meat lovers for Jimmy, and then
we get to work, making the list.

Two and a half hours later, I’m full and in a
happy buzzed place, and the list is almost finished. It isn’t long,
only a handful of names. We probably would have finished it sooner
if we hadn’t decided to write down the entire story of why each
person was a suspect, including motives and their
Piper
Hatred
levels using a scale of one to ten, but at least it made
it somewhat interesting.

Tapping my pen against the coffee table as I
read over the list, I consider scratching off Heather Tane’s name.
Is ordering the last large cup of coffee really a motive to trash
my rose bushes? Yeah, she was annoyed and she did call me a bitch,
but Heather is always annoyed and she calls everyone a bitch, and
besides that, it really wasn’t my fault the shop ran out of large
cups, right?

“Okay, this is getting boring,” Kim says,
gulping down her margarita and standing up. “Let’s go to Constant
Pub. We can get dressed up, go dancing, have some fun.”

“Hell yeah,” Jimmy says. “I love Constant
Pub. It’s got good people there and the drinks are cheap.”

I shake my head. “Constant Pub isn’t really a
place for dancing.”

“Any place with music is a place for
dancing,” Kim counters, her voice serious.

“I don’t think so,” I say, shaking my head
again. “We should stay here and do a whole stake out thing, watch
the monitors for the jerk to come back and catch her. Besides,
we’ve already been drinking and I hate cabs.”

Kim pouts, full on, droopy lip, pouts. “That
sounds just as boring as making a list. Jimmy only had one beer so
he can drive us, and Vance is watching the house. He’ll catch her
if she shows up again.”

This is true.

There’s really no point in both of us
watching, right? And we’ve already made progress. We ruled out men
… We made a list …

“Come on, Pipes,” Kim whines. “It’s Friday
night. Live a little.”

“Okay, let’s go out,” I say, deciding that I
might as well let go for the night and have some fun.

Kim and I make a crash stop in my bedroom,
tearing through my closet, throwing clothes around, searching for
something to wear. We pull shirts off hangers, holding them up,
before tossing them aside.

It takes about fifteen minutes, but Kim
finally settles on a little black dress, while I pull on a slinky
green sleeveless top that dips low with a cowl neck at the front,
and a pair of black skinny jeans.