Page 75 of Fourth Point Of Contact

PIPER

The door slammed shutbehind me, feeling all too much like a chapter of my life had just closed. I leaned back against it and closed my eyes, remembering the kiss he left me with, how it surged through my body and lit me on fire. Kisses like that were hard to come by, but just because he had a way with his tongue didn’t mean he would make a good boyfriend. There were plenty of men I’d kissed in my life who all turned out to be frogs.

Not that I thought Patrick would be. There was a lightness to him that intrigued me. Most men weren’t like him—tough, but sweet. Would I ever see Patrick again? I shouldn’t care. It wasn’t like I was going to date him and fall in love, but everything was so easy with him. I mean, when we weren’t jumping out of planes or running from bears.

“Uh-oh,” Jeanie groaned. “I know that look. Fuck, who is he? And do I have to kill him?”

I pushed off the door and walked over to the counter, pretending I was fine with the way things ended. I got one last time with him and a hilarious story to go along with it.

“You don’t have to kill anyone. I’m just tired. I’ve had a trying few days.”

“Right,” she said, quirking her eyebrow at me. “So have my shoes.”

I winced at the reminder and held out my hands in apology. “Look, I’m really sorry, but when I jumped out of the plane, one fell off. It could be literally anywhere in the Catskill Mountains. And I tried to hold onto the other shoe, but then the bear attacked us and I lost it.”

She rolled her eyes and walked away from me, forcing me to give chase. “Seriously, Piper, just say you lost the shoes.”

“I did! Jumping out of the plane!”

“Do you really expect me to believe that?” she snapped as she headed into her bedroom where she grabbed linens for me while I stayed on her couch.

“It’s the truth! I swear to God! If you met the guys, you would totally believe me.”

“Piper, let’s say that you really did steal a plane and jump out of it. Don’t you think that would have ended up on the news?”

I opened my mouth to argue, but realized she was right. There would be a massive story online, at the very least, about two planes nearly colliding mid-air and one going down. There would be news coverage about the survivors, yet there were no reporters when we reached the hospital. I just assumed that Chase had pulled some strings to keep it quiet while we were there, but for it to not be on the news at all seemed really strange.

“Okay, I don’t know why it wasn’t covered, but this really did happen. I swear!”

She sighed heavily and walked over to me, plopping down the sheets in my hands. “Look, I don’t want to argue about this. Whatever happened with that guy, I hope you had a good time. But I expect you to find me another pair of shoes. Those were my favorites.”

My chest tightened at the tone of her voice. She was really pissed at me, but I couldn’t make her believe me. However, I could replace her shoes as soon as I got to the bank.

“I’m really sorry,” I said, swallowing down the hurt. “And I won’t stay long. I just need to replace my ID.”

“I’m not kicking you out.” She sighed when tears pricked my eyes.

I hated to cry, but I really didn’t want to cry right now when she didn’t believe me and it would look like I was trying to gain sympathy. It had been a rough few days, and even with the good times sprinkled in between, having to rough it in the wild and fight off a bear had not been fun. Not to mention traipsing around the woods with a bulky man hanging off my shoulder.

“So, what ended up happening with James?” I asked, changing the subject as I headed into the living room and started making up the couch.

“He tried to fire me, but his lawyers advised against it. Since they couldn’t pin anything on me, he let it go. But he’s pissed as hell still. Everyone at work is gossiping like crazy about him.”

“I’m sure they don’t think too highly of me,” I retorted. “They always said I was the office slut. I just never listened to it before because I knew so much better.” I huffed out a laugh at that. “The thing is, I’m not sure if she was the other woman or I was.”

“She was,” Jeanie insisted. “She wasn’t there all the time. She has to be the other woman.”

“Right, but if my husband works out of town every week and only visits on the weekends, and he’s shacking up with someone else during that week he’s gone, she’s still the other woman. So, technically speaking, he could have still been in a relationship with the London whore and just not told me about it.”

“I guess so, but wouldn’t she have been pissed then?”

She had a point. “She didn’t look very broken up when I walked in there, or when she saw my engagement ring.”

“What are you going to do with that?”

I plopped down on the couch and stared at the shiner on my left hand. “I don’t know. It’s weird, but I haven’t really had a chance to think about James all that much over the past few days. Surprisingly, I don’t miss him that much.”

The shock on her face was priceless. “Really?”

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