Page 107 of The Wrong Date Deal

Of course, perhaps that was just Piper. Either way, August wanted all of it—all of her.

She hummed, checking the pancakes. “Very well, thank you.”

“I wonder why,” Piper shot back, wiggling her eyebrows.

August laughed. “Oh, and you didn’t sleep well?”

“I slept perfectly, thank you.”

August grinned, opening her mouth to answer before switching to a confused expression as someone knocked on the door of her apartment.

Piper shot her a questioning look as August frowned. To be knocking on the apartment door, whoever it was had to be inside the building. None of her neighbors had ever knocked on her door before.

She shrugged, handing Piper the spatula, and went to answer.

If she’d been given a thousand guesses for who was at her door, her parents would not have been one of them. She couldn’t remember the last time they’d been to her apartment—she was suddenly cognizant of the artistic painting of a woman’s naked body she had in her bedroom. As if it showed anything too racy. As if her parents had any need to go in there.

“Are you going to invite us in?” her mother asked with a laugh.

“Sure,” August said slowly. “Why are you here?”

Her mom glanced over her shoulder at August as she led the way to the kitchen. “Oh, are we not welcome?”

Not really. Not now.

“It’s fine,” August said, cursing the voice inside of her that forced her to say that. The anxiety coursing through her body was so different from how she’d felt around Piper’s parents yesterday. Of course, it was different, these wereherparents, but still, she couldn’t help noticing the difference.

“Oh,” her father said as they both paused in the kitchen. “You didn’t mention you had company.”

August squeezed past them, still struck by how beautiful Piper looked sitting on the counter. There were two new pancakes in the pan and she was smiling serenely at August.

“Well,” August said, not looking away from Piper, “I didn’t tell her I was having company either, but, then, I didn’t knowyouwere coming.”

“Really, August,” her mom said, shaking her head and helping herself to a seat. “It’s like you don’t want us visiting.”

She watched her parents pull out food for themselves—breakfast sandwiches from a coffee place. In August’s kitchen. “Why are you here on a Saturday morning?”

“We’d have brought you something but we figured you’d have food here.”

“Mm, do you have coffee on the go?” her dad asked between bites of his sandwich.

“No.” She’d been planning to make some for Piper, but she’d been waiting for the pancakes to be ready first.

Her mom eyed Piper, lingering on her bare legs and the fact that she was sitting on the counter. She’d always been so annoyed with August and Ford whenever they’d tried to sit on cabinets as kids. Perhaps that was part of why August enjoyed Piper sitting there so much, it was symbolic of the different life she’d built for herself.

“Is your friend leaving soon?” her mom asked.

Piper smiled widely. “No. Are you?”

She said it so sweetly that it didn't seem like an insult, just as if Piper hadn’t picked up on the undercurrent of the question. August knew her better than that, though. Piper was far too intelligent and perceptive to have missed exactly what was going on. Having someone on her side made August’s stomach swoop. Of course, she’d always had Ford, but she’d been so focused on supporting him that she’d never wanted him to step in to support her.

Now, though, here was Piper doing it all of her own volition. No stakes in the game that could backfire and hurt her, justdoing it because she cared about August and was willing to put herself in the fire to stand by August’s side.

Maybe it wasn’t as dramatic as all that. It was just an impromptu visit from August’s parents. But, with all the changes in her life lately—and Ford’s—August was beginning to realize a lot of things she’d never let in before. It was that part of her that knew this wasn’t an innocuous Saturday morning visit.

Hell, her parents had shown up, uninvited, with food for themselves and nothing for August, and helped themselves to her dining table and her coffee. Maybe coffee wasn’t a huge deal, and maybe she owed them that, but she didn’t want people she felt contractually obliged to helping themselves to her otherwise peaceful morning.

She frowned. She hadn’t gone into Hummingbird Dating thinking it was going to change her life, but, here they were, a few months later, and meeting Piper had changed everything—including how she thought about her dynamic with her parents.

---