Page 22 of Playful Summer

“Has Harris ever given you problems after you broke up?”

“Nope. After I moved out, I never really heard from him. Wait, I did see him before I left Maine. But he didn’t do anything weird. He was with a girl and it was a hey, good to see you, bye type of meeting.”

I nod at her, I was hoping that she was going to say that Harris was a stalker and that it could be him. But nope. it doesn’t sound like it. I’m so frustrated at this situation.

“You look disappointed.” Piper looks at me.

“I was kind of hoping you would say that Harris was a stalker like Marc and then we’d have someone else to point the finger at. I don’t like that whoever this is, has my number and knows we’re together. Because I need to keep you safe and not knowing who it is makes that really hard.”

“Those texts have me really worried. I mean who could be doing this?”

“We’re going to figure it out. But for now, please don’t go anywhere alone. Especially when we’re out or at the store. You need to have someone with you even when you’re going to the bathroom.”

“I’ll be careful. Especially now knowing that there’s someone out there coming after me. Marc never seemed like he would do more than just scaring me. But this one? This one scares me.”

We get ready for bed together, it feels like we’ve been doing our routine for years.

CHAPTER ELEVEN

Piper

Today, all the kids are at the house with the family. But I decided to go to the store with Paxton. Because I’m not supposed to be alone, Georgíos Nikolaidis has offered to be with me when Paxton can’t. And because Rhett is gone, we have a pharmacist from the next town over filling in.

I’ve been helping Felicity set up my table for my signing today. It feels a little weird without Emiko here. But Artemis, Giovanna, Isabella, Fiorella and Luciana are going to be with me. They’re all here helping us set up and my table has even more stuff on it. It’s so much fun to watch them.

“I can’t believe we know an author.” Giovanna smiles.

“I can’t believe I know the wives of my favorite hockey players.” I chuckle.

“You realize that they’re not as much fun at home. I mean they burp and fart…A LOT. And they try to do it while walking past you. I thought my brothers were bad. But Cillian? Holy shit.” Fiorella wrinkles her nose.

Fiorella has been with Cillian McGregor, captain of the Chicago Redhawks for four years. Meeting the three Redhawks players has been a dream come true.

“No way. They’re angels, I saw them. There’s no way they do things like that.” I laugh.

“Well, they’re your family now. So they might crop-dust you too.” Fiorella laughs.

I laugh more as we finish setting up my table.

“Thank you so much. I was so worried that I would have to cancel today because Emiko isn’t here. But having all of you here—thank you so much.”

“We’re family. This is what we do, no matter what. If you need any of us? You call and we’ll come,” Luciana says.

“The same goes for us, if we need you, we hope that you’ll come too,” Artemis adds.

“Definitely,” I say as we all hug each other.

“So now what do we do?” Giovanna asks.

“Now we wait for people to come and see me.”

“Okay, while we wait, why don’t you tell us about your books. That way if you have to leave the table, we can tell people about them.” Artemis smiles.

I spend the next five minutes telling them about my books. They all take one of each book and Giovanna grabs my credit card reader and starts to scan my books.

“What are you doing?” I laugh.

“What does it look like? We’re buying your books.” Giovanna raises an eyebrow at me.

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