Page 4 of Playful Summer

“Let’s get home and get your stuff ready.” Emiko smiles.

I can’t help watching her. She’s perfect and I want her to be mine. Actually, she’s already mine, she just doesn’t know it yet.

“What do you need for your signing? I can make you a bigger table. I only made this to hold the stand and a few books. But I can make you a regular table that you can sit at. Maybe with removable shelves to display your books. We can bring it out whenever you have signings.”

“You would do that?” she looks at me with wide eyes.

“I’ll make anything you want.”

Rhett clears his voice. “I don’t mean to interrupt you two. But I only have an hour to eat lunch. So are you guys coming back to the house with us or what?”

I squint at my younger brother.

“Are you hungry? I can take you to lunch if you want. Or if you want to see the house, we can do that too,” I say to Piper.

“Sure. Lunch sounds good. How long before you have to be back?”

“I have an hour too. I didn’t put my sign up yet, because I was still working. Give me a sec and I’ll get it.”

I run over to the lumber section that I take care of and write the time on my sign. I make sure to add an extra fifteen minutes to it—if I thought I could do more, I would. I turn and almost run over Piper.

“Oh god, I’m sorry.” I smile.

She laughs. “I just wanted to thank you. I didn’t expect such a big display for my books. And I love the table you made.”

“When we get back, I’ll show you the wood I have in stock. You can choose what you’d like to use for your stands and the new table.”

Before I lose the nerve, I lean down and kiss her on the cheek. I worry that she’ll pull away from me. But she doesn’t, she looks up at me and smiles.

“Wow,” she whispers a I take a step back and look at her.

“Definitely.” I smile.

That kiss…a simple kiss on the cheek and I know she’s the one for me. I just hope she feels the same way.

CHAPTER THREE

Paxton

We spent this last week designing and building Piper’s signing table, with the stand for her books. Today is her signing day. Felicity planned it so that this will be a weekly signing that Piper will do.

“So what do you think?” I ask her.

“I love it. Thank you so much. Are you staying for my signing? I thought I remember you saying that you had a job today?”

“I’ll be here. I have to support my girl. And the job is on Monday.” I wink at her.

Piper walks over and hugs me. One week. That’s all the time I needed to know that she’s mine. I haven’t told her, but I’ve even started reading her books.

“BESTIE!” we hear Emiko yell as she’s running over to Piper. “Your personal assistant is here. Let’s get you set up.”

I chuckle as I let Piper go and watch them set up her table. I love to see that smile on her face. This week we also got hermoved into Emiko’s old place. It made me a little sad that she wasn’t going to be staying at the house with us. But it also gave me ideas about finding things I need to fix on the rental. I mean, I am a carpenter.

It takes them about thirty minutes to set the table up. Felicity keeps running back and forth, throwing things at them to put on the table. It’s actually pretty funny. The last thing she launched at them was some fairy lights. And they hit Emiko right on the side of her head. How do I know what fairy lights are? Well I know what they are because when my sister threw it at them, she yelled out ‘fairy lights!’.

“I’ll be back to check on you two.” I laugh.

As I walk away, I can hear them laughing. I love how happy they are. When Rhett met Emiko, she was dealing with the loss of her fiancé. He was a state trooper, and he got shot while on a call. We all make sure that Seth’s memory lives on for Emiko and the twins, Rhett wanted it that way. We plan to celebrate his birthday and even their anniversaries. My brother’s a good man.

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