Page 19 of Love is a Lyric
“Welcome side effect.” He laughed. “But really, I think you’d be surprised that Ben and I actually get along.”
“When do you ever spend any time together without me?”
He winked and slid from the booth. “I don’t think I’ll eat here after all. You look like you need some time.” His knuckles rapped against the wood. “Just please, think about it.”
She nodded. “I will.”
He flashed her a boyish grin, one so different from the smarmy smiles she’d seen in tabloids. Working for him would be like entering an entirely different world, and she’d started to think it wouldn’t be so bad after all.
Drew stopped at the bar to press a kiss to the waitress’s cheek before sauntering out.
The waitress made her way over to Piper, a kind smile on her face. “That boy… if I wasn’t both married and older than him…”
Piper matched her smile. “I know what you mean.” Drew didn’t make her heart beat faster, he didn’t bring the nerves to the surface, but she’d seen firsthand how he made the girls and women of America fall hopelessly in love with him.
The waitress composed herself. “I’ve known him since he was a boy I hired to babysit my sons. We’d get home, and they’d have wrecked the house, but I always hired him again because my kids loved him so much.”
Drew Stone babysat? Piper shook her head with a laugh.
“You’re a lucky girl.” The waitress winked.
“Oh.” Piper’s cheeks heated. “We aren’t… that was a business meeting.”
“Ah, I see. There’s someone else. He must be pretty special.”
Piper hadn’t dated anyone since her brief relationship with Matt, but she didn’t want to crush this woman’s impression of her. The only relationship Piper could handle right now was with her job. That was the man in her life.
“Anyway, I’m Callie. I own this little diner. Drew told me to get you whatever you’d like. It’s already paid for.”
Of course, he did. Piper shook her head. “Um, I actually need to get back to my rental.” An idea popped into her mind that would keep her from having to cook. “But do you do takeout?”
“Of course, hun. What can I get you?”
“Just… Drew isn’t paying for this, okay? It’s not only for me.”
“Sure.” She pulled out a pad of paper.
Piper perused the menu. “I’ll have the grilled chicken salad with vinaigrette. No croutons or cheese, and I don’t need the roll with that.” Quinn wouldn’t eat it, anyway. “The grilled cheese with fries.” Conner was basically a child. “And twoEmma’sburgers with bacon and sides of fries.” Ben would complain at first, but it was their first week after the tour, and she knew he could never resist a bacon burger.
“I’ll be back in a few.”
Piper thanked her before letting her attention drift back to the blank page of her notebook. Pulling it back onto the table, she sighed. Since writing the first hit at fifteen, she’d only experienced block a few times. Getting inspired wasn’t something Piper had to try to do, it happened naturally. Everything once inspired her. The world around her, a busy street, even just a phone call from Chase. Every moment was special.
She didn’t know when she’d lost that.
Maybe it was tour fatigue or the decisions looming over her head, but nothing felt right. Not anymore.
She chewed on the end of her pen, a habit Quinn yelled at her for. When had their relationship turned from sisters who had nothing but each other to that of a diva and her frazzled plebe?
Piper couldn’t pinpoint the moment it all went wrong, but she knew when it started. The moment Quinn took that first song six years ago, something shifted. Piper became someone who could get her to where she wanted to go, someone she held onto for the future rather than the past.
And Piper let it happen.
She didn’t know how long she’d been staring at the blank page when Callie set a bag down in front of her. Piper smiled and pulled a couple twenties out of her purse. “Thank you.”
“Anytime, sweetie.”
With that, Piper took the bag and walked out to the rental car. The drive back to the house lasted only a few minutes, and before she knew it, she pushed open the front door and stopped.
