Page 84 of Love is a Lyric
25
Piper
Piper was comfortable with silence, never feeling the need to speak just to fill the quiet spaces.
Quinn, on the other hand, never had been.
It took only a few moments of walking for her to break down and start speaking as if she’d never stop. “You hurt me, Piper. A lot. I know things weren’t always easy between us, but we’re all each other had. I always thought it was us against the world, and then it wasn’t. You left me all alone.” She huffed out a breath as if she’d been running instead of walking slowly toward the woods.
Piper let the words turn over in her mind, trying to reconcile them with the sister she knew. “You… thought we were a team?” At least, that’s what she thought the words meant.
Quinn stopped walking at the edge of the trees. “Well, yeah. Weren’t we?”
Piper thought back on the commands from her sister, the stolen songs and demeaning tasks. “No, Quinn. We weren’t a team.”
Quinn opened her mouth to say something before shutting it.
Piper sighed. “I was your employee, and you treated me like it. Well, worse than you should treat an employee. I didn’t deserve that.”
“But—”
“Don’t argue with me, just listen. I have spent my entire life trying to please you because I thought you were the only family I had. But I was wrong. Both of us have this entire family right here in Ohio. We…youhave Ben, and he’s…” She shook her head, trying to keep the tears at bay. “Maybe if we don’t hold on to each other so tightly, we can just be sisters, friends possibly.”
“Do you love him, Piper?” Quinn’s entire body stilled while she waited for the answer.
If Piper told her sister the truth, nothing would be the same between them. It would forever be a gaping wound that refused to heal. The world needed her not to love Ben Evans. They needed their first couple of rock to remain intact—at least as far as they knew.
And Piper? She needed her sister. It took every ounce of strength she possessed to shake her head. “No, Quinny. That picture… it was a mistake.”
Quinn’s shoulders sagged in relief, but not because she believed the lie. Her eyes gave away her skepticism. And still, she didn’t press. She wanted Piper to let go of Ben. She wrapped an arm around Piper and pulled her into a hug, resting her chin on Piper’s shoulder.
“I’m sorry,” she whispered. Piper couldn’t remember the last time those words passed Quinn’s lips. What was she sorry for? The way she’d treated Piper? The fact that Piper once again had to give up something for Quinn’s career?
Piper didn’t want to know the answer, so she contented herself wrapping her arms around Quinn’s waist. “I’m sorry too. I love you, Quinny.”
“Why do you always call me that? Even after I ask you to stop?”
“Because it reminds me how much Mom and Dad would want us looking out for each other.”
Quinn hugged her tighter. “They’d be proud of you. Not so much me.” She released her.
Piper threaded their fingers together. “It’s never too late to change. Just remember, wherever I am, I believe in you. And my belief, it’s not about your career or your music, butyou.The kind of person you can be. Why else do you think I’d stick around through all the bad if I didn’t believe there could be good?”
Quinn wiped her face. “Enough of this sappy stuff. You can’t tell anyone I got sentimental.”
Piper laughed, feeling a lightness in her chest for the first time since leaving her sister in Florida. “No, the world has to believe you’re stone cold. I get it. I also know differently.”
“I’m glad there’s one person out there who does.”
Piper tugged on her hand. “Come on. If we don’t get inside, Drew and Chase will eat all the food.”
* * *
The house was too quiet.
Jonathan and Julia played cards at the kitchen table while Piper lounged in the living room, her notebook on her lap.
Four days ago, Quinn and Ben left for their lives in L.A., and Piper was still there, still in Ohio where they’d left her.
