Page 40 of Wild About You
“I appreciate that, but it’s not only that. You need people to look after you. You’re eighteen and I know you feel like you’re an adult, but you should still have someone making you dinner and worrying about you, all that shit. Which is why I asked Piper to be your nanny.”
“Nanny?” She stops jogging and stares at me. “What am I, four?”
“Somehow I think a four-year-old would cause less trouble.”
She glowers at me.
“I thought you liked Piper.”
“I do, but this is humiliating. What do I tell River?”
“I don’t give a shit what you tell anyone, least of all that fuck face.” I’m still livid that he got her drunk.
“Am I still allowed to see him?”
If I thought she’d listen if I told her she couldn’t see him anymore, I’d do it. But even I know teenagers tend to gravitate toward the exact people you try to keep them from.
“As long as I know where you’re going, you come back when you say you will, and you keep your phone on at all times, then yes. But if I find out he’s giving you alcohol again or driving you around after drinking, I’ll break his ankles.”
Piper’s pulling into the driveway as we get back. She grabs a small bag from her back seat and faces us. “I packed enough for the two days you’re gone. Is it still okay that I stay?”
“Of course. I just told Ev the news.”
Piper smiles at her. “Hey, Everly.”
“So, you’re my new warden, huh?”
“It’ll be fun,” Piper says.
“Sure.” Everly huffs. “I’m going to shower.”
I step forward and take Piper’s bag from her. “Sorry about that. I made her get up and go run with me this morning. She’s grumpy.”
“She’s mad you hired someone to look after her like a child,” she says with a laugh.
“How’d you know?”
“Lucky guess.” She follows me inside the house.
“I probably won’t have time to come back after practice. Do you want the full tour now?”
“Ummm.” Her gaze lifts and scans the room. “Sure.”
As I show Piper around, she’s quiet, nodding along and offering small, hesitant smiles.
“This is, uh, my room,” I say, stepping into the doorway and waving a hand. I didn’t make the bed and I spy a pair of dirty boxers that didn’t quite make it into the hamper.
Not that Piper notices. She gives my room the briefest glance and then stares at her feet. I clear my throat and keep going. “This is you any time you want to stay over.”
I set her bag on the floor just inside of the room and let her walk fully inside by herself. She does a quick scan and then stares at the attached bath between our rooms.
“It’s a Jack and Jill style,” I say. “You can have that one and I’ll use the one down the hall.”
“What about Everly?”
“She’s the last room at the end of the hallway and she has her own bathroom.”
She sits on the end of the bed. “This all feels like too much, even for a night or two.”
