She started to run. There weren’t many joggers on this part of the path, and a few snowflakes scuttled in the wind. November would be here in a couple of days. And then winter. A cold, Chicago winter. She ran faster, trying to outrun her misery.
A woman clad in trendy athletic gear and pushing a jogging stroller was running toward her. As the woman came closer, her pace slowed, and then stopped. “Are you all right?” she asked as her baby slept peacefully in the stroller.
Piper knew how crazed she must look. She slowed long enough to acknowledge the woman’s concern. “My… dog died.”
The woman’s ponytail swung. “I’m sorry,” she said.
Piper started to run again. She’d told another lie. She’d never been a liar, but now she’d become a pro. All those lies.
“I go by Esme. Lady Esme, actually. Esmerelda is a family name… The fact is… I’m your stalker.”
She spun around and yelled after the woman. “I broke up with a man I love with all my heart, and he will never, ever love me the same way, and I hurt so bad I don’t know what to do with myself.”
The only indication that the woman heard was the way she raised her arm from the handle of the jogging stroller and waved.
Piper gazed out at the lake, her hands in fists at her side, her teeth chattering, icy tears on her cheeks. She had to find a new self. A self who was indestructible and who would never, ever again let this happen to her.
A week passed. Piper was gone. It was as though she’d never been there. The cleaning staff had scrubbed his blood off the apartment wall and put the furniture back where it belonged. Coop had walked in there once and couldn’t go again.
The image of Piper standing in front of him with a gun shoved to her head was seared on his brain. At that exact moment he’d understood. It was as if a gust of wind had swept away the fog that had obscured the truth he should have recognized long before. But instead of coming out with it right away, he’d screwed up bad at the hospital. He hadn’t said the right thing, which was ironic, considering his reputation for working a good sound bite. Years of having microphones shoved in his face had taught him how to divulge exactly what he wanted to, precisely as he intended. But when it came to saying the right words to Piper, he’d fumbled in the worst possible way, and now she wouldn’t take his calls.
The wound in his side was healing, but the rest of him was a mess. Someone knocked on his office door. This was the first time in days that anybody had bothered him. He didn’t blame them for keeping their distance. He was brusque with the customers, unhappy with the servers, and outright hostile to his bouncers. He’d even gotten into an argument with Tony because Tony insisted there was nothing wrong with the club’s HVAC system. But the air was stagnant, not circulating. So heavy with the funk of perfume and liquor it had seeped into Coop’s pores.
He twisted from the computer screen he’d been staring at for who knew how long and directed his wrath toward the door. “Go away!”
Jada barged into his office. “You broke up with Piper! How could you do that?”
“Piper broke up with me. And how do you know about it?”
“I talked to her on the phone. At first she didn’t tell me, but I finally got it out of her.”
He leaned back in his chair, trying to be casual, even though he wanted to shake the details out of her. “So… what did she say about me?”
“Just that she hadn’t seen you since the accident.”
“And from this you deduced that I’d broken up with her?”
“She sounded sad.” Jada dropped down on the couch. “Why did she break up with you?”
“Because she thinks I didn’t take our relationship seriously.” He couldn’t sit a moment longer. He shot up from his desk, then pretended to adjust the shutter slats on the window behind him.
“Is that what she said?” Jada asked.
“Not in so many words, but…” He made himself go over to the small refrigerator next to the bookcases. “She’s extremely competitive. She thinks I am, too.”
She leaned forward like a minishrink. “Aren’t you?”
“Not about her.” He pulled out a Coke and held it up. “Want one?”
Jada shook her head. “Are you going to try to get her back?”
“Yeah.”
“You don’t sound too confident.”
“I’m confident.”
“You don’t sound like it.”
She was right. He snapped the Coke’s pull-tab, even though he couldn’t drink anything right now. “She won’t talk to me. She won’t answer my texts or pick up her phone.” He wasn’t exactly sure why he was telling a teenager all this, except that she’d asked, and nobody else had been brave enough.
“You should go to her place and knock on her door,” Jada said. “She’s staying at her friend Amber’s. Or… you could wait by her car and then kind of jump out at her and make her listen to you.”
“That’s okay in the movies, but in real life, it’s called stalking. I want to talk to her, not piss-not make her madder.”
Another knock sounded on his door. “Get lost!”
The door opened anyway. This time it was Deidre Joss. Now he’d need to be polite, if he still remembered how.
“Bad time?” she asked.
“Sorry, Deidre. I thought it was Tony.”
“Poor Tony.”
He turned to Jada. “We can talk later.”
She hopped up from the couch. “Okay, but don’t tell Mom I yelled at you. She doesn’t like anything that upsets you.”
“Too bad everybody doesn’t feel that way,” he muttered.
Deidre closed the door after her. He realized he still had the Coke can and held it out. “Want one?”
“No thanks.” She looked as cool and sleek as ever in a tidy black suit. No rumpled jeans or Bears T-shirt. No blueberry eyes. Her hair was a smooth, dark curtain instead of a crazy muddle meandering here and there.
“How’s the injury?” she said.
“Barely noticeable.” Unless he moved too fast. It hurt then, but he wasn’t complaining.
“I’m glad to hear it.” She came farther into the room. “You haven’t returned my calls.” She said it without any snark, only sympathy. She was too nice. That’s exactly why he could never fall in love with her, and Piper should know him well enough to understand that. “I’ve heard from Noah’s attorney,” she said. “He’s going to plea-bargain.”
Coop got rid of the Coke. “That’ll make it simpler.”
“I went to see Noah to make sure he understands that once the justice system is done with him, he’ll have to find somewhere else to live. Far away from the city. Back to Mommy, is my guess.” She slipped her bag from her shoulder and set it on the couch. “I feel like an idiot. I knew he was possessive, but he made my life so much easier after Sam died that I ignored it. I came here to apologize for not being smarter about him and making you go through all this.”
“We all have our obtuse times.” Especially him. He needed to talk to Piper. He had to explain how he’d felt when he’d seen that gun jammed to her head, but she was making it impossible.
Deidre gave him a bright smile. “You’ll be getting a formal offer from us tomorrow. I have complete faith in your vision, and I’m looking forward to financing you. I should have trusted my gut and made this deal weeks ago, but I let Noah get in my head.”
The time had come to say it out loud. He tucked his thumb in the pocket of his jeans, then pulled it back out again. “I’m getting out of the business, Deidre. Selling the club.” It felt good to finally put his cards on the table.
Her businesswoman’s poker face failed her. “But you’ve been so passionate. Are you sure about this? What’s changed?”