57

Adam

Trying To Figure It Out

In terms of interesting curveballs, I'd gotten the ‘what are we' question half a million times, but nothing compared to the question Piper's mom presented. Fuck, that was good. I burst into laughter while my RA tripped into her chair.

" Mom. " Her mouth fell open, which just made me laugh harder. "Oh my god, we're at a restaurant. Please. Can you just—?"

"It's just a joke," I assured them.

Her dad cocked his head to the side. "Young man, just a joke?"

"A good, old-fashioned prank," I confirmed. "Your daughter leaves her phone out and I change my name. Believe me, I'm nobody's potential sperm donor. If I could wear two condoms at the same time, I would. Nothing's stopping my football career."

"And your education," her mom pointed out while Piper groaned into her hands. "What are you falling back on if your football games don't take off? What are you majoring in?"

If your football games don't take off .

My grin widened. We just won the Birchwood Bowl, we finished out a hundred and fifty-million-dollar campaign for it, but the way Piper's parents were talking, I might as well have told them I was fishing for coins out of a couch for retirement. Nobody had ever grilled me like that. It was fucking hilarious.

"I'm a business major," I said.

"Oh? And that's what you're passionate about?"

Piper leaned to the side with a sigh. "They're not interrogating you, I promise. They're always like this."

"Carl Fontaine," her dad suddenly said. "And we are always like this."

"Regina Fontaine," her mom introduced herself. "And, Piper, how am I supposed to get answers otherwise? Remember what low expectations get you? Low results . You ask people to meet your expectations. Now, mine include finding out who this young man is ."

"We enjoy getting straight to the point," her dad confirmed. "That's just who we are. I have no idea where Piper came from."

Her mom patted his arm. "The mailman, dear."

"Must've been. I can't think of anything else."

"They're joking now," Piper sighed. "If you can't tell. That's their sense of humor."

Sloane brought the pizzas out and when she placed them up, I had her put in another order for me. A beer, another large pizza, and the entire dessert menu. At the parent's curious glances, I held up my wallet. "Already put my card down for the bill. Don't worry about it."

"You did what? " Piper demanded.

"When did you…?" Her dad reached the back of his chair and turned around. "Oh, when he went to the bar. Clever."

I could see Piper gear up to argue on behalf of who exactly was paying for the bill, and I slipped in the next question into the conversation. "So, archeologist, I get. But what's a marine biologist doing in Oklahoma?"

"Oh, no, no, Adam—" Piper started to say but her mom beat her to it.

" Aquatic biologist, not just a marine biologist," her mother corrected me. "And Oklahoma may be landlocked, young man, but it contains more than a hundred lakes, over seventy-thousand miles of rivers, and a wide variety of indigenous species. The biome diversity alone…just because you can't see what it offers on a highway, doesn't mean there aren't worthwhile studies to be conducted."

I'm starting to see where Piper gets it from .

"You got me." I held up my hands in surrender. "Piper loves ocean animals, and I was trying to figure it out."

"We didn't always live in Oklahoma," her dad said. "We've lived wherever our grants and teams have taken us…Galveston…Mexico for a bit—"

"San Juan Island." A little smile tugged up on Piper's face. "San Juan Island, Washington."

"I have pictures." Her mom assured me and slipped out her phone.

Piper tried to reach for it across the table. "Mom, please, no ."

"Please, yes." I laughed. "Is this baby Piper?"

"In Mexico and Galveston, Piper was obsessed with the turtles," her mom said, shooing Piper's hand away no matter how much she tried to grab the phone. "But when we went to San Juan, there was bioluminescent plankton—"

There was a lot of jargon thrown around. I should've studied for this.

I tried to sound it out. "Bio—biome?"

"Bioluminescent," she corrected me.

"Glowing plankton," Piper said. "It's an evolutionary defensive tactic against predators."

"And when you say they glow…?"

Her mom held up her phone, and I saw the craziest sight in the world. It was clearly a photo taken of an old Polaroid photo. The picture itself was pretty grainy. But there was a tiny Piper in a pink bodysuit, with her mouth wide open for a huge smile on the beach in front of…actual glowing water.

"Holy shit ." I chuckled. "That's fucking crazy."

"She wanted to wear it," her dad laughed and Piper groaned again. "She did! You did, Piper—you did. It was her favorite thing in the whole world. She'd just sit out on the beach for hours, waiting for it. But our Piper's always been a romantic. Where did she get that from?"

"Clearly switched at birth." Her mom shrugged. "We must've picked the wrong one."

Piper gave her an exasperated look. "I look exactly like you, mom. Please."

"Ah, but is that nature or nurture? Who's to say?"

"Blood tests." Piper snorted. "That's what says it."

I shook my head. "Piper, you should be nicer to the folks that took you in from the fire station."

My RA rolled her eyes enough that it must've hurt, but her parents burst into laughter and clinked their drinks with mine, buzzing with excitement that I joined in the game. And that's what it was. There was no way they would've kept up the jokes if it didn't annoy Piper and that's what tied us together. Just irritating the shit out of her.

It was pretty great. I couldn't keep the grin off my face.

"You know…" Her mom tapped her chin. "What a little romantic we raised. I do remember something about…first kisses being…magical…? She used to write all these little poems about the theory—"

" Mom! "

"In fact, I'm sure I have a picture of one somewhere around here—"

Piper reached over and confiscated her mother's phone, shoving it in her pocket. "I'm taking this until after dinner."

The night turned around and I couldn't believe my luck. For the first parent's weekend of my college career, I had a great one. Dinner at Gianna's , Piper's stony face when they started talking about her easy bake oven stage, and her parents even had a good laugh when a couple of the families in the restaurant stopped over for my autograph.

It couldn't have been better.

After dinner, I hung around by the brick wall while she said goodbye to them. They were heading back to the hotel and not great at whispering.

"I like him," her dad told her, shrugging on his coat. "I like this guy a lot."

" Dad . Please."

Her mom made a noise at the back of her throat. "Just promise you'll use protection."

I hid my grin and pretended to type something on my phone. It took all my focus to act like I wasn't hanging on to every word.

" No pregnancy scares," her mom said. "Not without your college degree. And—god—not without getting married. Please don't do that to me."

"Don't do it to us!" her dad chortled.

I held back the laughter, waiting for Piper's response. This would be good.

Until I heard the small chime from her phone.

It was something I would never get used to. The text messages coming through and Piper's automatic flinch. I watched, silent, as Piper reached back to dig her hand in her jacket for a moment, turning it off without looking at it.

My jaw clenched.

She had to turn off her phone to avoid that dickhead.

"I—um—" Piper stopped herself and hugged her parents tight. "I love you. Both of you. And don't worry about it, I'm his RA. It's not like that." The pause hung over the air and I stopped pretending to type. "We're not together."

I glanced back down at my phone, at the black screen.

Piper said her final goodbyes and her parents drove off before I walked over to her. She waved again, up on her tiptoes. She didn't even notice I slipped my hand in her pocket until I had my fingers around her phone.

"What are you—?"

I turned it back on and waited, holding it out of reach.

"Adam, what're you doing?"

"I'm getting really fucking tired of him. Passcode." I held it out for her and waited. "Type it in. Passcode."

With a sigh, Piper pressed the buttons.

In a couple of clicks and swipes, I finished and gave it back to her.

She frowned. "What did you do?"

"His texts will come through but you won't get the notifications." I shrugged. "No vibration, no sound. He can still send stuff but you don't need to hear about it until you want to."

It was quiet for a moment and she glanced up from her phone at me. "Oh."

"That guy's annoying as fuck," I muttered, heading off to the dorms at a slow enough pace that I knew she could follow.

"Um…thank you."

I should've done it a long time ago but at least she didn't demand for me to change it back.

"No worries."