3. Winston

Winston

My knee bounced with anticipation as my hands clenched the steering wheel with a white-knuckled grip. These next couple of weeks would be different than the last month. No more regular schedule.

She was on vacation.

I was supposed to be, too.

But instead of doing something that made sense, like sleep in or stay the hell away from Allie, I sat in a rented SUV so she wouldn’t recognize the car across the street from her home and waited.

My gaze was pinned to the front of her place.

Then finally, fucking finally, the door opened. Just like that, I felt like I could breathe. I watched from my car as she stepped out of her house and looked up to the sky.

I loved how she did that every time she went anywhere.

Her eyes closed as she soaked in the sun’s brilliance, for even just a moment. I’d asked her about it once, and my girl had told me it was something she’d started after her dad had passed away. A moment of reflection, she had called it.

Funny how looking at her felt like soaking in the sun. Just the sight of her reminded of everything I had to be grateful for.

Even if she wasn’t mine anymore.

I noticed she wasn’t necessarily dressed to go to the gym like she usually did. She was dressed casually, and the bag over her shoulder seemed a little bigger than the ones she usually had with her. Maybe she’s finally heading to that yoga studio you had promised to go with her? I thought to myself and shook my head.

She hurried straight to her car. As quickly as she appeared, she disappeared, leaving me to stare at the spot where her car had been.

I’d only been able to see her for a second, but it had been worth waiting around for the last hour and a half.

I was tempted to follow her.

Again.

I’d been doing this shit since she had broken up with me. Waited outside her home, just down the street, far enough for her not to notice me. Sometimes, I followed her to work or to the gym she liked to hit up on her days off. Fuck, once I’d followed her all the way to the mountains when she had taken Piper to some craft fair thing.

Allie’s little blue car disappeared, and I sighed. Before I could decide what to do, a knock sounded at my window, and I almost jumped out of my skin. Another knock sounded, and I winced when I realized who was standing there.

“Busted,” I mumbled to myself. Honestly, I had no idea how the fuck no one had caught me before this. I pressed the button to lower the passenger side window and looked into bright blue eyes.

“I thought that was you,” the redhead with the bright blue eyes said with a scowl so deep it created lines at her forehead. Fair. I deserved more than ugly looks. “Mind if I get in?” My brow rose.

“No,” I answered politely, pressing the unlock button. Before I could change my mind, the tiny pixie opened the door and slipped in.

“Wow! This is nice!” She whistled, looking around the cab of the rented oversized SUV. “Is this one of those cars that has seat warmers? I’ve never been in one of those.” I blinked, wondering what the hell she was up to. I had learned during the six months of seeing Allie that Piper was quirky.

“Yeah.” I pressed the button, and she nodded.

“Nice!” She glanced over at me, and our eyes connected. The amused look on her face disappeared, and a no-nonsense expression painted her delicate features. “What are you doing?”

“What do you?—“

“And don’t give me the whole you were in the neighborhood crap. You’ve been camping out here every morning since you two broke up.”

“How did you know that?” I asked, not bothering to deny it.

“I wasn’t sure, but you just confirmed it.” She shrugged. “I noticed you the day after Thanksgiving. Honestly, dude, I’m a little disappointed. A whole month, and you didn’t make a move? Not one text?” She rolled her eyes.

“Pipe—“

“Look, I don’t know what’s going on with you or why you started icing Allie out when it’s obvious you love her.”

“I do.” I nodded. There was no way I’d deny that. I had fallen in love with Allie with one damn look. Love at first sight had always sounded like a fucking myth, but, Jesus, that was exactly how it had felt when I met her.

“So?” Her head tilted. “What’s this? Just sitting around waiting for what? For her to notice you’re here? For a neighbor to call the cops on you?”

“No.” I shook my head. “I just—” How the fuck could I explain it to her? “I love her, Piper. I do.” I swallowed. “And because of that, I needed to give her space?—“

“Well,” she interrupted, “I know you’re older, but you’re obviously not wiser.” Piper had no problem with calling a spade a spade. “Look, I shouldn’t tell you any of this, but I like you. I like you for her. She was happy. Happier than I have ever seen her, and we met in college! Undergrad!” She exhaled. Her brows bunched together before she tightened the ponytail of red bouncy curls on top of her head. “I thought you were it for her.”

“I am it for her,” I growled. There would be no way I would let anyone else have her. She is mine. I just wanted to make sure I didn’t fuck up the chances for her own dreams to come true before I did something crazy like knock her up.

“Knock her up?” Piper’s eyes widened, making me realize I’d said the words out loud. “Oh my god!” she gasped

“Piper, it’s not what?—“

“You love , love her! You wanna keep her forever kind of love!” she guessed, and I blinked. “That’s why you started to act all weird? You want babies and strollers with her?”

“Yes.” The anguish I felt was crystal clear in my voice. Piper blinked. Confusion marred her delicate features.

“I don’t get it. Those are good things to want,” she pointed out with a frown on her face. “I don’t understand.”

“She has goals, Piper. She has dreams of opening her own firm and?—“

“And you thought giving her a family, giving her a happy ever after, would what? End those dreams?” she guessed, but not without looking at me like I was the world’s biggest idiot.

Now that I heard it out loud, it sounded… Jesus fucking Christ, it sounded fucking stupid. Fucking hell, I am an idiot!

“I see a couple of lightbulbs turning on in there,” she sarcastically teased.

“Yes. No.” I groaned, running my fingers through my hair. “What the hell was I thinking?” I rested my head on the headrest of my car and looked out at the empty street.

“You’re a man,” she stated, as if that explained it all. I blinked and turned to look at her. “You were eventually going to fumble shit.”

“Fumble?”

“That’s a term your kind understands, isn’t it?”

“Kind?” Jesus, this girl was not afraid at busting a guy’s balls.

“A man. Male. Guy. Whatever. Look, this whole thing you did? Well, there is no nice way of saying this, you’re an idiot.” I couldn’t agree with her more.

She was absolutely right.

I was an idiot.

“Well…” she continued, her blue gaze set on me. Her tone changed, turned serious, and I straightened. “Now that I know why you were acting like a tool, and it wasn’t because you met someone else or you were bored with Allie, which, by the way, is impossible!”

“I agree! And god, no, there is no one else. Wait, is that what she thinks?” That thing in me, the ache and worry, grew in the pit of my gut. Piper opened and then shut her mouth.

“What did you expect her to think when you started to shut her out, out of nowhere?” she asked softly and without judgment. I didn’t say a word because I knew she wasn’t wrong.

“I don’t know.” I shrugged, and she squished her nose.

“Well, now that I know you’re just a dumbass, there is probably something you should know.”

“What?” I frowned.

“She’s not coming back,” Piper announced. I blinked, trying to figure out what she meant.

“What?”

“She packed her car last night. I helped her.”

“Packed—“ An ugly feeling started to grow in my belly. “Piper, where is she going?” I demanded too harshly. She rolled her eyes before explaining shit that only made me fall harder and deeper in love with Alaska Villanueva.

“She’s going to Colorado? Today?”

“Yup.” She nodded.

“Do you know where she’s staying?” I asked, trying to figure out how the hell I could get there before her.

For a long moment, Piper stared at me. I could tell she was trying to decide whether or not she could trust me. “You better not make me regret this,” she finally said, giving my heart wings filled with hope.

“I won’t. I promise.” She chewed on her bottom lip before airdropping me an e-mail with an address. Why the hell is Allie going to a cabin in Alpha Mountain, Colorado?

“Thank you, Piper. I promise I won’t let you regret this.”

“One more thing.” She chewed on her lip, and I frowned.

“What?” That’s when she shared about Allie’s jerk of a boss. I’d tagged that asshole’s less than honorable intentions the moment I caught him checking out her ass the first time I’d gone to pick her up for lunch.

Fuck. I’d done this. Left her unprotected and vulnerable.

“I’ll take care of that, too,” I vowed.

“Good.” Piper nodded before putting her hand up for a high five. One I returned.

“You should get going before it’s too late.”

“What do you mean?” I asked just before she slipped out of my SUV.

“It’s supposed to snow,” she shared before she shut the door.

“Snow?” I repeated. My buddy had told me all about the snow where he lived.

Worry crept up my back at the thought of my princess driving in shitty-as-fuck weather. I started my car and without a second thought headed home to pack a bag and pick up something I had bought after two weeks of being with her. Something I had stupidly put off giving her and should have given her a long time ago.

Nick was right. Life was too damn short not to take risks and stop you from going after what you wanted. Fuck me, wasn’t I the one who had told him that on Thanksgiving?

I was an idiot.

But I was going to make sure I made it up to her. I had no idea how, but I would figure it out. Before I could do any of that, I needed to figure out a damn fast way to get to Alpha Mountain.