Chapter 25

25

Cutter

There's a knock at the door and I already know it's Tony.

He bolted off to handle some business matters and told me to just stay put.

I have nowhere else to be at the moment.

I said what I said to Piper and that's that.

Never said you loved her though, huh?

No need to make it worse.

She has every right to protect herself and her son from me. Not that I'm bad a guy personally but just that I come with some interesting baggage.

Trey, Ranger, and PJ are all out on the deck, drinking beer. The three of them sitting there, basking in the sun, catching a buzz. They're here for me. Just to be here, which means a lot.

I open the front door to find Tony but he's not alone.

Standing next to him is a short and sweet looking elderly woman.

Very familiar too.

"Brought you a visitor," Tony says.

"You're a hard man to get on the telephone, Cutter," the woman says.

"I'm sorry? Do I…"

That's when it clicks.

This is the elderly woman I allegedly pushed in front of a car.

"I know you," I say.

"Sure you do."

"What are you doing here?"

"We need to talk. About a lot of things, Cutter."

She's carrying a container of food in her hands.

I step away and let her and Tony into the house.

Tony looks at me and smiles.

The elderly woman takes the lead and shuffles her way toward the kitchen.

"Oh, my, what a beautiful house this is!"

"I'm just renting it for now," I say.

"That's probably good. Too much house for a single man."

"Thanks for that, ma'am."

She freezes and looks back. "Don't call me that. Gram works fine."

"How's your grandson?"

"Wonderful. That day he met you… he still hasn't stopped talking about it. You're his hero. I hope you know that."

"I hope he has better heroes in his life," I say. "Like you. You're the hero, Gram."

"I'm just an old woman with a lot to say." She places the container of food on the kitchen island. Then she wrestles her way up to sitting on a stool. "Oh, Cutter, I owe you such an apology."

"You do? For what happened? That was those damn reporters twisting the story."

"It's not just that," Gram says. "It's Jake's father. My grandson, Jake?"

"I remember his name."

"His father. Forgive me for saying this, but his father is a fucking idiot."

"Wow."

"My daughter always has the worst taste in men. She falls for these morons. Maybe you should be with her."

"I'm not so sure that's a good idea either, Gram."

Gram smiles. "Anywho, my daughter gets pregnant by this idiot. Now I got my grandson out of the ordeal so I can't be mad. But this guy is just slime. He will do anything to steal a buck from someone. He loves to spill things on himself and try to sue people. You know, just a real jerk. Well, right after that whole car incident, he starts showing up. Asking me questions. Asking if I'm injured. Telling me I need to consult a lawyer. That you should be paying for what happened."

I scoff. "Great. What is this, a lawsuit now? Just what I need."

"Don't interrupt me," Gram says. She points a finger at me. "I'm talking now."

"My apologies," I say.

"Well, I tell Bobby to get the hell out of my house. And stay away. What does he do? He starts bugging my daughter. Telling her he's going to go after you. I don't think anything of it. Neither does my daughter. Just Bobby being a fool. Well, I don't know how any of this stuff works but apparently Bobby gets himself into some chats or message rooms on the internet or something? Now he's got this story about you having a kid and paying someone off."

My face drops and I rush toward the kitchen island. "What?"

"I'm sorry, Cutter," Gram says. "My idiot ex-son-in-law is the one who put all that out there on the internet about you. I saw that and I damn near lose my mind. I went after Bobby right away. Just so you know."

"Where is he now? You have to tell me, Gram."

"Ease back a little, Cutter," Tony says. "It's been handled."

I look at Tony. "What does that mean?"

"He's sitting his ass in jail right now," Gram says.

"Jail?" I ask.

"That's right. I went right over there to him and called him every curse word in the book. Twice even! My daughter called the police and reported him. I knew I had to get in touch with you, Cutter. I had to see you to apologize for this mess."

"Gram was able to hunt my name down," Tony says. "She called and talked to my secretary who called and talked to me. It's going to be okay, Cutter. We're going to get ahead of this entire thing now. Gram is even willing to talk about it."

"Sure thing," Gram says. "This is wrong to happen to you, Cutter. Some made up foolish story and demanding money from you? You were such a sweet man to my grandson. I could never let something bad happen to you. Oh, and before I forget, here, look." She pulls the lid off the container. "I made you some chocolate chip cookies. My famous recipe."

"So this is going to be settled," I say.

"In the works," Tony says. "This Bobby guy is a real nut. Cops found all kinds of things on his computers. Conspiracy theories. Dark web chats and stuff. He was the one who took the pictures too. Just him. And he's in jail. He's not going anywhere either. I can promise you that. Okay? So Piper and her son are safe. I'll still keep the security over there if you want."

I reach for a cookie and take a bite.

It's the best damn chocolate chip cookie I've ever tasted.

"You came all the way out here just to talk to me?" I ask Gram.

"Sure," she says. "I have to right what's wrong here. That damn idiot that my daughter slept with. He's done a lot of stupid stuff but this one is the worst. I can never say sorry enough."

"You don't have to," I say. "I'm just glad to know who it is."

"You poor thing must have been scared," Gram says.

The deck door slides open and in come three buzzed-up baseball players.

"Who's this?" PJ asks, pointing to Gram.

"This is Gram," I say. "She's a sweetheart, saved my ass, and made me the best damn chocolate chip cookies ever."

"Do you all play baseball with Cutter?" Gram asks in a sweet voice.

I tell her Jake is going to be jealous that she gets to meet Trey, Ranger, and PJ.

She feels bad about that and I promise her that at the next home game I will have her and Jake as my guests and they'll get to tour the stadium, see the locker room, and then sit in a private air conditioned suite to enjoy the game.

The guys all dive into the chocolate chip cookies, looking for some sugary sweets to go along with their beer buzz.

That's when Gram stands up and demands to know if I have cheese and bread because she's going to make everyone grilled cheese sandwiches. I figure there's no telling her no so I back off and let Tony handle things.

Now there's a story she can tell everyone she knows.

Cooking grilled cheeses for three drunk baseball players.

I sneak out of the kitchen.

Before I can get to the door, Tony says my name.

"Going to get her?" Tony asks.

"No, Tony."

"Then what are you doing?"

"I'm going for a swim."

I arrive as the aquatic aerobics class is ending.

The ladies are not happy about the timing of things at all.

It's probably a good thing though. The way they look at me makes me nervous. I feel like a piece of meat to them. I'm sure they mean well, but there are enough who are actually single and available… hell, even the married ones would probably take their chance at me, why not, right?

I get into the pool as they are all leaving.

Every single one of the ladies makes it a point to touch me.

Arm. Shoulder. Wrist. Hand.

Marie gets frisky and touches my chest.

I get fully into the water and start to slowly swim some laps.

My body actually feels good right now. In terms of the injury.

I think I'm more than ready to start practicing again.

I'll let Tony know so he can arrange for me to give up the house.

I can get back into the city and get things going again.

Right back to my old version of normal.

I swim to the edge and come up for a full, deep breath and run my hand over my hair to keep the water out of my eyes.

That's when I look up and see Piper standing there.

Fully dressed.

"What are you doing here?" I ask.

"Went to your house and your dumbass baseball friends told me you were here. They were chomping on grilled cheese sandwiches."

"Oh," I say. "Yeah, well, just so you know, everything has been handled. The guy who was trying to extort me turned out to be the ex-son-in-law of the elderly woman I saved from getting hit by that car."

"Small yet messy world."

"I just came here for a quick swim. Burn off some steam. Probably going to pack up when I get back and leave."

"Yeah? That's it? You're just going to pack up and leave?"

"As opposed to what, Piper?"

"You stay a little longer and fool around with me a little more and we see where this thing goes."

I step back in the water. "I didn't catch that. Jump in and tell me."

"Cutter."

I back up some more. "Sorry, Piper, can't hear you right now. I'm swimming."

She gives me the meanest face ever.

I'm in love.

A couple more steps back and Piper jumps into the water.

She hits with a splash, then swims up to me in a second.

We wrap our arms around one another. Her legs go around me.

Here we are again in this pool, soaking and smiling.

"I freaked out," she whispers.

"You should have."

"You're not that kind of guy."

"Never have been. Never will be."

"It's not only my heart I have to worry about in these situations."

"I know that. Piper, I should have said it earlier, but I didn't. I love you. I didn't come to this town looking for anything or anyone, but here you were."

"I'm in love with you too, Cutter. That scares the hell out of me."

"So you're going to be stubborn and defensive forever then?"

"Yes. Can you live with that?"

"There's nothing else I could ever ask for in life. Well, maybe a quickie in the pool?"

"Sure," Piper says.

"Really?"

"Yeah. I'll go get one of the ladies from the locker room. Sound good?"

I open my mouth to say something back and Piper kisses me.

That's good.

No more talking. No more stories. No more jokes. No more worrying about the past.

Piper and I just float in the water.

We steal kisses from one another.

And we whisper to one another ‘I love you' over and over.