“Yeah, but hey, looks like the little guy wants out.”

He nodded his head to her stomach and she smiled as she backed away from the counter, looking down at her belly, but just as she was about to say something, she backed into a hard, hot body. When a pair of hands, ones that had held her in more ways than one could imagine, rested against her hips, she turned around and looked up into the pair of dark eyes that she missed so much.

“Erik,” she gasped as she took another step back, taking in his gorgeous body.

He was wearing only those damn athletic shorts. When she looked up at his face, noticing the thick, dark beard and the sad eyes, all the air rushed from her. Every single touch, smile, stolen kiss, everything; every single memory of them came back in full force, playing like a movie in her head. She wanted to wrap her arms around him, snuggle her nose under his chin, and sleep for days. She wanted to scream that she still loved him, that she would always love him, and that she missed him so much.

Piper swallowed loudly before biting into her bottom lip. She looked away as she cleared her throat and said, “I thought you weren’t home.”

Chapter 24

She was so f**king beautiful it hurt.

Erik had spent the last week aching for her, and now seeing her in the flesh, seeing that she had changed so much since the last time he saw her, almost broke him. He could see her belly button protruding, indicating that she had gotten bigger, and it killed him that he wasn’t there to watch it happen. She wore her hair up in a mess on the top of her head; she even wore a little makeup, her lips bright and shiny, but he couldn’t help but notice the sadness in her beautiful blue eyes.

God, he missed her.

He watched as she cut Phillip a glaring look. “He wasn’t here when you called.”

“She called?” Erik asked.

“Yeah,” he said, as if it wasn’t a big deal. Erik had been waiting to talk to her for weeks and Phillip didn’t think it was important to let him know that she called or that she was coming over? Glaring, Erik watched as Phillip filled his plate. “She brought me food.”

“You brought him food?” he asked, turning to look back at Piper.

She nodded. “I did. That’s what people in the South do when there’s a death in the family.”

“I, for one, love Southerners,” Phillip said with a grin as he walked to the couch, plopping down before digging in. “Mmm, this is really good, Piper.”

“Thank you,” she said softly, bringing Erik’s attention back to her. He wanted to tackle her, kiss her naughty little gap-tooth mouth, and tell her how much he missed her. He wanted to tell her that he was a jackass, a complete idiot, but before he could even utter a noise, she said, “Why haven’t you been putting lotion on Stanley’s nose?”

His face scrunched up as he looked down at Stanley before bringing his eyes up to hers. “I haven’t heard or talked to you in a week and that’s all you have to say?”

“What else would I say, Erik? You left me, remember? I came over here to drop off some food to our friend. I didn’t come over here to see you or even talk to you.”

“I know what I did,” he snapped, his anger getting the best of him. “But we still need to talk. You could have called and told me you were sick. I’ve been worried.”

“If you were so f**king worried about me, Erik, you would have come to check on me, but you didn’t. Instead you moved back in with your best friend, back to your old life, not worried about anyone but yourself.”

“That’s not true. I’ve tried to get ahold of you,” he said.

She scoffed. “Oh well, sorry, but I’ve been busy.”

He shook his head, knowing that she was being stubborn. “I don’t want to fight with you. I just want to know if you are okay.”

And he wanted to hold her, feel her skin against his.

“It was a lie. I only told everyone that so I wouldn’t have to deal with seeing anyone.”

His brows came together as anger took over his body. “Why would you lie about something like that?”

She glared up at him and said, “I’ve been a little heartbroken, in case you didn’t know. You did leave me. What did you expect, for me to be cheerful?”

He had been heartbroken, too, but he didn’t know how to say that. He just wanted to hold her, apologize for being an idiot, and hope she would take him back, but he knew that it wasn’t going to be that easy. “Piper—”

“No, I don’t want to hear it,” she snapped. He could tell she was holding back the tears; her eyes were glazed over and her bottom lip was quivering. “I just want to know how we are doing this. Apparently you haven’t told anyone but your parents that we’ve split up, so what is going on? When are you going to tell people?”

Erik hadn’t told anyone, because he was hurting. He went to practice, came home, went to bed. He didn’t do anything, unless it was with his parents. It had been a rough week. Sometimes the pain of missing her was so unbearable, he wouldn’t move. He would try to call or text her, hope that she would answer so they could talk. He figured that if they started talking, maybe his feelings would come out easier, but she never gave him that chance. And now he couldn’t get the words out.

Looking down at the ground, he said, “I figured it would come out at the wedding this weekend.”

“Okay, sounds good to me. I gotta go,” she said, picking up her purse off the counter.