Chapter 3
Piper stumbled twiceon the cracked sidewalk in front of the Grits and Gravy as she struggled to right the spinning world. Ian Elliott back in town with no warning had knocked her sideways for sure. Thank goodness she’d been able to maintain a cool exterior for the few minutes it’d taken her to put on that show of nonchalance inside.
Ten years slid away in the space of a heartbeat as she wondered if she’d made the right decision back then. Ian’d wanted her to go with him when he left to join the Navy. But, in spite of her deep love for him, she’d had to stay. No one in town knew her Mama was dying. Not even Ian. She’d kept the secret even though the price had been her heart’s desire.
And once Mama’d passed on two years later after a long, slow, secret struggle with cancer, she hadn’t reached out to Ian. She'd convinced herself he’d moved on. After all, he’d never come home again. If he truly loved her wouldn’t he have come back and tried to persuade her to join him? And, she had too much pride to ask Missy Elliott for news of her son. Or to intercede on her behalf.
She’d even gone to the extreme of asking Ms. Elliott not to tell Ian what had happened to her mama. In hindsight she knew she’d been wrong. She should have told Ian the truth and asked him to wait for her. But her mama hadn’t wanted anyone to know she was sick and so Piper had chosen her mama over her future with Ian.
Raising a shaking hand to push her hair out of her eyes, she realized she was still holding the flyers she’d meant to drop off at the café. Flyers advertising the big fundraising event forStreetpups, the rescue group that had been the saving of not only a lot of homeless dogs, but also of Piper MacKenzie.
All of those furry faces needing love had gotten her over Ian Elliott and helped her moved on. Ignoring the voice from inside that laughed at that thought, she decided she’d go home and work for a bit. She could come back later to leave the flyers and talk to customers about the event. When she was sure Ian was gone.
* * *
Arrivingat the big white plantation house on the edge of town that had been in the MacKenzie family for generations, she paused at the sight of her daddy’s black Mercedes sedan parked in the circle drive out front. He was never at home this time of day.
Ham, her Pitbull rescue dog, bounded down the steps from the wide front porch, tongue lolling in the heat. Galloping up to her, he pressed his forehead against her thigh begging to be scratched behind his ears. Smiling, she obliged. Ham, short for Hammurabi in honor of her father’s commitment to law and order, wasn’t much of a guard dog, but his loyalty to her was something that made her smile every day.
“Hey, boy. Where’s my daddy?”
Ham just grinned up at her and accompanied her up the broad wooden steps to the deep porch where wicker furniture sat in inviting groups and a swing hung from the ceiling close to a moonflower vine that twisted its way up the porch railings. At night the white flowers, big as dinner plates, scented the air with sweetness.
"Daddy?" She called as she pushed through the old fashioned screen door that still graced the front of the house. Silence. "Daddy?"
A shuffling sound behind his home office in the front parlor startled her for a minute before the door opened revealing Matt Mackenzie running his hand through his normally immaculate white hair.
"Piper. What are you doing home?" He asked, eyes darting behind her as though checking to see if she was alone.
"I might ask you the same."
He gave her a not very convincing grin. "I left some papers I needed and came home to get them."
Glancing at his empty hands, she asked, "Can I help you find them?"
"Oh. Um. No. They must be at the office after all. I didn't find them here."
His eyes looked sunken to her. Surrounded by dark circles. His face thinner. His appetite had been non-existent lately and the weight loss showed in a less than flattering way.
"Daddy. Is something wrong?" She asked, remembering with a jolt the shock of her mother's diagnosis of cancer and fearing he might be hiding something from her.
"Of course not, Honey. I've been a bit off my feed lately what with the election coming up soon." He patted her arm. "You know how anxious I always get when it's election time."
That was true enough, but her gut instinct told her there was still something he held back. She made a mental note to dig for it later.
"What are you doing home, Piper? I thought you were out drumming up support for the big rescue group fundraiser."
She flushed. "I was. But I needed to come home and work on something here."
His eyebrows went up, questioning her silently. He's seen the red in her cheeks. Always a sure sign she was upset about something.
"Ian's back in town." She blurted.
Her daddy stepped backward, motioning her into his home office. "Is that right? Where did you see him?"
No bluster. No outrage over the man who'd done his daughter wrong. This was the first time in ten years she hadn't heard her daddy curse the name of Ian Elliott. Puzzled, she sat in the comfy club chair near his desk.
"What did he have to say for himself?" Her daddy asked, watching her closely.
