Chapter 7
Piper crackedthe mini-blinds just enough to watch Ian head down the front walk. He still had that damn sexy swagger.
She ordered her pulse to slow down. No way was she going to get involved with him again. No telling how long he'd be in town this time. And she still didn't want to live anywhere else, so falling for Ian again would only lead to more heartbreak. What a pity none of the men she'd dated these past years had ever gotten into her blood the way he had.
"Who was at the door?"
She jumped at the sound of her father's voice behind her.
"Ian."
He came up beside her, opened the blinds fully and looked out. She jumped to the side even though she knew Ian wouldn't be able to see her from out in the driveway where he was getting in his car.
"What was he doing here?"
"He said he's looking for your forgiveness."
Her daddy cleared his throat and frowned.
"That's not going to happen." He gave her a sharp look. "And I hope you told him so."
She laughed. "I took great pleasure in telling him."
"See that you stick to it. He's in a dangerous line of business and I don't want you getting attached to someone like that."
She laughed. "Daddy. Being a Navy pilot is no more dangerous than being a policeman." He gave her a sharp look. "I mean they all risk their lives every day."
"He's not in the Navy any more."
"What?" She took a step backward, bumped a hall table behind her and reached quickly to grab the big vase of flowers before it fell to the floor and shattered.
"How do you know that?"
Her daddy flushed red to the roots of his white hair, shuffled some papers she hadn't realized he was holding and said, "I must have heard it around town somewhere. You know how everyone talks about everything around here."
Stuffing the flowers back down in the vase any which way and managing to slop water all over the top of the antique table, she asked, "What's he doing now if he's not in the Navy? Do you think he's home for good this time?"
Striding back into his home office, he muttered over his shoulder, "I don't have time to talk about this. I have to get over to the office to meet with some folks about the highway going in over on the edge of the county."
Piper rearranged the flowers in the cut glass vase she'd almost over turned earlier. Placing each flower with the precision her mama had taught her years ago, helped her concentrate on the issue at hand.
Something was going on that her daddy didn't want her to know about. And it involved Ian. And Daddy was not happy about that involvement. What could be so important that he was willing to overlook his hatred enough to allow Ian access to his home knowing that she and Ian would inevitably be thrown together at some point. He'd warned her off any new involvement with Ian, so that meant forgiveness was not part of what ever deal he'd made with this devil.
