Page 129 of Go Find Less
“Okay.” I nod, leaning back in my chair and flexing my fingers. Nearly a week later, and my hand is still aching. The bruising has gone away, thank God, because I wasn’t sure how much longer I could hide my hand from my dad. “Did she talk to you about the ball?” Seer nods, her shoulder length blonde hair bobbing.
“We’re going shopping tomorrow. Did you talk to her about Saturday?” She looks down at me, though the height difference is minimal and makes what I’m sure was supposed to be a piercing gaze much less intimidating. I hold back the sigh I want to let out - of course, Frannie told her.
“No.” I grip my hands behind my head and wince. “I don’t know if I want to put her through that shitshow.” Seer snorts.
“Your brother’s graduation is hardly a shitshow.” I give her a flat stare. “Ok, maybe a little bit of a shitshow. But it’s the perfect excuse to welcome her to the fam.”
“Therein lies the problem.”
“You don’t want her to be part of the fam?” She crosses her arms, leaning forward against the chair facing my desk.
“It’s not that, I-"
I stop myself, caught on that idea. Piper. Part of the family. Part ofmyfamily.
Fuck. You’re like, two months in, Westfall. Pump the brakes.
But why does that idea make the tiny, itty bitty - ok, not so itty bitty - caveman part of me gloriously happy?
She’s mine. I know she is. But in a way I can’t quite put my finger on, the idea of her being a part of my family is both thrilling and terrifying.
“I don’t want to scare her off,” I finally breathe out, scrubbing a hand down my face. Seer laughs again, and this time, it’s got a tone of disbelief etched in it.
“You think your family is going to scare her off, after the shit she went through with her in-laws?”
Ok. She has a point, and I wonder to myself how much of the story Piper’s told Seer.
Before I can reply, there’s a soft knock from behind her, and we both look to see Piper in the doorway. She’s wearing a green blouse with a dark skirt that highlights the dip of her waist. I can just see the faint bruise healing on her shin from where she’d walked into my coffee table last weekend. She needs bubble wrap, I swear.
“Hey.” I stand from my desk, crossing the office toward her, and dipping down to give her a quick kiss. She puts a hand on my chest, stopping me. “Whoa, what?”
Her laugh is soft, but her eyes dart behind her, into the bullpen of cubicles outside my office where I know there are people peeking around to get a better look.
“Not here,” she breathes, and then flashes a grin that sets me at ease. I’m a little floored, usually the one to deny PDA, not the other way around. “Not if I actually get the job after that disaster of an interview.”
I raise an eyebrow at her - disaster of an interview? With my sister? I’m about to ask as much when Frannie steps out of her office, meeting my gaze. Then, right behind her, my father walks out, giving me a tight lipped smile before turning to head to his office down the hall.
“Was he in your interview?” Seer’s voice is quiet behind me, and Piper nods, tipping her head in the direction of the elevators.
“You sure you can’t come?” Piper’s eyes are pleading, and I shake my head, giving her an anxious smile and praying that the light squeeze I give her waist conveys what I need her to know. I have her back. In this, and anything else.
Because if there’s one thing I’m not going to let my father do, it’s drive a wedge between me and another person in my life.
Piper
I stare down at the cup of tea in front of me, watching spirals of steam ebb off the surface. Across from me, Seer’s fingers tap the tabletop, a ball of nervous energy from the second she saw Chris Westfall walk out of that office after his daughter.
Fuck me, what a morning. I already had one grueling interview with a marketing agency across town - doing similar work to what I was doing before I started at AllHearts. But Frannie hadn’t even had time to warn me that her father was joining us before their hushed conversation at her assistant’s desk, he just plastered on that fake as hell smile and sauntered in ahead of us.
They looked alike, I had to admit that. I saw some of Fitz’s best features, the physical ones, anyway, in his dad. The red hair, the strong jaw, green eyes. The smattering of freckles was definitely his, though he was pale in a way that made me sure Fitz got his coloring from his mother. But that was where their similarities ended.
Chris Westfall didn’t set people at ease with a quiet confidence the way Fitz did - or, had, before being in the same room with him made my chest seize. He made me incredibly uncomfortable, his posture too tight, his questions clipped as he grilled me about how I felt my time at AllHearts would translate into a position in their marketing department.
He had every right to be protective - over his company, and his son. Olivia had done a number on Fitz, and he didn’t know me from Eve, aside from the potential connection between his now wife and my mother, who I learned were both in a female lawyers association together.
Paula Westfall, was, in my mother’s words from the brief conversation we’d had on the night of Fam Dinner, rooting for me.
“Finally,” Seer breathes, and then scoots over in her chair to allow Frannie to slide in after her. I feel my chest expand with the breath I didn’t know I’d been holding as Frannie reaches out to grab one of my hands.