Blue Lines(25)

But he wouldn’t even kiss her!

Plus, he asked her to sign a prenup. A prenup! She wanted nothing from him. She didn’t need the flashy shit his money would bring. It was the little things that made her happy.

Closing her eyes, Piper hoped and prayed that sleep would take over and she’d wake up to a real marriage with someone who loved her. Her mind was going at a hundred miles an hour, thinking of every scenario that could get her out of this mess. She could call Erik and tell him she changed her mind, but that wasn’t right. She stood by her word, her vow, and she would honor him until the end of the relationship.

Piper knew that she was being naïve but a part of her believed Erik when he said he wouldn’t cheat on her. She could see in his eyes the need for this marriage to work. He needed her, and the sick, stupid part of her loved it. She wanted to be needed by Erik; she only wished that what he needed was to have her love, not to keep his job.

With a huff, Piper rolled slowly out of bed and made her way to the living room and her illustration desk. Piper was working on illustrations for a book by Emmaline Hayes, a children’s author, who also was one of her really close friends. They had met in college, when they were roommates. Emmaline was an English major and Piper wanted to be a teacher. The two clicked instantly and became inseparable. But like everything else Piper tried to do, the goal of being a teacher soon evolved into something else; now she wanted to be a veterinarian—she never really stuck to one major. They kept in close contact after college, and last year Emmaline had called Piper and asked her to illustrate a children’s book for her.

Piper had always been an amazing artist. She had done the mural for Ally’s bedroom, and in Elli’s twins’ room Piper had drawn a kid’s hockey rink on one of the walls; all the art in Reese’s dance studio was hers, too. Piper loved what she did, and now to get paid for it on top of that was badass, in her opinion. So for the past year Piper worked hard on The Piggy’s Pig. It was a heartfelt tale of how Piggy lost his favorite stuffed pig. It was a New York Times bestseller, and kids loved it, although it was a difficult book to illustrate. Piper hated the story, and that darn pig still haunted her dreams.

Luckily, though, Mrs. Octopus’ Eight Tentacles was a lot more fun to draw. The colors were magical and the story was actually really good. It was a story about the eight things Mrs. Octopus couldn’t live without. It was fun and fresh, and Piper was having a blast drawing the different scenes. She had felt like things were finally clicking for her, but recent events had curbed her creativity.

Picking up a bright blue pencil, Piper cleared her throat and got to work. She had plenty of time until Erik would arrive. She wanted to get a page halfway done before she began cooking dinner. She knew she was crazy to even care, but that didn’t stop her from wanting to cook the most amazing meal he had ever eaten.

Shaking her head, Piper got back to work. A couple of hours had passed and she was completely lost in the intricate detail of Mrs. Octopus’s third tentacle when the doorbell sounded. Looking up, she could see that it was Erik, with his arms full of stuff. She took in a deep breath, then let it out slowly before she got up and headed for the door.

Well, here we go.

She reached the door, and pulled it open to find not only her new husband, but also a dog.

“What’s that?” she asked, pointing down at the dog.

It looked up at her with its big bug eyes and snorted.

Erik looked down and then back up at Piper before saying, “Stanley, my dog.”

“You didn’t tell me you had a dog,” she said, looking back down at Stanley. He had his tongue out of his mouth and was still snorting fairly loud. “Is he sleeping?”

Erik chuckled. “Naw, that’s just the way he breathes. So yeah, is he a problem?”

Disgusted, Piper looked back up. “Does he always sound like that?”

Erik’s smile fell. “Yeah.”

Piper found herself looking back down at the dog. He was so ugly, he was kind of cute. He was a light brown bulldog with white patches all over his body. He had the cutest little nose, and was fatter than she thought a dog of that breed should be, but what the hell did she know about bulldogs? Shrugging her shoulders, she moved out of the way so that Erik could enter with his snorting dog.

“Thanks,” he mumbled back at her as he walked past. She shut the door behind him and followed him down the hall to the living room, where he dropped his bags.

“So where is my room?”

Piper crossed her ankles, resting her hands on her stomach. It was becoming a habit, resting her hands on her tummy, and she liked it, but she couldn’t think of that right now because it just dawned on her that there was no place for Erik to sleep.