Once Again

 

“Happy Birthday,” Piper said when Chris opened the door. She leaned in and kissed his cheek.

“Is that what I think it is?” he asked, his eyes lighting up. “And how many times do we have to tell you to stop ringing the doorbell? This is your home. Just walk right in.”

She couldn’t, though, and never would. It didn’t feel right. “This is Vin Steele. Vin, Chris Shaffer.”

Vin walked in and shook hands with Chris. “Thanks for the invitation. Happy birthday,” he said.

Chris waved his hand and laughed. “When you get to be my age, you stop counting. It’s easier that way. Better for my peace of mind too. And any friend of Piper’s is a friend of ours. Good to meet you.”

Piper and Vin made their way into the house. She looked around and noticed that not much had changed. She remembered the first time she came here all those years ago. Scared and frustrated that she was being moved again and just hoping that it was better than the last place.

She didn’t know what to expect and was hoping to just ride a few months out. She never thought she’d be here almost two years. The longest ever, and the best two years of her childhood.

There was a part of her that didn’t want to leave when she turned eighteen, but she was afraid of staying too. She didn’t want to ruin what they had. She didn’t want them to tell her she’d overstayed her welcome and had to leave.

By leaving on her own terms, it actually strengthened the relationship she had with them. It all worked out in the end, in her eyes.

“Piper,” Jane said, coming into the living room. “Chris, let me take that from you. You aren’t allowed to have any until after dinner. We’re just grilling some steaks. You know Chris, he likes all the simple meals and that makes me just as happy.”

“This is Vin Steele. Vin, Jane.”

Jane balanced the cake on one hand and reached the other out. “So nice to meet you. Piper has always been mum on any boyfriends, but when she wanted to bring you over I got really excited. I’m sure you know she isn’t mum about a lot of things in life.”

“No, she isn’t,” Vin said.

“Thanks,” Piper said, pursing her lips. “Not funny.”

“Yes, it is,” Chris said. “Come on into the dining room. I’m going to slap the steaks on the grill now. They won’t take long at all.”

“Do you mind eating outside on the deck?” Piper asked. “I miss the backyard. I’ve just got a little terrace, and though it’s nice, it’s not very private. Nothing like your backyard.”

“Of course, dear,” Jane said. “I’ll just move the dishes to the table out there.”

“I’ll help you.”

“Vin, maybe you could go help Chris with the steaks?” Jane asked.

He nodded and walked out, following Chris. “That wasn’t very nice,” Piper said.

“What’s that?”

“Sending Vin out there so he could be grilled.”

“Chris hasn’t been able to do that to anyone in years. Let him have his fun. Michele hasn’t brought a man home in forever.”

Piper laughed and felt like she was home once again.

 

***

 

Vin was making it through the dinner better than he thought he would have. He couldn’t remember the last time he had to meet the parents. And definitely nothing like this.

The Shaffers seemed like genuinely good people. You could see it by the way they were looking at Piper. The same way his parents glanced at him, if he was honest with himself.

He wasn’t even put off by Chris’s questions. Nothing major. Just simple things. What he did for a living. If he’d ever been married. Where he was from. Nothing serious, and Vin kept the answers short and sweet.

“You should have seen the first time Piper came here to visit with us before she was placed,” Jane said.

“Oh no, you aren’t going to tell that story, are you?” Piper asked, looking pained.

“It’s funny. I can’t help it.”

“Don’t laugh,” Piper said to him.

“I won’t.”

“She came in here all tough. Straight-faced, with a look that was saying she had it all figured out in the world and was ticked that she was being put here.”

“Piper?” Vin asked, mildly stunned.

“Yeah, funny huh?” Chris said. “Jane and I were wondering what the heck we’d gotten ourselves into.”

“What did she do?”

“Nothing bad. Just sat at the dinner table and barely said a word. Which, of course, we know is not the real Piper either. We were trying everything we could to get her to talk, but nothing worked. Then the neighbor’s cat came up on the deck like it always did and pushed its nose against the window looking for Chris.”

Vin just raised an eyebrow. “Neighbor’s cat?”

“Yeah. We’ve never had any pets, and we didn’t need to when the neighbors all had cats and they’d sneak over here because Chris fed them table food. I swear, there was one day I came home and there were five cats in the yard and he was opening cans of tuna fish for them.” Jane laughed, then waved her hand. “Anyway, Piper just giggled. Like she’d never seen a cat do that before.”

“I never had,” Piper said. “I still have never seen a cat bump their head against a glass door like that either.”

“That was this particular cat’s way of knocking,” Chris said. “I got up and grabbed the bag of cat treats I kept in the house and was going to toss a few out there when Piper beat me to the door and let the cat in. We’d never had cats in the house before.”

“I had no idea,” Piper said. “I thought it was their cat. It was meowing and really excited when I walked to the glass door. I didn’t think it was going to run that fast.”

Jane snickered. “That cat took off in a dead run all over the house. We couldn’t catch him no matter how hard we tried. Couldn’t find him, either. Piper finally trapped him in Skip’s room under the bed.”

“He got stuck under the bed with all of Skip’s old science kits.”

“Science kits?”

“Skip loved science in high school,” Jane said. “He’d examine things. Anything. Bugs, rocks, flowers. You name it, he had it under a microscope and was looking at every nook and cranny.”

“I thought for sure he’d be a mad scientist when he went away to college,” Chris said, “but in his junior year he changed his major from science to business. I think it was because of a girl, but he’d never admit it.”

“You think everything is because of a girl,” Jane said, swatting his hand, “because that is how you’ve always been.”

“So true,” Chris said.

“Anyway,” Piper interrupted, “the cat got trapped between some lab kit he had, all the test tubes, and the microscope. It got freaked by the glass clanging around and when it went to run, I grabbed him.”

“Piper snatched it by the tail and lifted it in the air,” Jane said, roaring with laughter. “I’m not sure which of them screeched the loudest. The cat, or Piper after the cat did. But she didn’t drop the cat, either. Just ran to the front door, opened it, and set the cat there and slammed the door shut, then apologized left and right.”

“We’ve never laughed so hard as that night. We were missing laughter in the house and from that moment on, we knew she belonged here.”

Vin looked over at Piper, saw her embarrassed face, and rubbed his hand over hers. “Yeah, she is good about bringing laughter into people’s lives.”