Fight Song (Rocky River Fighters 3)

Smiling tightly, she replied, “Thanks. But I won’t be using it.” She nodded toward the gate that lead to the street.

“Okay, okay. I can take a hint,” he said with a smile.

Looking her over one more time, he turned to go, almost tripping over the dog sitting silently behind him. “Fuck, where did he come from? Ugly little critter.”

“Snickers! Come here, boy,” Piper called.

The little dog jumped up and ran to Piper, where she picked him up and snuggled him close, her glare hot enough to melt Jax’s hide off. Well, shit. He’d just insulted her dog. He definitely wasn’t winning any points with her this afternoon.

Winning points? Did he want to win points? He considered it for a split second before nodding to himself. Yes, yes he did want to win points.

“I mean, not ugly, just—different,” he said, trying to backpedal.

“So everything that’s different is ugly? I’m different.”

“You’re not ugly, Piper—”

“Just. Leave. I don’t have the patience for you anymore,” she bit out.

Well, shit. With a nod, he turned to leave. He heard her mutter, “Some watchdog you are, Snickers,” as he walked away, and despite having dug himself in worse with her, he felt his lips pulling into a smile. The action felt as foreign as his laughter had. He hadn’t done either in years. In fact, the last time he had was eight years ago, with Piper.

Getting in his truck, he started it before scrubbing his hands over his face. Blowing out a breath, he headed back toward Rocky River, his eagle protesting leaving his mate behind after seeing her for the first time in so long.

He’d come over today to fulfill an obligation, and a promise to Helen to keep the house in good shape after she passed. She had pneumonia when she passed away, and predicted that she didn’t have much time left on Earth. Jax had thought that was just the ramblings of a sick older woman, but she called it. A pang of sorrow hit his chest, and he brought a hand up to his chest. He’d miss that crazy old woman, that was for sure.

But what he hadn’t expected was for the sight of Piper to completely change his world view. He naively thought he could walk in and see her, and remain the same afterward. But nothing was the same. Everything standing between them was still true. None of that had changed.

What changed was his perception of it. He could protect Piper if the threats began again. He was a nervous twenty-year-old back then, defiant, but still scared his grandfather and colony would go after her. He was eight years older now, and he’d grown up a lot in those eight years. He was stronger, wiser, tougher now.

He’d traveled the country with Ian, learning to fight and becoming one of the best. He wasn’t being boastful, just stating a fact. He could take on anyone his grandfather tried to send after him or Piper. He was strong enough to protect her now.

And he knew, from the moment he saw her again, so different yet still the same Piper, that he wasn’t going to be able to walk away from her again. He was an idiot for ever thinking he could. Breaking things off with her eight years ago had been the hardest thing he ever did, and damned near impossible. He knew two seconds after laying eyes on her today that he wasn’t going to be able to do it again.

The real battle was going to be getting her to forgive him and give him another shot. He hurt her deeply when he ended things back then, and even the Piper of old would have a hard time getting past that. This new spitfire Piper was going to give him hell, and never let up. There had been no crack in her tough exterior today, no hint that seeing him had affected her like seeing her did for him. The faint blush she had was the only thing that hinted to her having felt anything for him but fury and disdain.

To his surprise, he welcomed the war to win her heart back. If nothing else, this was going to prove interesting, and he couldn’t wait to get started.

Deciding to bypass the driveway to Rocky River, he cruised down the back road, wanting time to think over strategy. But he found himself wondering at the drastic change in her. It wasn’t that he didn’t like it, or didn’t think it was her. She wasn’t trying to be something she wasn’t, although she’d never been quite that fierce in the past. But even as a kid, she had that same fire inside her.

What bothered him was how he’d seen her in a photo at her grandmother’s house once. It was taken around five years ago, back when she’d been married. His gut tightened as he thought of her married to another man, but he pushed it away. The time for jealousy was long past, but he knew he’d always hate her ex-husband with everything in him for being the man who spent his days and nights with Piper.

But this wasn’t about that. This was about the change in Piper. Thinking back to that photograph, his eyes narrowed thoughtfully. All he thought at the time was how beautiful she was, but now he was recalling the details in the photo. Her brown hair had been highlighted with blonde, her makeup and jewelry, minimal. She’d been wearing heels, a knee length khaki skirt, and a pale pink top with a white sweater over it. Clothes even the old Piper wouldn’t have worn, but he just assumed she’d changed.

What was hitting him like a punch to the gut was the strain around her smile, and the poorly hidden sadness in her eyes. Maybe she hadn’t changed on the inside enough to change her clothes and look to how she was then. Maybe who she was wasn’t who she wanted to be, and she felt forced. And once she was divorced, she shed that image and went full force to the one she wan

ted.

Her look right now might seem extreme to those who knew her in the past and grew up with her. But to him, it felt like she looked exactly right for who she was inside. Whoever she tried to look like when she was married, that wasn’t Piper.

Fury boiled through his veins at the thought of her husband allowing, or even encouraging, her to change herself like that, but he cautioned himself to slow down. He was making a lot of assumptions right now, all based on a single image captured on film. For all he knew, who she was in the photo was who she wanted to be at that point in time. And maybe she’d been having a bad day, and her smile and eyes reflected that.

All he knew for certain was he would take Piper any way he could get her. Who she was as a teenager, who she’d been in her early twenties, and who she was now. Past, present, and future Piper, and he would count himself the luckiest son of a bitch to ever live if he got the chance to spend his life with any version of Piper she chose to be.

“One day, I’ll take you on a date to Cocky Pete’s,” Jax told Piper, handing her the four-leaf clover he found.

Accepting it, she laughed, looking up from where her head was laying on his lap. “A date to an old saloon? Sooo romantic, Jax.”

“What could be more romantic than taking you to an old whorehouse?” he replied, shooting her a wink.