“Definitely, but it suits you.”
She grinned. “I found me, Mac. It took a while after Lance and I separated, and he thought I was going through some kind of personality crisis, but I was getting to know myself.” She waved her hand at him. “Hell, you know, we’d been together since we were fifteen. I had no identity outside of him. Now I’m the happiest I’ve ever been.”
The emotion rolled off her in waves. Piper had always been a giving, loving person, but there was a new freeness about her that he envied.
“I’m happy for you, Pipes. You deserve it.”
“You do, too.” Her expression sobered. “Is Atlanta treating you well?”
“It’s doing right by me.” The raw edginess he always got when people started asking him personal questions had him shifting his feet and looking around the room.
“You’re doing great in the CMC. I watched your last fight. You dominated the other guy.”
“Yeah.” He shrugged.
“Have you got yourself working in a kitchen anywhere?”
“I’m retired from the kitchen, remember? That means I’m not returning to it.” A chilly bite he couldn’t stop crept into his tone, warning her she needed to steer to a different topic.
“Well, that’s a shame,” she said, without reacting to his icy response. “Your food was always so delicious. At least tell me there’s a special someone in your life.”
Goddammit. He hated being back here. None of these people respected his boundaries. He openly scowled at her. “No. The last thing I have an interest in is dating, much less finding someone special.”
This time the pure hostility that saturated his words couldn’t be ignored, making the air heavy and silent. Piper studied him for a very long, unnerving moment, then she sighed and slowly nodded. “Okay. I see how it is.” She peered over his shoulder. “Is Gayle here yet?”
“Back in the kitchen.”
“Skylar! Come on.” Seconds later, the little girl came bounding down the stairs with the pig and now a doll.
As they moved around Mac, guilt kneed him hard in the stomach, which was crazy since he never felt that way when it came to getting people to back off their Q&A, but there it was, laying thick. He turned around. “Hey, Pipes?”
When she faced him, he grimaced. He’d kept his emotions bottled up for so long he was uncertain how to express what he needed to say.
“I’m sorry about that.” He rubbed his hands together, then cracked his knuckles. “It— It’s been an adjustment.”
Compassion softened her gaze and he wanted to turn away from it. Those looks had been one of the reasons he’d left in the first place. Everyone had gazed at him with it. Everywhere he’d gone. All he’d wanted was privacy. Instead, he’d become a specimen under a microscope. Blinking, he quickly glanced away and cleared his throat.
“Mac.”
He resented her intrusion. Wanted her to leave him be as he fought for control, but he bit his tongue and forced himself to meet her eyes.
“It’s time to heal. You’ve been carrying this for far too long. You couldn’t have saved her.”
Why did everything come back to Ally? His wife was dead. He hadn’t been there to save her. End of story.
“Couldn’t I?” Bitterness darkened his tone. “If I’d been there like I should’ve been, the outcome would’ve been a hell of a lot different.”
“Why torture yourself with that? You weren’t there. You can’t change that. Now you need to make peace with it.”
Without another word, she and Skylar walked down the hall into the kitchen. Mac ground his teeth as resentment spiked hard and fast. Everyone was a damn armchair psychologist filled with helpful advice about what he needed to do.
To hell with them all. He was doing just fine on his own.
Shaking his head, he shoved all the festering emotions aside. He owed Gayle an apology for his behavior. He might as well get it over with before he went upstairs.
As he strode into the kitchen, Piper was heading out. She laid her hand on his forearm. “Remember what I said.”
He managed a nod, but all he wanted to tell her was to mind her own damn business. As she proceeded down the hall and out the front door, he pushed out a breath and turned to Gayle, who was standing in front of Skylar by the kitchen counter.
She put her hand on the basket and said, “I brought the makings for homemade pizza for lunch. What do you say we roll out the dough while we wait for your daddy to get home?”
“Yeah!” Skylar jumped up and down.
Heat crept up Mac’s cheeks. And now he was an even bigger asshole.
“Hey, Uncle Mac, would you like to help?”
Instinct pushed him to immediately say no, but the hopeful, excited gleam in the child’s green eyes froze the word on his tongue as a slice of pain tore across his chest.