Tall, Dark & Reckless

Her beauty queen mother was Dancie’s huge hot button and there was no way around it. Better that she vent now than lose her cool during the meeting.

“Travis is the one who looks like Mom!” Dancie said of her twin.

True. Piper stayed silent and kept flat-ironing Dancie’s frizzy hair. If Dancie would use some product, she’d have great waves. But she didn’t, so Piper was going for long, loose and feminine today.

“He got the blond hair and the blue eyes and the great teeth and the dimple. I ended up with Dad’s brown eyes and kinky black hair and mustache. I got mom’s nose, though,” Dancie continued bitterly. “It was a gift for my sixteenth birthday.”

“And a lovely gift it was, too,” Piper said. “Remember, I’ve seen pictures of you before.”

Dancie gasped, and then they both laughed.

Piper finished taming Dancie’s hair and while it wasn’t perfect, it was an improvement. “This isn’t cheating,” she told Dancie as she applied some basic makeup. “Your dad will see you’re making an effort to look more feminine, so subconsciously, he’ll make an effort to listen. It’s a sales tactic and takes nothing away from what you’ve accomplished.”

Piper’s phone buzzed. She ignored it, but Dancie reached around her and removed it from Piper’s purse.

“Give me that!” Piper grabbed for the phone, but Dancie, grinning, answered it.

“Piper Scott’s office. Are you ready to find your per—” Dancie abruptly stopped smiling. “I—”

Sighing, Piper said, “Put her on speaker.”

Dancie pressed the screen and mouthed, “I’m sorry,” as sobbing sounded from the phone.

“Piiiipeeeeerrrr!”

“I’m here.” Piper kept applying makeup while a subdued Dancie held the phone.

“Dale… He’s—he’s gonnnnne!” More sobbing. “He left meeeeee!”

Piper squinted at Dancie’s eyes and added a little more shading to one. “Did he leave you and your money or just you?”

Hiccup. “Wh-what do you mean?”

“You gave him the money, didn’t you?”

“He needed it!”

“They always do.” Piper didn’t want to deal with this right now, which is why she hadn’t answered her phone.

“But—it was for his motorcycle! He couldn’t very well get to his job without his bike, could he?”

“He has a job? That’s different.”

Dancie winced.

“Yes, he does! In Wichita Falls.”

Piper glanced at the office wall clock. Taking the phone, she handed Dancie the denim skirt and a pair of flats. Dancie was clearly feeling guilty, because she put them on without protest.

“Are you in Wichita Falls now?” Piper asked.

“No—I’m in Lubbock. Dale was going to send for me when he found us a place to live.”

Piper closed her eyes and shook her head. “And he hasn’t sent for you.”

Sniff. “No.”

“And you haven’t heard from him.”

“That’s why I called the construction company! I thought maybe he’d been in an accident and was unconscious and—”

“They’d never heard of him.” Same thing over and over again. Her mother never learned.

Sobbing.

Pointing to the clock, Dancie slipped around Piper and closed and unplugged her laptop.

“I thought he loved me!”

“You always think that,” Piper said quietly. “How much, Mom?”

“Wh—That’s—”

“I’m in a hurry. I’ve got a meeting in a few minutes. Do you have any money left at all? Or did he take you for everything?”

“Penelope Ann Scott! Don’t you talk—”

Piper took her mother off speaker. “Tell me how much you need and where to send it.”

When she ended the call, Dancie was trying to sneak out the door. “I’m so sorry, Piper. I never would have answered the phone—”

“Forget it.” Piper planned to. Until the next time. “Put on the jacket.”

“But it’s pink,” Dancie said with heavy loathing.

“Blush khaki,” Piper corrected.

“If I were the khaki, I’d blush, too.”

“You wear pink.” Piper indicated Dancie’s tank.

“I got it at a breast-cancer awareness walkathon.”

Piper slipped the jacket over her shoulders. “And now, it’s complemented by the jacket.” It was a lucky break that Dancie was wearing that particular tank top today.

Dancie set her computer and folder down and put on the jacket. “I’m only wearing this because I feel horrible about answering the phone.”

“I know,” Piper said. “But I’ll take it—because you look great!” She gave Dancie a thumbs-up and followed her through the doorway.