Page 86 of Devoured By the Forbidden Mountain Man

Piper Tunney was tiny.

That was my first coherent thought.

My brother stood six-one, and the woman beside him barely reached his shoulder even in boots. Her vivid red hair was twisted loosely at the back of her head, with several pieces already escaping around a pale face reddened by the cold. She wore jeans, a charcoal sweater beneath an open coat, and the practical flat boots of someone who had no intention of sacrificing circulation for fashion.

Gavin took a pie box from the back seat.

Piper took it straight out of his hands.

“You almost set your coffee on this twice.”

“I caught myself both times.”

Piper tucked the pie more securely against her coat and shut the passenger door with her free hand. Gavin watched her do it, apparently reconsidering his defense.

“You caught yourself once. I caught you the other time.”

The smile he gave her was nothing like the guarded expression he had worn walking into the Lantern House.

It stopped me halfway across the porch.

Piper noticed me first and touched Gavin’s arm. He turned.

His face changed immediately.

“Georgia.”

I went down the steps and hugged him.

There was no desperate grip this time, no disbelief that he was physically in front of me. His arms came around me easily, and when he squeezed, I felt him laugh because I had apparently knocked the breath out of him.

“You could wait until I put the food down.”

“You weren’t carrying it anymore.”

Gavin loosened his arms around me enough to give me a wounded look.

“Piper took it away because apparently I can’t be trusted with pie.”

“She has evidence.”

His laugh was warm against my hair.

When I let him go, I finally looked properly at the woman who had stayed after learning everything he had hidden from her.

Piper held the pie box against her coat with both hands. Her dark brown eyes were more cautious than her smile, which made sense. She was walking into a Thanksgiving full of people tied to the worst secret her boyfriend had ever kept.

I stepped toward her.

“I’m really glad you came.”

Some of the caution left her face. “So am I. Gavin has been talking about this dinner since you invited us, although he keeps pretending he hasn’t.”

My brother gave her a wounded look, but Piper had already started toward the porch with the pie. He fell into step beside her.

“I mentioned it.”

“You discussed departure time on Monday.”