Crash Landing

Chapter One

Now

Humidity hung in the air, thick as soup, but Piper didn’t mind. Rolling down the car window, she welcomed the last whisper

of Georgia sunshine, the mild spring breeze succumbing under the weight of summer’s impending fury. In the driver’s seat,

Tag frowned and jacked the AC up to its highest setting.

Pulling into the parking lot of her apartment building, Tag got out of the slick two-seater Porsche, walked around, and opened

Piper’s door—the terminal gentleman. Tonight marked their twelfth date in as many weeks. This time they’d celebrated completing

their second year of medical school by dining at Tag’s favorite restaurant, the Capital Grille, featuring an overpriced menu

with dishes that reeked of garlic and left Piper hungry.

“We should continue the evening and open up that bottle of merlot I brought over last week,” he said, helping her out of the

car.

Piper usually admired how Tag declared his suggestions like statements instead of questions, but tonight his polished delivery

made her cringe. She’d dated enough frogs in her twenty-six years to know Tag Sinclair was a catch. On paper, that is. Her

exacting parents adored him, and he treated her well, rivaling the likability of a standard Disney prince. But Piper couldn’t

remember many of those storybook princes making the princesses laugh, and those couples rarely had much in common besides

dazzling smiles and impeccable harmony.

Still, if Tag pressed her again for a more serious commitment, like he’d done on their last few dates, she’d likely give in. Piper: the perennial people pleaser.

Tag stepped toward the front door of her apartment, but Piper placed a freshly manicured hand—painted in OPI’s Rosy Future,

the pastel shade she’d adopted as her signature color years ago—on his chest, stopping him. In heels, she nearly matched his

five-eleven frame, but his perfectly coiffed corn silk hair gave him an extra inch. A blond Ken doll with the same lack of

sex appeal.

“That sounds lovely, but I still need to pack for Allie’s wedding. I should call it a night.”

Tag pouted. “But I’m leaving for the Cape tomorrow and you won’t see me for weeks.”

Sometimes Piper wondered what Tag even liked about her. Was it the designer clothes? Her ability to hide her imperfections

beneath expensive makeup? Or maybe her family’s name took her from a seven to a ten in his eyes. Did he even see the messy,

miserable girl underneath it all, trying to look like she had it all together?

She mirrored his disappointment with a pout of her own, but the tightness in her chest loosened. “You’ll be having so much

fun on your family vacation, you’ll hardly miss me,” Piper reassured him. “Thanks so much for dinner. I had a great night.”

Tag’s shoulders slumped beneath his gray Cole Haan suit, but he smiled at her. “Me too.”

He planted a perfunctory kiss on her lips. Piper closed her eyes and tried for the hundredth time to feel a spark or tingle

of excitement instead of Tag’s slightly dry and too-firm lips pressed against hers.

Nothing like the thrill of kissing Wyatt.

Wyatt.

She hated when his name popped into her head almost as much as she loathed him. Piper pushed back from Tag, rattled, and grounded herself by taking in his dark chocolate eyes—so different from Wyatt’s piercing gray gaze. With a sharp shake of her head, she banished all thoughts of Wyatt and gave Tag one last kiss on the cheek before walking away.

Letting herself into her apartment, she tossed her black YSL bag on the kitchen counter. The purse, a gift after her official

enrollment at Emory’s medical school, was more her mother’s style than Piper’s, but she received compliments every time she

carried it. Her mom’s influence also adorned her apartment—Barbara Adams took interior design very seriously. Piper preferred

a cozy couch with cushions that swallowed her in a hug when she sat down, but the Barbara-approved tufted velvet rolled-arm

sofa in cream matched the cold leather love seat, and she’d learned to pick her battles against her mother long ago.

Piper flung her closet open wide and pulled out her trusty black Samsonite suitcase. This last school term had all but sucked

the life out of her, but a poolside drink at her best friend’s destination wedding was exactly what the doctor ordered—or

at least what this struggling medical student would prescribe.

She was debating between a fitted sage green cocktail dress and a bright yellow maxi for the rehearsal dinner when Allie’s

face displayed on her phone screen—an image from an ill-advised shopping mall glamour shot taken during middle school. In

it, Allie’s bright red tresses were teased so high they almost weren’t in the frame. It was one of Piper’s favorite photos

of her friend because it captured her impish grin.

“Allie!” Piper answered with delight. At first, only muffled voices sounded through the speaker, then Allie shushed someone

and came on the line.

“Piper! I miss you.” Her words slurred together, coming out as “emishu,” like she was three margaritas deep.

“I miss you, too.” Piper tossed both dresses into her suitcase and added a turquoise sundress for good measure. “Promise me we won’t go three months without seeing each other again! My heart can’t take it. How’re the Bahamas so far?” She could already taste the salt air on her lips.

Allie sighed dramatically. “My in-laws are the sweetest people, but if I have to explain the vegan options one more time,

I’ll lose my mind. And don’t even get me started on Oliver’s sister, who has decided now is the right time to swear off alcohol

and tell anyone who will listen the reasons drinking will kill you.” She took a drink, ice rattling in her glass. “Oliver

is so calm about everything that he’s driving me crazy, too.”

“I’m sorry, Allie. I didn’t realize everything was getting this stressful.” Piper cradled the phone to her ear and dug her

swimsuits out of a drawer, laying them out on the bed and assessing her options.

“It’s okay. It will all be better once you get here tomorrow.”

“I can’t wait.” Piper scooped up the assortment of one-pieces and bikinis and added them to her bag. “Hey, did Ethan make

it in yet?”

“Yeah, we were just missing you over a cocktail. It’s going to be so nice having us all back together—a Lonely Only reunion!”

It wouldn’t be a real reunion. They’d need Wyatt for that. He’d been the last to join their close-knit group of only children

in the neighborhood—the Lonely Only moniker created in first grade by Allie and Piper—and the first to leave. After dumping

Piper in high school, he’d cut them all out like a cancer—likely because he couldn’t stand the sight of her. There was no

way Wyatt would show his face at the wedding after so many years vanished from their collective lives. Right?

Allie jumped back in before Piper could press for more details on the guest list.

“Oh em gee. I met Ethan’s new boyfriend, Jack!” she practically squealed. “He’s hot, but don’t tell Oliver that. I swear he’s a doppelg?nger of Chris Hemsworth, and you know how I feel about him.”

Piper laughed. “I do.” The only reason Allie ever watched a Marvel movie with Oliver was to get a look at her celebrity “boyfriend.”

“It’s too bad Tag can’t come. I was looking forward to meeting him.”

Piper’s chest constricted. “We’re far from an official couple and definitely not at the ‘come to my best friend’s destination

wedding’ stage.” And likely never will be.

“Are you worried I won’t like him and will scare him away?” Allie teased. She’d chased off a few losers who had dated Piper

in college, taking her role as best friend and guardian of Piper’s well-being seriously.

“Actually, you’d love him. Everyone seems to, including my mother, who’s delighted we’re dating. He’s very charming.”

“So, what’s the problem?”

Trust her best friend to see right through her bullshit.

“I don’t know.” Piper lay back on her bed. “He’s handsome and he’s a family friend, but it hasn’t really clicked yet. I mean,

we spend time together, but we mainly talk about school or where we should eat dinner, or the news. I keep thinking that there

should be something more, you know? Like more in common, more laughter. More connection. But maybe that’s only in a paperback

romance.”

Allie was unnaturally quiet for a moment. “I can say with confidence that Oliver makes me laugh every day, and I swear he

knows me better than I know myself.”

Piper blinked back unexpected tears. She wanted what Allie had. Or wanted it again. To feel that connection where your eyes meet across the room, and you know what the other person is thinking without saying a word. Or to laugh at an inside joke so hard tears slide down your face. To know they love every part of you, even the chaotic parts, and you can truly be yourself around them.

She considered, not for the first time, that maybe her first heartbreak had rendered her broken forever, her heart iced over

so thoroughly that not even a blowtorch could crack it open.

“Maybe Tag’s your person, maybe he’s not,” Allie continued. “But promise me you’re deciding based on what makes you happy,

not anyone else, okay? Follow your heart. That’s all that matters.”

“Yeah, yeah, yeah,” Piper said, brushing Allie off before saying goodbye.

She’d heard the advice from her headstrong friend many times, but Piper knew better. Blindly ignoring her parents’ warnings

about Wyatt and following her heart had led her straight to heartbreak central. Somewhere along the way, she’d stopped trusting

herself. Stopped trusting her heart.

Maybe she’d settled for Tag because she knew her heart was safe with him—her heart couldn’t break if she never gave it away

again.