35. Piper
THIRTY-FIVE
PIPER
Bright, wintry rays of sunlight poured in through the picture window that overlooked the lake.
The horizon was painted in that striking, fathomless blue.
A promise of peace and opportunity drawn in the peaked summit of the mountains in the distance.
While I stood biting my lip and pacing the kitchen, rereading the texts that had come in after I hadn’t responded to Raven’s confirmation text asking if I was coming to her house that came in earlier this morning.
Raven
Don’t make me chase you down.
Charleigh
Believe me, I know from experience, she is not joking. You’d better show or else you’re going to end up in her trunk. Gagged and bound, her prisoner forever.
Raven
I think it’s Theo who wants to gag and bind her and keep her his prisoner forever.
Emery
Fact. He showed up at the store yesterday to whisk her away in a car he bought for her. The man is done for.
Wait, what? Bought? That car was a rental.
And Theo had all but told me last night that he had nothing to give me. The cavern of secrets and shame carved in the middle of him was too deep for us to ever cross.
No way for us to meet in the middle.
Which nearly freaking killed me.
I’d tossed all night, silently begging him to change his mind and come to me. To offer me the same that he was asking of me.
His trust.
His belief.
For him to tell me that we were more than the sorrows scattered between us. More than the baggage that we both dragged behind us.
Because I knew I was so close to giving him all of myself.
And after last night, I didn’t know where he and I stood. If him walking out had been an ending to something that had just begun—a blossoming of new life.
My chest pressed full with the hope of it.
God, I really was a fool.
Raven
Details, please! That boy has it bad.
Charleigh
I’ve never seen him like he was Friday night. Foaming at the mouth.
Raven
Hello, Piper Poo, you sexy bitch. I know you’re there. Give us all the dirty deets. Wait, no, save them for in person. I want to see your expression when you fess it up.
Charleigh
You can’t break Nolan’s heart. He can’t wait to meet Finn. He’s already packed a bunch of different toys for him to play with.
Emery
Maci cannot stop asking about meeting him, either. And I have to admit, I’m excited, too. I haven’t been around a super little in so long!
Charleigh
Gah. Baby cheeks. I’m going to need all the kisses.
Raven
We’re going to have two babies now. What is this amazing life?
They were talking about us like we’d become a permanent fixture in their family.
My spirit thrashed.
So desperately wanting to be a part of something so beautiful.
“You going to stare at that thing all day or cover that potato salad and take it to your party?”
A yelp ripped out of me at the voice that hit me from out of nowhere. I must have jumped three feet in the air.
Gasping, my hand flew to my chest as I whirled toward Nelly who was looking at me with her brow quirked for the sky. “My, my, you’re a jumpy thing.”
I scowled at her. “That’s because you scared the crap out of me. Why are you sneaking up on me like that?”
Incredulity filled her features. “Snuck up on you? I just waddled my way from the bedroom, all the way across the living room, and into the kitchen in plain sight while you just stood there chewing your nails down to the nubs with your potato salad half done.”
I glanced down to the big bowl that I’d been working on for the last two hours. “It’s finished. I just need to wrap it.”
“The question is, are you actually going to do that and go to your party?” she prodded.
I wavered. Caution tape wrapped around my spirit, all while I wanted to rip it away and run free.
“I don’t know what I’m doing, Nelly,” I admitted as I blew out a weighty sigh.
“You’re making friends.”
My insides twisted and snarled. It wasn’t as simple as that.
It was…bigger.
More important.
“It’s all happening so fast, I wonder if I’m rushing into something without really thinking through the consequences.”
A frown dented between Nelly’s eyes, though there was a softness to it. “I know you’re scared, Piper. I know this is all new and different and unexpected, but usually the best things in life are things we don’t prepare ourselves for.”
Air puffed between my lips. I never could have prepared myself for Theo. For this man to come storming into our lives.
And the scariest part of all was I wanted him to be there.
“What?” Nelly pressed, her love moving through her grayed eyes as she shifted around to stare up at me.
“I think I’m falling for someone who can’t love me back.” Pain splintered through me at the thought. No question, I was already long gone.
She scoffed. “You are talking about Theo? Because that boy is head over heels.”
My head barely shook. “I don’t think so.”
“We are talking about the same man who brought us a Christmas tree, got everything to decorate it, then spent the evening snuggled up with you and your son on the couch like you’re a family?”
“It wasn’t?—”
“Don’t downplay whatever went on last night,” she said, cutting me off. “I might be old, but I’m not blind, and I don’t think you are, either. Not once have I seen you and your son smile like that, and I promise you, Theo’s smile was to match.”
“He’s…broken, Nelly.” I didn’t know how else to explain it.
“Well, I’ve got news for you, Piper. We all are.
We’ve all been fractured and shattered and cracked.
We have all lost pieces of ourselves that we never believed we could survive without.
We have been hurt and wounded, and some of those scars are deeper than others.
But that doesn’t mean we don’t still exist. It doesn’t mean we aren’t still breathing.
It doesn’t mean our hearts aren’t still beating. ”
Mine pounded inside my chest.
Dread and hope thundering through my veins.
Would I survive it? Loving Theo and losing him?
More importantly, would I survive any of this if I failed Finn?
“It’s coming up to an end, Piper,” Nelly rushed on a whisper. “This running. One way or another, you’re going to have to turn around and face this demon, however you do it.”
“I know.” My nod was shaky.
“You’re so brave, in every way. Every day that you’ve fought. And your biggest battle might be ahead of you, but I know, it will be worth it.”
Reservations clashed with the determination, and I dipped my head as a tear slipped free.
Nelly wiped it away. “Now, you go spend this afternoon with your new friends, and for today, sweet child, just let go and live.”
I sniffled, and she turned, dipped her finger into the potato salad, and took a taste, peeking back at me with a grin as she said, “Almost as good as mine. Now go get your shoes on, and I’ll wrap this up for you so you and your little man can go have a blast.”
“Fine.”
I moved from the kitchen and called to Finn where he was having a full conversation with his owl decoration that hung from a low branch of the tree. “Are you ready to go to our party?”
He flew around and jumped in the air. “I go!”
I helped him with his shoes and coat then accepted the bowl of potato salad from Nelly. I pecked a kiss to her cheek, then took my son’s hand and led him out into the crisp winter day.
The snow was fresh, but the storm had cleared overnight.
I exhaled, my breath vapor as Finn and I headed to the small SUV parked in the spot next to the cabin.
I opened his door and buckled him in, smiling down at my son who couldn’t stop grinning. “We go pway with kids?”
“Yeah, sweet boy. We’re going to go play with kids.”
“Finn go right now!”
I dropped a kiss to his forehead. “Okay, little mister bossy.”
A giggle rolled free. “I Mommy’s boss.”
Tenderness pulsed.
This hope that I could actually make a change.
I shut his door then opened mine and climbed into my seat. I started the car and backed out.
I drove down the twisty, narrow lane toward the main lot and followed along the back side of it to where it met with the main drive that led back out to Vista View.
And my aching heart leapt into my throat when I felt the energy slam me from behind right before the low grumble of a powerful engine filled my ears.
I glanced in the rearview mirror to find a motorcycle had pulled out right behind us.
Theo at the helm.
Tattooed hands stretched out to hold onto the handlebars.
Black hair whipping around his foreboding, beautiful face.
Every bit of him as dark as the bike that he rode.
A beautiful, fallen angel.
I eased the SUV down the rugged terrain of the dirt road that led to Raven and Otto’s cabin. The dense forest surrounded on all sides, pressing in and making it feel as if I were the most secluded I’d ever been.
Sunlight streaked through the peaked tops of the pines that were covered in snow, the rays blinding and glinting as they struck on the fresh glittering white.
My heart thudded at a wild beat. Nervous that I was bringing my son to a group gathering like this for the first time in his life. That anxiety was only magnified by the overwhelming presence of the man who tracked close behind.
It felt like even though we’d been separated last night, a million questions driven between us, he didn’t want to let me out of his sight.
I made it to the gulch where the road dipped down through the mountains before we began to climb up the other side. As soon as we reached the top where there was a clearing in the woods, a surprised breath fled from my lungs.
Stricken by the beauty laid out in front of me.
Raven and Otto’s cabin was hardly that.
It was a large, tall, rectangular metal building, though it was hedged by colossal, towering trees. The bottom floor was glinting steel with garage doors that faced the large clearing where several other automobiles were parked.
The upper-floor walls were made mostly of massive panes of glass that overlooked the crystalline lake that sat low in the valley in the distance.
A second-story porch with a staircase leading up to it faced this side of the building.