Chapter Thirty-Five
The hug from her mother feels so good. She just wants things between them to get back to normal.
Back in the heart of the lobby, it’s clear the party hasn’t had time to gel. It’s like a middle school dance, with the boys
on one side of the room and the girls on the other. In the center, Barclay stands alongside Belinda. He’s not dressed in his
usual outdoorsy clothes, but instead is wearing khaki pants and an argyle sweater. Belinda is wearing an aubergine cable-knit
sweater dress and white opaque tights and furry low boots. Her white hair is in one long braid down her back. She’s beautiful,
exactly the way Piper hopes to look when she’s an older woman.
“We want to commend you all on the spirit of competition that you brought to this weekend,” Barclay says. “And we know there’s
a bunch of cash on the line, but Belinda and I chewed it over, and it’s hard to pick a winner when it’s clear both groups
stepped far outside their comfort zone. And I have to say, that’s what bushcraft is all about.”
“And knitting!” Belinda adds.
“You gotta face your fears,” Barclay continues.
“You gotta learn by trial and error. Do things badly before you do them well. As long as you let yourself experience these things, you’re a winner.
So instead of cash exchanging hands, we hope you’ll accept these tokens as reminders of what you all accomplished this weekend. ”
Some of the guys hoot and holler. Piper can’t tell if they’re being ironic or they’re genuinely excited as Barclay and Belinda
hand out little gift bags tied with twine. The bachelors’ bags are silver foil; the knitters’ are red. Piper glances at Cole
and he walks over.
“Did you know about this?” he asks her.
“No! How would I know about it?”
They turn to Maggie.
“Don’t look at me,” she says. “I lost control of this thing the second Barclay and Belinda got involved.”
They open the gift bags; Cole’s contains a knitter’s starter kit, complete with straight bamboo needles, a prewound skein
of wool and a tape measure. Piper’s holds a small wooden hatchet and a “Nature’s Fire Kit” of pine cones, twine and wax. The
room is buzzy with conversation—some of the guys are still arguing that they won, and Lexi’s loud voice rises in defense of
the knitters. Amidst this clamor, Scott stands up on a chair, raising a tumbler of whiskey in the air.
“You guys are the best,” he says, his words slurred. He continues, his words running together and trailing off. Aidan is waving
him down, and he wraps up with: “Thanks for the best bachelor sendoff any guy could ask for. And Cole—dude, no hard feelings.
I just want you to be happy.”
Piper feels all eyes in the room turn in her direction since she’s standing with Cole, and then he walks toward the spot where
Scott made his speech.
“Scott, you’re the closest thing I have to a brother. And even though we haven’t seen eye to eye lately, that doesn’t mean I’m not wishing you and Ashley a long and happy marriage. And as for me—don’t worry. I’m good. Better than good.” He raises his glass. “To Scott.”
Everyone raises their glasses and echoes with a chorus of, “To Scott.”
Then Cole does climb up on the chair. This time, he turns his back to the cluster of bachelor partiers and looks toward the
back of the room, where his eyes settle.
“One more thing: Kalli Dimitrou, I love you. And I promise, our bumpy start will have a happy ending.”
Piper looks at Kalli. Everyone looks at Kalli. But Kalli’s eyes are locked on Cole, and she walks to him. As soon as she’s
close enough, he jumps down and hugs her.
Piper turns to Maggie, who’s sharing a glance with Aidan. The intimacy of the look between them suggests to Piper that whatever
happened last night was more than a hookup. Good for her mother.
The room erupts in chatter, but Piper is still able to hear her phone ring in her bag. She fishes it out and sees it’s Ethan
calling.
“Hey—it’s kinda loud in here. I’ll go to another room and call you back,” she says, covering one ear with her hand and walking
toward the Purl.
“Come outside,” he says.
She stops in her tracks.
“What do you mean?”
“I’m here. At the inn. On the front porch.”
Is this real? She looks around, as if anyone in the midst of the merriment has any clue what’s going on. They don’t, of course.
It’s remarkably easy to slip outside unnoticed.
He’s sitting on the porch swing, bundled in his navy peacoat and a black hat she knit for him two winters ago.
“Ethan! What are you doing here?”
He stands up and she runs over, throwing her arms up around his neck, pressing her body against his. He holds her tight.
“Something I should have done before now,” he says. She steps back just enough to look at him and he drops to one knee. Before
she can say something, the ring she thought was gone is in his hand.
“Piper, I’ll never forget the expression on your face the first day I saw you at the animal shelter. You were so defensive
on behalf of that cat. I thought, This is a woman who cares. A lot of people don’t. As I got to know you, I realized your compassion runs even deeper than I imagined, and you’re even
more beautiful inside than out. I’ve loved you for three years now, and I’ll always love you.” He pauses, and she feels like
she’s suspended in midair. “Piper, will you marry me?”
This is actually happening. Piper tears up, nodding and saying yes as he slips the ring on her finger. He hugs her and she clings to him, eyes shut tight.
But then she has a troubling thought. She steps back.
“Wait. You didn’t drive out here and propose to me because of Cole, did you?”
Ethan smiles and shakes his head. “No. But I can see how the timing looks like that. Piper, the truth is I was planning to
ask you this weekend all along. But between you having a rough time with the show, and what your mother said—”
“Hold it right there,” Piper says. “What, exactly, did my mother say?”
Maggie feels bubbly and light, as if she’d had a few glasses of champagne.
But she’s sober and simply lit up with the joy of the moment.
She sits with Aidan on the sidelines of the improvised dance floor, where the younger people are dancing to the seventies song “Funkytown.” Cole’s dramatic little announcement was like the uncorking of a champagne bottle: a big pop and the party really gets started.
“You know, I gotta hand it to Cole. The timing of going public with their relationship was a pro move,” she says. “It’s like
a politician waiting until five o’clock on a summer Friday to announce they were ‘consciously uncoupling.’ A few seconds of
attention, and then a collective shrug.”
“I have to admit, I’m surprised,” Aidan says. “That was a very un-Cole-like thing to do. And I’m still not sure about this
whole thing.”
“Well, the headline here is that Cole took a big stand tonight. Critics be damned.”
“Critics be damned? I’m afraid that includes me.”
“Well, in the words of Lenny Kravitz: Let love rule.”
“You did not just quote Lenny Kravitz.”
“I did. You’re not just talking to another single parent; you’re talking to a fellow Gen Xer.”
“I knew there was something I liked about you.”
He seems about to put his arm around her, then changes his mind. Cole might be ready to go public, but clearly Aidan is not.
And that’s just fine with her. She just liked spending time with him.
“And things with Piper are all patched up?” he says.
“Completely.” She and Piper not only resolved the tension—they’re closer than ever. This weekend was exactly what they needed.
Maybe they can make an annual tradition out of it—return every autumn for a New Hope Knitting Retreat.
Aidan hands her his gift bag.
“Trade you.”
“Are you complaining about your knitting kit? Because you should be grateful.”
He looks dubious. “How do you figure?”
“You got out of paying me fifty bucks.” This gets a smile out of him.
“So you think you won?” he says.
In that moment? Definitely. “Yeah. I do,” she says.
Their eyes lock. She has the surprising realization she’s happy. Just happy in the moment. But then he says, “Do you want
to hang out later?” And she feels her smile fade. Last night was one thing. But if they spend time together again, like that,
it will open up the question of keeping in touch. And where’s that going to go? Her life is in New York.
“Aidan, I like spending time with you. A lot. But I’m really bad at this.”
“Parties?”
“No. Relationships. I’ve gotten comfortable with a simple life. Just work and being a mom.”
“I get it. I have too. But maybe it’s time to get uncomfortable,” he says. “Cole and I had a conversation earlier. I told
him what I thought about his precarious relationship status, but it turns out he had some things to say to me too.”
“Such as?”
“He seems to think I play it too safe.”
Maggie understands that in sharing this, he’s saying that Cole is right. And that maybe it’s something she needs to hear too.
“I guess . . . since I don’t even live around here . . . it’s harmless. Well, maybe not completely harmless. I mean, what
fun would that be?”
He leans closer, and she wants to touch the auburn stubble along his jaw.
“Listen,” he says, “I’m feeling a little partied out. So I’m going to call it a night.”
She feels disappointed, but then he hands her one of the inn’s brass room keys and says, “I’ll be up for a while. If you get partied out too.”
He leans over and kisses her cheek before leaving.
Maggie flushes and glances around the room to see if anyone witnessed what just happened. She looks for Piper—to say good-night
and don’t wait up—but doesn’t see her anywhere. She asks around, and Lexi tells her she saw her leave the room. She walks
out to the lobby, looking around, and only sees Max behind the front desk.
“Hi, Max. You didn’t happen to see my daughter, Piper, did you?”
He nods. “She was just here. She went outside.”
Odd.
She thanks him and hugs herself, bracing for the cold outdoors. The front door creeks as Maggie opens it, and she meets a
bit of resistance from a gust of wind. At first, she doesn’t see Piper. Then she turns to the far side of the porch and nearly
loses her breath. Piper isn’t alone.
“Piper?” she says.
Ethan and Piper both look over. Piper’s eyes look extra blue from crying. Her pale face is red and blotchy.
“I don’t want to talk to you,” she says. “I can’t even look at you!” Her lower lip trembles, the way it always has when she’s
agitated. It was so adorable when she was a little girl, Maggie had to sometimes fight to keep from smiling inappropriately
at her tantrums. But there’s nothing to smile about now.
“What happened?” Maggie says.
“You! You happened,” she says.
“I’ll wait in the car,” Ethan says. When he’s gone, Maggie tries to reach for Piper, but she pulls away from her.
“What’s going on?”
“You can drop the act. I know you told him not to propose. This whole weekend, I’ve been wondering if maybe he changed his mind about us. And I told you about it. You said nothing to me about your conversation with him. Nothing!”
“Piper, I can explain.”
“Save it. I’m leaving.”
She turns and walks away into the darkness. In the near distance, Maggie hears the rumble of a car engine.
She stands stunned for a few seconds, then realizes she has no time to waste. She has to get her things and go after her.