Worth the Wait (Harvest Ridge #1)

Prologue

Piper Flynn waited by the giant Christmas tree in the hotel lobby, admiring the shiny silver and gold bulbs that adorned the massive spruce.

Some of the ornaments were larger than her head, but at twelve, she was still one of the smallest kids in her school.

The week before Christmas, her parents decided to take a last-minute trip to the Big Apple to meet with an ice cream distributor.

Now, with the impending snowstorm, they were in a rush to get out of New York City to make it home in time for Christmas in Colorado.

Piper didn’t want to miss seeing her aunt on Christmas morning.

She purchased a special gift for her Aunt Lorna.

She hoped that her aunt would like the little snow globe with the Statue of Liberty that she found on a street vendor’s stand in front of their hotel.

She bought it with the money that she saved from helping her parents around their ice cream shop, What’s The Scoop.

The shop was her mom’s idea. Since she was as crazy about ice cream as Piper, it was a good fit.

Piper’s dad thought up the name, playing off his job as the editor for the only newspaper in a fifty-square-mile radius.

Her aunt helped around the shop and practically ran the place for her mom.

Her mother was more of a free spirit of the two.

Piper liked to think that she was like her, but in reality, she was more like her aunt.

She liked organization and efficiency. Which was probably why the random scattering of bulbs on the hotel’s tree was bothering her to no end.

Her parents finished checking out of the hotel and grabbed their two massive suitcases.

Piper knew that her mother did some shopping while in the city.

She hoped that she dropped enough hints about the walkie-talkies that she wanted her mother to pick up on.

Her best friend, Sunny, lived two houses down from her, and they wanted to be able to talk to each other at night.

Her parents didn’t let her talk on the phone after dinner, and that’s when Sunny seemed to remember all the good gossip from the day.

Her friend was a night owl—one of the many things that they didn’t have in common.

But the old saying of “opposites attract” worked in their friendship.

Since the day that she met Sunshine Francis, they had been best friends.

Piper couldn’t wait to get home to tell Sunny all about the massive buildings and museums that her parents took her to.

Sunny had never been out of Colorado. She never even saw a skyscraper.

Piper’s parents made regular trips to New York to visit her father’s family.

Her grandmother lived in a penthouse on the Upper East Side, but her dad wasn’t close with his mom.

Their visits consisted of a few minutes of polite conversation in the lobby of her building, followed by promises for lunch.

She didn’t know her grandmother very well, which was fine with her.

She didn’t understand why anyone would want to live in a city with so much noise and pollution.

Piper missed being able to take a deep breath without choking on thick, dirty air that seemed to be everywhere.

“You ready, Pipe?” Her mother strode up beside her, wrapping her arm around Piper’s shoulders.

She smiled at the nickname her mother used for her.

She couldn’t remember a time when her parents called her anything else.

They only used her full name when she was in trouble, which wasn’t too often.

Piper saw how other kids acted towards their parents—rebelling and avoiding them.

She liked hanging out with both of her parents.

She enjoyed listening to her mother’s humming around the shop, dreaming about different ice cream flavors to add to their already extensive menu.

Between her two parents, Piper felt that she was most like her father.

She loved spending her mornings listening to him read news articles from other areas’ papers.

They often discussed politics and current events over breakfast before she headed to school for the day.

She never felt lonely even though she was an only child.

Sunny had lots of brothers and sisters, and she would often ask Piper what she did for fun, never understanding when Piper told her about something funny her father said or some crazy flavor of ice cream that her mother dreamed up.

The truth was, Piper was never lonely. She had her parents and her aunt.

Of course, she wished for a little brother or sister when she was younger, but now she couldn’t imagine having to share her three favorite people with someone else.

“Sure, Mom, I’m ready. Are we going to the airport now?” Piper was eager to get home before the storm hit.

“Yes, we just need to stop at a convenience store to buy some gum. Your father can’t fly without chewing gum.

His ears won’t pop, and he’ll be miserable.

” Her mom rolled her eyes, giving Piper a giggle.

The three of them walked two blocks, luggage in hand, to the little corner store that the hotel clerk recommended.

“How about you wait out here, Pipe? That way, we don’t have to drag the luggage into the store with us.

It seems a little cramped in there already.

” Piper’s father handed her his suitcase, and she set it down with a ‘thunk,' nodding her head.

She just wanted to get into a cab and be on their way back home.

“Don’t talk to any strangers,” her mother added.

“I’m going to run in and find a good trashy magazine to read on the plane.

You want anything, Honey?” Piper rolled her eyes at her mother, shaking her head.

Her mom sure did love her trashy magazines.

If aliens and a movie star were involved in the story, her mother couldn’t seem to get enough.

“We won’t be long, Pipe—promise.” Her father rustled her hair as he walked past her towards the store.

Her mother kissed her cheek and followed her father into the little corner store.

Piper felt like a sentry standing guard over her family’s luggage.

She noticed that her father’s name tag was starting to come undone on his suitcase handle.

Piper reached down, trying to secure the strap with his personal information written on it, knocking it down to the dirty cement.

She ducked down to retrieve it and then froze at the blood-curdling scream that came from the store.

She straightened and looked through the glass front of the store to see her parents both on their knees.

A man stood in front of them, pushing what she assumed was a rag into her mother’s mouth.

Her father seemed to be pleading with the man to stop.

They both knelt with their arms behind their bodies, and Piper couldn’t understand why her father didn’t push the man away from her mother.

Why was he just kneeling there doing nothing?

She took a step closer, wanting to hear what was being said.

Her mother’s eyes widened as if telling her to stop.

Her gaze seemed fixed on Piper as if begging her to stay where she was.

The man shoved something into her father’s mouth, effectively ending his pleading.

Her parents were crying, bound, and gagged, and Piper didn’t know what to do.

Her first instinct was to run in and demand that the man release her parents.

They were supposed to be flying home. Her aunt Lorna would be waiting for them at the airport in Colorado.

She would worry about them when they didn’t get off the plane.

The man moved around behind her parents to join another who was holding a gun to their backs.

She could see both of her parents' faces, the fear evident in their eyes.

Piper was standing only feet in front of them—so close she could almost touch them.

They both watched her through the glass of the store’s front window.

Tears were streaming down their faces, and she swore she could see all the love that they both felt for her.

She reached her hand that was covered in her red mitten up to her face to find that she had hot tears running down her cold cheeks.

The contrast between the bitterly cold air and her tears stunned her back to reality.

She started for the door, knowing that she had to do something.

She could see the flare of fear in both of her parents’ eyes.

Her father gave a slight shake of his head as if telling her to stay away.

She wanted to obey, but what would happen to her parents if she did nothing?