Chapter Three #2
Tag waited outside the Escape Room, hoping that Piper wouldn’t chicken out.
He knew that her agreeing to a date was a long shot; her showing up would take a miracle.
He was hoping for a miracle. When he decided to ask her out, he never thought that it would turn into a year of him begging her for a date.
He never had to beg any woman to go out with him.
About halfway through the year, he thought about giving up.
She wasn’t budging on her answer, and he was starting to get lonely.
It had been a year and a half since he was on a date, and he was determined to break that spell with Piper.
He wasn’t sure what it was about her that drew him to her, but he needed to find out.
Piper was his siren calling to him. The problem was, she didn’t know that.
Until she responded to the dating app, he thought she would never agree to a date.
He just hoped that he would get his chance.
She still wasn’t there, and with every minute that passed, he worried she wasn’t going to show up.
He was about to give up when his phone chimed.
It was a message from Piper, and this time she just texted him directly instead of going through the app.
Hey, I’m running late. Can you get the room for us, and I’ll meet you inside? Piper asked.
He smiled at his phone; she was going to show up.
His heart started racing, and his palms even felt a little sweaty.
Piper effectively turned him into a teenage boy again.
Torren would have a field day with the way he was acting over a woman.
He texted her back that he would be waiting inside for her.
He was finally going to get his chance with Piper.
A part of him wished that they would never find their way out of the Escape Room—he would be good with some extra one-on-one time with her.
Sunny stalled Tag by asking him to get a room for them.
Her and Maddie’s plan wouldn’t work if Piper caught onto the date before she was locked into the room.
If everything went well, Piper and Tag would be locked in a room together, all alone, until they could figure out a way out.
Sunny couldn’t hide her smile as she texted Tag from Piper’s phone.
She had Maddie drive, letting Piper sit shotgun.
This gave her privacy to use the phone she “borrowed” from Piper.
“I wish I could figure out why you are so damn happy back there, Sunny.” Piper’s voice broke through her concentration, and she hid the phone under her thigh.
“No reason.” Sunny hoped she sounded casual, but she felt as giddy as a schoolgirl.
She loved the idea of Piper finally finding happiness.
Sunny couldn’t remember the last time that she saw Piper truly happy.
She seemed to find a new normal after she returned from New York.
Sunny knew that Piper loved Lorna and that she wasn’t unhappy growing up with her aunt.
But she remembered how Piper was before her parents’ deaths.
She wasn’t the same fun-loving girl that Sunny recalled.
She knew that Piper distanced herself from everyone as a defense mechanism.
She even tried to remove Sunny from her life, but that was just not acceptable.
There was no way Sunny would ever have let Piper just disappear from her life; she was like a sister to her.
Sunny fought hard to be part of Pipe’s life, and she knew that her friend was worth every ounce of trouble.
She never understood Piper’s dating life or lack thereof.
They never really discussed it. She heard rumors circling town that Piper was into women, even hearing that Piper and she were dating.
She never denied the allegations, and honestly, Piper’s dating life was no one else’s business but her own.
Sunny could see that Piper had a thing for Tag; she noticed the way she would steal glances at him when she thought that no one was watching.
And, poor Tag had no problem letting Piper know how he felt about her.
Sunny didn’t know of another man on earth who would persist in asking a woman out fifty-two times only to be turned down time after time.
She had to give it to Tag—he knew what he wanted, and he wasn’t going to just give up.
Piper needed a man like him—someone who wasn’t going to give up on her when she tried to push him away.
Knowing Piper, she would fight a new relationship with everything that she had.
Poor Tag didn’t have a clue what he was getting himself into.
All Sunny wanted was front row seats and a bucket of popcorn because it was going to be quite a show.
“We’re here!” Maddie practically shouted after she parked her car outside the little building that housed the Escape Room.
“Okay, you guys are both acting strangely. What’s going on?
” Piper didn’t miss the little smirk on Sunny’s face as she exchanged a look with Maddie.
“Seriously, guys, I don’t like surprises, so if you are planning something, then I’d like to go home.
” Piper started to open the door to the passenger side.
“Pipe, we aren’t planning anything. Stop being such a party pooper and let’s have some fun.
” Sunny started to shove Piper in the direction of the front door.
Maddie grabbed her hand and pulled her along, and all Piper could do was follow.
She needed some new, less pushy friends.
They got through the front door and were greeted by a teenage boy who ushered them back to the room that was reserved for them.
Sunny and Maddie insisted that Piper go first into the room.
She opened the door to find the small, empty room.
There were a few items that looked like clues and a massive figure standing in the corner.
As the hulking figure turned to face her, Maddie shoved Piper into the room, propelling her straight into Tag’s arms. Sunny shouted something about them having fun and slammed the door behind Piper, sealing her in the tight space with Taggart Harrison.
She wasn’t quite sure how it all happened, but she was pretty sure that her friends managed to surprise her in the worst way possible.
Being alone with Tag was the thing she feared most, but the one thing she wanted more than anything else for her birthday.