Chapter 1
Chapter One
KANSAS CITY
Piper Roberts was going to make the most of this performance.
She had been touring the country in this current production for nine months now.
After ten years on the road, she had worked her way up from the company to featured roles to that of lead actress with top billing.
She was living the dreams of her youth. Yet she had come to realize she was both happy and incredibly miserable at the same time.
Because of that, she had decided to go home.
Driftwood Bay had begun calling out to her a couple of years ago.
Her hometown on the Texas Gulf Coast had been a sweet place to grow up.
Swimming and fishing. Riding her bike everywhere.
Singing in the choir at church and school.
Dancing on the drill team and serving as editor of the Pirate Press, the school’s newspaper.
But she had yearned for a life outside the Bay.
One of performing. Traveling the US and singing in both classic and contemporary musicals.
After only two years, she broke out of the chorus and gained supporting roles in Grease.
Mamma Mia. School of Rock. Then had come lead roles.
Christine in Phantom of the Opera. Satine in Moulin Rouge.
Galinda in Wicked. And finally, Roxie Hart in Chicago.
It was hard to reconcile how much she enjoyed performing with how lonely life on the road could be.
Constant travel. A different city every few weeks, one you never really got to see.
While travel and performing had appealed to her at twenty, when she had dropped out of college to join a traveling production of Hairspray, suddenly her twenties were gone.
At thirty, she had no permanent address.
Everything she owned fit into two suitcases and a backpack.
More importantly, she longed to put down roots.
Her closest friends since preschool, Mila and Layne, had done just that.
All three girls had been eager to escape the small confines of the Bay and spread their wings.
Eventually, Mila returned, serving as their alma mater’s head volleyball coach.
She had married a fellow coach last Thanksgiving and was a stepmom to Lily.
Layne, who’d had a dazzling business career in Dallas, had also returned to the Bay, inheriting her parents’ Bay Breeze Inn, and finding love with Keaton, a local artist.
Layne and Keaton would be in today’s audience, cheering on Piper’s final appearance on the stage.
She would then accompany them back to Driftwood Bay and figure out what she wanted to do with the rest of her life.
While doing so, she would serve as temporary manager of the Bay Breeze.
She looked forward to being in her hometown once more, spending time with her closest friends.
Piper finished applying her makeup and donned the wig she wore to play Roxie. She glanced in the mirror a final time, ready to give this last matinee her all.
Minutes later, she was onstage. As Roxie.
Not Piper. Piper was an actress who could immediately immerse herself into a character.
During a performance, she never had a Piper thought in her head.
Everything from her posture to her mannerisms to what she was thinking was that of whatever role she had taken.
She sang and danced her way through everything from Funny Honey to We Both Reached for the Gun to Me and My Baby.
It was only when she began to sing Nowadays that it almost seemed like an out of body experience.
She had read stories of severely injured people dying on the operating table and rising above, watching as medical personnel tried to save them, and then returning to their bodies.
That was what this number felt like as she heard herself singing, her voice rich and full of emotion. It was almost as if she were a separate person, watching someone else perform.
And thinking she was pretty darn good.
Roxie and Velma finished the song, and Piper seemed to float back into her body.
The reprise ending the musical became a blur, and she took her bows along with the cast, then a separate bow recognizing her own performance.
She floated off-stage into the wings, adrenaline rushing through her, bringing a natural high.
Waiting for her was Eric, who had played Billy Flynn in the production. He gave her a quick kiss.
“One for the books, Piper.”
She smiled. “It sure was.”
She and Eric had been a couple for the last two months.
Attachments formed on the road and could be swift and heady.
These relationships fizzled quickly, though, as actors moved on to new productions and cities.
Piper liked Eric. She thought him witty and fun to be around, but they both knew last night had been an end for them.
“You going back to New York?” she asked.
He shook his head. “LA. I just landed an audition for Fiyero!”
“Ooh, a featured role in Wicked?” Piper threw her arms around him, hugging him tightly. “I hope you get it, Eric. No, I know you will. Your voice has never sounded better. When would touring begin?”
“In ten days. The guy they cast was hit by a car on the way to rehearsals. He broke both his legs. The understudy had just left to take another role, so they’re in a bind. I’m flying out tonight and will read for the role tomorrow afternoon.”
“Break a leg,” she said. Grinning, she added, “But not two.”
Eric brushed his lips against her cheek. “I had fun with you, Piper. See ya.”
She left for her dressing room, realizing that Eric hadn’t even asked what she would be doing next.
Their relationship had been very surface.
Trying a new restaurant. Bingeing something together on Netflix.
And great sex. Conversation hadn’t really played into things.
These temporary road relationships rarely grew serious.
And now that Mila was married and Layne was getting married soon, Piper wanted more than surface.
She wanted a deep dive, where she really got to know someone.
Although she doubted the dating pool in the Bay would be large, hopefully, she might find somebody she had something in common with and get to know them. Share things with them.
And maybe find love.
Quickly, she removed her stage makeup, always glad to get it off her skin so it could breathe. She’d just taken off her Roxie costume when she heard a knock at the door and threw a robe on so she could answer the door.
Layne was on the other side, and Piper threw herself at her friend, clutching her tightly.
“I’m so glad you’re here,” she said.
“You were fantastic!” Layne declared. “We loved your performance.”
She released her friend and smiled at Keaton. “You’re even better looking than on FaceTime,” she teased, giving him a hug. “It’s nice to meet you in person.”
“Good to meet you, Piper,” Keaton said. “You’re electrifying on stage.”
Piper glowed at the compliment. “Thank you. Come on in. Let me change.”
She stepped behind a screen, tossing on a shirt and her favorite pair of jeans as they talked about the musical. Emerging, she put on socks and boots.
“You still have those boots?” Layne asked. “They look like they’re in great shape.”
“I enjoy wearing them. They’re fifteen years old. Once I broke them in, they felt like house shoes. Besides, they take up a lot of room, so it’s easier to wear them than pack them.”
Layne touched her forearm. “How are you feeling about coming back to the Bay? Leaving the theater world behind?”
She sighed. “Honestly? I’ve got mixed emotions. This has been my life for a decade. That’s a long time. My entire twenties were spent on the road. I’ve enjoyed professional success.” Her gaze met Layne’s. “But you know something about that.”
Her friend had helped build a business in Dallas, only to see it bought and find herself out of a job. Worse, Layne discovered on the same day that her longtime boyfriend had been cheating on her and that her parents had died by suicide.
“I do,” Layne said quietly, reaching for Keaton’s hand. “Fortunately, this guy came into my life, and I’m the better for it. He’s not only helped me restore the Bay Breeze, but he’s saved me in every way.”
Keaton lifted their joined hands and pressed a kiss to Layne’s knuckles. “We saved each other,” he said, his voice low and rough.
For a moment, the couple drank one another in, and Piper felt the palpable heat between them. A bit of envy stirred within her. She was happy her friend had found a partner, but she longed for a relationship herself.
“Let’s get out of here,” she told the pair.
“Need to say your goodbyes to anyone?” Keaton asked as they left the dressing room.
“Actually? No. Most of those were said last night after the performance. Theater people can be odd ducks. We have tight bonds, but once a show’s run is done? We move on and don’t make a big deal of a production being over.”
“Any friendships you’re leaving behind?” Layne asked. “Or a romance?”
Piper smiled mysteriously. “You’ll never know.”
She rode with them the few blocks to the hotel where the cast and crew were staying. Keaton checked them in, while Layne accompanied Piper to her room.
Glancing around, her friend said, “It looks as if you’ve pretty much got everything packed.”
“I told you I travel pretty light.”
“Are you sure you want to manage the inn?” Layne asked. “You don’t have to.”
“I want to. It’ll be nice, being useful, as I try to figure out what I want to do when I grow up.”
They both laughed, and Piper added, “You know I’m taking the job simply because it comes with that big suite. That way, I don’t have to be thirty and moving back in with my parents. I still can’t believe Mom and Dad are going to retire at the end of May.”
“I was a little surprised by that,” Layne admitted. “I don’t think of your parents as old. Or Mila’s. But Dr. Perry has already given his notice to the schoolboard that he’ll wrap up his career in June. They’ll have to start the hunt for a new superintendent.”