Page 15 of Unbroken

I buckled, and my hand grazed my phone where I’d left it in the cupholder. My hand itched to glance at it one more time, but I refrained. Although the strength it took to do so was absurd.

“You’ve met them all before,” I said. “You’ve already made a good impression.”

I backed out of her driveway and headed out of the neighborhood.

She let her head fall back onto the headrest and stared out of the windshield. We were heading to my friend’s house—Amanda, Reed, and Josh’s house, actually—for an impromptu New Year’s Day party. All of our friends would be there, which could be a little intimidating at first, but Piper had already met all of them. And Ivy, my friend James’s girlfriend, was one of her best friends.

She didn’t have a reason to be nervous.

“I’ve met them all twice. The first time doesn’t count, because that was Ivy’s birthday and that entire day was chaos. And thesecond time, I had to leave super early to get to the hospital. This is the first time I’m actually going to spend any real time with them,” she said. I peered over at her and waited. Her fingers tapped nervously on the plastic cover of the dish in her lap before she finally said, “And it’s the first time since we officially started…dating.”

Her hands flattened on the lid, and she took a deep breath. But she didn’t look over at me.

We had only been dating for a few months, and she’d been traveling for most of that time—seeing family for the holidays and going to her sister’s wedding on the other side of the world. But neither of us were planning on seeing anyone else.

It was also the first time in…I couldn’t remember how long that I had a woman in my life that was anywhere near the level of a girlfriend. The term sounded juvenile for someone nearing their midthirties, but I couldn’t think of anything better. The idea of it already fried my brain.

Accelerating through a stoplight and merging onto the freeway, I reached over and grabbed her hand.

“It is,” I said. “But I promise it will be okay. They’ve all been asking me for the past few days if you were coming. They are excited to hang out with you, too.”

From the corner of her eye, she appraised me and relaxed. “Okay,” she sighed. “Anyway, how was your New Year’s Eve?”

“Good,” I said. “We spent it at Murphy’s like we usually do.”

“I can’t believe I missed it. And I can’t believe I still haven’t been to Murphy’s Law yet.”

I smiled. It was a great place and held sentimental value that couldn’t be replicated. It wasourspot. And so much had happened there—both good and horribly bad—that there would never be another place like it.

“That’s what you get for spending your New Year’s Eve on a plane,” I joked.

“It was horrible. Our flight was delayed and, when we finally boarded, we sat on the runway for almost an hour. Butthankfully, the actual flight itself was good. It was just ten hours of trying to keep myself entertained.”

“The wedding went well, though?”

“It did,” Piper said with little enthusiasm. “The wedding was beautiful, because, well, Italy is beautiful, and my sister was beyond happy. But whoever told her that getting married three days after Christmas was a good idea was crazy.”

“I understand that, but you got to go to Italy.”

“Because my sister married rich,” she said with a laugh. “But I had to miss our first New Year’s Eve. Did you kiss another girl in my absence? I wouldn’t put it past you.”

I scoffed and signaled to change lanes, shaking my head and squeezing her hand tighter. “Absolutely not.”

There hadn’t been anyone before Piper. I hadn’t had a girlfriend since right after I’d graduated college, and I hadn’t even kissed another woman for at least a year or two.

Especially when the woman I thought could be my forever ended up disappearing two years ago.

I shook the thought away as best I could.

“Okay, good,” Piper said, pulling me back to the present. “What else have I missed while I’ve been gone?”

I focused on the road and the white stripe running down the center. “We’ve talked almost every day since you left. You’re caught up on everything.”

She thought for a moment. “Are Ivy and James still gone?”

I chuckled at the mention of them and the conversation I’d had with Amanda the night before. “Yes, but they’ll be there today. Amanda thinks they’re going to get engaged, but the rest of us think that’s insane. It’s way too soon.”

Piper bounced a little in her seat. “No way. They’ve known each other their entire lives even if they weren’ttogetherthe whole time. And a cute little cabin in the Texas hill country is the perfect backdrop for an engagement. I’m with Amanda.”

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