Page 89 of Beyond the Blue Horizon
Piper Whittman.
What the hell was she doing here?
SIXTEEN
PIPER
“Oh my gosh,Piper! You made it just in time! Emery is going to be right behind you.”
Raven frantically waved me over as she unlatched a section of rope.
“I’m so sorry I’m late. We cleaned up after closing, then I had to rush to change.” I could barely get the words out with the frenzy that whirled through my insides.
“It’s totally fine. The only thing that matters is you’re here. That and I don’t have to leave this party to hunt you down. That would have been embarrassing if you got dragged here by a seven-month-pregnant lady.”
Raven was all easy teases.
I glanced to the floor and tried to calm the tumult that pounded through my veins.
I didn’t do this.
I didn’t go to clubs or parties or have celebrations.
The lastragerI’d been to was Finn’s second birthday where we’d celebrated with a Baskin Robbins ice cream cake at a park somewhere in Iowa.
But I also didn’t show up at work at nine in the morning the way I did today. A day that had been invigorating and challenging and full of all the joy that Emery exuded.
How could I not show up here to celebrate her?
But oh, how I was currently questioning that decision.
Mayhem whipped around me as I stared into the murky depths behind the ropes that sectioned off the private party.
A mountain of a man who had to be Otto stood wrapped around Raven from behind, edged in casualness, though I could feel the undertow of ferocity that radiated from him.
Another man had his arm slung over the shoulders of a pretty blond woman who I quickly came to the conclusion had to be Charleigh.
River, I was sure, Raven’s older brother.
Muscles bulged under his black tee, and every exposed inch of his skin was covered in ink, the designs riding up his throat, and he had five little stars that danced on his forehead at his hairline.
Right behind them was another guy who was dressed in worn jeans and a white tee with a cap on his head.
Cash, I surmised.
Another of their family that Emery had filled me in on today.
But it was the energy crashing into me from the shadows to the side of him that had my throat closing off and sent hot blood sloshing through my veins.
The outline of his silhouette was barely visible where he stood outside the reach of the lights that flashed and glinted, though I knew he was there.
I felt him like a reckless embrace.
It wasn’t like I was surprised he was there since Emery and Kane had claimed him as family, but no matter how much I tried to convince myself it was fine—that he was just an acquaintance—I wasn’t prepared to find those penetrating eyes staring back at me through the duskiness.
Glinting daggers of moonlight that speared right through the middle of me.
“Hurry!” Raven rushed, giggling as she snatched me by the hand and hauled me through, knocking me out of the stupor. I fumbled forward as she basically tossed me into the mix. I landed in front of the woman I’d assumed was Charleigh.
