Page 32 of The Weekend Crashers
“Philly?” one of them says.
“Yeah,” Cole says quickly. “Look, you guys go on ahead. I’ll catch up.”
The cousin points at her. “Don’t even think about tagging along. No girls allowed. It’s abachelorparty.”
“Wow. Okay. My loss.” When they’re out the door, she says to Cole sarcastically, “You sure you don’t want to go out with them?”
Cole, checking his phone, looks up at her. “I absolutely do not.”
“Well, that’s not very bachelor-party-friendly of you,” she says, aware she sounds flirtatious and willing herself to dial it down. She doesn’t know why she’s doing it. Except that she’s hurt by Ethan. What was with that snide comment about Maggie just now on the phone?
“I’m really only here for my dad,” Cole says. “It’s important to him.”
“I feel that,” she says. “My mom wants a girls’ weekend.”
“Makes sense. Left dad at home watching football?”
“Actually, it’s just me and my mom.”
“Divorce?” he says.
She nods—it’s easier than explaining the real story. “How about yours?”
“It’s just me and my dad too. But not because of divorce. My mother died a long time ago,” he says.
“Oh!” She feels stupid, though how could she have known? “I’m so sorry.”
“It was a long time ago,” he repeats, his tone casual. He’s probably had to explain it a thousand times over the years, and she understands how that, in itself, is as much a burden as the absence. She’s always hated explaining the situation with herfather, although she knew the two situations weren’t comparable. She’d never mourned the loss of her father. It had always just been the way it was.
It helped that Maggie was always open and honest about him, encouraging Piper to ask questions: Where did they meet? A fashion show. Were they in love? No, it was one night of passion. Did they keep in touch? No. Do you have any photos of him? No. Does he know Piper exists? Yes.
There was a brief time during middle school when she was consumed with the fantasy of tracking him down. This was when she’d gotten her first laptop, and she sat in her room at night going through his Facebook page. He was living his best single life in Iceland. And then it became normalized—her father wasn’t a mythic being, but just a regular guy and probably a selfish one at that. She knew by that time that any thoughts of a reunion were one-sided. And that was enough to leave it at just that: thoughts.
Her mother had loved and cared for her enough for two parents. And she’d done it all on her own. Even Piper’s grandparents hadn’t been around much. They sent Piper a Hallmark card and a check every birthday until she was eighteen, and there had been times in their earlier years when they spent holidays at that big old house on the Main Line. But one day Maggie had announced that she wasn’t going back—there’d been some falling-out with her mother. And then even those rare visits stopped.
Piper realizes she’s been an ingrate all day long. The least she can do is put her relationship issues aside and give Maggie the mother-daughter weekend she wants. The one she deserves.
Cole’s phone buzzes, triggering some furious texting. After a minute or so she wonders if he remembers she’s standing there.
“Well, see you around,” she says. Completely distracted, he doesn’t respond.
Piper heads back to the group dinner and decides that tomorrow, she’ll join her mother for whatever she suggests. It will be their day.
It’s the least she can do.
Chapter Seventeen
It’s after ten by the time Maggie and Piper finally slip under the covers of their respective beds. Walking up to the room from the tavern, she’d been exhausted. But the silence outside is so complete, it has the unexpected effect of making her feel highly alert. Now she thinks she might need to listen to a podcast to get to sleep.
“Are you awake?” Piper says.
“Piper, of course. We just turned out the light.”
“If we were in middle school at a slumber party, this would be the time someone tells a ghost story.”
“Don’t remind me. I had to pick you up in the middle of the night from more than one of those things.”
“No, you didn’t.”
