Page 83 of The Weekend Crashers
She wants to go in, but she doesn’t want to infuriate Piper any further by disregarding her boundaries.
“Um, no. Thanks.”
The couple disappear into the building, and when the entranceway door clicks closed behind them, Maggie feels shockingly alone. Her daughter is right beyond that locked door. But she might as well be a million miles away.
Maggie walks back outside. She’s in no rush to get back to her car, or to her empty apartment. So she sits on the stoop, uncomfortable with the strange feeling that there’s somewhere she’s supposed to be.
And then she remembers: Aidan. She stood him up!
Mortified, she looks frantically through her bag for her phone, then realizes she’s still holding it.Please, still be awake!She dials his number and paces in front of Ethan’s building. The call goes straight to voicemail. But wouldn’t he have called or messaged her to see if she was still coming? She checks the hip pocket of her jeans, feeling the room key tucked inside, and her stomach sinks.
Well, no wonder he didn’t text her. He thinks she flakedand is probably annoyed. She presses her face into her hands. But it’s just as well: Now that she’s back in the city, she can see she’d just gotten caught up in the bucolic little bubble of the weekend.
The only thing that matters is fixing things with Piper. But clearly, that’s not going to happen tonight.
Chapter Thirty-Seven
In the morning, the lobby has changed from chariot back to pumpkin. Belinda works side by side at the front desk to manage checkout. Lexi and Dove are first in the queue, their luggage bulging with yarn and fledgling projects. Dove exchanges hugs with Sheila with murmured promises to reunite at a future retreat. At that, Belinda’s stomach drops. She glances over at Max, but if he heard the comment, he gives no sign. He’s busy juggling key returns and printing out paid receipts.
“Exceeded all expectations,” Lexi says, sliding her key across the desk to her. “Five stars!”
Belinda hands out the gift bags: a New Hope Knitting Retreat tote filled with two skeins of hand-dyed yarn from a local producer, a copy of Saturday night’s group photo, a bag of coffee beans from Bucks County Roasters and a recipe card for the Bucks Tavern’s hot toddy.
“I have to say, this weekend is the best swag yet,” Sheila says. “Although I can’t imagine where I’m going to put that hatchet.”
Laurel and Kalli are up next, and Laurel takes a moment to lean forward, over the ledge, and say to Belinda, “Thanks for listening yesterday. I guess it all worked out.”
Belinda smiles at her, trying to think about what she’d saidin those few minutes after Laurel left the class in a huff over Cole showing up.A long weekend can work miracles.
She realizes she’d been hoping for one herself. But every conversation with Max leads to the same dead end: selling. Still, if there has to be a final weekend, one last retreat, she couldn’t have asked for a more interesting one. She especially enjoyed meeting Maggie and has a parting gift to thank her for stepping in to teach: a luxurious blanket she knit using a beloved and discontinued British yarn called Jaeger.
She scans the group to see if she can pull her aside for a moment now, but the bachelor party seems to have descended on the front desk all at once, loud and rowdy, still riding the wave of last night’s revelry. Aidan and Cole look a little bleary-eyed, clutching bottles of water and to-go coffee. Scott is loudly recounting a particularly wild moment—“And then the tent collapsed and we could have sworn just before it happened we could make out the silhouette of a bear”—while Barclay, dressed in pressed trousers and an army-green all-weather coat, leans against a stuffed luggage cart. A cascade of beer pong balls rolls out of a half-zipped duffel bag.
“Belinda, I was just telling your hubby that it was another great stay,” Barclay says. “The New Hope Inn never disappoints.”
She smiles. “I’m so pleased you enjoyed. It means a lot that you chose to have your family celebration here.”
“Well, I have to admit your knitting ladies added a little spark to the festivities. Admittedly, not entirely welcome at first. But in the end, everyone’s happy. So that’s all that matters, right?”
She’d forgotten his little run-in with Maggie the first day at lunch.
“Yes, all the kids learned to share the sandbox,” she says. “Speaking of: Have you seen Maggie Hodges this morning?”
Barclay shakes his head. “Can’t say that I have.”
“Actually,” Aidan says from behind him. “Maggie left.”
“What do you mean?”
“She took off last night. Piper, too.”
That can’t be. Belinda turns back to Max. “Did Maggie turn in the keys for Margaret Meade? Are they checked out?”
Max looks confused. “Well, yes. Is that a problem?”
Why would Maggie leave without saying goodbye? There must be some mistake. She checks the metal lockbox on the wall where they keep the room keys, scanning the rows of brass hooks. Sure enough, two keys dangle from the Margaret Meade spot.
Meanwhile, Max is handling Aidan’s checkout.
