Page 66 of The Weekend Crashers
** updated:We’ll be meeting in the Purl for a Sip & Stitch) at 6 p.m. before dinner at 7:30.
Chapter Thirty
Piper checks her phone as soon as she wakes up, but there are no updates from Maggie. And so, alone in the room, she sits in bed knitting small animal blankets she started last night.
When the sun comes up, she checks the Bucks Tavern breakfast service hours, and she throws on the jeans she’s been wearing all weekend before making her way down to the lobby. She texts Ethan to call her when he’s up. Still no word from Maggie.
Since she was alone in her tent when they spoke late last night, Piper assumes there was no love connection with Aidan Danby. Cole will be disappointed. And on the topic of Cole: She’s still thinking about Kalli’s surprise appearance, and the story of their romance. If they can work out their complicated situation, she has no excuse not to clear the air with Ethan. When she gets back to New York, she’ll just confess about finding the ring and ask him if he’s having second thoughts. It’s as simple as that. If he says he’s reconsidered taking that step, fine. It’s better to know.
The restaurant is quiet; the only person she sees from the retreat is Sheila, who gives a wave from the self-serve coffee bar. She’s dressed in a crochet muumuu with tassels at the ends of her sleeves.
“We missed you last night at karaoke,” Sheila calls out.
“Thanks. I probably should have gone with you and the rest of the group. I planned to go to sleep early and that didn’t happen.”
Sheila shares some details of the evening while Piper navigates the coffee bar. She pours herself a medium roast and stirs in a scoop of brown sugar. Across the room, Cole ambles in and heads straight for a corner table. His hair is mussed like he just rolled out of bed, which is no doubt the case.
“Lexi and Dove will be down any minute,” Sheila says. “I think Dove is almost ready to forgive Lexi for spending the afternoon axe-throwing yesterday. And are we finished with that, by the way? Because I don’t know if their honeymoon can survive another day of competition.” She gives Piper a wink. “But I’m not going to complain about a little male company.”
“I’m not sure about the status of the whole bushcraft/knitting thing. But there’s Cole Danby over there. I’ll ask him.”
Sheila adds whipped cream to her coffee. “Okay, doll. Report back.”
Piper gives her a thumbs-up that says,Will do. She pours a second cup of coffee for Cole and carries it to his table. He’s on his phone and doesn’t notice her until she’s pulling out the chair across from him.
“Hey,” she says, slipping into the seat and sliding one of the mugs across the table.
He looks up, his under-eyes the color of a bruise.
“Hey,” he says. “Oh—thanks. I need this.”
“You look like it.”
He yawns. “I didn’t get much sleep.”
“Spare me the details, please.”
He shakes his head. “That’s not what I meant. Any word from Maggie this morning?”
“Not yet.” She takes a sip from her mug, wondering whythe coffee here tastes so much better. “The last I spoke to her she was in a panic about dangerous animals lurking in the woods. She said she heard strange noises.”
“Sounds potentially fatal,” he says. “Luckily, my father’s out there to fend off any beasts of the wild. Do you know the human brain can’t distinguish between love and fear?”
She’s never heard that. “No. But if that’s true, I’m sorry to say that’s the closest she got to love last night. When we spoke she was in her tent—alone.”
Cole takes a swig of the coffee. “Not surprising.”
“Not surprising? I thought you said you thought there was something happening between the two of them. That was the whole point of you asking me to hang back myself last night.”
“Maybe it was just wishful thinking.”
She feels a stab of disappointment.
“Look,” he says, “my dad met my mother when he was around our age, and that was it. And then after she died, he never even brought another woman around. Not once.”
Piper is surprised. “He never dated again? I mean, it’s been a long time.”
“I’m sure there’ve been women,” Cole says. “I’m not naive. But he never brought anyone home to be part of our family life.”
