Back To Us (Shore Secrets 3)

by Christi Barth

  Casey’s hands fell to the cushions. She shook her head, bug-eyed. “So you’re starting to advertise a minimum of four years ahead of time? Piper, I love you, and I adore Morrissey Vineyards’ wines, but for God’s sake, I can’t remember when a new album is dropping in four weeks. You really expect people to get excited and stay that way for four long years?”

  Annoyed that Casey was poking at her news instead of praising it, Piper snapped, “I said I’d start teasing it, not hire a skywriter to advertise every weekend. Hype takes a long time to build. I’m planting a seed with this article, just like I’ll plant the vines.”

  “It’s because it’s for your Grandpa Will, isn’t it?” Ella gently tugged her back down to the sofa. Shifted an arm up around her shoulders. “That’s why you’re going all-out. Not for the vineyard. Not to please your father. Not even for your own satisfaction or reputation. It’s for him.”

  Piper nodded. That was all she could do, as her throat was suddenly thick and she swallowed back a rising flood of tears.

  “Oh.” Casey rushed over to sit on her other side. “Piper, I’m sorry. I’m excited for you. Honest. I’ll even help you pick out a skywriter if you want. As long as it’s okay to choose the hottest one.”

  A weak laugh made its way through her clogged throat. “Isn’t that how you choose everyone in your life?”

  “Worked for scoring myself a smoking-hot fiancé, so I’ll go with yes.”

  Piper should’ve known that her friends would see straight through to her heart. And know how to lighten it without even trying. “It is about Grandpa Will. I’d given up. Truly. Thought I’d have to renege on the deathbed promise I made him. Or, if not renege, then put it off until my dad retired from our winery, which could be another ten or fifteen years. That just gutted me.”

  “But then Ward came along with his offer.” Ella moved her hand in a reassuring circle on Piper’s arm. “He magically turned your promise into a reality. And now you’re reaching for the stars not just to make it happen, but to make it happen big.”

  “Mmm-hmm.”

  “It’s a lot, isn’t it? Like the mounds of homework Mrs. Garcia used to heap on us in eighth-grade history.”

  “It is homework.” Piper took a sip of her wine to clear her throat. Wouldn’t that be a great marketing strategy—Drink Your Tears Away! “Emotional homework. Letting go of any residual anger toward Ward. Trying to let go of the hurt, rather than just ignoring it. Turning all of it into gratitude for this enormous gift he’s given me to honor my grandfather.”

  Casey crinkled her nose. “That’s like homework and a term paper.”

  “I didn’t mention the extra credit.” She’d tell them because they were always brutally honest with each other, no matter how difficult the telling might be. Antsy now, Piper stood to pace to the fireplace. Touched the candle holder, the tall glass vase of pussy willows. “I’m falling for Ward.”

  “That’s not news.” Casey snorted. “You already told us that you’ve been in love with him for years.”

  The funny thing was that this rush of feelings was entirely new. A new appreciation for the man, not the boy or the friend. “I’m falling for him all over again. Our date last night was...utterly ordinary, and incredibly wonderful. He opened up about the man who helped him through college.”

  “Skip? In Kentucky?”

  Piper traced the silver frame that held a photo of the four of them from a New Year’s Eve party, dressed to the nines in black and white. As usual, Ward was on one end, and she was at the other. “Yes. But he didn’t just open up about Skip. Ward opened up a window to his resiliency and stubborn grit. He’s got them in levels that absolutely floor me. Just like how he came back here, head held high, made a round of heartfelt apologies to anyone who would listen, and then moved on with his life. He ignored the jerks and found ways around, over or through every obstacle they tossed in his path.”

  Ella somehow combined a laugh, a sigh and a scrunched-up face like she’d swallowed a whole bag of Sour Patch Kids candy. “That’s our Ward. No matter how difficult, questionable or flat-out stupid, he’s never one to back down from a challenge or an opportunity.”

  “But he did.” Piper whirled around to catch the full spread of mystification that would slide onto her friends’ faces at her declaration. “He refused to kiss me.”

  As expected, Casey’s eyelids went into a set of furiously fast blinks. Ella’s jaw dropped. “Like I said—flat-out stupid.”

  “He practically stood on his head to avoid it...to make sure I knew that he didn’t expect sex as part of this month of dating.”

  Ella lolled back on the couch and clasped her hands over her heart. “Ohhhhh. That’s lovely.”

  “He’s so damn decent straight through to his core.” Piper sank onto the chaise. Because even if it was only in her head, thinking about Ward made her knees a little bit weak. “I can’t even pretend to be going slowly. My feelings for Ward, my attraction, is like an avalanche that suddenly poofed into existence out of a clear blue summer sky and completely buried me. I can’t fight it. I can’t deny it.”

  “All of that from one date, huh?” Casey cradled her wineglass and tapped both forefingers against the sides. “Pretty impressive. I, for one, can’t wait to see what happens next.”

  “Me too,” Piper admitted. “Especially since the whole protecting-my-heart thing is out now.”

  “Does he know? That he’s got you wrapped around his heart again?”

  “No. I don’t think so. It’s not like I asked him to dig up his letterman jacket so I could wear it or anything.” Piper’s phone buzzed. She plucked it off the coffee table. “This is weird.”

  “What? Please, please don’t tell me it’s the takeout saying they’ll be late.” Casey rolled into a ball, hugging her knees to her chest. “My stomach’s going to start munching on itself for an appetizer soon.”

  “It’s a text from Ward.” She could barely spit it out through her confused giggles. “‘Go pull out your old SLHS cheer uniform. Tell the others. You’re all going to Homecoming.’”

  “First of all, it’s like he heard you mention his letterman jacket. Super freaky. And secondly, it’s Homecoming, not Halloween. Why does he think we’d dress up?”

  Ella dismissed the bizarre text with a wave of her hand through the air. “I don’t know. But we are going to dress up now. I brought presents.”

  The only thing better than shopping was when new clothes appeared unannounced in your own home. Piper sat straight up at the prospect. “Clothes?”

  “Yes.” Ella scurried out of the room to grab the two long white boxes. She handed one to each woman. “You were right, Piper. We’re not deciding everything about my wedding tonight...because I’ve already made two big decisions. Both of which you’ll see as soon as you open those.”

  Giggling, scrabbling at the ribbon, Piper and Casey both yanked off the top simultaneously. Inside were hoodies and yoga pants in pale aqua. Casey lifted hers up. “What is this? The dress code for the wedding’s been downgraded to post-workout clothes? Which I’d be fine with, by the way, except for the fact that I know how yummy Zane looks in a suit and I really want another opportunity to ogle him in one.”

  “No, silly. You’re looking at the wedding color. Chosen, in part, because it looks so good against your blond hair and Piper’s red. Go on, flip them around,” she urged.

  Across the back, like the team name on a jersey, script on both read Maid of Honor. Piper looked at hers, then over at Casey’s. “Did the printing place screw up?”

  “Are you kidding? I’m not demoting one of you to bridesmaid.” Ella reached over to grab their hands. “I’m making you both a maid of honor, because you’ve held me up equally through, well, everything. I’m so honored by your friendship and support. And since my parents are gone, I thought we’d do the processional
a little differently. I’m hoping you’ll both walk me down the aisle.”

  They fell into a pile of arms and legs, sniffling and giggling and drenching each other in happy tears. Piper blinked her eyes clear, because she wanted to imprint this moment on her brain like a photograph. Ella’s hair falling in her mouth as she laughed, Casey’s blue eyes so bright with joy. It was sheer happiness, come to life. Piper wanted to call Ward and share it with him too.

  “I’m putting it on right now.”

  “Casey, wait,” Piper hissed. “The blinds are open. What if the delivery guy sees? What would he think?”

  “That he got an even better tip than he expected.” She unbuttoned her green uniform shirt as Piper dove to wrench shut the dove-grey silk panels covering the windows.

  Ella yanked Piper’s jersey top right off, then thrust the hoodie at her with a look that was way more order than request. “My original idea was to include Ward on my side too. But Gray fought me for him. It was a brutal tickle fight, and I lost. So Gray’s going to ask him to be best man, which will technically count for the bride and groom’s side.”

  “This is going to be the best wedding ever. You’re setting a pretty high bar for me and Zane.”

  “I do what I can.”

  A hard knock sounded on the door. “Finally, we can eat!” Casey knotted the strings of the matching pants at her waist and hurried into the foyer. “Oh. Hello.”

  That didn’t sound good. It definitely didn’t sound like the gratuitous snatch for the bag she usually made. Piper grabbed her wallet. Clutching the unzipped hoodie together with the other hand, she turned the corner to see her parents standing in the doorway.

  “Oh. Hello.” Yep. She could understand why Casey had spit out the exact same thing.

  “Casey. Piper.” Her dad inclined his elegantly silvered head to each of them. “May we come in? Or do you want the whole world to see you conversing with us, half-dressed?”

  “Of course.” Piper dropped her wallet on the console table and zipped herself up. “Sorry. We thought you were someone else.”

  “Clearly.” Olivia Morrissey gave her signature sniff of disapproval as she entered. Her mother would never be caught dead in a hoodie. The woman lived by the motto that appearance mattered, even if you were the only one looking at yourself. She shrugged out of her coat and thrust it at Casey.

  “We need to speak with you, Piper. Perhaps you could send your friends into the kitchen for a few minutes?” It was a command, not a request. But Piper refused to fall in line.

  Patrick Morrissey ordered her around at work. In fact, he’d pretty much forgotten how to treat her like a daughter rather than an employee, from the first day she collected a paycheck at Morrissey Vineyards. Grandpa Will had been the one to insist she be given a shot at working at their family company. Her dad fought it tooth and nail and had been anything but gracious in losing that battle.

  The whole thing had baffled Piper. Her relationship with her father had its up and downs, but...all the ups disappeared the moment they started working together. Was he annoyed because she cared more, tried harder? Because she and Grandpa Will connected over a love of the grapes in a way that Patrick never had? Hard to say. And hard to keep hoping that things might improve, although she never stopped trying to please him at work.

  But the bottom line was that he had no right to give orders in her house. Or at least no right to expect them to be followed.

  “Ella and Casey are my guests. My invited guests,” she added, knowing that one of her mother’s pet peeves was the rudeness of an unannounced pop-in. Sure enough, Olivia quickly turned away in embarrassment. Not that Piper liked embarrassing her mother. But she’d learned over the past few years that as an adult, she finally got to fight fire with fire. “They stay.”

  “Fine. We were just trying to save you the embarrassment. On the other hand, you didn’t think to give us the same respect.” They stopped in the middle of the living room. Even made an elegant picture, with her mom dripping pearls in a tan column of a dress and her father in a tie that exactly matched her mother’s muted strawberry-blond hair.

  “What are you talking about?”

  Patrick cleared his throat. “We’ve just come from the club’s Monday Mixer. Imagine our surprise to discover that our daughter was the main topic of conversation for the evening.”

  Whoops. Had the news about WWLL coming this week gotten out? Still, a spotlight in the magazine was not only a coup for her but terrific for the vineyard. She’d expected this news to put her in their good graces for a while. Why would they be upset? It was the finest wine publication on the market. “I planned to fill you in at work tomorrow, Dad. Sorry they spoiled the surprise.”

  “Surprise?” Her mother tapped three French-manicured fingertips against her eyebrow, as if pushing back a migraine. “More like a nightmare. We’re appalled, Piper. Simply appalled that you would get back together with that Ward Cantrell.”

  “Oh.” Piper made sure to keep her face a placid mask. Because showing her embarrassment and anger wouldn’t get her anywhere with them. Her parents didn’t historically respond well to outpourings of emotion. What she really wanted to do, though, was turn around and bang her head against the brick wall. Because she should’ve seen this coming. Should’ve prepped for it, laid the groundwork with a few carefully dropped mentions. But no. Instead, Piper had been perpetually bowled over since the moment Ward dropped his bombshell of a proposal in her office. So now she’d pay the price for that inattention to detail.

  Patrick folded his arms behind his back. It was his lecturing pose. One with which Piper was all too familiar. Tonight’s in his camel hair sports coat was the same as the times he’d given it in a suit, in a satin monogrammed bathrobe and even a military uniform one Halloween. The clothes changed. The censorious tone and look remained the same.

  “It was bad enough that you rekindled your friendship once he returned to town. In the end, though, we decided—” he lightly touched Olivia in the small of her back, including her in his condemnation “—that it reflected favorably on you for having such a forgiving nature. And you were always with these two—” this time it was a jut of his chin to where Ella and Casey hovered at the edge of the room “—when you were with him. That gave you some protection, a degree of separation.”

  “I always knew we were good for something,” Casey murmured.

  “News of your date—” her mother spat the word out “—last night has spread. Not that you thought to inform us of this development before we were blindsided at the club. We insist that you stop this foolishness immediately. You’ll only get hurt again.”

  Patrick piled on. “That man embarrassed you and this town. He disgraced us, all of us. I have to insist that you won’t see him again.”

  Piper knew her parents. Knew their expectations, their almost impossible standards. Knew that the sun rose and set in their world on what other people thought. And she tried, oh, how hard she tried, to live up to those standards. To do her part to carry on the Morrissey family legacy. But this edict they’d just thrown at her still shocked her to the core.

  “Do you hear me, Piper?” Her father took a step forward. Only one. He wasn’t trying to actually bridge the gulf between them or anything. God forbid. “Your actions are a reflection on the winery and on this family. And if you let him paw at you in public as he apparently did at the bowling alley last night, it taints us.”

  “I heard you,” she said slowly. The lack of response wasn’t shock. It was an effort to come up with a response that they would see as reasonable and calm. Because she’d tried losing her temper with them. Tried tears, and screaming, and pleading. She’d learned beyond a shadow of a doubt the day they dumped her at Cornell that none of it mattered. They were unmoved by their daughter’s wishes. No, not even unmoved—unconcerned. Her girly, emotional responses just reminded her
parents that she wasn’t a boy. That she wasn’t the boy they’d hoped and planned for to carry on the business. Not the boy her mother had miscarried a year before having Piper—and neither parent had ever gotten over that disappointment.

  And yet, she kept trying. Kept pushing for some recognition that they loved her for who she was, what she’d made of her life, and not just as the next in line on the Morrissey family tree. Piper drove herself to excel at the winery, always hoping that they’d acknowledge her hard work. Maybe even make her a partner without waiting until her father retired. But his repeated rejection of her request for land to start Grandpa Will’s port line made it clear that he saw her as an underling, and not a partner.

  But that was separate from this issue. As was her mother’s disapproval over her having purchased a house a block too far away from the lake. Those were all disappointments with Piper. Part of the litany of ways that Piper had let them down as a daughter. Which she could take. Was used to, in fact.

  Ward, however, was off-limits.

  She tugged at the bottom of her new aqua hoodie and wished that she was wearing something less fun, something dark and responsible and not lined with fleece. “First of all, you owe Casey and Ella an apology. It is unspeakably rude to insult someone to their faces whom I count as a dear friend.”

  “I’ll do no such thing.” A flicker of embarrassment, knowledge that he’d pushed the bounds of propriety, pushed a vertical line between her father’s eyes. That was all the acknowledgment she got, however.

  “Secondly,” she plowed on, as if oblivious to the red creeping from her father’s nose over his cheeks and up to his forehead, “however you may feel about Ward Cantrell, you will keep it to yourself while in this house. In my house. He is, and always will be, one of my best friends, and for that alone you owe him respect.”