Sold out.
The freezing wind was blocked, a hand pressing into her back as Kol appeared at her side. “What’s going on?”
“I have them,” Piper whispered, throat tight. “All the tickets, they’re here, but the date…” Tears welled in her eyes as the sounds around her were muffled by the wind. Hot embarrassment pumped through her veins, and she stared unblinking at the ticket taker. “There has to be something I can do!” suddenly burst out of her as she grabbed the counter’s edge. “How do I fix it?”
But there was no fixing the tremendous fuck up that was slowly and painfully dawning on Piper. Her vision went blurry, voice caught behind the lump in her throat, and then she wasn’t standing in front of the window anymore. In fact, she was walking back the way they’d come, being guided by an arm around her waist.
“But, the show,” she said, half bewildered as she turned to look over her shoulder at others streaming into the theater.
Uncle Russ’s voice rose from the grumbles around her as the facts were shared over and over: their tickets were for the wrong date. The wrong fucking date. “You mean we gotta spend another hour and a half in the car? For nothing?”
“The babysitter will get to go home early at least,” murmured her cousin.
“Ugh, and so do we. What a waste.”
“I didn’t mean for this to happen,” Piper heard herself saying.
“It’s all right.” Kol’s voice was in her ear, blocking the others out as he squeezed her up against him.
“I’m not going back with Jim,” called her aunt, “his driving gets worse every year.”
“Good luck finding someone to put up with you fiddling with the temperature all the way home,” her father called back.
“Maybe we can just stay in the city tonight?” said someone else.
“Maybe for the rest of vacation,” another family member grumbled.
Piper’s breathing went shallow and her lip trembled. “I’m sorry,” she whispered.
“Oh, shit, you transposed the numbers.” Presley appeared at her side, laughing with a joviality that was probably meant to make her feel better. “Damn, that was dumb, sis.” He dropped a hand on top of her head and mussed her hair.
“It’s an honest mistake,” Kol growled, tugging her out of her brother’s reach. “Maybe if anyone else didanything, it wouldn’t have—”
Piper pressed a firm hand to his chest as they entered the parking lot, and he bit back the rest of what he wanted to say.
As each car door slammed around her, she winced. “Oh, my god,” she finally said, the breath all pulled out of her. “I can’t believe I fucked up so bad.”
“Hey.” Kol took her face in his hands and turned it up to him. “It doesn’t matter.”
“But it’s mom’s favorite show.” She couldn’t bear to be under that forgiving look of his, tearing her eyes away and back to the road, the lights blurring with her tears.
The ride back was almost entirely silent save for the cacophony shouting in Piper’s brain. First, it was a replay of her family’s voices, the sting of their words, meant for her or not, and then an imaginary extrapolation of what they would continue to say in their cars. Then there was her own voice, so much worse as it berated her for fucking up, for wasting everyone’s time, for making Grams stand out in the cold. Anger bubbled under her skin and made her twitch, begging for a release, but there was nothing to do in the backseat except allow Kol to hold her hand until that was too much too.
She pulled out of his grip, ashamed to be so pathetic as to find comfort in his mock gesture, and crossed her arms, pinching her knees together and trying to control her desperate anger. Of course she had to go embarrass herself in front of him and show him how worthless she really was. Being organized was the only thing she was good at—a human thing, but something she took pride in nonetheless—and she fucked it all up.
They returned to the cabin through heavy traffic nearly four hours after they’d left with nothing to show for it but multiple vehicles of very grumpy MacLeans. Indeed, some hadn’t returned at all, and those that did were bickering. Even her father was angry, complaining about his sister’s latest text message and stomping off to his bedroom. The rest were quick to shuck off their boots and hats by the door and sequester themselves in bedrooms because no one wanted to be near anyone else after all that.
Piper said nothing, pressing herself into the corner until it was quiet. In the silence of the entryway, she closed her eyes and willed the tears away, then flinched when there was a touch at her shoulder.
Kol was there, gently tugging at her coat. She let him take it off and hang it up, then watched as he knelt before her and unzipped her boots. It was like she was in some dream as he guided one foot and then the other onto the floor, a hand on her calf to steady her. The feel of his fingers was real, she knew that, but she still questioned what they were doing there and why—why—was he helping? She didn’t deserve anyone’s help.
Piper took a step and freezing cold blossomed under her foot, shucked off snow melting and bleeding into her tights, and that’s all it took to wake her from her daze. Everyone’s boots were in a wet heap, none of them making it onto the mat meant for melting snow, so she set herself to organizing them.
“Piper, don’t worry about that.”
She shrugged off the feel of Kol’s hand, finishing up and then quickly headed for the kitchen.
“Where are you going?”
