Prologue
Piper Flynn waited by the giant Christmas tree in the hotel lobby, admiring the shiny silver and gold bulbs that adorned the massive spruce. Some of the ornaments were larger than her head, but at twelve, she was still one of the smallest kids in her school. The week before Christmas, her parents decided to take a last-minute trip to the Big Apple to meet with an ice cream distributor. Now, with the impending snowstorm, they were in a rush to get out of New York City to make it home in time for Christmas in Colorado. Piper didn’t want to miss seeing her aunt on Christmas morning. She purchased a special gift for her Aunt Lorna. She hoped that her aunt would like the little snow globe with the Statue of Liberty that she found on a street vendor’s stand in front of their hotel. She bought it with the money that she saved from helping her parents around their ice cream shop, What’s The Scoop. The shop was her mom’s idea. Since she was as crazy about ice cream as Piper, it was a good fit. Piper’s dad thought up the name, playing off his job as the editor for the only newspaper in a fifty-square-mile radius. Her aunt helped around the shop and practically ran the place for her mom. Her mother was more ofa free spirit of the two. Piper liked to think that she was like her, but in reality, she was more like her aunt. She liked organization and efficiency. Which was probably why the random scattering of bulbs on the hotel’s tree was bothering her to no end.
Her parents finished checking out of the hotel and grabbed their two massive suitcases. Piper knew that her mother did some shopping while in the city. She hoped that she dropped enough hints about the walkie-talkies that she wanted her mother to pick up on. Her best friend, Sunny, lived two houses down from her, and they wanted to be able to talk to each other at night. Her parents didn’t let her talk on the phone after dinner, and that’s when Sunny seemed to remember all the good gossip from the day. Her friend was a night owl—one of the many things that they didn’t have in common. But the old saying of “opposites attract” worked in their friendship.
Since the day that she met Sunshine Francis, they had been best friends. Piper couldn’t wait to get home to tell Sunny all about the massive buildings and museums that her parents took her to. Sunny had never been out of Colorado. She never even saw a skyscraper. Piper’s parents made regular trips to New York to visit her father’s family. Her grandmother lived in a penthouse on the Upper East Side, but her dad wasn’t close with his mom. Their visits consisted of a few minutes of polite conversation in the lobby of her building, followed by promises for lunch. She didn’t know her grandmother very well, which was fine with her. She didn’t understand why anyone would want to live in a city with so much noise and pollution. Piper missed being able to take a deep breath without choking on thick, dirty air that seemed to be everywhere.
“You ready, Pipe?” Her mother strode up beside her, wrapping her arm around Piper’s shoulders. She smiled at the nickname her mother used for her. She couldn’t remember a time when her parents called her anything else. They only usedher full name when she was in trouble, which wasn’t too often. Piper saw how other kids acted towards their parents—rebelling and avoiding them. She liked hanging out with both of her parents. She enjoyed listening to her mother’s humming around the shop, dreaming about different ice cream flavors to add to their already extensive menu. Between her two parents, Piper felt that she was most like her father. She loved spending her mornings listening to him read news articles from other areas’ papers. They often discussed politics and current events over breakfast before she headed to school for the day. She never felt lonely even though she was an only child. Sunny had lots of brothers and sisters, and she would often ask Piper what she did for fun, never understanding when Piper told her about something funny her father said or some crazy flavor of ice cream that her mother dreamed up. The truth was, Piper was never lonely. She had her parents and her aunt. Of course, she wished for a little brother or sister when she was younger, but now she couldn’t imagine having to share her three favorite people with someone else.
“Sure, Mom, I’m ready. Are we going to the airport now?” Piper was eager to get home before the storm hit.
“Yes, we just need to stop at a convenience store to buy some gum. Your father can’t fly without chewing gum. His ears won’t pop, and he’ll be miserable.” Her mom rolled her eyes, giving Piper a giggle. The three of them walked two blocks, luggage in hand, to the little corner store that the hotel clerk recommended.
“How about you wait out here, Pipe? That way, we don’t have to drag the luggage into the store with us. It seems a little cramped in there already.” Piper’s father handed her his suitcase, and she set it down with a ‘thunk,' nodding her head. She just wanted to get into a cab and be on their way back home.
“Don’t talk to any strangers,” her mother added. “I’m going to run in and find a good trashy magazine to read on the plane.You want anything, Honey?” Piper rolled her eyes at her mother, shaking her head. Her mom sure did love her trashy magazines. If aliens and a movie star were involved in the story, her mother couldn’t seem to get enough.
“We won’t be long, Pipe—promise.” Her father rustled her hair as he walked past her towards the store. Her mother kissed her cheek and followed her father into the little corner store. Piper felt like a sentry standing guard over her family’s luggage. She noticed that her father’s name tag was starting to come undone on his suitcase handle. Piper reached down, trying to secure the strap with his personal information written on it, knocking it down to the dirty cement. She ducked down to retrieve it and then froze at the blood-curdling scream that came from the store. She straightened and looked through the glass front of the store to see her parents both on their knees. A man stood in front of them, pushing what she assumed was a rag into her mother’s mouth. Her father seemed to be pleading with the man to stop. They both knelt with their arms behind their bodies, and Piper couldn’t understand why her father didn’t push the man away from her mother. Why was he just kneeling there doing nothing? She took a step closer, wanting to hear what was being said. Her mother’s eyes widened as if telling her to stop. Her gaze seemed fixed on Piper as if begging her to stay where she was. The man shoved something into her father’s mouth, effectively ending his pleading. Her parents were crying, bound, and gagged, and Piper didn’t know what to do. Her first instinct was to run in and demand that the man release her parents. They were supposed to be flying home. Her aunt Lorna would be waiting for them at the airport in Colorado. She would worry about them when they didn’t get off the plane. The man moved around behind her parents to join another who was holding a gun to their backs. She could see both of her parents' faces, the fear evident in their eyes.
Piper was standing only feet in front of them—so close she could almost touch them. They both watched her through the glass of the store’s front window. Tears were streaming down their faces, and she swore she could see all the love that they both felt for her. She reached her hand that was covered in her red mitten up to her face to find that she had hot tears running down her cold cheeks. The contrast between the bitterly cold air and her tears stunned her back to reality. She started for the door, knowing that she had to do something. She could see the flare of fear in both of her parents’ eyes. Her father gave a slight shake of his head as if telling her to stay away. She wanted to obey, but what would happen to her parents if she did nothing?
She didn’t have much time to consider her next move— the man holding the gun fired it at the store clerk who was standing behind the cash register. The clerk stammered back against the window, his blood smearing the clean glass as he slid down to the floor. He was shot in the chest. Her eyes darted back to her parents, where her mother seemed near hysterical. She was shaking and crying while watching Piper through the store window. Her father once again shook his head at Piper’s forward movement. She wanted to run into the store and wrap her arms around her parents to protect them from the evil man who held the gun to her father’s head. She felt frozen in place, unable to run to her parents or go for help. She wanted to shout for help, scream at the injustice that was happening in the store, but she was silent. She looked up at the sky as the first snowflake fell, hitting her on the tip of her nose. Then the shot rang out that took her father’s life. She looked back into the store just in time to see his lifeless body slump forward. Another shot broke through the silence as she watched the snow now falling freely around her, and she turned back to find her mother’s limp body lying over her father’s. Time seemed to slow down. A scream ripped from Piper’s chest, garnering attention from the big manwho held the gun to her parents’ heads just seconds before. He extended his arm and pointed the gun at Piper. She could see her hot breath escape into the air. She knew that she was about to meet the same fate as her parents and the store clerk, but she still felt frozen in place, unable to move from the spot she was rooted to. The sound of sirens broke through the quiet of Piper’s world. The man who gagged her parents pulled the gunman’s arm down, removing her from danger. They seemed to be having a conversation. She couldn’t help but watch them through the front window of the store, still unable to move. The gunman looked back at her and pointed his hand in her direction. He seemed fixated on Piper while his accomplice kept pointing to the back of the store, tugging on the gunman’s arm. She watched as they both disappeared through the small aisle to the back of the store and away from her. The world seemed to spin faster again. People were rushing past Piper and into the store, kneeling to check her parents. She knew what they were going to find— her parents were gone. She watched their lives being taken; their bodies slumping to the floor like the trash that littered the city streets.
Piper slid down to sit on her father’s leather suitcase. She wasn’t sure what to do; she felt cold and numb. The snow was falling heavily around her, coating her parents’ luggage and her jacket. “You all right, honey?” A police officer stood in front of her, seeming cautious in his approach. The way he moved towards her reminded her of someone trying to corner a frightened, stray dog. Piper could feel her head nodding, although she had no idea why. She didn’t feel all right; her entire world was lying on the floor inside the convenience store. She was completely alone and hours from home. She laughed, knowing that the police officer was still watching her. Did she even have a home? Where was she going to go? Who would take care of her? Piper felt her whole body shiver; the police officertook that as his cue to wrap his coat around her. It smelled like cigarette smoke and mints.
“Thank you,” she stuttered.
“Sure,” he said softly. “Were those your parents?” His question was almost a whisper. Piper nodded her head; her throat burned with unshed tears. “Did you see what happened to them?” Piper nodded her head again, still not trusting her voice. “Can you tell me your name?”
“Piper Flynn,” she croaked. “I just want to go home, please.” Now her tears were flowing unchecked down her face. The officer held out his gloved hand, prompting Piper to reach for him.
“My name is Officer Kennedy, and I will make sure you get home, but I’m going to need to ask you a few questions first.” He eyed Piper’s luggage. “I’m guessing that your family was heading back home today?” Piper nodded again. “Do you know anyone in the city, Piper?” The officer pulled a pad of paper and a pen from his shirt pocket. “Can I call anyone locally to meet us at the station?” Piper thought about his question, carefully considering if she wanted the police officer to contact her grandmother.
“My dad’s mom lives here.” She looked up to see him scribbling something on his pad. “Her name is Agnes Flynn.” Piper always called her grandmother “Aggie”. The older woman never wanted to be called the normal grandmotherly names like Nana or Grandma. Piper’s father even called his mother by her first name. She always found it strange, almost like they weren’t all family.
“Okay, Piper. I’ll give your grandmother a call when we reach the station. For now, I’m going to need you to come with me.”
Piper looked at the suitcases that she sat on. “I’m not supposed to leave our bags,” she whispered, tightening her hold on her father’s bag. She still held his identification tag in her left mitten.
“I’ll have my friend bring your bags with us, will that be okay?” The police officer looked down hopefully at Piper. She nodded, knowing that she couldn’t sit on her dad’s suitcase for the rest of the day. She chanced one last look into the store. Piper watched as police officers hovered over her mother’s lifeless form. A part of her secretly hoped that her parents would get up from the floor, walk out through the door, and join her on the street. But she wasn’t a foolish little girl; she knew that they were gone and that her whole world was about to change.
“I need to call my Aunt Lorna. She is supposed to meet us at the airport when we get home.” The police officer nodded down to her.
“Sure, Piper. Let’s get you warm and dry, and we can call your aunt after we call your grandmother.” Piper took the hand that the officer once again offered her, letting him lead her to the police car that sat just feet away. She didn’t look back at the store again. She knew what she would find there— nothing, just her past. Her parents couldn’t help her now. She was on her own.
Chapter One
Thirteen Years Later
Piper woke up to her screams, sweat pouring from her body. The nightmares were always the same. She watched her parents’ deaths over and over again for the past thirteen years. Sometimes the man who pulled the trigger, murdering them both, had a face, and sometimes he didn’t. She went to enough therapy sessions to know that she was intentionally blocking out his face, not wanting to see the evil that took her parents from her. Each time she woke from the nightmare, she felt like that scared twelve-year-old girl all alone in the world. Sure, she had her Aunt Lorna, who raised her after her parents’ deaths. Her grandmother, Agnes, didn’t put up much of a fight to keep her in New York. Once Lorna showed up, the day after her parents’ murders, the police released her into her aunt’s care. Lorna told Agnes that she wanted to take Piper back to Colorado with her and raise her as her own. Piper expected her grandmother to raise a fuss, but she was surprised at just how much her father’s mother didn’t seem to care. Sure, she shed a tear when asked to identify her son and daughter-in-law’s bodies, but she seemed cold and distant the rest of the time. Aggie didn’t even hug Piper goodbye when she left the police station. She told her that she wished her well and if Piper ever needed anything, to please let her know. Lorna showed up the next day to claim Piper and take her back to Colorado. She was a mess, crying as if she had witnessed the murders herself. As for Piper, she hadn’t cried since she got into the officer’s car. It was as if her tears dried up. Even though all the questioning and having to identify the two men who took her parents away from her, she never shed a tear. Her therapist later told her that it was okay for her to grieve in any way that felt normal to her. There was no right or wrong way to mourn her parents.
Life felt both normal and completely changed once she and Lorna got back to Colorado. They settled into the routine of her small town, and Lorna even moved into her parents’ home. It was next door to the ice cream shop, and it made life easier on Piper not to have to give up the only home she ever knew. Lorna didn’t want to uproot Piper’s life any more than it already was, so her aunt gave up her small apartment to move in with her. Lorna tried to run the ice cream shop for a few months but found the new responsibility of raising Piper and running a business to be too much. Piper agreed with Lorna that closing the shop was the only way to go. Lorna got a job at the little library in town, and the two seemed to manage. When Piper turned sixteen, she got a waitressing job at the diner in town. It was the only local place to eat out, so business was usually decent. It felt good to be able to help her aunt out with the tips that she made. People would ask her when she was going to reopen her mom’s shop, to which she would smile and shrug. She toyed with the idea but wasn’t sure if she even wanted to stay in Harvest Ridge. When she was eighteen, she received a letter from her parents’ lawyer telling her that a trust had been set up for her by her parents before their deaths. She was to inherit a small sum of moneywhen she turned twenty-one. The question was, what to do with it? She graduated from the local high school and took a month to travel around the country with Sunny. The two lived in the back of Sunny’s VW Bus, and Piper couldn’t remember being happier. The last time she felt happy was with her parents.
That summer, Sunny told her that she was going to take over her grandmother’s bakery back in Harvest Ridge. The bakery, Bee’s Buns, and Piper’s parents’ ice cream shop were in the same building. Since Lorna shut down the ice cream shop, the bakery stood next to the boarded-up ghost of a building. Sunny had a dream that she and Piper could join forces and reopen the ice cream shop.
“We’d be invincible! We would corner the market on sweets in town,” she said. Sunny was relentless in pushing Piper to take a chance and a leap of faith for a change. Piper agreed, partially to shut Sunny up and partially to accept her best friend’s challenge. Piper never backed down from a dare, especially one issued by her best friend. So, they moved back home and got to work effectively, ending their summer of freedom. Piper decided to live in her childhood home since it was convenient to the ice cream store and well—free. She and Sunny chose bright paint colors for both stores. Sunny painted her entire store a lime green color with black accents. The inside of the bakery had black and white photos of baked goods that Sunny took. Her best friend was probably the most talented person Piper knew. Sunny persuaded Piper to paint the ice cream shop hot pink with white stripes. At first, Piper was against anything so girly, but after they were finished, she had to admit that her parents’ old shop came back to life. The place never looked better. She didn’t want any reminders of what life used to be like when her parents were by her side. Reminders of what she lost were too painful. She wanted the shop to have a fresh start, just like her. She renamed the place Scrumptious, leaving the past behind. In herback office, she kept a small picture of her and her parents—the only reminder that Piper could bear to have around. She didn’t want to rest on her laurels on what her parents built. She wanted to show the town what she could do; this was her chance. The town welcomed Piper and Sunny’s new places with open arms. The one thing about Colorado was that people ate ice cream even in the dead of winter.
Her days were filled with hard work serving people and smiles from friends and neighbors. Piper’s nights were another story. She would walk a few feet to her little house, which Sunny also convinced her to paint hot pink to match the shop, and lock herself away from the outside world. She could feel herself withdrawing from everyone around her, but she was too afraid to put herself out there. Her aunt persuaded her to go back to her childhood therapist. Honestly, being told that regression is normal when your brain suffers from seeing something as horrific as your parents’ murder was somewhat comforting. She could at least work to try to claw her way back to the present. It would just take some hard work and a lot of billable hours paid to her therapist. Lorna decided to get a place of her own in the summer after Piper turned twenty-three. She told Piper that she needed to see what life had in store for her. She couldn’t blame her aunt for wanting to find a place and live her life. After all, Piper was an adult now. On her days off, Lorna helped around the shop, and Piper was grateful for the company. Working and running a business alone proved to be just that —lonely. Sure, she could run next door and hang out with Sunny, but both shops were usually pretty busy.
