“Great,” Piper grumbled. “I’ve lost it again.” She was constantly losing her phone. Most of the time, she either left it in her shop or over in Sunny’s back kitchen. She could have sworn that she brought it home with her last night, though. “Oh well, it’s probably at the shop.” She headed next door to her shop but didn’t find her phone there. Sunny must have it. She was always teasing Piper that she needed to have the phone permanently attached to her body. She skipped through Sunny’s back door to find her friend singing, dancing, and baking the morning’s special—blueberry muffins. Piper loved Sunny’s blueberry muffins.
“Hey girl,” Piper shouted over the music.
Sunny jumped and squealed, startled by the interruption. “Geez, Pipe, you scared me!” Sunny turned down her country music, leaving flour on the knob. “Why are you awake?” Piper looked around Sunny’s kitchen searching for her phone.
“I couldn’t sleep. Have you seen my phone? I must have left it here; I’ve checked everywhere else.” Piper noticed Sunny’s back stiffen as she began to stir the batter.
“Nope, haven’t seen it. Did you check your shop?” Sunny asked.
“Yeah, not there. Damn it, I must have lost it again,” Piper said. Sunny laughed and folded in the fresh blueberries, making Piper’s mouth water.
“Pipe, you lose that phone every other minute.” Sunny shook her head.
“The crazy thing is I could have sworn that I took it home with me last night.” Piper lifted a stack of papers that Sunny had on the back counter. Her friend wasn’t the best at the paperwork part of owning a business. She needed a personal assistant to keep track of everything.
“Hey, I almost forgot to tell you—Maddie and I want to take you someplace fun tonight for your birthday,” Sunny said. Piper groaned at the thought of having to go out tonight. She barely slept the night before. She was already exhausted, and it was only 5:30 am.
“No, I just want to stay in and hopefully sleep tonight. I don’t want to go out. Besides, you two are taking me on a hike on Thursday, and that’s enough birthday fun for me.” Piper snuck a few blueberries while Sunny put the first batch of muffins into her industrial ovens. She turned towards Piper, wiping her flour-covered hands on her apron.
“Pipe, you need to enjoy life a little—it’s your birthday week. Live it up!” Piper couldn’t help but smile at Sunny. Her friend was always so optimistic, even when covered in flour at the crack of dawn. She just couldn’t say no to her.
“Fine, what are we doing tonight?” Piper asked. Sunny’s smile brightened. She always seemed to know just what to say to Piper, to get her way.
“Well, Mads and I thought it would be fun to go to that new Escape Room in Estes.” Piper groaned again, thinking about how much energy it was going to take to escape from one of those rooms.
“I don’t know, Sunny. That sounds like a lot of work,” Piper grumbled.
Sunny giggled, wrapping her arms around Piper’s neck. “Hopefully, it will be a night you will never forget.” She kissed Piper’s cheek, probably leaving flour behind.
“Well, I don’t think that will be the case unless we can’t escape and we all die in a tiny room together. That would be pretty unforgettable.” Piper wiped at her cheek, causing Sunny to pull her closer.
“Always the optimist, Pipe.” Sunny kissed her one last time and then released her to work on the second batch of muffins. Piper turned to leave, deciding that she needed to get a jump start on her day if she was going to have any energy for tonight. “I’ll pick you up at 4:30. I’ve already talked to your aunt, and she’ll watch your shop,” Sunny called after her. Piper nodded. Arguing with Sunny wouldn’t get her far. Sometimes she felt it was best to just give in to her best friend. Life was just easier that way.
Tag waited outside the Escape Room, hoping that Piper wouldn’t chicken out. He knew that her agreeing to a date was a long shot; her showing up would take a miracle. He was hoping for a miracle. When he decided to ask her out, he never thought that it would turn into a year of him begging her for a date. He never had to beg any woman to go out with him. About halfway through the year, he thought about giving up. She wasn’t budging on her answer, and he was starting to get lonely. It had been a year and a half since he was on a date, and he was determined to break that spell with Piper. He wasn’t sure what it was about her that drew him to her, but he needed to find out. Piper was his siren calling to him. The problem was, she didn’t know that. Until she responded to thedating app, he thought she would never agree to a date. He just hoped that he would get his chance. She still wasn’t there, and with every minute that passed, he worried she wasn’t going to show up. He was about to give up when his phone chimed. It was a message from Piper, and this time she just texted him directly instead of going through the app.
Hey, I’m running late. Can you get the room for us, and I’ll meet you inside?Piper asked.
He smiled at his phone; she was going to show up. His heart started racing, and his palms even felt a little sweaty. Piper effectively turned him into a teenage boy again. Torren would have a field day with the way he was acting over a woman. He texted her back that he would be waiting inside for her. He was finally going to get his chance with Piper. A part of him wished that they would never find their way out of the Escape Room—he would be good with some extra one-on-one time with her.
Sunny stalled Tag by asking him to get a room for them. Her and Maddie’s plan wouldn’t work if Piper caught onto the date before she was locked into the room. If everything went well, Piper and Tag would be locked in a room together, all alone, until they could figure out a way out. Sunny couldn’t hide her smile as she texted Tag from Piper’s phone. She had Maddie drive, letting Piper sit shotgun. This gave her privacy to use the phone she “borrowed” from Piper.
“I wish I could figure out why you are so damn happy back there, Sunny.” Piper’s voice broke through her concentration, and she hid the phone under her thigh.
“No reason.” Sunny hoped she sounded casual, but she felt as giddy as a schoolgirl. She loved the idea of Piper finallyfinding happiness. Sunny couldn’t remember the last time that she saw Piper truly happy. She seemed to find a new normal after she returned from New York. Sunny knew that Piper loved Lorna and that she wasn’t unhappy growing up with her aunt. But she remembered how Piper was before her parents’ deaths. She wasn’t the same fun-loving girl that Sunny recalled. She knew that Piper distanced herself from everyone as a defense mechanism. She even tried to remove Sunny from her life, but that was just not acceptable. There was no way Sunny would ever have let Piper just disappear from her life; she was like a sister to her. Sunny fought hard to be part of Pipe’s life, and she knew that her friend was worth every ounce of trouble.
She never understood Piper’s dating life or lack thereof. They never really discussed it. She heard rumors circling town that Piper was into women, even hearing that Piper and she were dating. She never denied the allegations, and honestly, Piper’s dating life was no one else’s business but her own. Sunny could see that Piper had a thing for Tag; she noticed the way she would steal glances at him when she thought that no one was watching. And, poor Tag had no problem letting Piper know how he felt about her. Sunny didn’t know of another man on earth who would persist in asking a woman out fifty-two times only to be turned down time after time. She had to give it to Tag—he knew what he wanted, and he wasn’t going to just give up. Piper needed a man like him—someone who wasn’t going to give up on her when she tried to push him away. Knowing Piper, she would fight a new relationship with everything that she had. Poor Tag didn’t have a clue what he was getting himself into. All Sunny wanted was front row seats and a bucket of popcorn because it was going to be quite a show.
“We’re here!” Maddie practically shouted after she parked her car outside the little building that housed the Escape Room.
“Okay, you guys are both acting strangely. What’s going on?” Piper didn’t miss the little smirk on Sunny’s face as she exchanged a look with Maddie. “Seriously, guys, I don’t like surprises, so if you are planning something, then I’d like to go home.” Piper started to open the door to the passenger side.
“Pipe, we aren’t planning anything. Stop being such a party pooper and let’s have some fun.” Sunny started to shove Piper in the direction of the front door. Maddie grabbed her hand and pulled her along, and all Piper could do was follow. She needed some new, less pushy friends. They got through the front door and were greeted by a teenage boy who ushered them back to the room that was reserved for them. Sunny and Maddie insisted that Piper go first into the room. She opened the door to find the small, empty room. There were a few items that looked like clues and a massive figure standing in the corner. As the hulking figure turned to face her, Maddie shoved Piper into the room, propelling her straight into Tag’s arms. Sunny shouted something about them having fun and slammed the door behind Piper, sealing her in the tight space with Taggart Harrison. She wasn’t quite sure how it all happened, but she was pretty sure that her friends managed to surprise her in the worst way possible. Being alone with Tag was the thing she feared most, but the one thing she wanted more than anything else for her birthday.
Chapter Four
“What the hell?” Piper spun around to face Tag, who seemed confused by the whole scene. “Why am I locked in here with you, Tag?” Piper tried to control her panic, but she could feel it taking over her body. She didn’t want to cry, but couldn’t stop the tears that flowed down her cheeks. She hated surprises, and this one was a whopper. How could her friends conspire with Tag to get her on a date?
“Tag, I told you I didn’t want to go on a date with you, so you decided to force me on one?” Tag stood frozen across the small room, doing his best deer-in-the-headlights impersonation. “Just let me out of this room and we can pretend this never happened.” Piper’s hands were shaking as she tried to unlock the door. She realized that the only way out was to solve the puzzle, but she was in no condition to solve anything.
