Charlotte looked at Piper, then Bailey and Maggs.

“I need to go.”

They were private people, these Howards. Unlike the Trainers, who were demonstrative and loud.

Piper wanted to reach out and touch the muscles of Dylan’s clenched jaw. It was hard to watch them, two people who had no idea how to communicate with each other. A brother and sister who were like strangers. She wanted to yell at them to hug each other, but it wasn’t her place to do so.

“Come on, I’ll give you a lift home then, because I know Ava dropped you here.”

Piper stepped up to Charlotte as she rose and wrapped her arms around the woman. She was stiff and tension radiated, but didn’t pull away.

“Come into the café when you get a chance. Coffee will be on me.”

“I’ll be leaving now.”

Dylan gave them a nod, and then they were gone.

“Holy crap, those two are like total strangers,” Maggs said, falling into a seat. “I nearly got frostbite just being close.”

“It’s sad, but I remember what it’s like to have family and not feel close to anyone. It’s lonely,” Bailey said.

“But now you’re stuck with us.” Piper gripped her cousin-in-law’s hand.

“I do, and it’s the best thing that ever happened.”

“I hope they at least talk on the way home,” Piper said, looking at the door the Howard siblings had just left by. “What the hell do you think happened to Charlotte?”

“I don’t know, but it’s bad is my guess,” Maggs said. “Really bad if you consider the shock on Charlotte’s face.”

Piper hoped whatever it was, that it didn’t impact too greatly on Charlie’s life. She also hoped the Trainer siblings found a way to connect with each other before they went their separate ways again, because it was lonely without siblings, she knew that, and never wanted to go back there again.

Chapter 10

Dylan turned up the heat in his Range Rover because Charlie was shivering. Her face was pale, and eyes wide. He knew she was in shock, just not why.

“Warm enough?”

“Sure.”

Maggie Winter had called his parents’ house while Dylan was sitting at the kitchen table working. As he was the only one home, he’d answered. Maggie said Charlie was upset and needed him to come and get her, so here he was.

Piper had been seated beside Charlotte when he arrived, looking sexy, and then he’d looked at his sister. The devastation he’d read in her face had rocked him.

“What’s happened, Charlie?”

“It’s nothing.”

Her hands were clenched in her lap, eyes forward, but he doubted she saw anything outside the window. Dylan knew body language. He knew many things about people and how they reacted.

“How was the hike?”

“Good.”