The shower made us a little late for the brunch, which was served buffet style across two dining rooms at the Four Seasons—one last decadent wedding gift from Aunt Amalia. I shuddered to think what it cost, but I figured that was Amalia's business. She had no children of her own; if she wanted to splurge on her nephew, who was I to question her?

But all of those thoughts were just a distraction as I tried to calm my breathing, standing in the entryway to the first dining room with Adam's hand in mine. I could feel a surge of nervous sweat that lined our intermingled palms, and it made me blush with very inappropriate thoughts of this morning's shower. As though he could read my mind, I heard him chuckle by my side. His fingers interlocked with mine and then slowly, sensuously pulled out again.

"Stop," I whispered, but I couldn't hide the smile on my heated face.

"You'll be the death of me, I swear," he mumbled into my ear.

He pulled me gently into the room, and the smell of heated eggs and honeyed ham invaded my nose with such force I thought I might vomit. This was a huge mistake. We should run before my dad saw us.

But it was too late.

"Well, look who showed up," my dad beamed as he approached with an absurdly overstuffed plate, towering with eggs benedict, potatoes, strawberries, a couple pancakes, and several slices of that ham.

"Dad, your cholesterol."

"Don't worry, she won't let me eat it all," he gestured over his shoulder to where my stepmom Laura could be found, unsurprisingly helping herself to one small bowl of plain oatmeal. I waited until she had joined us, teetering in high heels that made her skinny legs look even longer than usual. Adam gave my hand a squeeze before letting go.

"Sir, it's a pleasure to meet you," he said, extending his hand.

"Sorry," I said, feeling flustered. "Dad, this is Adam. Adam, this is, um, Dad." What were names anyway?

"Oh," Dad said, his eyes darting furtively between Adam's outstretched hand, my flushed face, and his own impossibly unstable pyramid of food. Thank God for Laura, whose calm energy always managed to smooth over any situation. She slyly took his plate from him so his hands would be free. "Nice to meet you...um..."

They shook hands. "Adam."

"Steve," Dad said, trying his best to look unsurprised. "Great. Great. This is my wife, Laura."

"Pleasure, ma'am."

Laura smiled, unable to hide the pleased twitch in her mouth either at Adam's handsome face or the fact that he called her "ma'am." She held up the plates as evidence of why she wasn't shaking his hand. Then she cheated her body towards my dad and handed him back his food. "Have you two eaten? They say the eggs here are amazing."

"Not yet," Adam smiled.

"Well, we're going to find our seats. Nice to meet you, Adam."

Laura led my father away, and I could actually hear him whispering to her, "Did we know there was an Adam?" before they made it more than a few steps.

"Can we go now?" I asked.

"Have to meet your brother."

"This is torture."

"Hey," he whispered, leaning down towards me so that we were in our own little bubble, just the two of us, hidden from the rest of the room. Our foreheads almost touched. I sought out the comfort of his ocean eyes and felt suddenly calm. His eyes scanned my face and landed on my slightly open lips. "What do you call that lipstick?"

I laughed, instinctively pulling in my full red lips and letting them slide out again. "Beso."

"What does that mean?" he teased.

"You should know."

He planted the lightest of possible kisses on my lips, enough to make me melt for more, then turned away from me again. "Let's feed you."

*

We ended up sitting with Piper's cousins, whose husbands were watching a football game on a smartphone under the table: Cardinals versus Whoever Wears Gold. This pleased Adam greatly, and before I knew it I had lost him to the game.

"Gonna go find my brother," I whispered to him, scanning the room for the guests of honor who were conspicuously missing.

"Need me to come with?"

"No, I'll bring him back here to meet you."

I couldn't help but smile again, noticing his broad shoulders, squeezed into the one dress shirt he had carried in his duffel bag, ironed haphazardly on my bed this morning. The slight bluish color around the eye where Kieren had decked him gave him a roguish quality that was frankly pretty hot.

"What?" he asked with a private smile, just for me.

"We're like a couple."

His eyes turned serious for a moment, and he leaned toward me like he was going to say something else. But this wasn't the place to say it.

"Be right back."

It took me two trips around the dining rooms to confirm that the newlyweds weren't there. Apparently they'd gone off to "take care of something" just before we arrived and no one had seen them since. Knowing how Robbie and Piper could be, that probably meant they were back in their suite with the Do Not Disturb sign on the door, and I was about to grab Adam and suggest we head back home.

But then I noticed a small room off the entranceway with BRIDAL PARTY embossed on a golden sign on the door. Everything that glittered at the Four Seasons was, it seemed, actually gold. I poked my head into the slightly ajar door and found Piper sitting alone on an embroidered settee with a box in her hands. She wore a lovely yellow dress that made her long chestnut hair seem brighter than usual. It took her a moment to acknowledge me when I walked in, but then her face cracked into a delayed smile.

There was a fault line of worry etched into her porcelain forehead, like she was trapped in a thought bubble and running out of oxygen. "Hey," she croaked, her voice dry.

"Everything okay?"

"Yeah, of course. Everything's great. Isn't it great here? It's so nice."

I nodded, realizing that something was off. Piper got a little anxious to please when there was tension she couldn't face.

"They put mints on our pillow. Your brother ran up to the room. He had to grab something. Did you try the eggs?"

"Piper, what's going on?" I sat next to her on the settee, which made her slide over almost imperceptibly. She quickly closed the box and placed it at her feet.

"I'm so glad you came. I was afraid I wouldn't see you." And as she said it, she seemed to realize that it was true. She reached out for my hand, a little too forcefully. "We're leaving in a few minutes for the flight to Costa Rica."

"It's gonna be a great week," I assured her.

"You'll be okay at the house, right? You'll lock the doors at night? You'll water my plants?"

"Piper," I began slowly, eyeing the box. Her hand was still clutching mine. I turned to face her a little more, causing us to be only inches apart, like schoolgirls sharing a secret note in study hall. "What's in there?"

Her eyes flitted around in her head, seeming to want to land anywhere but the box at her feet. "It's so funny," she said, standing suddenly. Pacing nervously. "I don't know why he would send it to me."

"Can I look?"

Her hands worked in nervous circles at her waist. Finally she nodded.

I pushed aside the lids of the plain cardboard box. There was nothing written on it but the address label: Piper McMahon, c/o the Four Seasons, Boston. Whoever sent this knew she would be here today.

Inside there was no stuffing, no peanuts, no return label. Just one thing—heavy and musky. It was something I hadn't seen in years, something I hadn't even thought about. But I recognized it immediately. And I needed two hands to pull it out of the box as it weighed as much as a small child.

It was Piper's old suede jacket, a tan, fringed vintage number she had been wearing when I'd first seen her in the hallway of East Township High School. "Brady sent you this," I said, mindlessly stating the obvious.

"I left it at his apartment in Colorado," she said, her voice altered. Softer now, far away. "Our apartment, I mean. When we lived together there."

Why would Brady have sent this to her now? Was he just trying to get a rise out of her, make her feel guilty for leaving him... just like I did. Selfishly, I panicked inside that when I got home there'd be a box waiting for me too.

I turned the jacket in my hands, letting it fall open on my lap. The tag was worn, apparently silk, and it had a very old-fashioned font to it. In faded letters, I could barely make out what was written there: SAN FRANCISCO, 1969.

"Piper," I said, hearing the fear in my own voice. "Where did you get this jacket?"

"It was a gift... from him. From Brady."

"And where did he get it?"

She only shrugged. "I dunno."

"Stop it. Tell the truth."

I dropped the jacket back in the box and stood to meet her.

"He got it for me. I don't know." Her voice was cracking with emotion.

"Yes, you do."

"Fine," she choked. Her eyes flew to the door, making sure we were alone. Then she turned back to me. "It might be from the other side."

"Then why did you keep it?"

"I..." she stammered.

"You know you can't keep things from the other side."

"Oh, look who's talking." She was done pacing now, but there was still a note of shrill panic in her voice.

I stepped back, feeling suddenly attacked. "What does that mean?"

But she only gave me a look, as if to say, now who's lying? "M, please."

"Go on."

She steeled herself, cocking her head because now we were going to have this conversation. "You have a ring in your jewelry box..."

"That's different."

"A diamond ring that you only take out late at night..."

"No," I insisted. "That—that's not the same thing."

"...and I don't know where you got it, but I do know one thing—it's not from here and it's not from now."

"I can't return that ring," I insisted, meekly repeating for Piper the story I'd told myself a thousand times.

"Why not?"

"Because the person who gave it to me is gone." I said, hearing the fear in my own voice. "The world I took it from..." I took a deep breath, steadying myself from a sudden wave of dizziness. "...is gone."

"What did you do, M?"

"I did it for you. I did it for all of us."

"Did what? What world are you talking about?"

"You know which world—" I all but shouted at her, feeling cornered now. "The world under the lake."

Piper stood in shock, shaking her head nervously. "No. No, that's not possible. We already destroyed it when we buried your mom's beaker three years ago."

"That's what we thought, but we were wrong. It's wasn't destroyed. It was just—it was kept from us. We were safe. But Sage and Caryn—everybody else..."

"How did you know that?" Her eyes zeroed in on me now. "The only way you could have known that is if you went back down."

I looked around, feeling guilty. I'd lived with Robbie and Piper for months but I'd never told them the truth about last year. I told myself I was protecting them from a stress they didn't need to know, but was I just protecting myself? Was I protecting Adam?

Her voice was light and nervous when she spoke again. "Why did you go back down?"

"There's a dark side," I mumbled. "There's a dark side, and if we ignore it, it takes over everything. We all know that."

"M, who gave you that ring?"

"I did." It was Adam. He was standing in the doorway, but he came into the room fully now and closed the door behind him. "Don't tell her anything more, Marina. She doesn't need to know."

And Piper's eyes squinted only briefly, her head tilting into a question as she took in Adam, before a horrified light of recognition filled her pretty face with angry shock.

****

Just three more chapters in part 1 of Everworld (out of 3). What do you think Adam is up to now?