23 Griffin Way - Saturday Morning

[cookinggeek]

Piper was absolutely devastated! Her hotel room had been sabotaged by a freak flood that came out of nowhere. As if things weren't bad enough, the hotel had conveniently lost her reservation and could not stay in any of the other vacant rooms. The injustice of it all

Comments

[justlike_a_girl]

"How terrible that they lost your reservation at the hotel! That Connell woman is just ridiculous sometimes. I can't imagine how she runs a business," said Dani. "Take your pick of bedrooms on the second floor. I just finished decorating the whole house a couple months ago when my dad came to stay for the weekend."

[cookinggeek]

"It's really lovely," Piper said, taking in all of the beautiful decor. "Must be nice to have a dad who visits. Mine abandoned me when I was just a little girl."

She sniffled ever so slightly.

[justlike_a_girl]

"Now that sounds like my mothers, both of them," said Dani, a tone of bitterness in her voice. "The real one abandoned me at birth, and the one who was married to my dad rejected me. As for dear old Dad, he lied to me for years about my true heritage. The only person I've ever been able to count on was my brother."

[cookinggeek]

"Oh, that's terrible!" Piper said melodramatically. "My mother...she died when I was very young. I only had my sisters to count on."

This time, a single tear fell from her eye.

[justlike_a_girl]

There was a convenient box of tissues on a nearby end table. Dani grabbed it and passed it over to Piper. "I had a brother, but no sisters. Probably better that way, though, because I don't think I would have liked sharing my dad with anyone, even if he did keep disappearing for long periods of time," she said.

Then she had a brilliant idea. "Do you want to see a picture? My brother and his fiancee just send me their engagement photos."

[cookinggeek]

Piper delicately wiped the tear away with the tissue. And then she got over it quickly. "Oh, engagement photos! I would love to see them. Oh I just love weddings."

[justlike_a_girl]

Personally, Dani was still trying to psych herself up over Junior's wedding, but she could allow a little of Piper's enthusiasm to run off on her.

"Here," said Dani, grabbing a stack of photos. "So there's Junior, my brother. He's a real hottie, isn't he? And there's Laura Nichols, his fiancee. And in the other photo, there's Dad, Junior and me. It seemed like the last change to get a family photo of just us three."

[cookinggeek]

Piper stared at the photo of Dani's father and froze for what seemed like an eternity. "This cannot be happening."

[justlike_a_girl]

"What?" asked Dani. "My brother isn't hot?"

[cookinggeek]

"I can't think he's hot!" Piper said over dramatically. "He might be my brother, too!"

Once again, there was a perfect single tear sliding down her face. "That man in the photo. He's my father..."

[justlike_a_girl]

"What?" said Dani, horrified. She knew she shouldn't be too surprised, given Ken's history. "Please tell me that your mother wasn't one of those sleazy stewardesses that Dad tried to impress by taking to dinner at the country club."

[cookinggeek]

Piper glared at her. "My mother was not sleazy! It's not her fault my dad abandoned all of us for another family!"

[justlike_a_girl]

"Well, technically, he had two other families," said Dani. "Junior is only my half-brother."

[cookinggeek]

Piper's jaw dropped. "Just how many secret families does he have?"

[justlike_a_girl]

"Who knows?" said Dani. "He used to leave Junior and I with a nanny and take off for months at a time. I only found out about my birth mother a couple years ago after tracking down his ex-wife."

[cookinggeek]

"I guess he'd rather have a normal family than to have witches for daughters." Piper sighed sadly. "My sisters can't know about this. They are fragile!"