It Happened One Summer

Brendan serves her champagne and fish he cooked himself, and Piper is touched but also scared by her interest in him, and his in her. “She actually didn’t even know how to be more than a temporary hookup” (178), she thinks. She supports Brendan when he says he is building a second boat and plans to give the Della Ray to Fox, which he thinks will help him move on from the past. As they talk, Piper worries that she’s revealed too much; “the sexy smoke screen she’d been hiding behind had dissipated, leaving only her” (183).

She seduces Brendan by taking off her dress but is unsettled to realize that “this attraction was even more dangerous than she’d originally thought” (186). They pleasure each other orally, and Piper is jolted to experience “a real, authentic orgasm” (191). She realizes she can’t remain detached or pretend she doesn’t care about him, but she doesn’t want to become attached, either.

Brendan takes Piper back to her apartment and gives her a spare key to his house. She knows he is leaving for king crab season—which is how her father died—and she begs him to be careful.

Piper and Hannah spend the two weeks of king crab season refurnishing the bar. When a storm hits as Brendan is due back, Piper panics, thinking about how Henry died. Fearing that something might happen to Brendan, she runs to his house so that she can feel close to him, lets herself in with her key, and falls asleep in his bed. Brendan is busy on the boat pulling the last of their traps. Usually, he isn’t concerned about a storm, but this one is keeping him from Piper. Then, it is hinted, an accident occurs.

Piper wakes when Hannah calls to tell her there was an accident on the Della Ray and one of the crew is at the hospital. Frantic for Brendan’s safety, Piper rushes there in his truck. When she sees Brendan is safe, she tries to pretend she is just being neighborly, but Brendan sees that she is affected, and it clinches his feelings. Giving in to their strong emotions, Brendan and Piper sneak into an empty hospital room to have sex. Brendan does not have a condom with him, but Piper says she is taking birth control medication, so they don’t need protection. Brendan senses that Piper, again, wants to keep their connection purely physical, so he persuades her to admit she missed him. Piper experiences an orgasm during intercourse, a first for her, and she worries about Brendan’s ability to move her.

When Brendan says he is willing to work to win her, Piper snaps that she’s not available. They return to the hallway holding hands and run into Mick, who is there to visit the injured fisherman. Brendan feels disloyal and that he has disappointed his former father-in-law. But he has gotten Piper to admit they are more than friends.