Chasing the Runaway Bride (13 page)

Oh, Lord! What would happen with their attraction if they forgot the past? Would it skyrocket? Would he eventually realize he scared the hell out of her because what she felt for him was way beyond her sexual experience?

She walked over to the desk, lifted the receiver of the old phone, and dialed the number on Mrs. Thompson’s check, all the while watching Cade as he ran his hand over the tabs of the old manila folders as if they were spun gold.

When the answering machine for the Thompson residence clicked on, she said, “Hey, Mrs. Thompson, this is Piper at O’Riley’s. We’re holding your check until your payday when we’ll run it again. Just wanted to let you know.”

She hung up the phone, and the office became incredibly quiet.

Finally, Cade said, “You didn’t tell her the check bounced.”

She rose from the desk. “No reason to. She knows why we have to run it again. No sense embarrassing her.”

He smiled wryly. “That’s nice of you.”

“Not really. That’s the best way to do business in a small town.”

“You’re telling me I have a lot to learn?”

She met his gaze. “I think we both have a lot to learn.”

“I’m an excellent teacher.”

“Right.” She sniffed a laugh. He just couldn’t let a chance to tease her slide by. She might become friends with him, let go of the memories of her dad being depressed over losing the store if only because Richard Hyatt had made up for that by giving her half in his will, but she could never, ever forget that Cade had left her best friend at the altar, abandoned his child. She couldn’t jump ship on Lonnie and become friends with the guy who had hurt her simply because she ran a business with him.

But how hard was it not to be friends with a guy who didn’t ruffle, didn’t yell, just did his job?

She headed for the office door. “Go back to doing whatever you were doing.”

She left the office blowing her breath out in a long, long sigh. How the hell had her life gotten so confusing?

Chapter Eleven

Mercifully, Cade didn’t stay for the afternoon shift, and Piper spent a lot of her time on the sales floor marveling at the fact that Richard Hyatt was right. It might have taken a few days, but with an O’Riley and a Hyatt running the store, business was beginning to boom.

With her plan to oust her partner now dead, there was no reason for her and Cade to work each other’s shifts, so for the next week, she saw him only for an overlap hour. Another week passed and then another. Suddenly it was the week before the Dinner Belles’ end-of-summer fund-raiser. Every clerk, including her mother, asked for that Sunday afternoon off.

As they worked out the schedule in their overlap hour the Friday before, Piper told Cade she’d manage the store alone on Sunday.

“I’ll help.”

“No. No.” She waved away his offer. “Go to the Dinner Belles’ event. It’s always a good time.”

“I’d love to. But the store needs two people and I don’t let my partners down.”

It wasn’t the first time he said or did something that proved he was a real partner, a good partner. And she always held back because, no matter how much the rest of the town let him off the hook, she was Lonnie Simmons’s best friend.

“Suit yourself. But we’re not going to have customers, so you might as well go.”

“I’m working.”

She rose from the desk. “Like I said. Suit yourself.”

Sunday morning, they sold enough bread, milk and doughnuts to feed a small third-world country, but Sunday afternoon, with everyone at the fund-raiser, O’Riley’s grew quiet.

Wanting to keep her distance from Cade, Piper decided to clean the deli case, while her partner manned the empty checkout lane.

When she was nearly done cleaning, the store was so silent she heard the
swoosh
when the automatic door opened. A few seconds later, ten-year-old Jakey Nelson came slogging up the aisle.

He wore an old straw cowboy hat that dripped rain from the brim. His jacket was soaked. His boots sloshed when he walked. Before she could take off her rubber gloves and get from behind the deli counter to help him, he grabbed a half gallon of milk and a loaf of bread and headed for the checkout aisle.

She rounded the tall glass deli-meat display and went after him. Jake’s mom might be one of her former fiancé’s sisters-in-law who hated her, but she was also pregnant and sick. Throwing up every day. Jakey’s dad worked odd shifts, which meant he was probably working this afternoon. And Jakey had a four-year-old sister. He only lived four blocks away—actually he lived down the street from Cade—but Chris Nelson wouldn’t have sent him to the store unless they were desperate for the staples. Piper wasn’t about to let him walk home.

Halfway down the aisle, she heard Cade’s voice. “Hey, your mom never told me you were a cowboy.”

Jakey giggled. “I’m not. Not really.”

“I get it. You just play one on TV.”

Jakey laughed again.

“Okay, that’s five dollars and fifteen cents.”

Jakey said nothing as he handed Cade what must have been a ten-dollar bill. Cade bagged the half gallon of milk and loaf of bread and got Jakey’s change.

“Thanks.”

“You’re welcome.” He smiled at Jakey. “How about a candy bar to go with that milk?”

“My mom says I can’t get anything else. We don’t have the money.”

“That’s okay. The candy bar’s on me.”

Piper smiled, then grimaced, reminding herself that Cade wasn’t being nice. Technically, he was stealing a candy bar.

Jakey didn’t care. “Really?”

“Sure.” Cade handed him a chocolate bar, rang up the sale, and reached into his pocket for the appropriate cash to pay for it.

Piper winced. Damn it. Did he always have to do the right thing?

Jakey peered up. “Can I have one for my sister, too?”

Cade didn’t miss a beat. “Sure.” He paid for the second candy bar, closed the register drawer, and reached for the snaps of the O’Riley’s smock he wore.

“You know who I am, right?”

“Yeah. You’re our neighbor.”

He pulled his cell phone from his jeans pocket. “Do me a favor and dial the number for your house.”

Jakey took the phone.

“We’re going to ask your mom if it’s okay for me to take you home.”

Happy with that, Jakey nodded eagerly. He pressed the numbers into the phone and Cade took it from his hands. “Hey, Chris, this is Cade Donovan. Jakey is here at the store—” He paused, winked at Jakey. “No, he’s fine. We’ve got his bread and milk all bought and paid for. But I was just about to drive home for a short break, and I thought I’d bring him with me. I don’t want him to think it’s okay to get into anyone’s car without permission, so I thought it would be a good idea for you to tell him he can get in the car with me.”

He handed the phone to Jakey and Piper’s heart melted. Not only did he not want poor Jakey to walk home, but he was smart enough to ask permission. As much as she tried to argue it in her brain, that didn’t fit at all with a guy who’d abandon a child.

Jakey said, “Okay, Mom,” then handed the phone back to Cade. He said a few more words to Chris, then shoved the phone into his pocket. “Let’s go, partner.”

Sliding out from behind the checkout aisle, he yelled, “Hey, Piper,” not realizing she was only about halfway down the aisle behind him. “I’m taking my break now. I’ll be back in fifteen.”

He lifted the milk and bread from the counter. “Ready?”

Jakey nodded.

As they walked to the door, Cade said, “You know I work on a ranch, right?”

Jakey nodded. “My mom said you did.”

The sliding glass door opened.

“Maybe someday you could come out and visit me.”

The door swished closed behind them, and for Piper their conversation ended. But she could see the happy expression on Jakey’s face, the skip in his step as they headed for Cade’s Silverado.

Walking to the front of the store, Piper watched them drive away.

It was one thing to think of Cade as a good partner, but this went beyond doing his fair share for the job.

She ran her fingers across her eyes. She held one impression of Cade based on their shared past. But the Cade she worked with—true, this Cade was a grown up version, but he was still the same guy—behaved totally differently. She couldn’t go on liking him as a partner and hating him because of their past. Something had to give.

When they closed the store just after eight that night, she said, “Good night,” but Cade paused on his way to his truck.

“Aren’t you going to the church hall?”

She batted a hand. “Fund-raiser is about over.”

“No. They decided to have a dance this year. The thing’s going to go on until after eleven.”

She laughed at the absurdity of thinking eleven o’clock was late, but sometimes in a small town it was.

“I know, but I’m tired.”

He flipped his keys in the air, then caught them. “Suit yourself. My mom and brothers are there, so I thought I’d go over and contribute a bit. After all, the Dinner Belles certainly contribute to our bottom line. And it can’t hurt business for us to be seen there.”

She smiled slightly. He made their owning O’Riley’s together seem so normal, so easy. While she suffered the torment of the damned. Pulled in two directions. Almost feeling she was living a double life. Wondering about the truth.

How could he be so accepting, so easy-going, with his sordid past? Had he made peace with leaving a child? Or, as Bunny Farmer and the town thought, was there more to this story?

“You go. I’ll see you tomorrow.”

With that, she marched to her car and drove to her apartment above Buzz Hanwell’s two-car garage. She climbed the rickety stairs, flicked on the light, and speed-dialed Lonnie. The only person who knew the truth.

“Hey, Piper.”

“Hey.” She drew in a quiet breath, not quite sure how to start, what to say. Eventually, she settled on, “You and I need to talk about Cade.”

“You’re starting to figure things out, aren’t you?”

The resignation in Lonnie’s voice almost did her in. Still, she wouldn’t guess. She had to hear the story, the real story, from Lonnie’s mouth. “Figure what out?”

“That Cade isn’t Hunter’s father. I thought for sure he’d tell you on day one, if only to make things easier for your partnership. But he let my little slip go on.”

Piper’s head should have been spinning, but, really, hadn’t the town, the customers, and even Cade himself been preparing her for this?

“Your little slip? Good God, Lonnie! This isn’t like using the cheater app for Words with Friends! You claimed he was your son’s father! You ruined his reputation. Forced him out of town.”

“
His dad
forced him out of town.” Lonnie drew a long, shaky breath. “Piper, I was still in high school when I had Hunter. I had had this thing with a guy who… I was a kid. A stupid kid. I made a lot of mistakes as far as Hunter was concerned.”

Her chest froze. Her legs went numb. Her faith in Lonnie began to shimmy as if on a foundation of Jell-O.

“What kind of mistakes could justify accusing Cade of something he hadn’t done?”

“I got pregnant by a married man. Someone who was in his twenties, with his own family, when I was sixteen. It was stupid, idiotic. When we realized I was pregnant, we both panicked. If we’d told the truth, we would have ruined his family. His whole life.”

Piper’s tight chest shuddered with an emotion so fierce she couldn’t even identify it. Her best friend hadn’t just lied to her. She’d held back an entire section of her life. An affair with a
married man
.

“So you ruined Cade instead?”

“I didn’t
ruin
him. I was giving him an out. Cade was a sad, lonely guy who needed somebody. In return for him saving me, I was a great girlfriend. When he wanted to get married to give Hunter a home, I suspected
he
was the one who wanted the home. And I knew I owed him.” She drew a harsh breath. “At the time, it didn’t seem like I was cheating him. It actually seemed like everything was fitting together.”

“But you let people believe for twelve years that he was Hunter’s father!”

“Because he wasn’t around for it to affect him! Now that he’s home for a whole year, working with you, I’ve been thinking about it. And I know I can’t use him anymore. And it’s also not fair for you to believe he did something that he didn’t do.”

“When were you going to tell me?”

Lonnie sighed. “Soon.” Her voice broke. “I knew the truth would come out. I just wanted to protect Hunter’s real father.”

“He was a guy in his twenties who had sex with a high school girl, and you’re still protecting him?”

“Actually, I’m protecting his family. He has a wife. Daughters. He could be the scum of the earth, but they don’t deserve to be hurt.”

Piper fell to her sofa. “I don’t even know what to say.”

“You could start off by saying you don’t hate me.”

“I don’t.” She didn’t. She could remember back to high school, to planning Lonnie’s wedding to Cade and remember how young they all were…how immature. The consequences of the situation Lonnie had gotten herself into were far, far beyond her ability to deal with at her age.

“I would like to beat the crap out of Hunter’s father. But it’s not my choice how you handle it.”

“Once the news breaks, my mom’s going to call. I have to decide what to say, how to break the news. What to tell and what not to tell or even if I should tell anybody at all.”

“Well, you better figure out everything soon because Bunny Farmer’s got the scoop and it will be a miracle if she doesn’t print a newsletter.”

“I’m so sorry, Piper.”

She squeezed her eyes shut. She couldn’t hate Lonnie. But she sure as hell was having trouble with being lied to, being used, and she couldn’t even fathom what Cade felt. “Like you said, you were just a kid.”

“At the time everything made perfect sense.”

“Yeah, well. You have to fix this for Cade.”

“I swear I will. But you said everybody was figuring it out anyway, so maybe, for once, I can let the rumor mill do something good. Let it clear him. It’s going to be hard enough explaining things to my mom and dad.” She burst into tears. “That’s about all I can deal with right now, Piper.”