Chasing the Runaway Bride (3 page)

Just as she reached Jeff’s office, that same Chevy Silverado pulled up to the curb and Cade Donovan got out. Wearing dress pants and a white shirt, he reached in and pulled out his black Stetson, plopping it on his head before rounding his truck’s hood and stepping up to the curb…and right into her.

Because, once again, she’d been standing there like an idiot, staring at him.

This time when he saw her, he didn’t smile. There was no “Mornin’ darlin’,” for her. He took a step back and politely said, “Sorry. You okay?”

She smiled slightly, if only because he’d been so polite. But inside, she cursed herself for finding him so attractive. Whatever cowboy-good-looking-ex-military-guy pheromones he spewed, they were powerful.

“Yeah. I’m fine. I didn’t even trip. Just wobbled.”

He put his fingers on the brim of his hat to tip it slightly. “Sorry again.” Then he motioned for her to pass.

“I’m not walking by.” She pointed up the steps. “This is my stop.”

He frowned. “Mine, too.” Once again stiffly polite and proper, he motioned for her to precede him up the stairs to the porch. “After you, Ms. O’Riley.”

Ouch. So he’d figured out who she was. That explained his frosty greeting. She nodded and walked up the steps.

But her back tingled. So did her butt. Then her legs. As if she could feel his gaze sliding along her body the way she knew it had on Saturday morning when they’d walked through the store to find the less expensive wedding card.

The thought filled her with absolutely too much pleasure, and she was grateful when she reached the door. She put her hand on the knob, but he brushed it away.

“Allow me.” Deep, with a rumble that sounded like it came from the bottom of his soul, his voice seemed to reach inside her and fill her with warmth.

She nearly shook her head at her stupidity. Sure, she wanted to be attracted to a guy—really, unholy, I-need-to-have-sex-with-you-right-now attracted—but Cade Donovan? That had to be an aberration.

Still, if he could be polite, she could be, too. She stepped into the foyer reception area for Jeff’s office.

Undoubtedly still perusing the cosmetics counter at Health Aid, Molly wasn’t at the desk to greet them. Piper faced Cade with a wince. “Molly came to get me at Health Aid, which is why she’s not here.”

Drat. Did he have to have such beautiful dark eyes? High cheekbones? Such a perfect square chin?

And did she have to sound so nervous? Like a teenager meeting a rock star?

She straightened her spine. No. She did not. This was Cade Donovan, for God’s sake, the man who’d left her best friend at the altar. Grandson of the man who’d cheated her dad. She might be in the market for a fling, but she wasn’t an idiot.

“Attorney Franklin’s expecting me, so I’m just going to go back to his office.”

Cade’s brow wrinkled. “He’s expecting me, too. Told me Molly’s gonna be out, so I should just head back.”

“Oh. Well, you go, then. I’ll wait here—”

Jeff stepped out of his office at the end of the hall. “No, Piper. You both need to come back.”

…

We both need to go back?

Cade’s eyes narrowed as he watched Piper walk toward Jeff. Part of him still reeled at the knowledge that this gorgeous woman was Piper O’Riley. Frankly, she was just too darned pretty. The Piper O’Riley he remembered had worn thick glasses and kept her hair short. This Piper’s dark-as-midnight straight hair had been pulled into a ponytail that fell like a silken waterfall down her back. She didn’t have glasses. And her body? In that tank top and tight jeans?

Arousal sparked in his blood. He cursed it. This was crazy. Stupid.

Ever since Lonnie tricked him, lied to him, tried to make him a sucker to cover her mistake, he didn’t do stupid things.

Standing in his office doorway, Jeff motioned for Cade to follow Piper. “Come on, Cade. I need to talk to both of you. Together.”

His gut tightened then soured. Why would Jeff want
Piper
in on a meeting about the reading of his grandfather’s will?

He shook his head and strode down the hall. It didn’t matter. Until the estate was settled, he had to do whatever Jeff asked.

He entered the office, and Jeff motioned to the two captain’s chairs in front of his desk. “Everybody sit.”

Pretty Piper walked to a seat. With no other choice, Cade sat beside her.

Jeff dropped to the tall-back chair behind the desk. Balding, dressed in a navy blue suit that was just slightly too tight for his high-school-football-player-gone-to-seed body, he sat forward, bracing his arms on his desk and knitting his fingers together on top of some papers. “Piper, you’re here because one item in Richard Hyatt’s will pertains to you.”

Her pretty green eyes widened. “Something in
Richard Hyatt’s
will pertains to me?” Her gaze sliced to Cade’s. She was as confused as he was.

“Yes. So that’s all we’re going to talk about. That one bequest. After that you leave. Agreed?”

She nodded. Her midnight ponytail shifted and shimmered. Everything male in Cade shifted and shimmered.

He ground his teeth. It was one thing to have some sort of business with her because of his grandfather’s estate, but to be attracted to her? An
O’Riley
? Who was also the best friend of the woman who’d tried to pass another man’s child off as his?

There was no way he would be attracted to her.

“Okay.” Jeff cleared his throat and picked up the copy of the will. “It was Richard Hyatt’s wish that Piper O’Riley and his grandson, Cade Donovan”—he nodded at Cade—“share O’Riley’s grocery store.”

It took a second for that to sink in. When it did, righteous indignation exploded through him. “What?”

Jeff raised tired eyes to Cade. “It was your grandfather’s wish that you and Piper share O’Riley’s.”

Righteous indignation became red-hot anger. He rounded on Piper. “What did you do to him, say to him? After decades of you and your mom convincing your friends not to shop at O’Riley’s, basically ruining his business, how the hell did you get him to give you half the store?”

Face forward, Piper said, “I didn’t. I’ve never even spoken to your grandfather. Never. Not once in my life.”

He huffed out a sound of disbelief. “Right. You might not have, but your mother took every opportunity she could find to ostracize him—”

“My mother never ostracized your grandfather!” Piper turned so quickly he didn’t have time to tell himself not to notice her pert little nose or her big emerald green eyes. “If her friends chose not to shop at O’Riley’s, maybe that was because they didn’t want to shop at a store owned by a known cheater.”

Jeff went on as if they hadn’t spoken. “Your grandfather believed the Hyatt/O’Riley feud over the store split the town. At first, he wasn’t going to give it to anyone. He wanted the building to be leveled and the ground paved. At which point it would be deeded to Saint Mark’s for an overflow parking lot.”

Piper blinked.

Cade gaped.

“But, in the end, he knew the town needed a store. So he figured if the two of you ran it, eventually the feud would resolve itself.”

So angry he could feel the pulse beating in his throat, Cade said, “What if we want to sell it?”

“You can’t. The will says you’re to run the store together, as equal partners, for an entire year. If the store is making a profit at the end of the year, that will be proof the feud is over and the two of you can do what you wish with it. Sell it if you like. But if the store doesn’t make a profit, it becomes Saint Mark’s parking lot. Or, Cade, if you refuse these terms, the store goes to Piper.”

“The store goes to
Piper
?” Fury set his body on fire. His nerves crackled. His muscles jumped with the need to throw something. Didn’t his grandfather realize that giving the store to Piper was as good as admitting he
had
cheated Sean O’Riley when he’d won the grocery store from him all those years ago?

He could not believe his grandfather had done this.

…

Piper had never before been stunned into silence, but obviously today was a day for surprises. Here she was, expecting to be sued, and, instead, she got half a grocery store.

Without turning her head, she sneaked a peek at Cade. If the fire in his eyes was any indication, he’d passed mad and had landed somewhere near furious. That didn’t bode well for a partnership. Particularly since she wasn’t exactly thrilled to be joined at the hip with this man.

She couldn’t picture herself and Cade spending two days together, let alone an entire year…

An entire year.

“We have to agree now? Today?”

Jeff’s old office chair groaned under his weight when he shifted forward. “Yes.”

Even considering Cade’s anger, she knew what she had to do. Richard Hyatt was clearly righting a wrong with this bequest, and she wanted her dad’s store back in O’Riley hands. Let Cade refuse to work with her. Then the whole damned business would be hers.

“I want to run it,” she said.

Cade rose. “If I have to make a choice now—this very second—and the option is run the store or see it go to
her
, then I want to run it, too.” He turned to the door.

Jeff leaped out of his seat. “Cade! Where are you going?”

“Outside to call
my
attorney and see how quickly we can contest this thing.”

Jeff groaned. “Oh, don’t do that. We’ve got ten minutes before the rest of your family gets here for the official will reading. There are a lot of things we need to go over before they do.”

“There’s
more
?”

“Yes. Lots more. And when we’re done, you may see there’s no need to call your lawyer. You won’t want to contest the will.”

Piper glanced nervously at Jeff. More news for the Donovan/Hyatt family? This was a part of the deal she had absolutely no interest in hearing. And she didn’t think either Cade or Jeff would want her to. “Maybe I should get going? You said I could leave after you read the bequest.”

Jeff nodded. “Yes. Thank you, Piper, for coming in.”

She grinned. “My pleasure.”

She walked out of the office and into the sunshine again, unable to believe what had just happened. Had she actually inherited half of O’Riley’s? Had her dad’s name really been cleared? His shame wiped away?

She wished he’d lived to see it, but it didn’t matter. The wrong had been righted.

But more than that, in the course of a few sentences, she’d also become a business owner.

She frowned. She might be a business owner, this might feel like the happiest, luckiest day of her life, but she had to spend the next year with Cade Donovan. A guy who didn’t like her and whom she absolutely loathed.

A guy she found too attractive for words.

Crap.

Chapter Three

Hearing the front door close behind Piper, Cade fell to his captain’s chair.

Jeff opened his desk drawer and pulled out an envelope. He handed it across the desk. “From your grandfather. An explanation.”

Taking the letter, Cade shook his head. “This had better be good.”

He opened the envelope and pulled out the single sheet of paper that held only a few handwritten lines.

Sorry about this, Cade. But I want to settle this once and for all. There’s proof in my office that I didn’t cheat Piper’s dad. Once you find it, you’ll have to figure out the best way to tell Karen O’Riley and the rest of the town. Be delicate. The woman really did suffer.

Cade closed his eyes and sucked in a breath, relieved that his grandfather had a way to clear his name. That he understood. But why was he making him work with Piper for an entire year?

Jeff said, “Did you read it all?”

He opened his eyes again, let his gaze fall to the last bit.

I also want you to end the Lonnie Simmons lies. I can’t let you go through life without your family as you have the past years. You might think you love Montana, but I think you need to be home. Running the store, you’ve got a whole year’s worth of opportunities to tell people you aren’t Hunter Simmons’s father.

Annoyed, he crumpled the letter, then realized he was destroying the last words his beloved grandfather would say to him. He smoothed out the sheet, folded it, and tucked it in his pocket. Only a fool tossed away his favorite grandfather’s last letter. No matter how angry it made him.

He could understand settling the score with the O’Rileys. He loved that there was proof to clear his grandfather’s name. But the Lonnie Simmons lies? He’d seen DNA results that proved Hunter wasn’t his child two minutes before he would have walked to the altar to marry Lonnie. Then Doc had taken them back, knowing he’d lose his license if word got out that he’d revealed private test results. How the hell was he going to tell people he wasn’t Hunter’s dad without proof? Everybody would simply think he was lying.

Meddling old man.

“So you get it?”

“He knows my leaving Lonnie at the altar can’t be fixed.”

Jeff winced. “Is that why he gave the store to you and Piper? Not to end the feud, but to give you time to mend your reputation?”

“You didn’t read the letter?”

“No. I just wrote the will. But he told me that what he put in the letter would get you onboard with the bequest.” He leaned back in his chair and blew out a breath. “I think you’re right, though. Your grandfather was delusional if he thought the fallout from you leaving Lonnie could be fixed. In a town the size of Harmony Hills, people have long memories. And they like their gossip.”

“No kidding.”

“So what are you going to do?”

“Well, Pap says there’s proof in the office that he didn’t cheat Sean. I could find that, clear his name, and leave.”

“Then Piper gets the store.”

Fury trembled through him again. She and her mom had lied about his grandfather for thirty years. But if he found the proof that redeemed his grandfather and went back to Montana,
she
got the store?

Not on his watch.

“I’m sure as hell not just handing over the store to an O’Riley. I’d rather see it become a parking lot.”