Free Chasing the Runaway Bride by Susan Meier Page A

that’s what happens.”
    Cade fell back on the sofa again. “With no customers it doesn’t matter. Pap’s will says that if it fails to make a profit, it becomes a parking lot.”
    “Then it’s a win all the way around. We get what we want, and Piper loses the store. So ride it out. Because once Dad signs the agreement, the world is ours, little brother.”
    He thought of the ranch. Thought of owning his own piece of paradise. In a few weeks, his life would be perfect and Piper’s would turn to a world of shit.
    He squeezed his eyes shut. “That doesn’t sound right, either.”
    “Are you getting soft on her?”
    He was anything but soft when he was around Piper. “It’s more that I can see that O’Riley’s means a lot to her.”
    “Look, Cade, our family’s been fighting the O’Rileys for thirty years. Her mother turned half the town against us. But it was Pap who suffered. He went to that store day in and day out and kept it open through no profits just so his friends and supporters would have a place to buy bread and milk. And still, Piper’s mother bad-mouthed him. Piper’s cut from the same cloth as Karen. Do. Not. Trust. Her.”

Chapter Seven
    Piper got into her car after closing the store at the end of her shift. She headed for her apartment, but on second thought took a right and drove to her mom’s.
    She didn’t exactly want to tell her mother she was hot for her partner. But she didn’t want to be home alone for the rest of the night remembering the way he’d trapped her against the filing cabinet. The moment had been too intense, too wonderful, to forget.
    And the feelings. All those things she’d never felt for either of her fiancés. All those things she’d never even known existed.
    As if she could outrun her thoughts, she scrambled up the walk, the steps to the back porch, and through the kitchen door. “Mom?”
    “Back here.”
    She made her way to the family room where her mom sat in her recliner watching one of her favorite shows. As Piper walked in, she muted the sound.
    “What’s up?”
    She sat on the ugly flowered sofa. “I don’t know.”
    Karen laughed. “It’s not easy working with your enemy, is it?”
    Piper winced. “I knew it was going to be challenging. But I just didn’t realize how challenging.”
    “That’s because the guy’s two steps away from being a criminal. Come on, Piper. If the stories those brothers tell about their dad are true, that he beat them and their mom…Cade’s cut from the same cloth. He’s a tough guy who always thinks he’s right. And he’s not afraid to hurt people. Look at Lonnie.”
    She frowned.
    Her mom’s voice softened. “He doesn’t support his own child, and by working with him I feel like you and I are supporting him, saying what he did in the past doesn’t matter…that his son doesn’t matter.”
    “I’m just trying to get my share of the store.”
    Her mom shifted on her recliner. “Yeah, well, I’ve been thinking about that too.”
    Piper’s gaze flew to her mother’s. “You think I should quit? Lose half the store?”
    “Just the opposite. I think you should make him quit.”
    “What?”
    “The day of the will reading, you told me that if Cade left, the entire store went to you.”
    Piper nodded.
    “Well, I think there’s a reason Richard put that in. I think deep down he knew the store belonged with us.”
    “Really?”
    “I think he left the other half of the store to Cade, the Donovan from out of town, because he knew Cade wouldn’t stay.”
    Cade had told her he wanted to buy the ranch where he worked as foreman…as soon as his commitment to the store was done. “You think Richard wanted O’Riley’s to go to us?”
    “I think leaving half to Cade was his way of saving face. He didn’t out-and-out leave the store to you, because that would be admitting he cheated your dad. So I think he put in that clause for Cade to get a shot at owning half of it, knowing Cade would leave, saving face