Free Chasing the Runaway Bride by Susan Meier Page B

even as he made things right.”
    “I don’t know, Mom.”
    “Does Cade seem like he belongs?”
    “He never comes out of the office.”
    She leaned back in her recliner. “I rest my case. He doesn’t want to be here. He works on a ranch in Montana. He’s a cowboy. Hell, he still wears that obnoxious hat.”
    Piper held back a grimace. Her mom thought the hat was obnoxious. She thought the hat was sexy. Really sexy. Hot, hot, sexy.
    Oh, Lord. She really had to stop thinking about him.
    “Give him a nudge, Piper. The boy wants to go. We want him gone. Even Richard knew he’d run.”
    “It sounds possible.”
    Karen patted Piper’s hand. “Sleep on it. In the light of day you’ll realize you’re doing Cade a favor.”
    After a glass of milk and twenty minutes of a television show about a murder, Piper left her mother’s and drove home. In her quiet living room, she checked her phone and found a text from Lonnie. How’s it going working with Cade?
    And everything clicked together in her head. Poor Lonnie had to be worried about her to keep asking. Richard Hyatt couldn’t possibly have believed she and Cade would make it an entire year. As a lifelong resident of Harmony Hills, she had no reason to leave, which meant he did think Cade would leave. He probably wouldn’t care if she nudged Cade out.
    But the only thing was…
    She had no idea how.
    How did somebody nudge out her enemy?
    Kick him to the curb?
    Make him so angry that he left…
    Hmm…that one had possibilities.
    …
    Cade cautiously walked into the grocery store the next morning. Though this wasn’t Piper’s shift, he’d seen her car in the parking lot. Normally, he wouldn’t give a horse’s behind if she chose to work all thirteen hours the store was open. But after his conversation with Devon the night before, discovering she was a runaway bride? He should have had all the ammo he needed to corral his hormones. Instead, they’d decided that her inability to commit was directly compatible with his lack of desire to commit and they should have some fun together. And nothing he could say about feuds or her beliefs about his leaving her friend at the altar could dissuade them.
    He walked through the front of the store, past the coffee station and Karen O’Riley, who tossed him a confusing smile. But he didn’t see Piper.
    Having the sneaking suspicion she was in the office, he unlocked the cage and headed there. As the door opened, he saw her standing by the filing cabinets.
    Her head snapped up when she heard the door, and she grinned at him. “Hey, partner! What’s up?”
    Today she wore low-rise jeans and a clingy shirt that all but advertised the perfection of the curve of her waist. A waist so small his hands tingled with the knowledge that they could span it.
    He cleared his throat. “It’s not your shift.”
    She laughed cheerily. “I know! But you’ve been stuck in this office since we opened. I thought I’d see what the attraction is for you. Why you won’t come out and socialize.”
    Oops.
    “Plus, the cashiers tell me you’ve never been on the sales floor.” She closed the filing cabinet drawer. “I thought today might be a great day for you to learn how to stock shelves.”
    “Very funny.”
    She pointed at her face. “Do I look like I’m laughing?”
    She wasn’t laughing, but she was definitely smiling. As if she was enjoying this. He thought back to his conversation with Devon. If she’d truly left two guys at the altar because she feared she’d be left the way he’d left Lonnie, she probably thought she owed him a little revenge.
    Especially after the way he’d tormented her the day before.
    Casting a longing glance at the computer, he stifled the need to find his grandfather’s proof and caught her gaze as he rubbed his hand along the back of his neck.
    “You know what? You’re right.” He walked toward her. “We are partners. And I guess you’re thinking I’ve been leaving you with all the dirty