Chasing the Runaway Bride (6 page)

“My mom does.”

He smiled stiffly. “It’s not rocket science. After a few days with the books and a few days actually running the store, I’m sure we’ll figure it out.”

She nodded and rose, but, as she did, the phone rang.

He sat forward and picked it up without a second thought. “O’Riley’s.”

“Hi, um…Is this Cade Donovan?”

“Yes. Who is this?”

“Um. It’s Wendy Nelson. I work…worked…for your grandfather. Is it true Piper O’Riley now owns the store?”

He leaned back in his chair. “No. Well, yes and no. She and I inherited it together.”

Wendy said nothing for a second, then she very softly said, “Then I quit.”

He scrambled up in his seat again. “You quit?”

Halfway to the door, Piper faced him.

“Yeah, and I think Frank and Cathy will be calling you too.”

“Why?”

“I’m not working for Piper O’Riley.”

“You won’t be. You’ll be working for me.”

“So Piper won’t be there?”

“Wendy, I’m not going to lie. She owns half the store. She’s going to be here.”

“Then I’m not.”

With that, she hung up on him. He caught Piper’s gaze. “Wendy quit.”

“Wendy Nelson?”

He nodded.

She walked back to the desk, fell to the chair in front of it, and groaned.

“You two have a history?”

She avoided his gaze. “You could say that.”

“You want to tell me about it?”

“No.”

He smiled and sat back on the chair. “So, it looks like you’re not one up on me after all.”

“One up on you?”

“Oh, come on. You know everybody hates me because of Lonnie. But it looks like this little Nelson thing makes us even. What’d
you
do?”

She raised her pretty green eyes to meet his but shook her head, refusing to answer.

He held back a laugh. Small-town disagreements. Sometimes they were insanity.

“Never mind. It’s not important. The important thing is, whatever you did, it’s enough that you’ve got enemies, too. So we’re on even ground.”

She quietly said, “We might be on even ground, but with the Nelsons quitting, it also looks like there’s room to hire my mother.”

Chapter Five

Two hours later, Piper tucked two O’Riley’s smocks and a copy of the work schedule for the next week into her mom’s hands and said good-bye to her at the door. Now that the schedule had been made and basic differences ironed out, Cade had commandeered the office to study the books, so she decided to tour the sales floor.

She turned from the door and faced the low, wide store. Fighting back tears of sheer joy, she forced herself to focus, concentrate, get the lay of the land so she could whip this thing into shape.

Candy, chips, and cookies on the right. Rows of groceries in the middle. Fresh vegetables, deli, and bakery in the back. Freezer and refrigeration section—including milk—on the far left. And customers. Curious O’Riley supporters trailed up and down the aisles, examining the store they’d boycotted for three decades as Hyatt supporters ignored them.

“Hey, Piper.”

The greeting came from Bunny Farmer, the thirty-three-year-old blond head cashier with two hellion sons, who stood by the middle register. With April Johnson back in the bakery, Joni Zimmerman in the deli, and no groceries to ring up, she was alone and looked bored in the checkout aisles.

“Hey, Bunny.”

“I like your shirt.”

Nearly past the register area, Piper stopped, turned, and smiled. In Bunnyworld a clothing compliment was high praise, not to be ignored. “Thanks.”

“If you’re still looking for cashiers, since the Nelsons and their friend quit because they don’t want to work with you, I have two friends who are willing to interview.”

Piper had been in management long enough to know she’d just been served the Human Resources sandwich. When someone needed a reprimand, Human Resources at Health Aid directed managers to compliment, then reprimand, then compliment again. They believed bad news went down easier sandwiched between two compliments.

Bunny had put a little bit of a spin on it. She sandwiched her insult between a compliment and a request for a favor. Same effect, though. The insult reminded her that she should be grateful anybody wanted to work for her, so she should grant the favor.

“I’m not so sure the Nelsons quit because of Piper.” Jenny Forsythe, a tall brunette who’d spent her entire life at least twenty pounds overweight, walked to her cash register, apparently just arriving for the nine o’clock shift. “Wendy and Cathy both got jobs at the candy factory.” She shrugged into her O’Riley’s Market smock. “There’s a waiting list for those jobs. They didn’t just walk in this morning and get hired. This has been in the works for months.”

Piper smiled at Jenny. But regardless of why the Nelsons quit, she was still short cashiers. She faced Bunny. “Have your friends stop by and fill out applications.”

She headed toward the back of the store again. Even from a distance she heard Bunny needle Jenny. “So you think it’s a coincidence that Piper takes over and the Nelsons quit?”

Her face reddened. Here it came. Scorn about her being the runaway bride. The condescending attitude. The snickers behind her back. The refusal of anyone to completely respect her.

Cool as an October morning, Jenny didn’t miss a beat. “Yes. But even if it isn’t, if I were you, I might be a little more careful about how I treat the new boss. This isn’t Health Aid. She doesn’t answer to a corporate office anymore. You can’t torment her and threaten to call the corporate office and complain if she fights back. She
is
the corporate office here.”

Piper stopped walking. Holy crap. Had Jenny just defended her?

“I’m just saying—” Bunny began, but Jenny interrupted her.

“I know what you’re saying. The woman’s a nutcase who likes to get engaged and embarrass her fiancé when she publicly dumps him. But she’s a nutcase who is our boss. You can gossip about her all you want when we leave. But while we’re in here, we have to pretend to like her.”

It wasn’t the best defense in the world, but Jenny was smart enough to at least respect her as a boss. For now, that had to be enough.

She straightened her shoulders. Rome wasn’t built in a day. It might take her the entire year she owned this store with Cade to repair her reputation, but she intended to repair it.

A head of lettuce flew over the bread aisle, bounced off her shoulder, and fell to the brown tile floor in front of her with a
thump
.

“What the—” She bent and picked it up as Myrna Feodore and Alice Lenosky came roaring around the corner. Myrna’s tennis shoes made a screeching noise as she skidded to a stop. Alice had one hand on her ever-present floppy sun hat and the other on the blue store basket she held.

“It’s mine!” Myrna said, grabbing the lettuce from Piper’s hand.

“Mine!” Alice disagreed, trying unsuccessfully to snatch it from Myrna.

“I got it first.”

“But you saw me reaching for it!”

Piper sighed. No one had ever come to blows over a vegetable in the drugstore, but there had been squabbles over greeting cards. Like it or not, solving these nitpicky problems was part of management.

“Alice, if Myrna picked it up first, it’s hers.”

“Just like an O’Riley to side with her friends.”

“This has nothing to do with friends—”

“Of course it does.” Alice straightened regally. “You know how your family has been, Piper.”

Myrna harrumphed. “At least O’Riley supporters took care of each other. Hyatt supporters were too busy walking around with their noses in the air—”

Before she could finish, Cade said, “Did I see a head of lettuce flying over the bread aisle?”

Not sure if she was grateful or annoyed that he’d felt he had to show up, Piper turned to answer Cade, but the words froze on her tongue. His white shirt might be a sensible grocer’s choice, but it hugged broad shoulders and tapered down, cruising his lean torso to trim hips. After years in the Marines and working on a ranch, his body was probably perfect—

She shook her head, flabbergasted at her thoughts, especially since they were in the middle of the great Hyatt/O’Riley lettuce war.

Alice turned to him with grateful eyes. “Cade, thank goodness you’re here. I had this head of lettuce and she”—she angled her thumb at Myrna—“took it from me.”

“That’s a lie. I already had it when she tried to snatch it out of my hands.”

Cade stretched around Myrna and looked at the tall stack of lettuce still in the bin. Piper’s gaze fell to his butt, taking in the sweet way the worn denim of his jeans caressed the well-defined muscles.

God help her, she had to stop looking at him.

“Alice, there’s lots of lettuce back there. You can’t pick another one?”

“
This
is the best in the bin.”

“I’m sure there are others—”

Alice dropped her blue O’Riley’s basket to the washed-out brown tile floor. “Well, Cade, I see your true colors are coming out, too.” She stepped over the basket. “I’d debated whether or not I wanted to support a man who’d walk away from a child. I gave you the benefit of the doubt,” she said, striding down the aisle toward the door. “I can see how wrong
that
was.” The automatic door opened, then closed after she walked through, her head high, nose in the air, just as Myrna had said.

For thirty seconds, stunned silence filled the store, then Myrna headed for the checkout with her coveted lettuce, and everyone began shopping again.

Cade met her gaze. “Are you okay, darlin’?”

Staring into his brown eyes, Piper couldn’t speak. The way he called her darlin’ in that sexy western drawl of his melted something inside her. He’d also just been insulted, yet he’d barely reacted.

“Piper?”

She sucked herself out of her reverie. If she wanted to make herself look sane to the town, she had to stop noticing his voice, his body, and his reactions to the customers.

Even though it was odd that what Alice said hadn’t insulted him.

She straightened her shoulders. “Yeah, I’m fine. The day I let a fight between two little old ladies throw me is the day I need to get out of management.”

Then the miraculous happened. He laughed. The sound was deep, rich, pure, and sent a tingle of delight up her spine. Her chest tightened. Butterflies danced in her tummy.

Luckily, he picked up Alice’s blue basket, turned, and walked back to the cashier’s cage. “Show’s over,” he said, unlocking the door. “So let’s all get back to work.”

Stifling the urge to kick her own butt, Piper headed for the bakery. Even Hyatt supporters didn’t like the fact that he’d left Lonnie to raise Hunter alone. Yet there she stood—Lonnie’s best friend—with her body tingling and her heart racing.

Worse, if anyone ever saw her noticing Cade, it would take about thirty seconds for that to circulate around town, and she’d be an even bigger laughingstock than she already was.

She’d better figure out a way to control this—soon.

…

A little after nine that night, Piper unlocked her apartment door and stepped inside. A bright aqua couch sat on a multicolored area rug that added life to the otherwise rundown room. She tossed her purse on the round table with mismatched chairs in what she called the dining room of her cramped living space and ambled into the old-fashioned kitchen with white cabinets and walls she’d painted sunny yellow.

As she grabbed a bottle of water from her old refrigerator with one hand, she pulled her cell phone from her jeans pocket with the other. After clicking a few icons, she pressed the one that dialed Lonnie’s number.

“So? How’s it going?”

Falling to her sofa, Piper winced. “It’s okay.”

“No problems from Cade? No fights? He didn’t bring me up, did he?”

“Nope. It’s like he’s pretending it didn’t happen. Basically, he’s all business.” Except when he called her darlin’ and gave her chill bumps. But Piper intended to ignore that until she got accustomed to it. Surely his voice and good looks couldn’t affect her forever—

Could they?

She didn’t know. She’d never been this kind of attracted to a man before.

“I could have told you he’d pretend the past didn’t happen.”

“Yeah, well, he seems to want to play fair.”

“That’s good then.”

“It feels weird working with the guy I know left you at the altar.” And weirder to be attracted to him. Horribly attracted. Breathlessly attracted. And she just wished she could talk about this with someone. But Lonnie was not that person.

“It doesn’t have to be. Just don’t talk about me with him and you’ll be fine.”

Except for the big honking attraction.

“Yeah. You’re right.”

The following morning, Piper woke at six, glad she’d talked to Lonnie. Cade might be a jerk, but he acted like a businessman. As Lonnie said, as long as they didn’t talk about her and/or Hunter, they could run the store.

She showered and almost dressed in her favorite jeans and a sexy top, but her inner good girl paused her hand over the lacy shirt. No woman trying to avoid an attraction dressed up when she’d be with the guy who made her heart stutter. Best to fade into the woodwork. Be humble Piper. Capable Piper. Helpful-to-customers Piper. Anything but sexy Piper.

She put the top back and chose a plain pink T-shirt. She also didn’t curl her hair. She pulled it into a high ponytail. Nothing sexy. Nothing interesting. Just plain, boring Piper, the woman who could live and work in a small town where she’d left two guys at the altar because she was emotionally in control. Always. No guy, no matter how sexy, would throw her off her game. She could handle this.

Driving her car into the grocery store parking lot, she noticed Cade’s truck was already there. She shoved open her car door and walked into O’Riley’s. Cade stood by the coffee and doughnut stand. The rich, sweet scent of warm doughnuts surrounded her, but she barely noticed. She was too busy staring at Cade.

He wore jeans as he had the day before, but today he didn’t wear a sedate white shirt. Today, he had on a thin cotton T-shirt. Unlike yesterday’s dress shirt, the T-shirt slid nicely across his broad chest and molded to his muscled torso. Short sleeves showed off a Semper Fi tattoo on his right bicep and a dragon tattoo on the left. The tail of the growling beast slithered down his forearm, almost to his wrist.