Total pages in book: 21
Estimated words: 19661 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 98(@200wpm)___ 79(@250wpm)___ 66(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 19661 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 98(@200wpm)___ 79(@250wpm)___ 66(@300wpm)
I take my seat beside him, feeling really anxious. He’s technically newly single, so if my dreams do come true, I wouldn’t be a homewrecker. “So, what’s next? Do you have to call your family and tell them not to show up now?”
“Don’t have many coming, to be honest. I’m an only child coming from an only child’s family, and my mother passed years ago. The rest of the family pretty much cut us off and couldn’t care less that I was getting married.”
“What about Ophelia’s family?”
“I’m sure she’s already furiously posting on the internet, bad-mouthing me and saying what a worthless man I am. She’s been saying it since I met her. Toxic lot, her whole family. They all get nasty about one another behind their backs too. I wasn’t looking forward to regular Christmases with them.”
I sink back into the pew, staring at the ceiling. “I know all about families like that. It’s why I haven’t talked to my own in years.”
“If you’re away from them, then you’re free of their influence. You have to do what you have to do to stay sane, Piper.”
“I’ve been a lot happier without them sticking their noses in my life, pretending to care about me, yes.”
“I should have never gotten engaged to a woman like Ophelia. But that’s in the past now. No point dwelling on it.”
Nervously, my gaze drifts around the church, fixating on nothing in particular. “What kind of woman do you want to get engaged to, if not her?”
Luke chuckles. I feel his gaze on me and my eyes meet his once more, stopping their wandering. “I’ve been thinking about just that these past few weeks, actually.”
“What do you mean by that?”
“Doing business with you, talking to you, seeing you. It’s pretty clear what I want out of a woman, Piper. I want you.”
The world seems to freeze. The only thing I perceive is a chill down my spine.
Did he just say what I think he said?
Oh my. Oh dear. I’m speechless.
2
LUKE
Piper stares at me as if I just declared I’m the Emperor of Neptune and all should bow to me before I smite them with lightning and falling pianos.
In essence, like I’ve gone completely mad.
Which feels fair. I’ve just declared my desire for her mere minutes after my fiancée stormed off for the stupidest reasons I can think of.
It’s inappropriate of me, honestly. This is a hard-working woman, worthy of respect. She has one hell of a work ethic to do what she does, and deserves more than some random rich guy coming up to her and telling her he wants her à propos of nothing.
I’m still in the tuxedo I’m meant to be married in, no less. I must seem mad to move on so fast, even if my last relationship wasn’t as strong as it should have been.
I’m expecting her to stand up, turn, and flee faster than Ophelia did. And unlike with Ophelia, I would have completely understood.
Instead? She surprises me. She just lets out a loud laugh. “Hah! You know what? I think I would like it if you were with a girl like me too.”
“Really?”
“I’ve had a crush on you ever since you first wandered into my shop.”
“I could say the same, honestly.”
“Even though you were there with your fiancée?”
I shake my head. “I think I’ve made it pretty clear that Ophelia and I weren’t a couple made from love alone.”
“Or love at all is what I’m gathering.”
I grumble and nod. “I don’t think there would have been a second date without my father involved.”
“He has that much sway over you?”
I let out a sigh. “It’s a long story.”
“And I have the time.”
“If you insist.” I cross my legs on the pew. “My father isn’t my biological father. I’m adopted.”
“If he loves you, that shouldn’t make much of a difference.”
“It does. It makes me grateful to him. Even if I’m not working for him anymore, I have him to thank for the opportunities that got me where I am in life. If I stayed an orphan in the system, my life would be so much different, and likely a whole lot worse.”
“And that’s why you gave in to his pressure to make a deal with that woman and her family?”
I nod. “He wanted it. Stated the obvious benefits for his business. He also thought being married would be good for me. That starting a family would ground me and make me think more about the future than the now.”
“Did he know the woman was a complete bitch?”
“She was never eager to meet my father so he could find out.”
“Figures.”
“I guess there’s part of me that believed what he said. That perhaps we could grow to love one another. I thought about the past, how sometimes love grew from arranged marriages that started with none of it. And I thought about how much I want a family of my own, something I never had.”