Chapter 13
NASH
Itold myself I was crazy as I drove the way here this morning.
There was no chance that Piper—a girl I hardly know, and who’s more or less hated me for most of the time we have known each other—would run away from the altar to get into my truck.
But I also told Piper that I’d be in that parking lot in case she did, and I try to be a man of my word.
Now that we’re on the highway and Piper’s sitting next to me, the wind blowing through the open windows and ruffling her wedding dress, the whole damn world feels crazy.
It’s damn hard to keep my eyes on the road with Piper sitting next to me in her white wedding dress, perfect makeup, and her hair done up like she’s … well, like she’s about to walk down the aisle.
The thought sneaks into my head that maybe it’d be damn hard to keep my eyes on the road with Piper sitting next to me no matter what she was wearing.
She’s only been in this truck while wearing fancy dresses with perfect makeup and hair.
I wonder how it would feel to have her next to me wearing something more casual.
Like cut-off jean shorts and a t-shirt. The image flashes in my mind, but I chase it away, because I shouldn’t be half-hard while driving a girl away from her wedding. Something about that just seems wrong.
“What are you supposed to do after you abscond from a wedding?” Piper asks.
There’s a note of freedom in her voice that makes my chest feel light.
That’s how Piper’s supposed to sound. She’s not supposed to sound constrained, like she did the last time I talked to her. She’s not supposed to sound like she’s doing something just because she doesn’t have any other options.
I can’t say I knew Piper well for those two years we lived next to each other, but I sure as hell knew enough to know that’s not her.
“I don’t know,” I answer. “My own broke up before we made it this far.”
I feel Piper’s gaze on me. “You were engaged?”
“Surprised someone could put up with me that long?”
I expect Piper to enthusiastically agree. But instead, she asks, “What happened?”
I work my jaw, getting ready to answer. “Found out she’d been cheating.”
In my peripheral vision, I can sense Piper’s lips tug down. “Yeah. Me, too.”
“Well, some people don’t find out until after the wedding. Guess we’re the lucky ones.”
The laugh that pops out of Piper’s mouth is dripping with enough irony to fill the bed of my truck. “Oh, yeah, lucky us.”
Piper’s phone starts going crazy with notifications. “Looks like they’ve discovered my absence,” she says.
I grunt in acknowledgment.
“I really should talk to my sister and my mom. I mean, I don’t want them to think I was literally kidnapped. Could get you into trouble if I’m spotted in your truck in that case.”
She slyly nudges me, and the contact has my stomach twisting in a way I didn’t think it was capable of at this age. I just grunt again.
I try to tune out Piper’s conversation as she assures her mom and sister that she’s okay.
I might be her getaway driver as she runs away from her wedding, but I don’t want to stick my nose in too much of her business.
What I pick up is that she tells them she found out Crew was cheating, that she can’t go through with the wedding, and that she’ll talk more later because she needs space.
After she hangs up, we’re silent for a while as my truck eats up the empty road in front of us.
“How are you feeling?” I ask.
“Hungry.”
I can’t help but laugh. “Sorry. It’s just, I was the same way. When Bridgett and I broke up. I thought I’d be mopey all day, have no appetite. But I was starving. I ordered a large pizza with mozzarella sticks and ate the whole thing in one sitting.”
I’ve never told anyone about that before. Never really talked to anyone about what happened between Bridgett and me at all.
Piper laughs, too. “Look at us, bonding over being cheated on. How pathetic.”
“Is that what we’re doing? Bonding?”
My voice was too thick when I asked that question. A tension that wasn’t there before seeps into the space between us.
Piper blows out a heavy breath. “I don’t know what we’re doing.”
When I spot a sign about fifty yards ahead, I activate my turn signal. “Well, I do. We’re getting burgers.”
“Burgers?” Piper’s voice perks up. “Nash, I’m starting to think you’re smarter than I used to give you credit for.”
“I can’t express how much your opinion of my intelligence means to me.”
Piper huffs a laugh at my sarcasm.
We go through the drive-through. There’s a nice breeze, and the sun isn’t too harsh today, so we decide to sit on the tailgate of my truck while we eat our burgers and fries in the parking lot of a roadside Wendy’s.
I’m wearing dark jeans and a chambray shirt with the sleeves rolled up, while Piper’s in a damn wedding dress. A couple cars slow down to gawk at us as they pass.
Piper toes off her uncomfortable-looking heels, letting them drop to the parking lot asphalt. I’ve never been a foot guy or anything, but something about the sight of her long calves leading to her bare feet … fuck me.
I act like there’s something very interesting inside my French fry container to occupy my eyes elsewhere.
“So, what’s the next step?” I ask. “I don’t mind driving around for a while, but I do have practice on Monday.”
“Good question. I didn’t exactly plan ahead when I skipped out on my wedding.”
“Piper Dashwood didn’t plan ahead? Color me shocked.”
I’m still trying to keep my eyes on my food so I don’t ogle her, but I sense her shooting me a wry look.
She sighs, and I can feel her mood shifting.
“It would’ve been nice to get that inheritance and own my bakery.
Worst-case scenario now that I don’t have anywhere to live, I can sleep on Hallie’s couch for as long as I need.
But the bakery …” She takes a deep breath and lets out another sigh.
“I don’t know, maybe I should’ve just gone through with the marriage just long enough to buy the bakery, then divorced Crew. ”
The flavor of the burger turns bitter in my mouth.
She huffs, shaking her head. “Talk about not planning ahead. I don’t know why I didn’t think of that. It would’ve been worth putting up with six months of a sham marriage to get my inheritance.”
And give that piece of shit time to try and pull the wool over her eyes, make her think he’s changed, give him a chance to trap her?
She shouldn’t have to spend even another day in his presence.
“I wonder if there’s still time to go through with it, just to do that. It doesn’t have to be real …” Her features are pulled in thought, like she’s actually considering this.
Fuck that. Her cheating fiancé doesn’t deserve to look at her and hear her say I do. Doesn’t deserve to call her his, even if it is phony on her part.
It doesn’t have to be real—Piper’s words replay in my mind.
“All you have to do is get married?” I ask. “That’s it?”
As soon as the question leaves my mouth, I can’t shake the feeling that I’ve started a chain reaction.
“That’s it,” she says. “I only get it after six months, though. So it has to last that long. Maybe I can put up with Crew for six months, knowing what it’s for, knowing that it’s fake …”
It tastes like there’s acid in my mouth instead of Wendy’s burger sauce. The thought of some asshole named Crew Bentley sliding another ring on her finger while she’s dying inside makes me want to turn around and punch through my rear window.
“It can be anyone?” I ask. “You could marry anyone, whenever, and get that money?”
“Yeah.” Piper chuckles, a mix of amusement and bitterness. “Hallie would totally fake marry me for half a year so I can get my inheritance. But, well, she’s my sister, and there are certain laws.”
What am I thinking right now? Am I really about to do something so stupid?
I plant my boots on the ground and stand up from the tailgate.
I guess so.
I turn to Piper. She’s halfway through a chew after just stuffing a big handful of fries into her mouth. A questioning look fills her green eyes.
Then, with a half-eaten bacon cheeseburger in my hand, I get down on one knee, my denim scraping against the cracked and sun-bleached asphalt.
“Piper Dashwood, will you marry me?”