Stealing the Groom (12 page)

Chapter Twelve

Amelia’s temper did a slow boil until time for the lunch meeting. She’d been out-thiefed! She might have stolen the groom but the grandfathers had gone above and beyond that. They’d arranged an entire wedding out of thin air and produced both a bride
and
a groom. She had no doubt they were behind the reluctant I dos.

Wait until she got her hands on the two of them!

Turning onto Main Street, Amelia passed the First Bank of Sweet Creek, which still didn’t have an automatic teller machine, and noticed the scrolling marquee offering congratulations to her and Chad on their marriage.

They’d certainly made a mess of things.

In front of the diner, Amelia eased into a newly vacated parking spot. Through the restaurant’s large glass window, Noah waved as Amelia exited the Aston Martin Zagato she’d borrowed from Chad’s selection of cars.

Already the humidity of the day nudged toward a record high with the heat index, and the simple outfit she’d worn plastered against her skin. She’d pulled her hair up into a loose bun in an effort to keep her neck cool and was thankful she’d taken the time to do so.

Skirting an elderly couple walking slowly along the sidewalk, Amelia passed a magnolia tree with its fragrant white blossoms. Not that she paid too much attention to them. She was too busy obsessing over what she suspected their meddling grandfathers had done.

She entered the diner, the cool air washing over her bare arms. Nostalgia hit her as it always did when she walked into the family diner where she’d spent many days of her childhood.

Built in the late sixties, her grandparents’ diner was still a favorite hangout for teens and adults alike. Large murals of Elvis, Marilyn Monroe, and James Dean decorated the walls and an old-fashioned jukebox took up one corner by the large serving counter.

As she hurried past the old-timers gathered at the chipped white counter, Amelia returned the greetings from several people who congratulated her on the wedding. She felt like a fraud. Not only was the first wedding headed for an immediate annulment but about ten minutes after she confronted their grandfathers, the second one would be canceled. She only hoped they hadn’t started spreading the word that she and Chad were going to have a ceremony for the locals to attend.

Amelia kept the smile plastered on her lips even though her insides simmered with turmoil. Leaning over, she pressed a quick kiss to her grandfather’s cheek and slid into the booth opposite him and Henry.

“Where’s Chad?” Henry asked, peering over her shoulder, his gaze straying to the door.

“I called him before I left the house to remind him and got his secretary. She said he’s finishing up some loose ends at the office, but he’s on the way.”

“Good.” Henry took a sip of his iced tea, frowned, then spooned out the slice of lemon and placed it on a saucer. “There’s a reporter two tables over, so we’ll have to keep our voices down. We don’t want any of the details to get out before we’re ready.”

The newly hired waitress set a glass of water in front of Amelia and she quickly wrote down her order of a burger and fries.

After the waitress left, Amelia said, “I’m thankful the two of you are working
so
hard to put this wedding together.” Her sarcasm was completely lost on them.

“It’s the least we can do, dear.” Noah grinned, winked, and added sweetener to his coffee.

Henry toyed with the lemon, his gaze straying again to the door.

“I can imagine it will be especially difficult since this isn’t Honeymoon Hills where everything happens to be in one place for a wedding.”

She knew she’d hit the jackpot when the two men winced and Henry quickly glanced back at her. His cheeks puffed out as he exhaled. He tucked his hands below the table and lowered his eyes.

“How could you do this to us?” Amelia demanded, speaking softly so her voice wouldn’t carry. She unlaced her fingers and gripped the end of the table to keep from smacking it with her hand. She couldn’t remember the last time she’d felt so angry.

“Amelia, listen to me,” Henry began, but Amelia would have none of it.

“You set Chad and me up. There was never any threat from the board of directors, was there?”

“No,” Henry admitted.

“The sheriff? Were you behind sending him up to the cabin?”

“Not really. I suggested that Mrs. Foster check up on you two. She must have called him herself,” Henry said.

“I don’t know if I believe that.” She paused as a thought dawned on her. “Was the marriage license a fake too? Is that how you procured one so quickly?”

The men glanced at each other sheepishly and nodded.

“So that’s why you want another ceremony. What on earth were you thinking?”

Henry leaned forward to put his elbows on the table. He shot a glance at Noah and Amelia suspected he was measuring his words carefully. “The arrangement Chad and Claire established was real. It was an arrangement I had nothing to do with. But I wanted to prevent Chad from making a mistake by marrying that woman and ruining his life.”

“He wanted to stop Chad, just like you wanted to stop him when you stole him,” Noah chimed in to defend Henry.

“My stealing Chad was not the same. I was trying to get him to come to his senses, not lie to him and trick him into marrying me. I cannot believe you two would do something like this.”

“You love him.” Henry tried to reason but Amelia cut him off by shaking her head.

“That doesn’t matter.”

No matter how she felt about Chad, it still didn’t make what their grandfathers had done right.

“Most marriages start out with a lot less than friendship, and you and Chad certainly have that. You belong together, my dear. We’ve always known that,” Henry said.

“In your heart, you know that too, even if you won’t admit it. I’ve seen the way the two of you look at each other,” Noah added.

Amelia refused to be swayed. “That’s not your call to make. In case you didn’t realize it, we’re both adults and we have the right to make our own decisions about whom we marry. You’ve both outdone yourselves. When Chad gets here, I’m telling him the truth. He deserves to know.” She took a deep breath and continued, “Then I’ll get my things from the estate and move back home.” Even though leaving Chad made her heart feel as if someone were going over it with a steel-bristle scrubbing brush.

“I didn’t lie about the need for Chad to take over the business, but I have a good reason,” Henry said pitifully, settling back against the worn blue vinyl.

Frowning, Amelia crumpled the wrapper of her straw, then systematically shredded it into bits. “You’re being a little theatrical.”

Henry gave her a long stare from his dark-blue eyes. “I wish I were.”

Amelia exhaled with a rush. “I’ll be there to support Chad in any way he needs me, but I will tell him the truth. Unlike what you’re doing right now.”

Noah darted his eyes toward the window. “Of course we’re telling the truth.”

She narrowed her eyes. “But not all of it.”

The air shifted, carrying a tension that hadn’t been there earlier, not even when Amelia was accusing them of manipulating her and Chad. It scared her.

Henry reached across the table and took her hand in his. “You’re right. I’m not. I didn’t want this to be known yet.”

Noticing the tremor in his grip, Amelia covered his hand with hers. “Henry, what’s wrong?”

“I’m dying.”

Amelia reeled back against the seat. “What? This isn’t another one of your manipulation schemes, is it?” But she could tell from his demeanor it wasn’t.

“I have a bad heart,” Henry said quietly. “Even if I were a candidate, I don’t want a transplant and I don’t want what little time I have to be spent recuperating. I’m an old man and I want to enjoy the rest of my life, not make it a struggle to survive.”

“But Chad…”

“My final wish is that I see Chad happily married. He’s been carrying the burden of his parents’ failed marriage for too long. He won’t admit there’s anything wrong with this damned foolish notion that love is the enemy. I understand that’s how he coped as a child to survive the mess his mother and father created. But there’s no reason to hang on to it as an adult like a suit of armor. I’ve tried talking to him about it and…nothing. He shuts down. So I thought if he got married, if he gave it a chance—gave
someone
special a chance—then he might stop hiding in his job and open his heart to a new life. A full life. A
happy
life. That’s why I came up with the provision that he had to marry in order to get his shares, but that blew up in my face. Instead of dating and giving romance a chance, he just negotiated another contract. With Claire,” Henry admitted.

She felt her jaw drop. “That was the reason you created that provision? To try to make Chad settle down, fall in love?”

Henry nodded.

“And what about your heart condition? Why won’t you tell him the truth?”

“Henry doesn’t want Chad to know about his condition until after he’s married. Really married, I mean,” Noah offered. “Otherwise, it becomes one more person he loved and lost. One more bit of ammunition to justify his remaining loveless and alone.”

“He had me,” Amelia argued. “He’ll always have me.”

Henry looked at her pointedly. “You said you were leaving. While you may always be Chad’s friend, you won’t ever be that person who can help open his heart if you’re not around and he ends up with a woman who’s like Claire.”

Amelia groaned around the lump in her throat. He had a point.

Chad’s heart was already prickly at best, but in the last few days she’d seen glimpses of what it would be like for him to love, truly love, if he let himself.

And if she were honest with herself, she wanted him to love her back. And Henry…

She didn’t want to picture Henry gone. He had always been a part of her life. “I don’t know what to say.”

“Say that you’ll help. You know everything I’ve always done has been for my grandson’s benefit. And I know you love him as much as I do.”

“Will you go through with the wedding?” her grandfather implored. “Please? It’s the only way your marriage will really be legal.”

“Why did you put us through one fake wedding if you knew you were going to have to turn around and have a real one?”

“We didn’t want to risk Claire changing her mind about the settlement we offered her to not pursue a marriage with Chad. And we didn’t want to risk waiting too long for you guys to come up with a better solution to help Chad than marrying yourselves.”

“And you don’t think he’s going to be suspicious when we have to get another marriage license?”

Henry shrugged. “We haven’t quite worked that out yet, but documents get misfiled all the time. Chad knows this. He’ll see the logic in going ahead and getting another one so it can be on file in this county.”

Amelia bit her lip, wishing she knew what to do. “I don’t want to lie to Chad.”

“Omission isn’t lying, it’s…omitting,” Noah said, looking sheepish when Amelia shot him a look telling him what she thought about that. “Plus he
already
thinks you’re married.”

“Please, Amelia. Humor a dying man,” Henry said quietly. “And help Chad understand what love is before he finds a reason to shut himself off from it forever.”

Wanting Chad to be happy, to find love, wasn’t a stretch for her. She wanted those things for him. And if she allowed herself, she could have more with Chad. She couldn’t bear the thought of him never experiencing how beautiful love could be, but she could not manipulate him into marrying her for a second time.

Looking into their anxious faces, she said, “Instead of forcing Chad into another wedding, give me some time to work with the one we’ve got. I’ll only go through with another wedding if Chad falls in love with me. Otherwise, I can’t. I don’t want to take any more fake vows and I don’t want to deceive Chad. Is that a fair compromise?”

The waitress returned with their orders.

“Thank you, my dear,” Henry said quietly.

“One more thing. I want you to tell Chad about your health.”

Henry nodded. “I will as soon as you fall in love and marry for good. I believe it will happen.”

“We’ll see what unfolds. That’s all I can promise.” Reaching for the ketchup, Amelia poured a dollop onto her plate, but with her stomach in knots, she doubted she’d be able to eat anything.

“We’ll still move forward with planning the wedding while we wait for Chad to figure out he loves you if that’s alright. We can simply hold off on setting an exact date.” Henry said. “There’s no harm in making a few plans, is there?”

Amelia sighed. “You can go ahead, but like I said, I’m not guaranteeing there will be a ceremony.”

“I believe there will be,” Henry said.

Amelia sensed Chad’s presence behind her a few seconds after she heard the bell on the diner door. She swiveled around and looked at him. His lips curved into a welcoming smile. He wouldn’t be nearly so welcoming if he knew what they’d all discussed moments earlier. She pushed aside the guilt she felt at keeping the secret.

He gave her a wink. “Sweetheart, the hours dragged by since I saw you last.” He reached for her hand and brought it to his lips, his gaze locked on hers, then he turned her hand palm side up and placed a kiss there.

She felt the tingle from his caress all the way to her shoes before reality jerked on the reins. He was putting on a show for the rest of the customers in the diner. The way he was looking at her, that slow, sexy smile, the twinkle in his eyes, made Amelia almost forget he was playing a part.

Across the table, their grandfathers beamed their approval as Chad slid into the booth beside Amelia, sitting close enough to invade her personal space.

A smile fixed in place, Amelia whispered in his ear, “Don’t go overboard.”