Actually, Cooper thought wryly, he kind of did.
Headlights appeared in the distance. Seeing it was a convertible, Jillian breathed a big sigh of relief. “Okay. Now you really have to leave.”
“How come?” Cooper said, stalling. “You think he’ll be...jealous?”
She swung back to face him.
Their gazes locked. Something changed in her eyes, a flicker of uncertainty glimmering in their beautiful sea-blue depths. His pulse amped up as she drew another quick breath. “No. Of course not.” She bit her lip, looking increasingly young and vulnerable. She cocked her head to one side. “Why would he be?”
Maybe because of the potent physical attraction shimmering between them. Attraction that had been there since the first moment they had laid eyes on each other.
And the fact that he sensed she secretly dreamed about kissing him every bit as often as he fantasized about kissing her...
Chip Harcourt’s car neared. Slowed.
For a moment it looked as if he might just keep on driving. Until he saw who was standing next to Jillian, that was.
The unscrupulous jerk smiled and turned his car into the drive. Then stopped, cut the engine. Got out. He strolled forward in a suit and tie.
He had a bouquet of white roses in hand. “What’s going on?” he asked Jillian cautiously.
“Nothing.” She tossed her backpack into the rear seat, then went back for her duffel. “Cooper was just seeing us off.” She smiled, giving him a look that said he should exit. Now.
Cooper ignored her cue.
She sent him a withering glare only he could see. “Wishing us well,” Jillian continued.
“Hmm.” Chip studied Cooper. With a suspicious frown, he took the duffel from Jillian and put it in the back seat of his car beside her backpack. Handed her the bouquet.
And then everything happened very fast. Sheriff’s vehicles approached from both directions, lights blazing, sirens wailing. And just as swiftly, blocked the ranch entrance.
Robert and Carol Lockhart got out of one of the squad cars. They were joined by Laramie County deputies Dan McCabe and Rio Vasquez, and several others from nearby counties.
“Chip Harcourt,” Dan McCabe said, “we have a warrant for your arrest.”
“For what?” Jillian cried, tremendously upset.
Cooper grabbed her and held her back before she could rush to her secret fiancé’s aid.
Rio brought over a rap sheet that was pages long. “Bigamy, extortion, embezzlement, theft.”
Her parents approached. “He’s a con man.”
“He is,” Rio stated. “He targets young, impressionable women, talks them into eloping with him, and then offers to annul before the marriage is consummated, if the parents will pay him off. Which most do. He steals whatever he can from those who don’t.” Rio regarded Jillian sympathetically. “Right now he is romancing three underage girls simultaneously.”
She gasped, still trembling. “I don’t believe it!”
Reluctantly, Cooper handed her off to her parents, who surrounded her. “We’re sorry, honey,” Carol Lockhart said. “When we found out what was going on...”
“From Cooper...” Robert Lockhart added. “We went to law enforcement and had Chip Harcourt investigated.”
Jillian broke away from her parents long enough to whirl on Cooper, looking stricken and completely betrayed. “So you knew all along!” she cried.
He lifted a placating hand, not sure what she expected him to say. “I didn’t want to see you hurt.”
Too late.
“So, you humiliated me instead!” Jillian countered bitterly. And it didn’t take a genius to see that she was never going to forgive him.
Copyright © 2021 by Cathy Gillen Thacker
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ISBN-13: 9780369710116
The Chef’s Surprise Baby
Copyright © 2021 by Brenda Harlen
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents are either the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, businesses, companies, events or locales is entirely coincidental.
This edition published by arrangement with Harlequin Books S.A.
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The Chef's Surprise Baby Page 23