The Bridesmaid and the Billionaire

by Shirley Jump

  She waited. For Kane to turn around. For him to look at her and tell her his father was wrong. That he would stay here, with her. Because she was more important than anything else. Because he loved her, and he would sacrifice anything to have her in his life.

  But he didn’t turn around, and he didn’t say any of those things.

  Susannah’s heart shattered. She spun on her heel and ran to her car. Pulling away, she refused to look in her rearview mirror. She couldn’t even if she’d wanted to. The tears blurred her vision.

  The candles flickered in the church, bathing the room in a soft, golden glow. A hundred guests filled the pews, chatting quietly among themselves while they waited.

  Susannah closed the double doors, then ducked back into the bridal room. “Everything’s all set.”

  Jackie stood in front of the full-length mirror, adjusting her veil, then smoothing the front of her simple spaghetti-strap, tea-length dress. “I thought I’d be nervous, but I’m not.”

  Susannah drew her younger sister into a one-armed hug, careful not to crinkle the satin cap sleeves and bodice of her light blue maid-of-honor dress. “That’s because you’re marrying Mr. Right.”

  Jackie smiled. “Paul is pretty wonderful, isn’t he?”

  “Yep.” A little shiver of melancholy ran through Susannah. Her sister was marrying the right guy, beginning the rest of her life with him, and Susannah should be overjoyed for Jackie. And she was—

  But she was also envious, in a weird way. Only because of that betrayal with Kane earlier. How could he have lied to her? After all they’d talked about and shared? She’d told him so much about herself, and he’d made up everything he’d told her.

  Even what he felt? Had each kiss been a fraud, too?

  A sharp ache ran through her chest, and tears threatened again at Susannah’s eyes. She heard Kane’s offer of an apartment in New York, followed by Elliott’s taunting, as if he’d caught Kane doing that a hundred times before. Just one more vacation dalliance.

  How stupid could she be?

  “Susannah? Are you paying attention? I needed help with the straps on my shoes.”

  “Oh, sure.” Susannah took a seat on an ottoman and bent to slip the straps into the tiny gold buckles.

  “Are you all right? You’re so distracted.”

  She rose. “Just thinking about all those last-minute details before I get on the plane tomorrow.”

  Jackie took Susannah’s hand, her eyes misty. “I wish you weren’t going away.”

  “I’ll be back.” She’d return to Chapel Ridge, to her life. To her business. And to a decidedly empty feeling, after all that had happened with Kane. Susannah brushed the emotion away. A few weeks in Paris would help her forget.

  It would.

  “I know. But I’m going to miss you all the same. We’ve never been apart.”

  “We haven’t, have we?” Susannah gave Jackie’s hand a squeeze. “Don’t worry. I’ll call you every day.”

  “You better.” Jackie swiped at her face. “Though I don’t know if I’ll have cell service in Jamaica.”

  “Jamaica?” Susannah blinked. “I thought you were going to Chicago.”

  “I didn’t tell you?” Jackie drew back, beaming with joy. “Kane did the sweetest thing. He called my boss, and Paul’s, and got us both two weeks off, then gave us a trip to Jamaica as a wedding present.”

  “Wow! That’s generous.” She chided herself for being surprised. He was a millionaire after all, probably even a billionaire. A trip to Jamaica was a drop in the ocean of money to a guy like him.

  Hadn’t he just proved to her that money was more important than people? In the end, he’d go back to his billion-dollar life. Who could blame him, really? When his choice was staying here with the fishing poles and stray dogs?

  “Paul asked Kane why he did it,” Jackie went on, “and he said that he wanted us to experience what he did while he was here in Chapel Ridge. He said he found something here he never found anywhere else.” Jackie turned to the table, picked up her bouquet, then checked her reflection one more time. “What kind of experience does anyone have in Chapel Ridge? I mean, this has to be the most boring town in the country.”

  “Yeah. Nothing to offer here.” Susannah pretended to check her own reflection, the long blond hair, the plainer of the two Wilson sisters, avoiding Jackie’s gaze, avoiding the truth about Kane and his “experiences,” then pivoted away from the mirror. “It’s almost time to go, Jackie. In a little while you’ll be married to Paul.”

  “I can only do that,” Jackie said with a smile, “if you get ready to walk down that aisle first. Can’t get married without my sister standing by me, now can I?”

  The only trouble? Susannah already knew who else would be waiting at the end of that aisle. And she wasn’t so sure she could face him ever again.

  CHAPTER THIRTEEN

  IN THE PAST HOUR, KANE had been fired, disowned and written out of the Lennox family will. Twice. Now his father was trying the silent treatment. Didn’t matter. Kane refused to be dissuaded. “I’m not going back to New York, not this second anyway.”

  Elliott Lennox didn’t respond. He stood in Kane’s rustic kitchen, as still as a statue. His silver hair and regal bearing made him look like a piece of art, particularly against the roughly hewn cabin’s backdrop.

  “I’m the best man, and that means I honor my commitment. You’d want me to do that, wouldn’t you?”

  Again, his father said nothing.

  Kane shook his head. “What’s it going to take? What do I have to do to get your attention? To get you to acknowledge me as your son?”

  Elliott wheeled around. “When you start acting like my son, that’s when I’ll acknowledge you.”

  “Tell me a day when I didn’t,” Kane shot back.

  “This week, for one.” Elliott shook his head. “You abandoned your family. Your responsibilities. That is simply unacceptable. God, it’s like you’re back in college again and I need to clean up your mess.”

  “Is that what you’re going to do? Ship Susannah off to Europe so I don’t embarrass you again?”

  “There was more involved than an embarrassment for the family, Kane.”

  Kane snorted. “What, was my involvement with Rebecca back in college going to affect some business deal for you? Her father had a one-percent stake in a competitor?”

  “She wanted your money.”

  Kane rolled his eyes. “Right. And so does every other woman I date who you don’t agree with. I swear, you’d handpick my ties if I let you.”

  Elliott toyed with the coffee mug before him. “Rebecca came to me over Christmas break. Walked right into my office, as bold as brass. Said she was going to marry you whether I liked it or not.”

  Kane chuckled. “That’s Rebecca for you.”

  “Then she said I could stop the wedding for a quarter million dollars.”

  The blow to Kane’s chest hit swift and hard. He stepped back, reaching for the back of a chair. “You’re lying.”

  His father’s gaze met his. “I never lie about money, Kane.”

  Kane thought back to how quickly Rebecca had disappeared from his life. How easy it had seemed for her to go, once she had received the buyout from his father, the offer of an overseas education. Disgust rose in his chest. “Did you pay her the money?”

  “We came to an acceptable arrangement.” Elliott took a sip of coffee, then held tight to the mug, not saying anything for a long time. “I was protecting you, Kane. You have a tendency to see the world through rose-colored glasses. You believe the best in people. I…I see them for what they are.”

  Kane let out a gust. “What, everyone is greedy?”

  A slight smile crossed his father’s face. “No. Not everyone is like you.”

  “Selfish and impetuous, is that it?”

  “I can’t say I’ve agreed with all your decisions, but you are more…trusting than I am. And there have been days when I wish I had some of your leap-off-th
e-bridge attitude.”

  The words took Kane by surprise. A compliment from his father—as rare as spotting a saltwater marlin in the middle of the Indiana lake. His anger dissipated, and he moved closer, seeing Elliott with new, less-jaded eyes. “You never thought of just simply taking off on a vacation? Running away from it all for a day or two? Or a week?”

  “We all have those thoughts. But I had too much on my shoulders to ever indulge in them. My father, the company, your mother, you.”

  Kane shook his head. “You could have taken time off.”

  “And who would have run Lennox? Who would have made sure my father stayed in line? He might as well have been a child, given how little attention he paid to the business. To the rest of us. He spent more time at the gambling table than at the office. Someone had to step up, Kane, and that someone was me. Then I was married, a father, and years later, I had a sick wife. I had no time for flights of fancy or otherwise.”

  Understanding began to pour into Kane’s blood. He thought back over the years, and finally saw his father’s life, realizing all those hours at the office hadn’t been a choice, they’d been a duty. Not to the company that bore his name, but to his family. “I had no idea.”

  Elliott shrugged. “I wasn’t going to burden you with my problems.”

  “You should have. It would have helped me understand you.”

  Elliott shook his head. “Neither of us understands the other very well, do we? We’ve always been at odds. Like two bulldogs.”

  Kane studied the wood floor, memorizing the grain of the long, straight boards, before speaking words that had lain within him for a long time, festering. It was time he got it all out. Shared the reasons he had left New York. “I was wrong for leaving without a word, or at least answering my cell phone. The fish have it now.” His father’s brows knitted in confusion, but Kane went on. “I feel like I’ve spent my life trying to live up to some impossible standard. To please you, to do everything you’ve asked of me. Today is the first time you’ve ever complimented me, that I can remember. You treat your employees better then your own son.”

  “I gave you the best things in life. The best home, food, clothes, schools. Gave you a job.”

  “I didn’t want any of that!” Kane swallowed the rest of his temper, then turned away and crossed to the cold fireplace.

  “What did you want? A better car? Bigger house?” Elliott let out a frustrated gust. “A raise? I pay you well enough.”

  Kane rested his grip on the mantel, clutching the stones above the fireplace, their hard solidity providing strength. “I wanted you,” he said softly. “That was all.”

  The room fell silent. A chair screeched, then creaked.

  Kane turned around, and found his father at the table, looking older than he ever had before. His face seemed to have added wrinkles, his shoulders seemed to droop.

  “You had me, Kane. Every day. I came home after work. And then, when you were done with college, you went to work for me. How can you say that I wasn’t there?”

  Kane crossed to the table, and sank into the opposite chair. “You were, but not as a father. All I wanted was the occasional hug. A few atta-boys here and there. Would it have been so hard to say, ‘Hey, Kane, I’m proud of you,’ instead of ‘don’t embarrass the family again’?”

  Elliott turned away. “You know how I feel. I’m not some touchy-feely guy. For God’s sake, that’s no way to do business.”

  “A family is not a business, Father.”

  Elliott ran a hand over his face. He sat there a long time, so long, Kane was afraid he had gone back to the silent treatment. Then he swallowed hard and let out a breath before facing his son. “You know who used to say that to me all the time? My mother. She’d remind me, over and over, that family wasn’t business. She told my father, too, but he didn’t listen any more than I did, I guess. You get…consumed, Kane.”

  “Like Uncle Harold.”

  “That man worked himself to death. Died on the job, for God’s sake.” Elliott shook his head. “Should have had the sense to retire when he had a chance.”

  Kane arched a brow. “Know anybody like that?”

  “I’m nothing like my brother.” Elliott paused. “I simply haven’t found anything better I want to do than go to work.”

  “Spend time with your family?”

  “What family? You’re all grown up. Your mother is…” His gaze drifted off, and Kane knew then another major reason why Elliott had poured himself into the company. “Is gone.”

  He looked at his father, a man he knew better as the chairman of the board than as a patriarch, and felt his heart soften. This could have been him, in a few years, if he hadn’t run away to Chapel Ridge for a few days. If he hadn’t taken time to walk a stray dog, dig in the earth, walk barefoot on the grass. “But I’m still here, Father. It’s not too late, you know. You’re not Uncle Harold. You still have time.”

  Elliott ran a hand over the cup of coffee before him, a cup he had topped off earlier with a little bit of scotch. “Time for you and me?”

  An olive branch. Kane would take it and hold on tight. If he’d learned one thing in his time in Chapel Ridge, it was that life was too damned short to waste it holding a grudge. “Do you like to fish?”

  Elliott let out what might have been considered a laugh. “Fish? Are you serious?”

  “As a stock report. If you want to hang around Chapel Ridge for a few days, I can show you the best fishing holes.”

  “Who would run the company?”

  “That’s the beauty of a huge company, Father. There are plenty of people to call on to take your place. Competent people that you and I hired. Trust them, and then go and relax. It’ll do you a world of good.”

  Elliott let out a gust. “You’re insane.”

  “No. I’m happy.” Kane rose, then reached for the leash by the door and tossed it to his father. Elliott caught the lead and stared at his son. “Take some advice from a friend of mine and start with walking a dog. You might even want to try doing it barefoot. Spring grass is amazing under your feet.”

  “Walking a dog? You really are crazy. I can’t possibly—”

  “I thought the same thing. Bandit over there knows what to do. He’ll lead you. And who knows…you might have fun.” Kane grinned, grabbed the rental’s car keys off the table, then grasped the door handle. He looked at his father, and thought about what had just transpired, and realized that he had nearly made the same mistakes as his father today. He’d tried to hold too tightly—and nearly lost everything he wanted. “I’ll be back in a little while.”

  “Where are you going?”

  “I have a wedding to go to. There’s a guy I know who’s about to take the biggest risk of all, and get married, even though he makes hardly anything for money, and doesn’t even have a five-year plan. He’s doing it because he’s in love. And if I play my cards right, I’ll be doing the same thing really soon.”

  Then Kane hopped in his car and hurried down the lane toward the Chapel Ridge Lutheran Church, barely on time for the wedding. But hopefully not too late to get Susannah back.

  Déjà vu.

  Susannah stood at the front of the church, while Jackie and Paul were quiet and solemn at the altar in front of the minister, hands clasped, repeating the same words she had heard Kane say just last night. Had it been a mere twenty-four hours ago that the two of them had stood before Pastor Weatherly and rehearsed the wedding? Only a day since she believed, just for a moment, that maybe there was a future with this man?

  She snuck a glance across the aisle at Kane. Her hormones betrayed her mind, jumping into action, raising her body temperature, accelerating her heartbeat. Apparently they hadn’t gotten the memo that her mind was trying to forget Kane, because looking at him now brought desire roaring to the surface.

  But appearances weren’t everything, and she had to remind herself that this handsome package had come with a hefty package of falsehoods, too. He had lied to her, let her down and
she couldn’t forgive him for that.

  Kane tried to catch her eye, sending her a smile, but Susannah turned her gaze away and refocused on the bridal couple.

  “I now pronounce you husband and wife,” Pastor Weatherly said. He leaned in toward Paul. “You may kiss the bride.”

  Paul swooped Jackie into his arms, gave her a tender but passionate kiss, then pivoted her toward the church. Behind them, Pastor Weatherly introduced the new couple, and a moment later Mrs. Maxwell was playing the recessional as the several dozen guests applauded and wiped away tears.

  Jackie and Paul swished down the aisle. Then Kane stepped onto the rose-covered path, his arm bent, and waited for Susannah. She pasted a smile on her face, slipped her arm into Kane’s, and started walking. Just a few more minutes and this charade would be over.

  Damn her body. His touch still sent a zing through her, still caused a reaction. Every ounce of her went on high alert—all those parts that had yet to forget what it felt like to be in Kane’s arms. To have his lips on hers.

  “You look beautiful,” Kane whispered as they made their way to the back of the church.

  “And you look like a liar,” she snapped under her breath. She would not fall for him. Not again.

  “Let me explain, Susannah.”

  They slipped past the double doors. As soon as they were outside the church, Susannah yanked her arm out of Kane’s. “Why? You’re leaving town anyway. Don’t worry, Kane, I get it. You decided to fool around with the small-town girl, then leave her behind. Just one more memory in your vacation scrapbook, huh? Another dalliance to add to the tally?”

  “It wasn’t like that, Susannah.”

  “I heard exactly how it was, Kane Lennox.” She headed down the granite steps of the church, unable to listen to another word. She waited on the sidewalk for the receiving line to finish, realizing then that she was stuck. She needed to ride to the reception with the rest of the bridal party, and right now, the bridesmaids were chatting it up inside the church. Just when Susannah needed to make a quick escape, too.