Happily Ever Afton (2 page)

Afton manufactured a gasp as the door to the coffee shop suddenly swung open and she found herself looking directly into the angry startled eyes of her fiancé – er…
ex
–fiancé. It had worked! Now all depended on the ability of the tall man she’d practically
mauled
to follow her lead.

Come on buddy; hope you’re not as dumb as you look
!

What had caused her to utter that startled
‘oh’
Cooper wondered when his lips were suddenly set free. Why had she kissed him anyway – and why on earth had she called him ‘
lover’
?

Had this whole thing been some kind of set up for one of those ‘gotcha’ type shows
?

The
last
thing he needed, trying to close the Anderson Corp acquisition, was to be featured on some crazy reality TV show. He could almost hear the laughter in the boardroom now! He swiveled his head to search for hidden cameras – and met the chilly blue gaze of the man from inside the coffee shop who was now standing right behind him.

Flexing his numerous muscles
!

‘What the
hell
is going on here?’

Cooper tensed at the man’s furious question while the woman he’d just shared one of the
best
kisses of his life with, pulled away from him, acting flustered.

‘Ja…Jason,’ she stuttered, ‘why, what are
you
doing here?’

‘Shouldn’t that be
my
question?’ the man seethed.

‘Look, I’m not sure what’s going on either…’ Cooper began, only to be silenced by a freshly French manicured finger laid over his open mouth.

‘Shush, darling…there’s no use hiding it anymore!’

Hazel eyes looked meaningfully into his causing them to narrow behind his lenses.

‘Afton – I demand to know what is going on
right
now!’ Jason grated. ‘Why are you in your wedding dress – and what do you think you’re doing kissing this… this
bum
… when we are engaged to be married?’

Bum?
Cooper looked down at his clothes. Okay, so they weren’t the cleanest, but you try camping on the side of a mountain and see how you come out!

‘Now just a minute…’ he inserted himself between the bickering couple, but even his impressive bulk couldn’t stop the verbal jabs zinging right past him. As he attempted to interject, Afton leaned past him to shoot off another.

‘Oh, that’s right! It’s bad luck for you to see me in my dress before the ceremony, right Jason? Well, what kind of luck is it when the groom
boinks
the slutty maid-of-honor?’

‘Afton, I’m
so
sorry!’

Cooper glanced over his shoulder as the dishonorable maid-of-honor standing at the door behind Jason added her fervent mea culpa.

‘I really didn’t want you to find out like this!’ she wailed, tear-filled baby blues pleading with Afton’s hot hazel.

Cooper shook his head wearily. 
Not another one!

He decided to leave them all to figure it out for themselves. Before he could form his exit line, Afton whizzed past him, her lacy veil floating in the breeze she created.

‘So is
this
why you’ve been avoiding all my calls to help me go pick out my wedding dress, Mollie?’ She waved a dismissive hand in her fiancé – ex-fiancé’s – direction, going nose-to-nose with the other woman who appeared flustered, ducking for safety behind Jason’s broad back.

‘Now just hold on, Afton!’ Jason grabbed her forearm just as quickly releasing it when Cooper grabbed his in turn.

A green-smocked barista poked his head out the front door, attempting to break up the mêlée the other patrons were now beginning to frankly enjoy. Their laughing faces filled the front window, something finally succeeding in taking their attention away from their overly expensive caffeine addiction.

‘We don’t want any trouble around here,’ the cashier with the exalted title shooed them along, ‘can you all please take this somewhere else?’

Afton whirled away, the slightly stained train of the gown sweeping grandly out behind her on the sidewalk. Stalking off in her tennis shoes, she was trailed by an abashed Cooper who estimated the last time he’d been tossed from the premises of an establishment was in college when he was a rowdy twenty-year-old – but never from a coffee bar.

A coffee bar for God’s sake
!

The cowed blond couple, whose earlier effervescence was severely tamped down, followed morosely behind him, all four soon facing off again in the parking lot behind the store.

Mollie, obviously determined to keep things civil, reached out her hand to Cooper with a sunny smile. ‘I’m sorry; we haven’t met before have we?’

‘And you don’t need to!’ Afton blustered, knocking Cooper’s hand away when he reached for the other woman’s, his prep school etiquette classes automatically kicking in.

‘There’s no need to be so mean, Afton…’ Mollie sniffed dabbing at moist eyes with a tissue, Jason offering comfort by folding her into his protective embrace.

‘What’s your name?’ Afton demanded urgently out of the side of her mouth while they were distracted.

‘It’s Cooper – er… Stewart,’ he supplied beneath his breath matching her lowered tone.

When the other couple turned back to them, Afton tossed off in a seemingly offhanded manner, ‘well, it’s a shame it had to come out like this, but since you two apparently have a thing going and I’m now with Stuart—’

‘Cooper,’ Cooper inserted helpfully.

Afton sizzled a look his way.

‘It’s Cooper Stewart,’ he said in his smoothest baritone, shaking Mollie’s hand, Afton appearing ready to throttle him. ‘Afton just likes to call me by my last name sometimes. She thinks it’s cute, don’t you, darling?’

He’d decided to edit out his
real
last name of Carrington, which was somewhat well known in certain social circles and to anyone employed in the finance industry – the less anyone knew about this little debacle he judged, the better!

‘Geez Louise, how I
despise
backward/forward names!’ Afton muttered beneath her breath. ‘
Cooper
and I,’ she stressed his name, shooting him a look that clearly said –
stop talking now
, ‘have been together awhile now, and I just haven’t had the nerve to tell you or to cancel the wedding, Jason. But trying on wedding gowns today, I realized I just couldn’t go through with a lie…’

She reached for Cooper’s hand, treasuring it between both of hers, ‘so I called Cooper and he rushed right over to get me – rushing me off before I could even change out of the gown!’ Afton sent such a loving look his way it held Cooper mesmerized for a moment before she just as quickly let him go to plant her hands on a pair of pleasingly curved hips almost hidden beneath tiers of silken ruffles. ‘But I can see you’ve been busy also. So how long has
this
being going on?’

Mollie blushed, Jason flushing as well. As Afton continued to glare their way, Cooper wanted to lean over and whisper in her ear that for someone who wanted to appear
uncaring
, the becoming rush of heated color in her cheeks along with the hint of fire in her eyes all appeared
very
caring.

‘And is
this
also the reason you couldn’t come with me to Los Angeles last month for the premiere? Or you either?’ Her gaze ricocheted between them, the answer clear to all in the guilty look they exchanged. Afton released an expletive that made even Cooper – who’d just spent a month on a mountaintop with some of the hardiest, toughest men on the planet – blanch.

‘Well, I just hope you at least had the decency to not use
my
bed!’

When further guilty glances ensued, she threw her hands up in disgust then grabbed Cooper’s jacket sleeve dragging him away with her. ‘I won’t be returning the ring since you didn’t spend a dime on it anyway,’ she flung back across her shoulder. ‘Oh and Mollie – in case you haven’t figured it out yet – Jason here isn’t nicknamed
Speedy
for nothing!’

Yowch
!  Cooper winced. 
Sorry you had to take that one for the team, old man
!

He sympathized, but had to chalk that round up to the woman scorned. When they rounded the corner, Afton stopped in her tracks releasing his sleeve from her death grip. Looking down he was finally able to see beneath her tough exterior, watching as her face crumpled a little, a single tear forming in the corner of her eye – but she wasn’t quite through yet.

‘Darn it!’ she hastily brushed the tear away with the edge of her veil, ‘why do these things always happen to me? I thought he really loved me!’

‘Hey, I’m sure everything will be okay…’ Cooper started to console – until he looked behind her, his expression darkening. Reaching out, he yanked her into his arms, his mouth lowering to swiftly cover hers as he put his hastily thought up plan into motion.

I just hope she goes along with it
!

Afton was completely flummoxed by the unexpected,
devastating
kiss. Her mouth parted beneath his in shock, practically swooning from the sensation of rough black stubble rasping over her delicate skin.

Cooper lifted his head after several long,
hot
, fevered moments, whispering in her ear, ‘my turn now!’

‘
Cooper
!’

A female voice uttered the name from behind in a tone of great indignation. He sighed, releasing Afton who wobbled a moment on shaky knees beneath her gown before regaining her balance.

‘Hello, Katherine.’

‘Hello?’ the woman repeated outraged. ‘Is that
all
you have to say?’

Afton spun around to view a statuesque, impeccably groomed brunette, whose hand clutched several pink-and-green striped shopping bags from one of the most exclusive boutiques in Seattle located nearby.

‘I didn’t even know you were back in town, Cooper, you never called, and now I find you with this…this…
her!
’ she sputtered her disdain, ‘and why on earth is she wearing that
hideous
wedding gown?’

Hideous?
Afton looked down at the gown with its masses of taffeta ruffles crammed into one swirling satin, lace and beaded-pearl creation. Okay, she conceded, so it hadn’t been her first choice either – but it was a designer original direct from Paris, France according to the bridal shop owner, and she’d thought it had held distinct possibilities.

‘It’s Afton,’ she offered helpfully causing the woman’s ice-pick of a stare to stab through her once again.

‘What?’
she spat.

‘My name,’ Afton repeated with a cheerful smile, ‘it’s Afton Lanford – like the neighborhood Afton Heights. It was going to be Melissa, but my mother saw a street sign with Afton on it as my father drove her to the hospital and decided then and there to change it. My dad always said he was
so
grateful he didn’t take the shortcut past the pig farm that day!’

She felt more than saw Cooper’s suppressed laughter, his big body heaving beside her as she told the charming anecdote that usually drew a smile from whomever she shared it with.

Not today
.

‘I don’t care
who
or
what
you are,’ Katherine looked down an aristocratic sharp nose Afton thought she recognized from the face of a popular actress, ‘what I’d like to know is just why you’re kissing
my
boyfriend?’

‘Katherine, I am
not
your boyfriend!’ The rumble of Cooper’s deep voice was ominous, hinting at a brewing eruption. ‘Three dates does not constitute a relationship.’

Doe-brown eyes grew so round and wide, even Afton felt herself weakening.

‘But Cooper, we have
so
much in common…’ the scorned woman reached a beseeching hand for his sleeve.

‘The only thing we share is a zip code.’ The stern face showed just the tiniest flicker of regret when Katherine recoiled from his dismissive words, while Afton looked away, feeling deeply for the other woman having just experienced the same rejection herself.

‘I’ll leave you two to talk,’ was her soft murmur trying to extricate herself from the scene. Her plan was foiled when Cooper grabbed her satin-covered waist in a tight grip, keeping her trapped near his side.

‘No –
you
stay! You might as well know, Katherine that I’m with Afton now – we’re…er…
getting married!’

He squeezed Afton hard causing her to wince when she tried to pull away in protest at his shocking words. ‘I was just helping her pick out her gown – which I happen to think she looks
very
beautiful in.’ He raised her hand to his mouth feathering a kiss across her fingertips causing the sidewalk to waver beneath her sneakers once again.

‘You’re marrying
her
?’ The other woman looked her up and down, a trip not taking long since she stood only five-foot three in her sneakers – and she was obviously found wanting.

‘How could you possibly prefer someone like…like…
that
?’

‘Well, for one thing she’s got something you’ll
never
have,’ Cooper said with what sounded to Afton like quiet conviction.

‘Oh
really
,’ the cultured voice dripped ice. ‘And just what pray tell is that?’ Katherine demanded with an indignant hand perched on a Prada-clad hip.

‘My ring!’

He dipped into the low-cut neckline of the wedding dress and plucked out the sparkling diamond, both women gasping in shock when he slid the ring back on Afton’s stiff finger.

‘Come on, darling.’ He took Afton’s hand in his and they strolled off down the street, not turning once, not even when they heard the angry roar of a sports car zooming off past them. Cooper paused at the door of a diner in front of them with a wry grimace. ‘Let’s duck in here for a minute before we run into anyone else we know. Are you hungry?’

Afton thought about it for a moment realizing her stomach was beginning to growl. She’d skipped lunch and zipped out of the office-parking garage on her scooter when an unexpected opening had occurred at her favorite nail salon downtown. It was after getting a classy French manicure; she’d passed by the bridal shop with wedding dresses displayed in the front window next door and decided on a whim to take a look. Even without her inseparable best friend since grade school – Mollie – along, who’d said she was ‘
busy
’ when she’d called the last few times to set up a date to go shopping for her gown.