Chapter 7

CHAPTER SEVEN

D eclan waited for regret or guilt as his mom hurried to her car, but he felt none.

He'd lied to her, but all he felt was massive relief. The weight of her expectations and pressure was gone, and it felt incredible. "I feel like I'm free for the first time in a long time," he said.

And alive. He had a mission now, and that was about helping Piper. Protecting her. She was his now, and he wasn't walking away.

Piper grinned. "Awesome. Remember that feeling when I start using you for my own nefarious plans."

He turned toward her. "Whatever you need. I'm in." And then some. He hadn't realized how much his mom's worry about him had been weighing on him, until he'd seen her look at him with joy in her eyes, instead of fear. A gift to his mom. A gift to himself. He owed Piper, and he was going to make damn sure Piper got what she needed from him.

He wasn't going to think about how to handle it when they broke up. For now, he was riding the feel-good wave of lies, deception, and jellyfish kisses.

"I told you, I need a hot, adoring fiancé." Piper cocked her head, studying him thoughtfully. "I'm thinking grungy, regular guy with a really expensive watch so that she knows you have money. But women like the bad boys, and that fits your persona. Maybe jeans and a T-shirt."

"I have a couple watches like that. Plenty of jeans. No problem." He was glad she wanted him to wear jeans. He didn't even own a suit anymore. He could probably find a tie and a jacket for the dinner at the country club, but he wasn't positive.

Piper raised her brows. "You're such an oxymoron. A sweaty carpenter who works magic with his power tools, and yet also, country club wealthy."

"My family's rich. I live on a cop's salary."

"Except when you don't. Like the watches. Like your gorgeous house."

He shrugged. "Both my watches were gifts. I would never buy them. The house was a dump that I bought for nothing. I rehabbed the whole thing myself over the last three years."

Her eyes widened. "You really did that yourself?"

"Every last bit."

"It's breathtaking."

Satisfaction flooded him, and he grinned. "Thanks."

"You seriously have a gift. You could sell your house for a huge profit."

"I don't need money. I just want my house." He didn't want to keep going on this subject. It felt too prickly to him. "What's the plan tonight? The objective? Our target?"

Piper nodded and took his cue to change the subject. "Her name is April Hunsaker. She hired the firm I'm temping for to do her wedding, but I think she's trying to fire me, and the firm." Piper paused, and he could feel her hesitation.

He sat down at her kitchen counter. "Give me the facts. I'm a cop. That's how my brain operates. What happened with your reputation?"

She grimaced. "It's kind of a long story."

"Tell me what I need to know to do my job well tonight." As a cop, he was well-accustomed to focusing on the relevant facts and not wasting brainpower on the details that were just clutter.

"Okay." Piper paced across the kitchen and picked up Kitty's glass to wash it. "Last summer, I was the assistant planner for a wedding for a high-profile couple. His brother was interested in me." She put the glass under the faucet and turned it on. "It's against protocol for a wedding planner to date a client, but he was kind of relentless and we wound up dating."

A flicker of jealousy jabbed Declan's gut. "What happened?"

"It went fast." Piper rushed her words. "We got engaged. My firm agreed to let me keep my job as long as I hired them for the wedding, so I did. Eight hundred guests. He paid for it because I don't have the money for that kind of event. Bride and groom at the altar, mid-ceremony." She grimaced. "And then I left."

He leaned forward, warnings prickling at the back of his neck. "You left? As in you walked away right in the middle of your wedding?"

"Yep. In front of everyone, at one of the biggest social events of the season. I actually ran, because I didn't want to give anyone, especially him, a chance to stop me. I ran out the side entrance, grabbed our limo, and took off."

Damn. She was a runaway bride? "That takes guts. I'm impressed." And what the hell had happened to make her walk away in the middle of her wedding? Piper was smart and capable. What could be so bad as to make her walk away? Did he need to hunt this guy down?

She flashed him a grin. "Thanks. It wasn't great PR for the firm or for me, as you can imagine."

He nodded. "What happened after that?"

"I was fired and unemployable. Finally, a few months ago, a woman I knew from there, who had opened her own company, had an extended family emergency in California. She hired me as a temp to cover for her. She's the only one who would touch me, and basically told me not to screw up."

He leaned in. "What happened? "

She sighed. "Over the last few months, five weddings I was in charge of have had issues. Three were couples who got married and are now filing for divorce. Another bride walked out on her wedding last weekend after finding the groom cheating. She said she was inspired by what I'd done at my wedding, and then yesterday…" she sighed. "Five minutes before the ceremony, the bride pulled me aside and said she didn't want to get married. She asked me to tell the groom and cover for her."

Hell. He could imagine the stakes for Piper to make that wedding happen. "You didn't try to talk her out of it?"

"No." She sighed. "What if I talked her out of it, and she regretted it? My mom—" She paused.

Her mom? What about her mom? Piper had more and more secrets, and he wanted to know all of them. "What about your mom?"

"Nothing. But I couldn't ever try to talk anyone into getting married. I said fine, but when I told the groom and his mother, they, well, they were angry. Things spiraled fast, and now I'm the Wedding Killer."

He almost had to laugh at the absurdity of calling Piper the killer of anything. "No shit?"

"I'd never lie about weddings," she said as she put the glass on the counter and turned to face him. "Another bride went on a rant on social media this weekend. She said I was the Wedding Killer, and I'd cursed her wedding. She's the one who discovered that three other couples that I had done weddings for were already divorcing. She said I was bad luck and any bride who wants to actually get married and stay married needs to stay away from me."

He sat back. "Damn."

"Right? She fired me publicly on social media today, then another one called me an hour later to fire me as well. And then, April is our biggest client, and she's left me three messages today. My boss gets back in the morning. If I've lost three clients, I'm sunk. No one will hire me. Brides are superstitious." She leaned on the counter. "I've spent my entire life working toward this, and I'm going to lose it all if I lose April. I'm desperate, Declan. This is my only chance. I—" She cut herself off, and he knew there was more to the story, more that she wasn't willing to share.

He wanted to ask, but she'd respected his privacy, so he owed her the same.

He knew it didn't matter whether the bride could be held liable for her social media posts or not. The damage was done. Trust had been broken. "Your plan, then, is to show April that your wedding not happening was actually a good thing, because you wound up with an even better guy?"

She wrinkled her nose. "I know that sounds silly, but I think it will work. But you have to be so amazing that she falls a little in love with you tonight."

He rubbed his jaw. He was committed to helping her, but romance? "I'm not the most romantic guy," he admitted.

Piper snorted. "That doesn't surprise me, but women love unavailable men. So just be your grumpy self, plus in love with me."

In love with Piper. Those four words sat like a weight in his chest. For so many reasons. But he owed Piper. He could fake it. It was like going undercover, which he'd done on plenty of occasions. He could do this. "All right," he said. "Where are we going?"

"A local place that has an outdoor patio. It's called the French Quarter. My friends are there, and they saw her." Piper shook out her shoulders, and he could feel her tension. "Sound good?"

Piper's career was at stake tonight, and whatever else she hadn't been willing to talk about. Like why she'd left her fiancé at the altar. Had she just decided she didn't love him? Or had it been something else? Something more? The cop in him wanted answers, but he'd get them later.

Because he would get them, if for no other reason than to make sure she was not in danger. Or in trouble. Or in need of help that she wouldn't ask for. "I'm in," he said. "But we need to make a stop on the way. "

She checked the clock on her phone. "Where? We don't have much time."

He grinned. "It won't take long. Do you trust me?"

"No. You're a great liar. I'd be an idiot to trust you."

He felt the truth of her words, even though her tone was teasing. Frowning, he leaned in. "Piper, I swear to you, I won't lie to you. I promise."

She searched his face, and slowly nodded. "All right. But you get only one chance, and then trust is broken."

He could tell she meant it, but that was fine. He was a lot of things, but a liar wasn't one of them. Well…fuck…he was a liar. He'd been lying to his family for more than three years about what had really happened the night Diana had died…and how badly he'd screwed up.

But he wouldn't lie to Piper.

Because with Piper, it was different.

It was the chance he'd blown before. And now he had an opportunity for a redo.

Fake or not, he was doing it right this time.

For himself.

And for Piper…because he could tell she needed it, too.