Stealing the Groom (16 page)

“You look like hell, man. When was the last time you slept?” Nick asked.

“Or ate? Or went home?” Eric added.

He waved them away with an impatient gesture. “None of your damn business.”

Nick placed his hands palm side down on the desk. He leaned until he was in Chad’s face. “You’ve got to start living again.”

“Back off.” Chad’s lips thinned.

The phone on his desk rang and he ignored it. The ringing stopped briefly, then started back up again until in exasperation, Eric reached over and picked up the phone.

“Walker Industries,” he said.

“Ann, yes, he’s right here.” Eric passed the phone to Chad and pressed the button to activate the speaker.

“You sitting in your office brooding?” Ann asked.

“If you called to needle me, or to give me a lecture on what I should have, could have done, now is not the time.” Ann had always been like an annoying older sister.

“I feel awful for what I’m about to say, but I’m going to do it anyway. Amelia is a mess.” Ann’s deep sigh traveled across the line and Chad could hear something clicking in the background.

“Is she all right?”

“She hasn’t been right since the two of you broke up.”

Chad rocked back in the chair, hoping with all his might Amelia would hear him out. “Can I talk to her, please?”

“She’s not here and she doesn’t know I’m calling. I doubt she’d be willing to talk to you. I’m violating all sorts of sister codes by calling you, so listen carefully.”

“Go on,” Chad said, feeling hope for the first time in days.

“Tomorrow morning at five, Amelia will take a car to O’Hare airport for her flight out to Kansas. You’ll be able to find her there.” She then filled in the blanks with a few more details.

“Thanks for telling me. I owe you one, Ann.”

“Don’t screw this up again,” Ann said and disconnected.

As soon as the phone was dead, Eric crossed his arms and regarded Chad. “So what’s the plan?”

“I don’t have one.” Chad picked up the receiver and punched in a few numbers. “Smith, arrange to have the private jet fueled and ready to go. I’m on my way to the airport.”

“You won’t reach her tonight,” Nick warned.

“I don’t have to reach her tonight as long as I’m waiting in the morning,” Chad said. He eyed Eric. “Keep an eye on my dog until you can take him to the estate, will you?”

“What are you going to do?” Eric asked.

Hurrying across the room, Chad opened the door and looked over his shoulder. “I’m going to steal the bride.”

Chapter Sixteen

The travel-size alarm blared much too early for Amelia. She drew her arm from beneath the warm comforter and hit the off button. She sat up groggily in the bed, pushed aside the blankets, and swung her feet over the side, resting for a second to wake up.

She’d barely slept, having spent most of the night tossing and turning and falling into one dream after another about Chad. In one of the dreams, he’d kissed her passionately and hadn’t stopped. She’d fallen asleep in her dream in the circle of his arms.

In the early-morning hours like this when her defenses were down, missing him was particularly hard, but she knew she couldn’t give in to that.

Getting out of bed, she dressed in the straight blue skirt suit she’d set out the night before and added a white button-up shirt. Normally she would have made an effort to liven up the outfit, give it some kind of oomph. But not today. What was wrong with business suits and no frills?

Life didn’t hold the same thrill, but maybe it wasn’t supposed to. Maybe she needed to be more responsible and have her life planned out. After what her spontaneity had gotten her into with Chad, she’d had enough of it.

She set her already-packed suitcase by the door and grabbed her purse. She consulted the new schedule book she’d purchased two weeks ago. Everything on her to-do list was in place, ready to be checked off. Good.

She debated ordering breakfast but decided against it, not sure how her stomach would react to the early-morning flight. Best if she grabbed something once the plane landed in Kansas.

Pulling out the long handle on the suitcase, Amelia wheeled it behind her and headed for the elevator. Once the doors closed and the elevator started the descent downward, she made small talk with an elderly couple riding the floors down with her and found out they were at the hotel to celebrate their fiftieth wedding anniversary.

Wishing them well, Amelia couldn’t help the pang of want that flared in her. She forced it down. Forget love. Business only.

When the doors swung open, a bellhop rushed forward to take her case. “Miss Snyder, your town car is waiting.”

“Thank you.” Amelia smiled at him as she released the handle and followed him out of the hotel into the already-warm June morning. There was a certain scent to Chicago and a liveliness that she never tired of experiencing no matter how many times she visited.

The bellhop opened the rear car door for her and Amelia slid across the gray leather seat.

Carefully buckling her seat belt, she took a second to settle herself, then pulled out her cell phone and powered up to check for messages.

Scrolling through, she ignored the calls from Chad. One from her editor, Cecilia. She’d return that one at a more decent hour.

The town car pulled away from the curb and out into the traffic and Amelia heard the bellhop’s startled yell.

Swinging her head to look through the rear window, Amelia saw the bellhop standing in the middle of the road frantically waving his hands.

“Driver, you forgot to wait for the bellhop to load my luggage. You’ll have to swing back around.”

The town car quickly turned onto a street and accelerated, making no effort to return to the hotel, and Amelia’s heart beat faster. What was going on?

She adjusted her position on the backseat so she could see the driver’s face in the rearview mirror and Amelia met a familiar pair of eyes. “Chad!” she gasped. “What are you doing here?”

“I’m stealing you. Now be quiet and cooperate.”

“Chad,” Amelia sputtered. “This is ridiculous! I have a schedule to keep.”

He shook an admonishing finger at her. “Good Lord. You sound like me.”

“I guess I realized that you were right and I didn’t need to be as spontaneous. Life was meant to be lived according to plans and rules. I need to stop running and be more responsible.”

“God, Amelia. I’m sorry. I know I messed up, but I also know it’s not too late to undo the changes I see in you.”

Amelia jutted her chin forward. “I demand that you take me back to pick up my luggage and get me to the airport before I miss my flight.”

“I have a flight waiting for you, honey, but not the one you think.”

“Chad…you can’t steal me!” Amelia knew she should see the irony and the humor in the situation, but she didn’t. Couldn’t. She was still nursing her wounds from their last encounter, and her heart wasn’t about to go on the chopping block again.

“You look terrible,” she finally said, noting his rumpled appearance and scruffy beginnings of a beard.

“Aw, thanks, sweetheart. I hope after we’re married you’ll learn better endearments.”

“Chad, you and I are not getting married again. Ever.” She leaned toward the front seat. “Now please take me to catch my flight. I have to be in Kansas.”

“Not happening. Now sit back and relax. I need to concentrate on my driving.”

“Watch out,” Amelia held one end of her skirt and climbed into the front seat as gracefully as she could.

After she fastened her seat belt, she said, “If you don’t stop the car right now, once we arrive at the airport, I’ll tell the personnel that I’m being taken against my will.”

“Go ahead.” Chad sent her a rakishly sexy smile. “We’re using a private airstrip. I’ve already given them a hell of a lot of money and they won’t see or hear a thing.”

“That’s bribery!” Amelia sputtered.

“I see being on the road hasn’t dimmed your sharp mind.”

Her heart was racing. Chad was here. Kidnapping her. Which meant…?

No, she couldn’t believe it. “What will this solve?”

Chad’s eyes lowered to her legs, then drifted back to meet her gaze. “Our childhood promise. Remember? You swore to me that you’d stop me from ending up like my father.”

“Chad, this isn’t you,” Amelia tried again. She had to try to make him see reason. “You would never plan something as wild as stealing a woman.”

“I didn’t plan it.”

Amelia frowned, speaking slowly to make sure she understood. “You don’t have a plan? Without a plan, failure is inevitable, someone told me once.”

“Not a one. Not one single plan.” He laughed out loud. “Kind of liberating. Besides, I got you, didn’t I?”

“I see.” Amelia pursed her lips. “Did you bring a change of clothes?”

“Nope. Left in too big of a hurry.”

“What about me? Since my luggage is back at the hotel, did you bring a change of clothes for me?”

“Nope.” He flashed a smile at her. “Sorry. Wish I would have thought about that because the suit you’re wearing isn’t you.”

“People change,” Amelia said stiffly and turned from facing him to stare through the windshield. There was nothing wrong with her suit. She looked competent.

Chad steered the town car onto the interstate and headed toward the airport. “I can’t let you live your life miserable, Ame. Friends don’t allow friends to lead the wrong kind of life.”

“You believe you know the kind of life that I should live?”

“One that’s filled with happiness, a whole lot of laughter, and someone who loves you and thinks you’re his entire world.”

“I suppose you have this someone waiting for me at the end of this adventure?”

“Absolutely,” Chad said, guiding the town car onto the tarmac of the private airstrip. A handful of people milled about the area. Each one of them ignoring the arrival of the car.

Chad parked and pulled the key from the ignition. “Out you go, sweetheart.”

Because she didn’t want to argue and cause a scene, Amelia got out. Chad pointed to the private jet owned by Walker Industries. “Our ride.”

Amelia sighed and walked toward the plane, her heels echoing on the concrete. She boarded the plane with quick steps. “Fine.”

Once she’d settled into one of the seats, she crossed her arms defensively. “I’ll play along for now, and once we get to Sweet Creek, I’ll catch the next flight out to Kansas.”

“Better not make plans, Ame. Today doesn’t look like a plan day to me.”

She couldn’t believe the way he was acting. Normally she was the one taking risks, being impulsive. Not Chad. “What the hell has happened to you? What happened to the person I used to know?”

Chad leaned closer, lowering his voice as if they were sitting around a campfire sharing ghost stories. “He ended up making the biggest mistake of his life. He didn’t trust people, didn’t trust love, and he drove away the one woman who ever truly mattered to him.”

“Chad, that’s a very lovely speech, but—”

He moved quickly, closing in on her personal space, and kissed her. When he drew back, she could see the uncertainty in his eyes. “Please tell me there’s at least a sliver of a chance I haven’t messed things up so badly between us that there’s no hope.”

She didn’t respond.

Chad knew Amelia was quiet when she was deep in thought and he could only hope those thoughts were good ones about the two of them.

More than anything, what he wanted was to take her in his arms and kiss her until they were both oblivious to the world, but his gut instinct told him that Amelia was still too far away from him emotionally to accept an embrace.

He could be patient. He’d do everything humanly possible to show Amelia how much he loved her.

He might risk it and get his heart broken, but he wasn’t sorry for loving her and never would be. She’d enriched his life. Made him see how beautiful it could be when he loved.

He drank in the way her hair caught the light streaming in from the window, the mannerisms that were so familiar. God, he was so in love with her.

But now it was time to get up to bat and the bases were loaded. Striking out wasn’t an option.

“I missed you.” He verbally swung.

“Hmmm,” was all she said without saying she’d missed him too.

Strike one.

“I called you every day.”

“I know.” Her voice still held that cool quality.

Strike two.

His hands gripped the sides of the seat until they turned white. He lifted his head and his gaze met hers. He swallowed hard.

“I’m in love with you.” He swung again.

“What?”

She stared at him and his heart was running hell-bent for leather, hoping to slide into home plate. “I said I’m in love with you.”

“Oh, Chad.” Her voice dropped to a husky whisper. “I love you, too.” She moved toward him, tears springing to her eyes.

Slide, slide, slide!

Chad gathered her into his arms.

Home safe!

He took a deep breath, holding her against him, never wanting to let go. So this was what heaven felt like.

He pressed kisses to her cheeks, her forehead, and her nose. “Forgive me for what I said, Ame. I was a complete idiot. I knew in my heart that you’d never intentionally hurt me.” He cupped her face in his hands.

“I’m afraid,” Amelia whispered when his lips brushed hers lightly.

He pulled back, staring at her in astonishment. “You? Miss Risk Taker? What are you afraid of?”

“This. Us.” She traced a path across the buttons on his shirt. “What if you’re right? What if—”

“No.” He kissed her again. “I couldn’t have been more wrong. Love isn’t something to avoid, it’s something to embrace, and the man who falls into it should count himself very lucky. These weeks apart from you have been the most miserable ones I’ve ever lived through.”

Keeping his arms around her waist, he lowered himself to one knee. “Amelia, my best friend, the woman who defines my world, will you marry me? Will you be my wife, my lover, and the mother of my children?”

Amelia dashed away a tear. “Yes, oh yes!”

Chad kissed her again, passionately, losing track of all reason and time until she pulled away and said, “I don’t want to wait any longer. Let’s go home and begin this life together.”