Happily Ever Afton Read Free

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