The Billionaire's Bridal Bid Read Free Page B

later. Throughout their childhood, she’d periodically disappear for longer and longer stretches. Each time, when Claire had asked her mother why she was leaving them with their grandparents she’d give some pithy response. Like, “Honey, if you love someone, you’ve got to set her free,” or “Sometimes a woman’s just got to feel the wind in her hair,” or—and this one was Claire’s favorite—“Some people are like sharks. They’ve got to keep moving to stay alive.”
    Even at eight, Claire had realized how appropriate the analogy was. Sharks weren’t evil or mean. It was just in their nature to consume everything in their path. Even their own young.
    For a long time after that, it was just Claire and Courtney together against the rest of the world. Yes, they lived with their grandparents, but they counted on only each other. She’d thought it would always be that way. Then at fifteen, Courtney had gone a little crazy. Gotten pregnant, run away from their grandparents’ house and gotten into a heap of trouble. Claire had done everything she could to help her younger sister. But in the end, once the baby had been born and safely adopted, Courtney too had run. The last Claire had heard, Courtney lived in Sacramento, less than an hour away, but apparently too far to visit or even call.
    Claire promised to herself long ago she’d never be like her mother or sister. She’d never run from her problems. So why was she thinking about it now? Merely because Matt was back in her life? For one measly night?
    He was the one man who’d ever told her he loved her. He’d proved years ago that those words had meant nothing to him. It certainly shouldn’t matter now that he’d treated her with as little regard as he treated his endless parade of model girlfriends. So what if he’d bid on her just to show up his brother. His complete disrespect for her may make her want to run, but she wasn’t tying double knots in her Nikes just yet.
    By the time she removed the last batch of doughnuts onto the draining board and started on the glaze, her mind was set. Matt would get his date. She’d resent the hell out of him for it, but she’d go. The way she saw it, the resentment was just plain unavoidable. How dare he waltz back into her life after all this time and bid on her only to get back at Vic? How dare he hurt her like that merely as a side effect of showing up Vic?
    Suddenly, she wished she’d added even more cayenne to the doughnut batter. Or maybe a dash of chipotle powder.
    A glance through the diner’s front windows told her dawn was just beginning to creep over the mountains. If anger wasn’t still simmering in her veins, she might sneak out onto the street to watch the sunrise over the mountains.
    Just then, a car drove past, its headlights reflecting briefly on another car, one she hadn’t noticed before now, parked in the spot right in front of the diner.
    “Huh,” she mumbled aloud, cocking her head to the side, trying to get a better view of the car. It hadn’t been there when she’d first arrived. Getting up at four to makedoughnuts was the bane of her existence. As far as she was concerned, only an idiot would be out this early without reason. “So who would be out there now?”
    The strange car made her more curious than nervous. She’d lived here most of her life and the crime rate in Palo Verde was virtually nonexistent, mostly just kids pulling pranks. There was no way that car belonged to a high school student. It was the kind of car that looked like it was going fast even when it was sitting still.
    A glance at the clock told her there were still a good forty minutes before the diner opened. Too early for Jazz, her short order cook, to show up. Way too early for Molly or Olga, her two waitresses, to get here. Bless their college-student hearts, they always waltzed in at the last possible moment.
    Besides, they always parked in back. And none of them drove glossy red sports cars. In fact, no