Stealing the Groom by Sonya Weiss

started.
    “Seriously,” Abby continued, “you guys have been friends forever and… nothing . Then on the day you’re supposed to marry someone else you end up having a shotgun wedding with our sister. What the hell has gotten into you two?”
    Chad narrowed his eyes. “No one forced me into anything.”
    Both sisters gave him wide grins.
    “So then you wanted to marry Amelia?” Ann asked, then pointed a finger toward the kitchen. “Would you like a glass of iced tea?”
    Chad blinked at the abrupt switch. Ann was as known for her rabbit-hopping conversations as Amelia was for her impetuous actions. “No.” He wiped his palms down the sides of his pants, wishing Amelia would hurry.
    “No to our sister or no to the tea?” Abby asked.
    His brows creased. “I have a feeling anything I say will be used against me.” He was so out of his league with these two.
    “So out with it! Why did you marry Amelia? Don’t give us that bull story about your grandfather and the company,” Ann prodded.
    He heard Amelia bumping down the stairs with her suitcases and jumped up to help her, relief flooding through his veins that he could escape.
    What bull story? How could they not understand he had to marry Amelia to save the company? With the trouble the diner was in financially, Ann of all people should understand that.
    His wedding to Amelia had been a company-or-death situation. Of course he hadn’t wanted to marry his best friend and risk what they had. Yet in the last twenty-four hours they’d not only kissed—something that was strictly off-limits—but now they were married.
    What. The. Hell.
    Interrupting his thoughts, Amelia handed over the suitcases with a compassionate grin. “On the hot seat?”
    “Something like that. I’ll go put these in the car.”
    “I’ll be out in a second.”
    Chad beat a hasty retreat, rattled that Amelia’s sisters didn’t believe his reasons for marrying but more rattled that he couldn’t convince himself.
    He stowed the suitcases in the trunk and returned to the house to meet Amelia. Once she exited the house, he escorted Amelia to the passenger side of the ’66 Mustang he’d restored in high school. He helped her in and then walked to the driver’s side and got in.
    Amelia was quiet, and that made him nervous.
    Was she regretting this sham of a marriage? Was she resentful that her efforts to help him had forced her into a marriage she didn’t really want?
    She deserved someone who would love and appreciate her. Someone who loved and accepted her for who she was. Someone like…
    Him?
    She was beautiful, sexy, and fun. It’d be so easy to fall for her if he didn’t keep his guard up.
    He shoved the thought away. He wasn’t going down that road. No way. Not gonna happen. He knew from watching his father’s life fall apart that Cupid was a nasty bastard with a mean streak. That was one arrow he was determined to avoid. She placed her hand on his thigh and he jerked his leg upward, the back of his thigh contracting painfully.
    “What’s wrong, Chad?”
    “Nothing,” he said more sharply than he intended, and he heard her quiet sigh in the close confines of the car.
    They drove through the main streets of the town in silence, his mind reeling.
    “Stop the car,” she said after he drove past the park where they’d often played as kids.
    He pulled the car over onto the side of the grass and she pushed open the door when he cut off the engine.
    “C’mon. Race you.” She got out and started running toward the center of the park.
    Chad took off after her and when he reached her, she was trailing her hand along the side of a tree near the basketball court. He watched her for a second, then said, “I’ve got stuff to take care of at home.” He pushed a button on the side of his watch to make the face light up.
    “Back to scheduling every moment?”
    “You’ll get used to it.”
    A satisfied smile played about her lips, as if she knew something he didn’t. “Our