Charity Case - The Complete Series - Piper Rayne Page 0,238

belt that holds his gun is worn and strained. He bellies up to the counter, and another waitress smiles, filling a cup of coffee and sliding the sugar over to him without him asking.

They discuss the morning and the weather and when his radio squawks, he quickly silences it, never granting it his attention.

A minute later, a brunette breezes into the diner, her eyes scanning the booths. An inkling tells me who she is even before matching hazel eyes to Roarke’s bore into mine and she points in my direction.

She saunters over like she owns the town and slides into the booth on the other side of me. “Hannah?”

“Allie?” I ask.

A smile wraps around her lips. “Yeah.” She sticks her hand out. “Nice to meet the woman behind the man.”

“Excuse me?” My forehead crinkles.

“I just saw Roarke and he said you were over here. I had to meet you.”

She’s the complete opposite of Roarke. Where he’s like an aged Redwood, she’s more like a willow tree.

“Oh, well, I’m not…”

She waves me off. “He’s never brought anyone back here before. Ever. Whoever you are, you’re someone to him.”

My hand falls to my stomach to stifle the purr of excitement induced by her words.

“Congratulations on your upcoming wedding,” I say.

Her lips dip for a second. “We’ll see if Wyatt is a rat. I’m rarely wrong on my suspicions.” She looks over to flag a waitress down but her gaze sticks on the cop at the counter. “Oh, great. The bastard is having me followed.”

“Who?” I ask.

“Wiltaker. He probably told his grandson not to marry me because I’m a Baldwin. Jackass.”

The bell rings and the energy in the room shifts. My body alerts me to Roarke’s presence before I even look away from Allie.

“It’s my brother, right?” she asks.

“How did you—”

“Your face changed. You like him.”

Roarke comes over before I can answer and signals for Allie to slide over.

“He’s here,” she whispers, nodding toward the counter.

Roarke glances over, shrugging his shoulders. “You’re being paranoid.”

“I am not. He thinks I’m not good enough and he’s convinced Wyatt to go sleep with fucking Kylie. Well, screw them both. I don’t need either of them.”

Roarke’s head falls back. “I got your marriage license moved forward so you can get married tomorrow. Quit with the assumptions. Wyatt didn’t do anything.”

Liv returns to fill Roarke’s coffee cup. “Do you guys want anything else?”

Roarke’s chest heaves with a breath as though the last thing he needed in this moment was to be reminded of something. I just don’t know what.

“Coffee’s fine,” he says.

“Can I have a Coke, Liv?” Allie asks, peeking her head around to watch the counter again.

“Sure thing,” Liv tells Allie. “Sugar is on the table, I’ll go get you some milk,” she says directly to Roarke.

“I take it black now.” His words sound bitter and curt, silencing the table and wrapping us in an uncomfortable blanket.

“Oh, okay.” She walks away.

“Asshole much?” Allie organizes the sugar packets with great concentration.

Roarke doesn’t even flinch. “Fucking Christ. It’s my first day here and already all this shit.” He brings the coffee to his lips. “You okay with driving my vehicle home by yourself?”

My stomach clenches. He suddenly wants me gone?

“What?” I ask.

“Stop being an asshole.” Allie pushes the container of sugar back where it came from but starts in on the jams. “You can’t just make people disappear when you think they’ve seen too much.” Allie’s gaze meets mine. “He won’t tell you, but he’s embarrassed. You know the whole men-not-wanting-women-to-see weakness? Well, Roarke is the king of it.”

I bite down on my lip to stop my smile from forming. Why do I like the fact he doesn’t want me to see him vulnerable?

Instead of getting an easy dig in on him, I sip my coffee and smile.

“Thank you, Allie. Next time I won’t do you the favor of using my charm to get your marriage license on the fast track when you should have applied three weeks ago.”

“I’m not going to need it anyway.” She shrugs.

Roarke rolls his eyes. “Since Allie feels like being so open this morning, let me tell you about her hang-ups. She trusts no one. Thinks everyone is out to get her, including the man she loves. The man she said yes to when he proposed. Now that man is about to walk in here.” Roarke points and sure enough there’s a young guy in his twenties steadily making headway toward the door. Definitely a man on a mission.

Allie knocks Roarke’s hip. “Let me