Groom On The Loose

Prologue

"Dr. Lawton. How may I help you?"

The deep baritone sent a chill traveling down Cassie Andrews’s spine—a chill as sharp as the frosty November wind whipping against her apartment window. Her grip tightened reflexively around the telephone receiver.

Uh, Greg. This is Cassie. Her chest tightened, the words catching in her throat. She swallowed hard, giving herself a moment to calm her frazzled nerves. A hopeless feat, she realized. In all her life, she’d never been faced with a more daunting task.

Cassie? He sounded surprised and, she had to admit, none too pleased.

She didn’t blame him. She and Greg Lawton weren’t exactly friends. Sparring partners would be a more apt description of their relationship. They weren’t in the habit of making social calls.

Do you have a minute, Greg? There’s something I need to discuss with you.

A slight pause. She could almost hear him grimacing across the phone line. I’m late for rounds at the hospital. Make it quick.

Greg was a pediatrician. A very noble profession, indeed. But that hardly gave him license for rudeness. Cassie narrowed her blue eyes. A scathing retort lay on the tip of her tongue. Until she remembered the reason for her call.

This won’t take long, she said, forcing an even tone. It’s about Niki.

Niki? What about Niki? His tone shifted, becoming suddenly alert. Is something wrong? Is she all right?

Cassie closed her eyes against the concern shadowing his voice. Niki Adams was Cassie’s best friend. She was also Greg’s former fiancée. Obviously, she was a woman he still cared about a great deal. Telling him the news was going to be like yanking his heart out and stepping on it.

Niki’s fine. Just fine, she said, struggling to find the right words. There were none, she decided. Cassie gave a silent moan of frustration. How do you tell a man that the woman he intended to marry has just eloped with someone else?

Look, Greg. The thing is…Niki’s married.

Dead silence greeted her announcement. Then, finally, What did you say?

The hollow, empty sound of his voice sent an arrow of regret to her heart. For hours she had debated the wisdom of calling Greg with the news of Niki’s elopement, knowing it would be a shock. Especially coming from her, someone he disliked with a vengeance. In the end she’d decided it best that Greg find out from someone he knew, rather than from the gossips on the street of their hometown of Webster Groves, Missouri. Now she wasn’t so sure.

She drew in a breath of courage. Niki married Jack Sinclair yesterday in Chicago.

The silence was palpable.

Greg, I’m sorry.

Are you really?

She blinked at his angry tone. Of course I am. I know how painful this must be. I feel terrible—

So terrible that you couldn’t wait to call me with the news. His bitter laugh sent warning signals tripping through her mind. Admit it, Cassie, you called just to rub it in.

Rub it in? Her spine stiffened as anger kicked in. Now look, Lawton. I called out of the goodness of my heart as a favor—

A favor? His voice thundered over the phone line. If this is your idea of a favor, Cassie, I’d hate to be around when you’re feeling vindictive.

Vindictive? She gasped, outraged. I don’t have a vindictive bone in my body.

Right. And I suppose you want me to believe you weren’t turning handsprings when Niki decided to break off our engagement.

Her fingers ached from the death grip she had on the phone. Niki’s my friend, she said primly. I support any decision she makes.

Just like you supported her during our engagement.

Heat flushed her face, a reaction she attributed to anger, not guilt. Back off, the little voice of reason warned her. Now wasn’t the time for an argument with Greg. He was in a highly emotional state. And, to be truthful, the state of her own emotions wasn’t very predictable, either. It wouldn’t take much to set off a shouting match.

She’d accomplished what she’d set out to do. She’d told Greg of Niki’s elopement. It was time to say her goodbyes and hang up the phone with her pride and her tempter intact.

The words sounded good. The advice logical. Only, emotion overrode her common sense. Greg Lawton was so annoying she just couldn’t allow him the last word.

I encouraged Niki to follow her heart. I can’t help it if Niki’s heart wanted Jack Sinclair and not you.

Cassie bit her lip, wishing she could take back the hurtful words as soon as she spoke them. She didn’t know what it was about Greg Lawton, but for some reason he’d always had a knack for bringing out the worst in her.

Look, Cassie. The next time you get the urge to do me any more favors…don’t.

A sharp click sounded, followed closely by the buzz of a disconnected phone line.

Cassie yanked the receiver from her ear. She stared at the hissing mouthpiece, unable to believe what had just happened. The nerve of the man! In an undeserved show of friendship, she had called Greg to break the news of his ex-fiancée’s elopement. And the ungrateful cad had the gall to hang up on her.

That does it, she announced to the empty living room, slamming the phone back onto its cradle. She narrowed her eyes. That’s the last time I’ll ever do another favor for Greg Lawton.

*   *   *

Greg hung up the phone, clinging to the remnants of anger as though it were a lifeline. Better to feel anger, he told himself, than to let any other emotion inside…like pain.

Niki was married? To Jack Sinclair?

Jack Sinclair of all people, a man Greg had always considered a lifetime rival. And so soon after Niki had ended their own engagement. Greg tightened his fingers into white-knuckled fists of frustration. How would he ever live down the humiliation?

But then again, he’d spent most of his growing years trying to live down one of life’s humiliations or another.

Bitterness threatened to usurp his anger. Greg surged to his feet, his desk chair spinning out behind him. He strode to the window, lifted the slats of the miniblinds and stared out of his office at the view overlooking the tree-lined streets of Webster Groves.

Denuded of their leaves, the trees looked stark, barren, like his heart. He’d lived in Webster Groves all his life. A stone’s throw from the city limits of St. Louis, it had the feel of a small town, yet all the conveniences of urban living. He couldn’t imagine living anywhere else. With its large yards and big, old houses, Webster Groves was the perfect place to raise a family.

A family, he mused bitterly, that elusive but persistent dream. He thought he’d found a chance at achieving that dream with Niki.

He’d been wrong.

Greg set his jaw against the rising tide of self-pity. He reached a hand and snapped the blinds closed. Striding to his desk, he busied himself with stacking patient files into neat piles. He’d chased after enough dreams for one lifetime. He wasn’t going to waste his time wishing for the impossible.

He had to face the facts.

Niki would have made the perfect doctor’s wife. She was beautiful, sweet natured and socially adept. Only now she was married to Jack Sinclair. A lawyer, for God’s sake.

Anger dug its icy fingers into his chest, nearly forcing the breath from his lungs. Greg slammed a file onto the desktop. Get over it, Lawton, he chided himself. Brooding over what could have been was pointless.

He welcomed a new surge of anger as his thoughts returned to Cassie Andrews.

What was the saying—don’t shoot the messenger? Well, at the moment, that was exactly what he wanted to do.

A favor, he harrumphed disdainfully. That’s what she’d called her little phone call.

Greg knew better. Cassie had never kept her dislike for him a secret. He frowned. For that matter, he hadn’t exactly been discreet when it came to his true feelings for her, either. So it didn’t surprise him that she’d seized an opportunity to serve yet another blow to his already wounded pride.

The woman had no conscience.

Cassie and Niki were best friends. During his brief engagement to Niki, he’d had to endure Cassie’s constant presence. If there was any good to come of his broken engagement to Niki, it was the fact that he’d never have to see Cassie Andrews again.

For the first time that day, Greg almost smiled.

Chapter One

Eight months later

The front doorbell chimed, announcing a new arrival at the offices of The Talk of the Town, a party planning service owned and operated by Cassie Andrews.

Cassie glanced at her wristwatch and frowned. Her one o’clock appointment was early. She heard voices coming from the front office. Her receptionist/secretary/all-around girl Friday’s voice she recognized. The other, a deep baritone, sounded vaguely familiar.

Definitely not her one o’clock appointment, she decided. Naomi Jacobs, her scheduled client, wished to discuss plans for her niece’s bridal shower. This visitor was undoubtedly all male.

Cassie? Her receptionist, dark-haired and petite, with pixielike features, stood in the doorway of her office, looking anxious.

Yes, Mitsi?

There’s someone outside insisting on seeing you. He doesn’t have an appointment, but he says you know him. Dr. Lawton? A Dr. Greg Lawton?

Cassie’s breath caught. Greg Lawton? He was the last person she’d ever expected to darken her door. She remembered their last encounter, the time she’d called him to tell him about Niki and Jack Sinclair’s elopement. She hadn’t seen Greg since he’d had the nerve to hang up on her.

Cassie?

Cassie blinked, glancing up at her friend. Hmm?

What do you want me to do with Dr. Lawton?

A number of vile things came to mind. All of which Cassie quickly squelched. Contrary to what Greg Lawton believed, she wasn’t a vindictive woman. She wasn’t one to hold grudges.

Give me a moment. Then send him in.

Mitsi left and Cassie scrambled to clear her desk. Not that she cared what Greg thought of her office, she told herself, as she shoved a handful of papers into her desk drawer. His opinion didn’t matter to her one way or another.

In the past eight months since she and Greg had gratefully parted ways, she’d concentrated her time and effort on starting her own business. Thanks to a lot of hard work and diligence, The Talk of the Town was a growing success, which didn’t leave her a lot of time to organize her desk.

Most times, the clutter didn’t bother her or her clients. Her customers hired her for her creativity, not her neatness. But today, with someone as intimidating as Greg Lawton looming outside her door, she wanted to put her best foot forward.

Her elbow caught the edge of the desk blotter, sending the stapler bouncing off her desk. Cassie scooted her chair back and bent to retrieve the recalcitrant object. She stopped midstretch as she came nose to toe with a pair of shiny black loafers.

A prickling of awareness skittered up her spine. Slowly she lifted her gaze, catching a glimpse of long, muscular legs, clad in a pair of perfectly creased, charcoal gray slacks. She took in the trim waist, the flat stomach and the broad shoulders and felt her mouth go dry. His pale blue, buttoned-down shirt brought out the highlights of his baby blue eyes. The office’s fluorescent light glinted off his thick sandy hair. And his lips were pressed into a firm line of disapproval.

Heartbreak had been kind to Greg Lawton, she decided grudgingly. Hard as it was to believe, he’d grown even more handsome over the past few months. Once she’d likened him to a modern day Dr. Kildare; so cool, so collected—so perfect—that whenever she saw him she wanted to run up to him and muss up his hair.

Perfection was just one of Greg’s many faults. His condescending attitude was another. Whenever he was near, Cassie felt as though she should apologize for all her shortcomings—whatever they may be. He had an uncanny knack for making her feel lacking in some way.

Greg, she said, rising to greet him. This is a surprise.

I’m sure it is, he returned evenly. His mouth tightened around a polite smile. Do you have a moment? There’s something I’d like to discuss with you.

The words held a familiar ring, striking Cassie with an unexpected feeling of déjà vu. They’d had this conversation before. Only, the last time, she’d been the one asking for a moment of his time. A request that had been met with rudeness.

Giving the good doctor a taste of his own bitter medicine, she glanced at her wristwatch. I’ve got an appointment in fifteen minutes. Make it quick.

His smile faded. That’s what I like about you, Cassie. Your directness.

She raised her chin. Funny, I didn’t think there was anything you liked about me.

You’re right.

Cassie put a loose rein on her growing anger. Obviously this isn’t a social call. So why don’t you cut the chitchat and get to the point of your visit?

A scowl creased his perfect brow. He shifted uncomfortably, one foot to the other. The reason I’m here… He stopped, swearing softly beneath his