Road Trip with the Best Man

by Sophie Pembroke

  Unless she didn’t.

  Dawn eyed the rubbish bin in the corner of the room. It was obviously designed for nappies and other baby-related rubbish, but it was larger than she’d have expected. Maybe even large enough for a ridiculous quantity of silk and lace.

  She hesitated, biting down on her lip as she held the wedding gown against her. She shouldn’t. It was a horrendous waste of money and craftsmanship, and even sentiment.

  But, on the other hand, the dress was a stark reminder that nothing about her wedding day had gone to plan. From the preparations being railroaded by her family and Justin’s mother, to Justin not actually showing up, why on earth would she want to keep the dress as a reminder of the day she hadn’t got married?

  So, she shouldn’t. But she was going to.

  Biting back a gleeful grin, Dawn crammed her wedding dress into the bin and pressed the lid down on top. Then, feeling a hundred pounds lighter, she grabbed her shopping bag and unlocked the door, striding out to begin her life over again.

  Starting with dinner with her non-brother-in-law, and ending when she finally looked Justin in the eye and understood why he’d jilted her at the altar.

  After that? All bets were off.

  * * *

  Cooper had secured a table near the window, so he could watch for Dawn crossing the parking lot to join him, but in the end she still took him by surprise.

  As a petite, fresh-faced young woman slid into the booth seat opposite him, her dark ponytail bobbing cheerfully, he opened his mouth to tell her that he was waiting for someone—before he realised it was Dawn.

  He snapped his jaw closed again and stared.

  ‘What looks good here?’ Dawn asked, her attention already on the menu, rather than him.

  But Cooper’s gaze was fixed on her unfamiliar face.

  When he’d first seen her, dressed in a tailored dress that showed off her figure, and a matching jacket that he knew his mother would approve of, he’d known her type instantly. The glossy, carefully waved hair, the perfect make-up, the nude heels... She was the sort of woman he’d dated for years, the sort of woman he’d married, come to that. She’d even looked a little like Rachel, now he thought about it.

  Maybe that was why he’d been suspicious of her from the start.

  But now, with her face scrubbed clean until her cheeks shone pink, her hair pulled back from her face and wearing a short denim skirt, pale pink tee and sneakers...she looked like a different person.

  One far too young to be marrying his brother. Or conning him out of his fortune, for that matter.

  Which was probably why she’d got as far as she had, of course. Justin wasn’t an idiot. He’d have spotted a gold-digger a mile off if she’d been obvious about it.

  Suddenly, his brother’s last-minute revelation and flight made more sense to Cooper.

  ‘Do you have your UK driver’s licence with you?’ he asked, ignoring her question about the food.

  Dawn frowned at him over the top of the menu. ‘Actually, yes. I keep it in my phone case. Why?’

  ‘Because I’m not sure you look old enough to drive in that outfit, and if we get pulled over I want to know how much trouble we’re in.’

  Her face cleared at his words and she laughed—high, bright and far happier than he’d expect from a woman who’d just been jilted by the love of her life.

  ‘That’s why I have it,’ she admitted. ‘I’ve been ID’d so often in bars since I arrived in this country, and I couldn’t face being turned away from the bar at my own wedding.’

  ‘How old are you, anyway?’ he asked, suddenly curious. He knew so little about this woman who had almost been his sister-in-law. And, looking at her now, he wondered how much of the stuff he did know was an act, an attempt to be the sort of bride Justin would expect.

  ‘Twenty-eight,’ she said promptly. ‘And, yes, I know, I look younger. I’m actually the third-eldest of my sisters.’

  ‘How many of you are there?’ He had a vague image of a gaggle of women all wearing the same pink bridesmaid dresses, but he hadn’t actually stopped long enough to count them.

  ‘Five, including me.’

  ‘So you’re right in the middle.’

  ‘That’s right.’ Dawn’s smile was too tight, which made him question what part of this conversation she felt uncomfortable about. Her entire family had flown out for the wedding, so she couldn’t be embarrassed by them. Could she?

  ‘You don’t get on with your sisters?’ he asked, probing the obvious wound. If he was stuck travelling with Dawn for the next handful of days he might as well use the time wisely, learning as much about her as possible, to help keep Justin safe from any attempts on her part to win him back.

  ‘Oh, no. I love my sisters.’ Dawn didn’t sound entirely convinced by her own words.

  ‘But?’

  She gave him a weak smile. ‘You know siblings. They always think they know what’s best for you.’

  ‘Most of the time, I’ve found that they do.’ He thought back to Justin’s comments about Rachel the week before Cooper had married her.

  ‘Are you sure it’s the real thing, Coop? That she’s in love with you, not just the idea of being part of the Edwards legacy?’

  And here he was, playing exactly the same part for Justin. He just hoped he could do a better job of it. That Justin would believe him, even though Cooper hadn’t believed his brother last time.

  That still rankled, he knew. Cooper’s lack of faith in Justin had caused a gulf between them that neither brother seemed to know how to cross. But maybe now, having lived the same experience, they would find their way back to each other again. Cooper hoped so.

  He’d never blamed Justin for what had happened with Rachel, only himself. The same way he’d never blamed his mother for introducing him to Melanie and asking him to mentor her as she learned the ropes of the company.

  His mother couldn’t have known that wasn’t all her beautiful young friend was hoping to learn, and Cooper had been so inexperienced and keen to show off his place in the company that it hadn’t even occurred to him that Melanie might have ulterior motives. That she was less interested in him than his knowledge of company secrets. Or that she’d use everything he showed her and take it back to her boyfriend’s rival company—leaving Cooper to deal with his furious father and desperately trying to rebuild trust with the board.

  Which only made the whole situation with Rachel more galling. Having been taken in once, he’d thought he was too cynical, too knowing, to fall for the same tricks again. Until Rachel had swept into his life, blinding him with her polish and beauty. Suddenly he was spending his fortune on keeping her in jewellery and designer clothes, on being seen in the right places and with the right people. And Justin was the only one who’d called him on it.

  Time to return the favour.

  ‘Come on,’ he said, lifting the menu again and studying it. ‘We need to get a move on if we’re going to make it to Reno before we stop for the night.’

  The sooner they made it across the country, the sooner he could help Justin extricate himself from his gold-digger fiancée—for good.

  CHAPTER FIVE

  DAWN HADN’T DRIVEN much since her arrival in America—but she was damned if she was going to let Cooper know that. This was her road trip he was gate-crashing, so of course she was going to drive most of it. On the right side of the road and everything. She just needed Cooper to add her to the insurance first. One quick phone call and she was good to go.

  At least, now she was no longer weighed down by her wedding dress, driving wasn’t the impossibility it would have been before. So all she had to do was figure out the controls and dashboard of the vintage Cadillac and try not to crash into anything between Sacramento and Reno. How hard could that be?

  Cooper gave her a quick primer on the car as she started the engine, an
d she nodded as if it all made perfect sense. She’d figure it out once she got on the road, she was sure.

  ‘And I just stick on the I-80?’ she asked, wanting confirmation of the route in case he fell asleep while she drove. It seemed kind of ridiculous that one road could take them all the way across the country, but Cooper nodded.

  ‘Until we hit New Jersey later in the week, pretty much. Although we’ll probably want to turn off into Reno to find somewhere to stay tonight.’

  ‘Right, then.’ The car jerked into motion, juddering out of the parking space Cooper had chosen. Dawn was glad she didn’t have to reverse the ridiculously long car just yet. Getting it to go forward was tricky enough.

  ‘You’ll get used to it,’ Cooper told her, stretching out his legs as best as he could in the passenger seat, his arms folded across his broad chest. He might look less formal in jeans and a tee shirt, but somehow Dawn couldn’t help but feel he was no less intimidating. ‘Just need to gentle her along.’

  His eyes fell closed as the car jumped forward again. He couldn’t really be planning to sleep, could he?

  He’d been quiet over dinner, barely even contributing to the conversation after his questions about her sisters. She’d kept up a constant chatter to start with, uncomfortable with his silence, but there were only so many observations she could make about the restaurant, the menu and the food before she ran out of things to say.

  At least, things that weren’t to do with her abysmal love life, or questions about Cooper’s own life that she knew without asking he would never answer.

  Justin, she remembered, had told her everything there was to know about himself on their first date. Everything he thought mattered, anyway. He was an open book, he’d said, and she’d loved reading him. Loved learning all his quirks and ticks. What he liked, what he didn’t. How he felt—about the world, about his life, about her.

  She remembered the first party he’d taken her to as his date—one held at a business partner’s property down in southern California. She’d felt so out of place in her usual party dress, which suddenly seemed a little drab and simple next to the designer outfits of the other women present. And then she’d managed to put her foot in it hugely when a stranger had asked how she liked the wine and she admitted it was a little sharp for her—only to learn that the man asking was, in fact, the vintner. By the end of the night she’d been miserable and desperate to go home, sure that Justin had to be regretting ever inviting her. But Justin had simply smiled, kissed her and told her that she’d know what not to do next time. Then, the next day, he’d made her an appointment at a dress shop in town so she could buy something more appropriate to wear for the party he wanted her to join him at that weekend.

  It had just been so easy to fall into sync with him because he didn’t hide anything away. His expectations, feelings and opinions were always on show. Dawn had never had to guess with Justin.

  But he’d never talked much about his brother. Which was a shame, because she couldn’t help but feel that understanding Cooper better would make the next few days go a lot smoother. Even though Justin had spoken at length about his childhood, his parents and his friends, Cooper had hardly ever even come up in conversation. Why had she never noticed that before?

  She let her gaze drift over to the elder Edwards brother, still prone in the passenger seat, taking in the parts of him that felt familiar. His nose was ruler-straight, just like Justin’s, and his dark hair the same colour. But there were so many differences, too: Cooper was taller, broader and his jawline much harder. But with his eyes closed she couldn’t see the biggest difference between the brothers—the dark, harsh, bitterness she always saw in Cooper’s eyes.

  What had caused that? And, whatever it was, did it explain why he’d agreed to drive across the country with her to find Justin?

  What did he think she was going to do when she got there that she needed a chaperone?

  Shaking her head, Dawn frowned down at the steering wheel, took a deep breath and prepared to try again. Really, this was no different from when her father had taught her to drive over ten years ago. She just needed to practise. Practice, her mother had always told her, made perfect.

  Which didn’t explain why, after all her practice at relationships, another man had walked off and left her. Again.

  But she wasn’t thinking about that. She was thinking about the open road and the future.

  ‘Are you planning on leaving the parking lot at any time tonight?’ Cooper asked without opening his eyes.

  Setting her jaw, Dawn pressed down the accelerator and began to drive.

  Her future was waiting, after all.

  * * *

  ‘Cooper? I’m guessing this is Reno?’

  Dawn’s words jerked him awake—which was the first sign that he’d fallen asleep in the first place. He hadn’t expected to, given the way the car had been lurching around as Dawn got used to driving it, but apparently she must be a fast learner, because he didn’t remember much of anything after they’d left Sacramento.

  He opened his eyes in time to see the Reno arch lit up almost overhead, announcing that they had arrived at ‘the biggest little city in the world’.

  ‘You wanted to stop here tonight, right?’ Dawn asked, glancing away from the road for a second to look at him. Then her gaze was fixed back on the traffic in front of them, her hands, pale in the light from the illuminations overhead, gripping the steering wheel tightly. If she’d been doing that for the full two hours since he’d fallen asleep, they must be aching by now. No wonder she was ready to stop for the night.

  ‘Yeah,’ he said, peering out of the window at the lit-up hotel and casino signs they passed. She must have pulled off the interstate and into the city while he was still asleep—another sign that she really needed to stop driving. He’d intended to spend some of the drive on his phone, finding them a hotel for the night, but since they were already here they might as well go and knock on reception desks until they found somewhere suitable. ‘We’ll find somewhere safe to park this thing, then hunt down a couple of rooms for the night.’ The last thing he needed was someone stealing their hired Caddy before they’d even got any further than Nevada.

  He’d never spent much time in Reno before, and he didn’t intend to spend much time here now. Neither he nor Dawn were there for the gambling or the entertainment—it was just another stop on a journey he hadn’t fully intended to make. They’d find a hotel, get some sleep and be on the road again first thing. But as he strode along the lively streets—lit up with music, illuminated signs and chatter—Cooper realised that Dawn was no longer beside him.

  ‘Dawn?’ He spun round, trying to spot her in the crowds. It was nearly eleven at night, but the streets of Reno were still packed with people. Had she given him the slip? Cooper swore as he realised that she was still in possession of the keys to the Caddy. She could be racing off towards Justin, alone, right now. Maybe she’d been faking her tiredness, her need to stop for the night, just to lull him into a false sense of security so she could ditch him.

  ‘Sorry!’ Dawn popped up beside him, his racing heart jumping at her sudden re-appearance. ‘I got distracted by one of the bars—they had a band playing and, well, I’m a sucker for live music. It’s been forever since I saw a band live! Justin was never really interested. Sorry again,’ she added, frowning at him as he realised he hadn’t responded.

  He’d been so sure she had gone.

  Why hadn’t she gone?

  Cooper would have done. Why risk being tied down to him, the one person who could reasonably be expected to stop her from convincing Justin that she loved him and that they should still get married, when she had a chance to go it alone?

  ‘Cooper?’ Dawn’s frown deepened. She reached out and touched his hand, and the feel of her fingers against his skin jerked him out of his reverie.

  ‘I think I saw a suitable hotel down
this way,’ he said, waving vaguely in the direction of a side street. ‘You should stick close.’

  ‘Right. Will do.’ Dawn gave him a sharp nod and stayed right by his side as he led her towards the lights of what thankfully turned out to be a halfway decent hotel. Even better, it had two free rooms left, right next to each other, and Cooper took them without even checking with Dawn, handing over his credit card happily as the slot machines of the casino downstairs rang out merrily, signalling that someone had just won big.

  What did it matter if the hotel wasn’t as luxurious as he’d normally expect—or as she had obviously hoped to grow accustomed to by marrying Justin? They’d be on their way first thing anyway.

  He handed Dawn her key card and she bit down on her lower lip as she took it.

  ‘I can pay for my own room, you know,’ she said. ‘I’m not expecting you to foot the bill for this whole road trip or anything.’

  Ah. So that was how she was going to play it. Suddenly, it all made sense.

  Dawn was going to use this trip together to get him on her side. To convince him that she truly did love Justin, not just his money. Starting by offering to pay her own way.

  It was a decent plan, he had to admit. If Justin hadn’t already told Cooper about her gold-digging ways, maybe he’d even have fallen for it.

  Although, given his history with Rachel, probably not. Even she’d gone Dutch on dinner at the start—but it had only lasted until he’d fallen for her and started insisting on paying for everything out of love. She’d stopped offering after that—and from there it had been only a small step to demanding presents to prove his love.

  The fact Dawn thought she could manipulate him like that, the way Rachel had, made his shoulders tense.

  ‘You can pay tomorrow night,’ he said coldly as he turned and headed for the lifts. ‘I’ll see you back here at eight-thirty. Sharp.’

  And with that he left her alone in the lobby with her bag, even though her room would be right next to his. He didn’t want her getting the wrong idea about this trip, after all.