Acquired: The CEO's Small-Town Bride

“Chase,” Rafe said, pulling his eyes from the swinging doors and back to his stepbrother, “we’re going to have to put the rest of our luncheon meeting on hold. As you can see, I need to change clothes.”

Chase Larson was not only his stepbrother, but also handled Rafe’s personal finances and some of his business dealings. They’d become stepbrothers when Rafe’s dad married Chase’s mom fourteen years ago. They hadn’t spent any time living in the same house, but they shared a healthy rivalry that had helped propel them both out of poverty.

His stepbrother pulled his suit jacket from the back of the chair and shrugged it on again. “What the hell happened to you? Did you drop your drink or what?”

“Something like that.” His eyes gravitated to the kitchen doors again where Sarah had disappeared seconds earlier.

He wasn’t normally a man who wasted time on regrets, instead opting to charge forward and tackle the future. But right now, he couldn’t ignore a whopping big regret—that he’d never slept with Sarah Richards.

The next day, Sarah folded and refolded a towel in her kitchen while her grandmother sat serenely shaping ground beef into patties to be frozen. Individual patties for lonely meals. Her grandmother and parents invited her to their homes often, or came over to hers like tonight, but nothing could replace the daily companionship of the husband she’d lost.

Tonight, she and Grandma Kat had eaten salads and discussed last-minute details for her grandmother’s upcoming sixty-fifth birthday bash this weekend. Yet still Kathleen didn’t leave, offering to help with small household chores. Normally, Sarah would have insisted she was fine, but after the day she’d experienced, facing her empty house seemed tougher than normal.

Silently, she worked alongside her grandmother, trying not to think about her lunch shift at the Vista del Mar Beach and Tennis Club. The manager had given her the afternoon off to cool down. She’d been an employee there long enough that she wouldn’t get fired—unless Rafe flat-out requested it.

She didn’t think he would be that vindictive and he had laughed.

Damn him.

She slammed the towel into the laundry basket, wrecking her stack. “I can’t believe he’s just going to dismantle the factory, put hundreds of people out of work.”

Grandma Kat folded plastic wrap over a perfect circle of hamburger. “I assume you mean Rafe Cameron.”

“Who else?” She kicked the wicker hamper to the side. “Even my parents will be out of a job after working at that plant their whole adult lives. Grandma Kat, doesn’t this inflame you? Aren’t you pissed? You worked for Ronald Worth for forty years. Aren’t you hurt to see the place torn apart? Lives destroyed?”

With her parents so close to retirement age, they were too old to start new careers. They’d given up so much for that factory, working long hours and double shifts just to keep a roof over her head. Thank God she’d had Grandma Kat to look after her or she would have been very alone growing up.

“Of course I am upset, dear.” She stacked the dozen individually wrapped burgers into a Tupperware container and sealed the lid. “I know the faces and names and histories of all the longtime employees. Thinking of them being out of a job not only makes me mad, it breaks my heart.”

Sarah had thought her heart couldn’t be sliced any deeper than when Rafe moved away after high school graduation, leaving her behind. And then she’d pieced her life together, marrying, creating the home with Quentin that she’d always wanted. Only to have her spirit crushed all over again by multiple miscarriages and then her husband’s death.

Truly, she would have thought the calluses on her emotions would leave her immune to pain now. She was wrong.

Tears burned her eyes, blurring her perfect little kitchen. She sagged back against the Formica tabletop she’d loved for its fifties appeal. So much hope had gone into this space. Quentin had repainted the vintage cabinets and wainscoting white while she’d sewn bright chintz curtains and a sink skirt, painting the four chairs bright accent colors.

“I can’t believe this is actually happening.” Sarah scrubbed her wrist under her eyes, ever aware of her grandmother’s perceptive gaze. “I know Rafe blames Worth Industries for his mother’s death, but to hang on to that for all these years? That’s quite a grudge, especially when there’s no proof.”

Her grandmother stood up and walked to the ancient refrigerator. She tucked the container full of patties into the freezer. “Heaven knows he was torn up when Hannah died.”

When Rafe’s dad had decided to remarry near the end of their senior year, Sarah had been hopeful that he was coming to grips with losing his mother. And recently when she’d heard about the charity he’d created in honor of his mother, she’d thought finally Rafe would find some peace. Hannah’s Hope, based in Vista del Mar, was a literacy charity that paired financially disadvantaged individuals with mentors.

Was it really just a promo gig to divert attention from his grudge against Worth Industries or a true testament to making peace with the past? “Do you really think particulates from the factory caused Hannah Cameron’s COPD?”

“I honestly don’t know who or what to blame for Hannah’s tragic death.” Kathleen Richards eased back into her chair, slowly, the hint of arthritis the only sign she was slowing down. “Factory safety standards were so different back when she worked there over thirty years ago. And she died nearly sixteen years after she was fired. So it’s tough to tell.”

“And what about Mom and Dad?” Her parents had worked at the plant for their entire adult lives.

“I do know that Ronald Worth has adhered to safety standards. Were those standards lax? Possibly,” she conceded. “Did the man have regrets in his life? Absolutely. But his are more of the personal variety. I would hate to see Rafe suffer that same guilt from letting his private life affect his business decisions.”

“You need to tell him that.” Sarah reached across the table to clasp her grandmother’s hand urgently.

“Do you honestly think Rafe would listen to me?” Kathleen stared back with eyes as green as her own.

“He resented the way I kept tabs on you. If you recall, he and I didn’t part on the best of terms.”

Sarah snatched her hand away. “And you think he and I did?”

“True enough. The two of you have always evoked strong emotions in each other. Always.” Kathleen pinned her with a look stronger than any grip. “I believe you hold sway with him now just as you did then. You are the only person who stands a chance at getting Rafe Cameron to rethink his position on closing the factory.”

Her grandmother’s words sank in slowly, shockingly. Sarah knew without a doubt Kathleen had come to supper and stayed with a specific agenda. She wanted her granddaughter to use her past connection with Rafe to influence him.

“Grandma, you can’t be suggesting I seduce the guy into keeping the factory open?” While her mind, her heart, balked in horror, her body tingled to life at even the suggestion of Rafe’s hands on her again. “You vastly oversell my appeal.”

“Maybe you undersell yourself. But that’s beside the point.” Kathleen shook her head, dangling cat earrings swaying. “I would never even suggest anything so crass. I’m simply saying that you and Rafe had a special connection fourteen years ago.”

“Whoa, wait.” Sarah held up a hand, certain she must have misheard. “You think he and I had a special connection? The way I remember it, you were always trying to break the two of us up.”

Her grandmother snorted. “I was trying to keep you from having a baby before you graduated from high school like I did and your parents did.”

Sarah stifled the urge to wince over her grandmother’s mention of babies, but since her grandmother didn’t know about the miscarriages, she couldn’t blame her for venturing into painful territory. The first miscarriage had occurred before they’d had a chance to tell anyone, then they’d been wary of sharing news until she made it into her second trimester. That never happened.

There was a time she’d worried her out-of-control passion for Rafe would lead to an accidental pregnancy. Then she’d dreamed of carrying his children. Now she knew she would carry no man’s child. “Well, you accomplished your goal, because in spite of all your hints to the contrary, Rafe and I never went far enough to risk that.”

In high school, her friends had all assumed she was sleeping with Rafe, but she’d held back, wanting to wait for marriage. Or maybe she’d somehow known from the start they were doomed.

Regardless, how weird was it to be talking to her grandmother about sex?

Kathleen’s eyebrows inched toward her hair. “Really? You’ve surprised even me. The two of you were sneaking around all the time, trying to find time alone.”

“That’s not fair. We were teenagers dating. Teenagers who also worked long hours after school and had a very, very eagle-eyed grandmother breathing down our necks.”

“Hmm, silly me.” Kathleen nudged the saltshaker even with the pepper. “I thought dates involved cars and movies, not climbing up a tree to slip into your bedroom.”

She gasped, her mind flooding with memories of her and Rafe tangling up in her comforter. “How could you have known that?”

Her grandmother grinned. “I didn’t know for sure. Until now.”

Sarah sagged back in her seat, weary to her toes from the way Rafe had upset her life all over again. “I can’t believe you’ve reduced me to these word games.”

“I just wanted you to be careful then. I could see there was something intense between the two of you, something neither of you were mature enough to deal with yet.”

“Well, you were wrong.” Her spine steeled with anger even after all these years over how bitterly they’d ended the relationship. “We broke up and moved on. We haven’t spoken in fourteen years until today.”

“I was there to pick up the pieces when it all fell apart. Everyone in town knows. And if that explosive encounter is anything to judge by, the two of you have some unfinished business of your own.”

She pressed her lips tight. What could she say? She agreed. But Rafe hadn’t made even a token effort to contact her once he returned. God, she hated how her temper had run away with her today, sucking her into revealing too much of her own unresolved feelings—mostly furious ones—for him. Especially when it was clear he’d moved on.

Kathleen squeezed her hand lightly. “Life is all about timing. You have a chance here to find closure with Rafe and help the employees at the plant.” She clasped her granddaughter’s hands. “Talk to him.”