Page 1 of Love Affair in London (Once Again #12)

“ I ’m so glad you could all make it today.” Piper Alexander smiled at her three future stepdaughters.

This brunch in Palo Alto was her olive branch to the girls.

Though they weren’t girls, all of them in their twenties.

On Saturday, in just two days’ time, she would marry their father, Roger Richmond.

Piper wanted to put her best foot forward with Roger’s daughters, but it had been a rough ride with them since she’d started dating their father a year and a half ago.

She’d chosen a fashionable restaurant near Stanford University, with white tablecloths, crystal glassware, and pretty porcelain dinnerware.

Though only eleven thirty, the dining room was already full.

Elegantly dressed ladies sipped coffee or tea or champagne, their conversations muted by the planters separating each seating area.

“Thank you for inviting us, Piper .” Bethany said her name with a charge, as if she wanted to make sure Piper didn’t think she’d ever be a mother to any of them.

Piper had lost any illusions she might have had about that months ago.

In the beginning, she’d imagined she was Maria in The Sound of Music , and after a few pinecones on her chair and frogs in her pockets, they’d all be singing “My Favorite Things” together.

That was the kind of stepmother she wanted to be to the three girls.

That hadn’t happened.

Bethany, the oldest at twenty-nine, was already married, while Ashley and Megan were still “finding their places.” All of them had gone to university, but none of them had ever used their degrees.

Piper had tried her best to get them to like her. After all, she would soon marry their very wealthy father, who gave them anything they wanted. Other than a few offhand comments, she’d never made that her business.

This brunch was a peace offering. “Shall we celebrate the day with mimosas?” she asked, giving them what she hoped was a bright smile.

“What exactly are we supposed to be celebrating?” Megan’s voice held a sneer.

Her hair dyed black as midnight, she’d rimmed her eyes with thick eyeliner, her lashes long with mascara, her eyes shadowed with charcoal gray, black lipstick on her pouty lips.

Piper suspected she’d added a pale makeup, turning her into a caricature of a goth.

Piper had kept her opinions to herself and never said what a pretty girl the twenty-three-year-old would be without the heavy makeup. Megan had tried theater arts last year, so maybe she was going for the vampiric look.

But Megan’s words had fight in them, and Piper said, “The wedding is in two days.” She’d planned the wedding for the first Saturday in June.

All her tax clients were taken care of, except those with extensions, and she wouldn’t have as much work to do until the early fall.

If there were questions, she had an excellent assistant.

Ashley, the middle child at twenty-five, signaled the white-coated waiter.

“We’d like four mimosas ASAP,” she ordered, without thanking the man.

Then she turned on Piper. “Mimosas would be great. But tell me, Piper .” Ashley said the name with the same venom Bethany had used.

Her brunette hair hung limply to her shoulders, and the pupils of her coffee-colored eyes were wide, as if she’d had far too much caffeine today.

“Are we celebrating that you’ve signed the prenup my father gave you? ”

Ashley’s words took her aback. Why would Roger tell them about the prenup? But she didn’t let the surprise show on her face or register in her voice. “Any agreement is strictly between your father and I.”

She wouldn’t tell them she’d refused to sign the prenup.

If she and Roger divorced, even if he had an affair, she would get nothing.

Yet the prenup contained nothing about her money.

Roger could still be entitled to half her assets.

He’d rushed to say that had been an oversight that he’d have his lawyer fix.

Then he’d admitted the girls were worried about their inheritance.

She didn’t want his money. She had her own thriving business doing bookkeeping and tax preparation.

In fact, she could have retired five years ago when she turned fifty and her ex-husband bought her out of their joint business as part of the amicable divorce settlement.

While she wasn’t as wealthy as Roger, she had an extremely comfortable life.

It allowed her to offer her services to a couple of nonprofit organizations where she did the taxes and estate planning for seniors, and aided young people getting their first jobs or couples who found themselves in so much debt they were afraid they’d have to file bankruptcy.

No, she didn’t need Roger’s money. But she wasn’t about to enter a marriage with such inequity in the prenup.

Bethany said, “Oh, I absolutely think it’s our business.

You’re not the first woman who’s tried to swoop in on my father and take him for everything he’s worth.

He’s such a nice man, he doesn’t see when he’s being used.

” Her lips stretched in a feral smile. “Not that I’m saying you’re trying to take him for a ride. ”

It was clear the gloves were off. Piper regretted the brunch. She’d wanted to make nice with Roger’s daughters.

But that was impossible.

Their mimosas arrived, and after the waiter took their orders and left, Piper changed the conversation’s tone. “Here’s to a happy future for all of us.” She raised her glass.

The girls did not. Though they should have been toasting her, instead, they were on the attack. And the next strike came from Bethany.

“How dare you tell Father not to finance Desmond’s latest project.

” Bethany’s dark roots showed through her blond hair.

Maybe she planned to have a dye job tomorrow.

Piper had had her beauty appointment on Monday, so the highlights in her blond hair would settle before the wedding.

But for Bethany, maybe it was a statement, that she didn’t care about her father’s wedding.

“I didn’t tell your father not to invest in your husband’s project.” Piper struggled not to sound defensive and was careful not to use the word scheme . Because Desmond always had a scheme.

Bethany’s eyes flashed with a dark light. “Father told me you said it sounded like some sort of Ponzi scheme.” There, Bethany had said it for her.

And that was true. Roger admitted he hadn’t really looked at the paperwork. He was used to bankrolling whatever Bethany asked for on her husband’s behalf, even if the investment lost money, which it usually did. “I merely suggested he talk with Desmond a bit more about it.”

Bethany outright glared. Yes, the gloves were off. “If that’s all you said,” Bethany snarled, “then why did Father say he wouldn’t give Desmond the money?”

“Perhaps he didn’t want your husband to be in danger of losing his investment, and that he could look for something better.” She remained calm in the face of Bethany’s malice. At least she tried to.

Bethany gulped her mimosa. “In future, you can kindly keep your comments about my husband’s business to yourself.”

Piper considered her priorities. Her natural inclination was to say that she couldn’t abide watching Desmond, or anyone, for that matter, lose money on an investment.

But then she thought Roger’s backing of all his son-in-law’s schemes was ridiculous.

Especially since the young man’s track record was dismal.

He would likely never make enough money to bankroll his own investments.

There was a win once in a while, but the losses were far greater.

Roger had talked all about those losses.

But he wanted to keep his daughter happy.

Keeping her own life happy had to be Piper’s priority, and she snipped off the sour words just like she’d deadhead a rhododendron after its bloom faded. “You’re right. It wasn’t my business. I’ll be sure not to offer my opinion again.”

The waiter arrived with their salads. Bethany stabbed her fork into her kale as if it were Piper’s chest and ignored the apology. “See that you don’t.”

Well. This was going fabulously. It was time for another subject change. “Megan,” Piper said her name brightly. “Have you heard back from your latest audition?”

Megan shot daggers at her. “If you talked to Father at all, you’d already know I didn’t get the part.”

Roger hadn’t told her. But then, why would he?

With all the auditions Megan went to, she never got the part.

Piper had started to doubt she even auditioned for anything.

“I’m so sorry you didn’t get it. I thought you would’ve been perfect.

” Especially with the goth look , she thought, but didn’t say.

Megan pierced a cherry tomato with her fork, its guts spewing across the table.

“And by the way, you can just—” A bit of spit flew from her lips like the tomato seeds.

“—butt out of my life.” She shook her fork at Piper.

“The next time you tell Father that I should get a job, you’ll find a whole lot of crap raining down on you. ”

Piper already had a whole lot of crap raining down on her. From these three girls.

But she persevered. “I never told your father you should get a job. I simply said that acting is a very tough career and maybe you needed something to fall back on.” Yes, she’d added to Roger, something like a job. He’d just laughed. He bankrolled all his daughters.

Megan leaned forward, her brown eyes as piercing and angry as both her sisters’. “Just don’t say a freaking word to him about me ever again.”