CHAPTER SIX

      PIPER’S HANDS TREMBLED. She sat on them to keep them still. Waiting for Sawyer to show up was torture. All she wanted to do was tell her dad what was wrong and let him fix it.

      “Dean wasn’t kidding,” her dad said, lifting his eyes from his phone screen for a second. Heath had the country music TV station on in their suite while he scrolled through his social media feeds. “Everyone is talking about you right now. I haven’t seen buzz like this since you met Prince Harry.”

      Sawyer wasn’t the first guy the world had wanted Piper to date. A year ago, a very vocal group of fans had desperately wanted her to become a princess. At the time, she’d thought it was ridiculous. How she’d love to go back to laughing off the silly whims of some teenagers.

      Piper jumped at the knock on the door. Her nerves were completely shot. “Remember to be nice, Daddy.”

      He smirked. “I’m always nice.”

      “If by ‘always’ you mean ‘never,’ I concur.”

      “Lana, I can be nice, can’t I?”

      Poor Lana froze as she arranged the room service breakfast they had ordered. “Of course, Mr. Starling.”

      Piper shook her head. There was no way Lana could answer that question honestly even if she wanted to. They all knew if there was one person who took the most of her father’s abuse, it was poor Lana. “You’re too nice, Lana.”

      She opened the door for Sawyer. Behind him stood Faith and Dean. Sawyer had texted her last night to tell her his sister had interrogated him until he broke. Faith was well aware of what was about to be discussed, but Dean was not.

      “You ready for this?” Sawyer whispered as he greeted her with a hug.

      “As ready as I’ll ever be. You?”

      “Let’s do this,” he replied.

      The presidential suite at the Berkshire Hotel had two bedrooms, a spacious living room and an adjoining dining room. The living room had two sitting areas filled with plush couches and wingback chairs. A large flat-screen television hung on the wall above the fireplace.

      “I figured we’d eat while we talked,” Piper said. The table was covered in pastries and family-size portions of scrambled eggs, sausage, bacon and potatoes. There was a large platter of fresh fruit in the center.

      They all sat down and everyone dug in except for Piper and Sawyer. Piper inhaled deeply. She’d never done anything to make her father angry with her. Growing up, she was the kid who did what she was told and never stepped out of line. Her brother’s illness had given their parents enough grief.

      Sawyer took her hand and held it under the table. The contact made her stomach flip and her skin tingle. As much as she appreciated the support, it was more distracting than anything else.

      “So, Sawyer and I talked last night. We are both completely on board with touring together.”

      “That’s great,” Dean said. “I think it’s a really solid business decision. You two are meeting with the tour promoters today?”

      “This afternoon. Are you sure about this? We talked about a lot of other options,” her father reminded her.

      “There’s a reason why I think it’s a better idea to take Sawyer on tour,” Piper replied.

      Faith folded her hands in front of her. Her engagement ring caught the light and sparkled. Piper wished it was Faith and Dean making this announcement rather than her.

      Everyone stared, waiting for Piper to go on. Surely they could all hear her heart thundering inside her chest.

      “Do you plan to share?” Heath asked.

      “When Sawyer and I were writing the songs for my album, we...thought we were in love. And foolishly, we acted on those feelings and—” Her voice cracked as her eyes darted from person to person. She didn’t want to make eye contact with any one of them for too long.

      “Piper is pregnant,” Sawyer said. “We found out yesterday. We weren’t sure how everyone would take the news, so we waited until this morning to tell everyone. Especially you, Mr. Starling.”

      Piper’s father dropped his fork with a clang. “You have to be kidding me. Tell me he’s kidding, Piper.”

      “I’m sorry, Daddy. I know this isn’t what you want to hear right now, but I swear to you, I will do whatever it takes to make this okay.”

      Her stomach clenched as she waited for him to say something, anything to give her a clue as to what he was thinking.

      “I suspected something was going on when I had to leave to help your mother with Matthew,” he finally said. “I trusted you to not to do anything stupid, but I guess that trust was misplaced.”

      Piper squeezed Sawyer’s hand as her shoulders stiffened.

      “I don’t think falling in love with my brother is stupid,” Faith said, jumping to her brother’s defense.

      “Love?” Heath scoffed. “They were not and are not in love. They barely know one another.”

      “Okay, everybody needs to take a breath,” Dean said. “Piper’s pregnant. It’s not the end of the world.”

      “Not the end of the world?” Heath’s voice shook. “She has a reputation to uphold. She’s about to start a yearlong tour across the US. This is a public relations nightmare.”

      “You’ve been drooling over all the positive press about me and Sawyer today even after I fainted on national television. Last night should have been a complete public relations nightmare, but we have everyone rooting for us to be together instead. Maybe there’s a way to salvage this,” Piper said.

      Her father covered his eyes with one hand. His chest rose and fell with frustrated breaths. He dropped his hand, and his glare zeroed in on Sawyer. “There’s only one way to salvage this. You will marry my daughter.”

      * * *

      MARRY PIPER? SAWYER felt nauseous. The only Stratton getting married anytime soon was Faith. He glanced at Piper and those baby blue eyes. She had this sweetness about her that sucked him in. Maybe he had believed for half of a second that Piper could be the person he wanted to spend the rest of his life with, but she’d quickly proved she was not. She wasn’t as innocent as she looked. She was as conniving as her father.

      “I won’t make Piper do any of this alone because this baby is my responsibility, too, but I can’t get married. To me, people should only get married when they plan to stay married.”