by Susan Meier
“Have they seen the baby?”
“Yes. If I’d completely broken off ties, my mom would have mounted a campaign to get me back. So, I kept them at a distance. I let her stay and help the week after Crystal was born. But she couldn’t stop talking about remodeling the condo to bring it up to standards, insinuating that with Clark gone I could do it right, and the whole time I knew I was broke and going to have to sell. Every time I’d try to tell her, she’d blast Clark.” She lifted her eyes to catch his gaze. “That’s how I knew I couldn’t move in with them.”
Seth leaned back in his chair. “I guess.”
The room got quiet. Her mother wasn’t the hellish dictator his father had been, but he wouldn’t have wanted to live with her mom, either.
“So, what’s up with you?”
He laughed, glad for her obvious change of subject to lighten the mood. “Not much. Jake’s a much better businessman than my father was, so working with him is good.”
“And your mom?”
He snorted. “My mom isn’t quite as bad as your mom, but we have our issues.”
She nodded sagely. “Sometimes the best you can do is avoid them for the sake of peace.”
He’d never say that the feelings he had around his mother were peaceful. He had a million questions he’d like to ask. Like, why she’d said nothing when his father embarrassed or humiliated him and Jake. Or better yet, why she’d stayed married to a man who was awful as a husband and father? She’d known he was cheating. She’d known he wasn’t a good father. Yet she’d stayed. Forcing them all to live a lie.
Deciding he didn’t want to burden Harper with any of that, he rose. “Do you like baseball?”
“Sort of.”
“Sort of?” He sniffed a laugh. “There’s a game on tonight that I’d love to see. If you want to watch, too, I can watch out here. If not, I can watch on the television in my bedroom.”
“I don’t want you to change your routines for me.”
“I won’t.”
The sound of the baby crying burst from her phone. She held it up. “Baby monitor is attached to this. And it looks like I’m going to be busy for a while. Go ahead and put your game on.”
* * *
Harper walked into her room sort of happy. It had been nice to talk about Clark, her mom and even being alone. She wasn’t trying to make a new best friend, but she had been lonely. Having someone to talk to, to share a meal with, had been more of a treat than she’d expected it would be.
With Crystal on her arm she walked out to the common area and found Seth was nowhere around. Thinking he must have decided to watch the game in his room, she warmed a bottle, fed Crystal, played with her, let her sit in her little seat that rocked her sideways, then finally put her into bed.
After a quick shower, and still wired from their talk, she put on a pair of pajamas and returned to the living room to watch TV.
A few minutes later, Seth returned to the main living area. He held up his phone. “Work call. I also took a shower while I was back there.” He set the phone on the center island and pulled a beer from the fridge. “Want one?”
She shook her head. “No. I might have to get up in the middle of the night.”
That piece of information seemed to horrify him. “Really?”
“Crystal is a fairly good sleeper, but I never know.”
He twisted the top off the bottle. “So, on the off chance that she’ll wake up, you don’t drink?”
“Yes.”
He sat beside her. She liked his hair all rumpled from his shower. Whatever his soap was it made him smell like heaven.
Strange things happened to her pulse. Her breathing shifted. Probably so she could inhale the wonderful scent of his soap or shampoo.
She eased a few more inches away from him. It didn’t help.
“What are you watching?”
She handed him the remote. “Nothing. Put the game on. I need to get to bed.”
He frowned.
“You know...in case Chrystal wakes up.”
“Right.”
She walked into her room and closed the door behind her with a deep sigh. Her weird reactions around him shouldn’t surprise her. Her husband had been gone a year and she’d all but locked herself in her house. Primarily to prepare for and then care for her baby. And she might be too needy to be around such a gorgeous guy. But she also couldn’t risk slipping it to her parents that Clark had failed. Or, worse, having her mom or dad read her body language, realize something was wrong and grill her until she crumbled. That had kept her home, alone, more than she wanted to admit.
These feelings she was having around Seth were nothing but her reaction to being around a man again. A young, handsome, sexy-smelling guy who should not tempt her.
But he did.
Not because she was attracted to him. Though, she was. What woman wouldn’t be? The real bottom line was a combination of things. Her having been sheltered for months combined with his good looks and their close proximity was making her supersensitive.
But it was Clark she loved. Clark she still missed.
She crawled into bed and closed her eyes, thinking about his silly laugh, how he’d loved to cook, how much he’d wanted their baby.
And all thoughts of Seth vanished.
* * *
In the middle of the night, Seth awakened to the sound of crying. Recognizing it was Crystal and he was repaying a debt, he rolled over to go back to sleep, but sleep didn’t come. He put the pillow over his head. No help.
Finally, the little girl quieted, and he realized Harper must have given her a bottle or something. He fell back to sleep, woke when the alarm sounded and sneaked up the hall to the kitchen to make a cup of coffee. Their conversation the night before had been good, but they were still uncomfortable with each other. And he was still fighting that attraction. So better not to wake her.
“Good morning.”
Damn. She was already up.
She wore the pale blue pajamas he’d seen the night before. They were much less revealing than things he’d seen in Vegas or Barcelona and his face should not have reddened. But it had.
She looked soft-and-cuddly sexy. Her sleepy blue eyes should have reminded him that she’d gotten up with a baby the night before. Instead they reminded him of warm, fuzzy feelings after sex.
“I just, uh, wanted a cup of coffee.”
“Okay.”
He neared the counter, where she sat holding the baby. The little girl looked at him.
“Hey.”
Harper shot him a confused expression.
“Just, you know, saying, hey, to the kid...the baby... Crystal.”
The little girl grinned.
“I think she likes you.”
“Well, she terrifies me. In a good way,” he quickly added. “I don’t want to hurt her.”
“You won’t.”
“Sure,” he said, knowing he wouldn’t ever hurt her because he wouldn’t ever touch her.
He got his coffee and went back to his room, where he dressed in his typical work clothes of jeans and a halfway decent shirt. When he returned to the kitchen for his keys and wallet, Harper and the baby were gone.
Wincing, he walked back the hall and knocked on her door.
“Yes?”
“Just wanted to let you know I’m on my way to work.”
“Okay.”
He squeezed his eyes shut. The melodious sound of her voice drifted through him like a blast of sweet summer air. She sounded so happy and content that pride surged through him, tightening his chest. This time two days ago, she’d been facing homelessness and he’d fixed that for her.
He started up the hall and picked up his keys and wallet. What the hell was wrong with him? Helping her should feel good, but he wasn’t doing this for her. He was doing it f
or Clark. To pay back Clark for taking him in when he needed help.
The very fact that he kept forgetting that meant it was time to get things moving along before his emotions got any more involved.
CHAPTER THREE
THAT EVENING, SETH returned a little later than he had the night before, looking like a sex god in a T-shirt that showed off his chest and shoulders and a pair of sunglasses he’d probably bought in Europe.
Harper’s breathing shivered. Her muscles froze. For the next ten seconds, she was sure her heart stopped beating.
“We’re going to do your résumé tonight.”
“That’s great.” She thought of Clark, realizing how happy he’d be once she was settled, and all the feelings she’d had about Seth lessened. “But I made dinner.” A thought occurred. “You haven’t eaten, have you?”
“No. But the résumé probably should come first.”
“Or maybe we can talk about it while we eat?” That way they wouldn’t have to discuss other things. Not that she hadn’t appreciated the conversation the night before. She had. It was more that it had warmed her a little too much.
“Okay.”
He set the table as she brought Crystal’s baby seat over and strapped it to a chair. She’d already put the pot roast and potatoes and carrots into a huge serving dish and he carried it to the table.
“Smells good.” His voice sounded funny, like he had caught the scent of the food and shivered around it.
“Thanks. I learned to cook after Clark and I got married. Mrs. Petrillo watched Crystal while I checked out the little grocery store a few blocks down.”
They both sat. Each of them dished up a plateful of food.
Seth took a bite and squeezed his eyes shut in ecstasy. “This is fantastic.”
It had been so long since anyone had complimented her that even a simple expression of pleasure went through her like warm honey. Luckily, they had work to do.
She bounced from her chair. “I’ll go get my laptop.”
She raced into her bedroom and found her computer. She turned it on, pulled up her résumé and headed to the dining area again.
When she got there, Seth was standing in front of Crystal’s seat.
He glanced up at Harper. “I wasn’t sure what to do. I knew you were probably okay with her sitting there. But I’m new to all this and when you were gone so long, I figured I’d better be safe rather than sorry.”
Crystal grinned and he laughed. “She’s really cute.”
The sight of him by her little girl warmed her heart, but more than that, he was getting accustomed to her baby. Maybe growing to like her baby—
He wasn’t supposed to like Crystal. Or her. She was here temporarily. They’d probably never see each other again after her short stay here. She needed to remember that.
“She’s fine as long as the she’s strapped in.” She slid the laptop on the table. “Here’s my résumé.”
Seth returned to his seat. He angled the screen toward him and started reading.
After only a minute, he glanced over at her. “What kind of a job are you trying for?”
“I’d like to be somebody’s assistant.”
“Okay. Good. I think your qualifications should line up. But you do realize there’ll be some other things like typing involved? Maybe writing reports.”
“That would be fantastic. I like to work. I think I’d like a job that would challenge me.”
He finished reading what she had in her résumé as he ate his roast and potatoes. After they’d cleaned the kitchen and dining area, she put the baby to bed.
When she returned to the living area, he pointed to the laptop, still on the dining room table. “Okay. We need to punch it up a bit, but we’ll figure it out together. If I’m going to recommend you, I want to know what’s in your résumé.”
Her spirits brightened. “You’re going to recommend me?”
“I saw how you worked when you lived beside me and Clark. I know you were dedicated to your clients. I know you put in long hours.” He shrugged. “I’m the perfect person to recommend you.”
She sat at the table in front of the laptop. He stood behind her.
Leaning in, he said, “Our first problem is that you haven’t worked in five years. We have to downplay that.”
The woodsy scent of his cologne floated to her. Her shoulder tingled because he had his hand on the back of her chair and every time she moved, she brushed it. Her mind tried to go blank, to enjoy the sensations, but she wouldn’t let it. They had a job to do.
She turned to make a suggestion about how to get around the gap between her work experience and the current date, but when she turned, the way he leaned in put them face-to-face. So close, they could have rubbed noses.
Close enough to kiss.
Her chest froze. Where the hell had that thought come from? She did not want to kiss him. This feeling tumbling through her had to be wrong. Seth was her husband’s best friend.
She started to turn away, but his eyes held hers. When she’d met him, she’d thought he had the eyes of a bad boy. Dark. Forbidding. But she once again saw the spark of wisdom or experience that she’d seen when he’d opened his condo door to her a few days before.
It was as if something had happened in the past five years. Something that had changed him. She knew what his dad had been like. She knew his mom had been oblivious—
She blinked to break eye contact. She wasn’t supposed to be curious about him.
“I, um, thought maybe we could just admit that I got married five years ago and hadn’t worked since.”
He pulled back. “I think you have to. The worst thing a person can do is lie on a résumé.”
Surprised, she laughed. “You think that’s the worst thing a person can do?”
He turned away. “There are definitely worse things a person can do in general. But we’re talking in terms of getting a job.”
“Oh. Right.” She faced her laptop again, moved the cursor to the spot she needed to change and started typing. But she couldn’t stop thinking about his eyes. They were not the eyes of a serial seducer. They weren’t the eyes of a poet, either. They were the eyes of a cautious man.
Probably because of what had happened in his family.
Sure, he was working for them...but he’d already mentioned not being close to his mom. Whatever had caused him to run from his family must not have been resolved. Or had they swept it under the rug like a good high-society family?
Curiosity rose and knocked and knocked and knocked on her brain, begging for attention.
She ignored it.
Her wanting to know about him could be nothing more than the curiosities of a lonely woman.
* * *
They fussed with her résumé for another hour before they got it right. Then she raced off to her room and Seth was left with the scent of her shampoo lingering in his nostrils, making him crazy.
But the fact that she’d run off proved to him that he wasn’t the only one feeling things. He’d seen it when she’d sat staring into his eyes. She’d covered that by being strictly professional as they tidied her résumé, but her racing off brought back all his instincts that she was every bit as attracted to him as he was to her.
Clark’s widow.
That made it doubly important that he help her with her job search, so she could leave.
The baby woke him again that night and instead of pulling the pillow over his head, curiosity had him sitting up in bed. He wondered what a mother and baby did in the middle of the night. Did Harper sing to Crystal? Read to her?
He plopped back down again and pulled the pillow over his head. This was nuts. He did not like babies. They scared him. He shouldn’t care about Crystal and Harper. Or even just Harper. He knew better. It was why he’d stepped aside and let Clark ask her out. Clark had been
the nice guy. The guy who loved kids and wanted a family. The guy who’d found one perfect woman and would have been faithful forever.
Seth was a womanizer.
But living with Harper seemed to be making him forget the wise move he’d made when he was twenty-two. Step back. Let her be with someone who would love her correctly.
He had to get her a job and an apartment, and move out of his house...his life. Before he did something stupid.
He went to work Friday morning and called Arthur Jenkins, whose assistant was at least seven months pregnant and should be going on maternity leave. His company was small. His needs were probably few.
He talked up Harper, honestly telling Art that she didn’t have office experience, but she was dedicated and a hard worker. When he mentioned that she was also funny and nice to have around, he clamped his mouth shut. Luckily, Art took everything he said in the context of an assistant and gave him a time to tell her to come for an interview Monday morning.
When Seth told her about the interview her eyes lit with joy, making him glad he hadn’t canceled his date that evening. Or the one for Saturday night. Not wanting to take any chances being around her, he also left Sunday morning and didn’t come back until late Sunday night.
Monday morning, he didn’t knock on her door before he left for work. He texted her from his office to wish her luck on her interview and make himself seem appropriately distanced from the woman whose blue eyes could inspire poetry.
He didn’t expect to hear back from her until after lunch, and relief got him through a morning of meetings. At noon, the sky was clear, the weather still warm. Feeling very good about helping Harper, he decided to accept his brother’s invitation to join him for lunch at a nearby restaurant.
But as they strode toward the lobby door, Harper walked in.
He caught Jake’s arm. “That’s Harper.”
“Harper?” His dark-haired, blue-eyed brother frowned. “Clark’s wife?”
“Widow. She needed help finding a job.” He craned his neck to see past the gaggle of people. “I got her an interview this morning.”
