by A. C. Arthur
And there she was. Sitting on the bench with her long legs crossed, talking on the phone. She wore a yellow dress that was much longer than the black one she’d worn last night. Her hair was still curled, but today’s sandals had a wedge heel that turned him on instantly. That added height would bring her eye level with him, a thought that for some reason had him ready to see her naked but for those damn shoes. It was an enticing thought—a thought that was helping him let go of the stress of today’s phone calls and revelations.
When she saw him, Harper held up a finger. He nodded and sat on the bench beside her. The colorful row of homes was behind him, and he resisted the urge to turn and look at them. To wonder who lived there, and which one of them had helped his father move millions of dollars out of the country.
“I need that delivery to be here by Monday morning,” Harper said to whomever she was speaking to on the phone. “You promised delivery yesterday and then this morning. It’s still not here.”
She drummed her fingers on her knee and shook her head. “No. Tuesday afternoon is not acceptable,” she continued. “I’ll tell you what, if I have to come all the way up there to pick them up myself, I won’t be paying full price for any of these materials.”
Garrek thought for sure the person on the phone was about to give in to Harper’s demands because nobody wanted to lose money. But then she spoke again.
“Then I’ll see you in court!”
Garrek covered the hand that was steadily moving on her knee, and she looked over at him. He reached over and eased the phone from her hand, put it to his ear and said simply, “We’ll be there in the morning. So have her materials and a fifty-percent-off the bill ready.”
“We will be closed on Sunday,” a male voice replied tersely.
“Not this Sunday,” Garrek told him. “Be there and have her items ready, or face a lawsuit that could possibly bankrupt your entire business. It’s your choice.”
There was some mumbling and what sounded like cursing in another language, but the man finally said, “Fine. Tomorrow at nine. Don’t be late.”
“No. You don’t be late, sir. Or it’s going to cost you,” Garrek told him before ending the call. “You want to tell me what I just said we’d pick up and from where, first thing tomorrow morning?” he asked Harper.
She was staring at him incredulously, and Garrek kind of felt the same surprise at himself. What had he been thinking, taking that phone from her? He’d been thinking that he didn’t like the look on her face while she tried to get what was hers. In essence, he didn’t like her unhappy. Not since he’d seen her looking so sad on that stage the first night he’d come into town. His instinct then had been to protect her, and he thought he had. Now, the protective instinct was even stronger. He was going to get her materials and get her a discounted price for them, if he had to fly across the country to do so.
“It was the tile company located just outside Richmond. I’ve been doing business with them for the last two years, and this is the third time they’ve either messed up my order or been late. I’m ready to move on to a different supplier, but they were the only one that had the tile Morgan wants in her master bathroom. Once that’s finished, the job at Gray’s will be complete,” she told him and accepted the phone he handed back to her.
Garrek nodded. “Okay, well, I guess we’d better pack a bag and get on the road.”
“What? You’re serious about going up there?” she asked him. “What about our dinner date? I mean, I can just cancel the whole order and work with Morgan to select something else. I’m sure she’ll understand.”
“No. We’re going to get what Morgan wants. It’s just a couple of hours away. We can grab some dinner when we get there, spend the night and pick up the tiles in the morning. The sooner you’re finished with Gray’s job, the sooner you can start on my...um, the Adberry house. It’ll be like an unconventional date.”
She sat back on the bench and just stared at him for a moment.
“I’m starting to think everything about us is unconventional,” she told him.
“Is that a complaint?” he asked.
Then she moved slowly, coming closer until she’d leaned into him and her face was just inches from his.
“No. Not at all.”
Garrek kissed her softly on the lips once, and then pulled back to look into her eyes. She blinked and gave him a small smile. He kissed her again because this right here was what he’d needed all day. Her. It was that simple, and then again that complicated. Still, he touched his lips to hers and let them linger.
There were cars passing and probably people staring, but Garrek didn’t give a damn. He was kissing Harper because she was what he wanted, what he desperately needed right now. And while he kissed her, Garrek hoped like hell that he wasn’t about to make the biggest mistake of his life. Because that’s what hurting her would be.
“Thank you,” she said when they finally separated. “For everything.”
“No,” Garrek replied with a shake of his head. He rubbed his thumb over her jaw. “Thank you, Harper.”
He needed to thank her for taking his mind off his life in Washington and the mess his one night with Rochelle Ainsley was making of it.
* * *
By the time they both stopped to pack overnight bags and finally got on the road in Harper’s truck, it was almost eight o’clock. So their dinner ended up being room service in the fourth hotel in Richmond that they’d stopped at, where they’d finally been able to secure a room. Apparently there were two large conventions going on this weekend, so most of the hotels were sold out.
“I’m going to shower and change while we wait for the food,” she told Garrek as he sat at the small table by the window, checking his phone for messages.
Under the spray of warm water, Harper let her thoughts wander the way they’d been doing all day. Waking to an empty bed this morning had been a slight blow to her ego, but once she arrived downstairs to interrupt her father and grandfather talking about Garrek, she realized him leaving early might have been the smarter option. That was, until she found out that he hadn’t been able to sneak out unnoticed.
“Wait a minute,” she’d said as she made her way into the kitchen. “Tell me you didn’t stop and interrogate him.”
Her father at least had the decency to look like he’d been caught doing something wrong. Pops, on the other hand, had squared his shoulders and lifted his chin. That was his ready-to-be-confronted stance.
“We certainly did,” Pops had told her. “And we had every right to, considering he was sneaking around in our house.”
Okay, he had a point there.
“I apologize for not telling you that I was having company,” she said, and for the first time she’d considered the possibility that it might be time for her to get her own place.
That had never been an issue, because she hadn’t dated anyone she’d wanted to bring home with her. In fact, the one person she’d slept with since college hadn’t even lived in Temptation, which made their brief affair a lot easier to manage with the men in her family and the prying eyes all around town.
“We’re here to protect you, ladybug. You can’t blame us for doing what comes natural to people who love and care for you,” her father had said.
She was twenty-nine years old, and her father still called her ladybug. He would also still be keeping up with the maintenance of her truck if she hadn’t put her foot down about that years ago. It had been hard maintaining a sense of independence in a family full of men who had dedicated their lives to protecting her. Even her aunt Laura had told her it was something Harper was just going to have to get used to. And she had, she realized. In this instance, however, she knew she would have to rethink the boundaries she needed to set between her family and her lover.
Was that what Garrek was? Her lover? Or was he more? Did he want more? All these questions had r
ambled in her mind as her father and grandfather continued to stare at her.
“He’s important to me,” she’d admitted to them.
“We know that,” Arnold said. “Or he wouldn’t have been in this house by your invitation. We just want to make sure he’s worthy.”
She shook her head at him. “That’s not your call.”
But she did understand what he was saying. If she had an only child that she’d spent years away from because of her job, she would be overprotective, too.
Harper had taken a deep breath then and looked at the two men she’d spent all her life loving completely. They were the only men she’d ever given that emotion to, and the only men who had returned it.
“I don’t know why he came back to Temptation, and to be honest, I haven’t pressed him for details. I’ve simply been trying to enjoy the fact that he is here.”
And that he seems to be really interested in me.
“Honor. Respect. Loyalty,” Arnold said. “We Presleys pride ourselves on that. If he’s the one for you, ladybug, you just make sure that he has those qualities. You make sure that his heart is with you if you plan to give him yours.”
She’d told her father that she understood what he was saying, and then she’d returned to her room. But as she moved through her day, she’d been torn between the part of her that was eager to see Garrek again and the part that knew her father and grandfather were right. She did need to know what Garrek was really doing back in Temptation. She also wanted to know what his future plans were. Was he staying in Temptation or returning to the navy? And more importantly, where did either of those decisions leave her?
After running some errands, Harper had done something else she’d never figured she would do. She’d called Wendy for help.
“I just want to look good for this date,” she’d said.
Wendy had been elated. “Oh, yes, honey!” she’d squealed. “I thought you did a good job with your hair last night, and that dress was nice, but it’s time to really knock him off his feet.”
It had sounded like too much, and Harper had instantly tried to back out, but Wendy wasn’t having it. She’d been at the farm at four o’clock and had spent the next hour and a half doing all sorts of girly things to Harper. From plucking her eyebrows in the most painful fashion ever to insisting on a new color of polish for Harper’s fingers and toes, it took forever just to get dressed, but when she was and Wendy had pushed her in front of the mirror, Harper had been pleased. She not only looked like an attractive woman, she also felt like one in the billowy butter-yellow dress. The thin straps and low neckline made cleavage that Harper never knew she possessed appear. And when she added the shoes, the height that she felt like she’d always been plagued with seemed elegant and sexy.
She’d thanked Wendy with hugs and kisses and a promise to pay her back before driving to the meeting place Garrek had designated in his note to her. A note that she’d found sweet and had tucked away to save. It was when she’d been waiting for Garrek that they had called her to report the missing tile. The interruption had irritated her, until Garrek had come in and made it all better. Just as he had that night at the dance.
Now, they were in this hotel preparing to spend another night together. She should be excited for this next step in their relationship. It was a relationship, right? Was that what she wanted?
She stepped out of the shower, shaking her head at all the questions that just did not seem to quit. She thought Wendy would undoubtedly lose her mind if she found out all the glam work she’d done had been for nothing. She and Garrek hadn’t gone out to a public dinner; instead he was about to see her in the daintiest nightgown she owned—a T-strap cotton item that came to just above her knees. The only other option was the outfit she’d packed for tomorrow—jeans and a T-shirt. So she’d shrugged and dressed and then prepared to go out into the other room and ask the questions she needed answers to.
The two white candles, lit and sitting in the center of that little table, stopped her cold. The food had arrived, and Garrek had set the table with plates and glasses. He still wore the dark blue pants and lighter blue shirt he’d had on earlier, and he still looked as dashing as he had the first night she’d met him. Suddenly she felt underdressed and out of place.
“You’re lovely,” he said and extended a hand to her.
Okay, well, that made her feel better. How did he always manage to do that?
“All this for chicken tenders and French fries?” she asked as she approached the table.
That’s what she’d ordered because there hadn’t been anything else on the menu that she’d wanted to eat at this time of night.
“No. All of this is for you,” he told her.
Butterflies fluttered in her stomach as she sat down. Harper smiled nervously and then thought she was being terribly silly. This wasn’t the first time she’d been alone with Garrek. It wasn’t even the first night she would be spending with him. So why did this all seem so different from any other interaction they’d ever had?
“You’re really good with women,” she said when he finished moving their food from the cart to the table. “That’s one of the rumors flying around town that I guess I can attest to.”
“Don’t believe everything you hear,” he said as he opened honey barbecue sauce.
“Those are certainly words to live by,” she said. “Still, I would be lying if I didn’t admit that I’ve wondered why you’re single.”
He looked up and stared without speaking for longer than she was comfortable with. Then he resumed preparing his food before saying, “I wasn’t involved with anyone when I came to Temptation.”
“Neither was I,” she said to mask the wave of relief that washed over her.
“If you had been, I’d want to personally kick the guy’s ass for allowing you to be auctioned off.”
She’d almost forgotten about that.
“I didn’t know that’s what they were going to do.”
“I know you didn’t.”
“And I didn’t need anyone to get me a date.”
He nodded. “I know that, too.”
“Do you?” she asked. “How?”
He already had a few fries in his mouth, and waited until he finished chewing to reply. “You’re an attractive woman. No, don’t look at me like that. You are. But you have a very quiet appeal that is like a sucker punch the second a guy really looks at you.”
“Is that what you did?” she asked while absently arranging the food on her plate. “You really looked at me?”
“No,” he answered. “They made the announcement that I was the highest bidder, and I was dragged onto that stage. But the moment I saw you...let’s just say the hazy fog of the drink I’d just downed cleared instantly.”
She smiled at that. “I didn’t expect you—or anyone, for that matter—to bid.”
“Don’t tell me you don’t think you were good enough for any guy in that room, or we’re going to have a long conversation about that.”
“No,” she said and shook her head. “Not that. I don’t have self-esteem problems. At least, I don’t think I do anymore. I just came to some conclusions about myself a long time ago. And about the people in Temptation.”
“I’m not concerned with the people of the town,” he said and took a sip of his water. “I want to know what conclusions you came to about yourself.”
She chewed on an unappealing French fry. “It’s not important.”
“It is, because you’re important,” he said. “To me, you’re very important.”
Again with the butterflies. Harper had to clear her throat to be sure she didn’t ramble when she spoke again.
“I know I’m not like most women. I figured that out when I was twelve and everyone around me started to get boobs and butts and I continued to look like Craig and Marlon, straight up and down and skinny as a po
le.”
“I think your body is beautiful,” he told her, his voice lowering just a bit as he spoke.
Heat fused her cheeks, and those butterflies did an entire step routine in the pit of her stomach at his words. Then something else happened. Something that Harper would never be able to explain. But beneath his genuine gaze and amid all that she’d learned about herself in these past weeks, she felt emboldened and as strong and independent as she had always tried to be. This feeling she had right now had always eluded her.
“Wow, I wish you would have stayed in Temptation,” she said with a nervous chuckle. “I carried those insecurities with me all the way to college. I went from being bullied by Leah and her crew to my roommate, Nancy, and her band of merry witches.”
Harper picked up her napkin then. She unfolded it and seconds later started to fold it again.
“Nancy and her crew assumed I was a lesbian because I didn’t dress or act like them, and I wasn’t obsessed with makeup like they were. When I was thirteen I spent the weekend at my uncle Giff’s house. I snuck into Aunt Laura’s makeup box and tried to hide my freckles with her Mary Kay products. Two hours later, in addition to the freckles, I had red splotches all over my face. It itched and burned, and I thought I was going to die.” She shrugged at the memory. “Turns out I was allergic to something in the makeup, and after the doctor gave me a good dose of Benadryl, Aunt Laura explained to me that I had sensitive skin and that maybe I needed to use more natural-based beauty products. I never did, though,” she said and looked up from the napkin to see that Garrek was staring intently at her now.
She took a deep breath and decided she was all in now. After releasing the breath slowly, Harper continued.
“In college I wore my hair in two braids or a ponytail because they were the only styles I could manage. I was never very interested in hair and clothes while growing up in Temptation. My dad sent money home for my care, and Pops always gave some to Aunt Laura to handle all my “girly needs” as he used to call them for me. So she bought me pretty dresses to wear to church on Sundays, but on the other days she understood that I preferred jeans and shorts to skirts and frilly tops. She might have been the only woman in town to ever understand that about me. Anyway, Nancy and her crew made their judgment of me about ten minutes after I moved into the dorm. After the first time I stood up to them—the night of some frat party I refused to attend—they decided I was beneath them. I didn’t care at first because I went to school to learn, not to make friends. I’d decided a long time ago that I didn’t need friends, because I had my family.”
