by Bella Andre
“It’ll wash out, Whit,” she said, in a mediator’s tone. A psychologist, Paige was pleasant and chatty in a let’s-fill-any-awkward-silences kind of way. “I’ve got that book that tells how to get out just about any stain. Although I don’t think margarita mix even stains.”
“Fine,” Whitney snapped. “You can wash it for me.”
“Whitney.” Paige said her sister’s name softly, but firmly. “I think it’s time for us to thank Will for a great barbecue and head home.”
Harper itched to take her down a peg—a hundred pegs would be even better—and she was glad to see Paige stand up to her sister.
Anger lines stretched past the frames of Whitney’s sunglasses. She tossed her cell phone into the bag beside her chair. “Good idea. I can’t wait to clean up and forget about this whole day.” Whitney threw on the see-through flowered cover-up that matched her swimsuit and slipped her feet into high-heeled sandals.
Harper glanced over her shoulder, realizing that Will had climbed out of the pool and was now standing close enough to Jeremy to put his hand on his shoulder. Sebastian stood beside Will, holding Noah in his arms. Daniel and Matt flanked Evan. Battle positions.
Evan didn’t look at all happy about leaving, with a muscle in his jaw jumping as he stared at his wife. But he was clearly too much of a gentleman to send her home without him. Besides, continuing the fight in front of everyone would put a damper on the whole group, and Evan would care about that, too, Harper was sure.
“All right,” Evan said, his voice clipped and tight. “I’ll take you home, Whitney. Paige, are you sure you don’t want to stay?”
“I can drive you home later,” Daniel offered.
But she simply shook her head. For some crazy reason, Harper had the sense that Paige didn’t want to leave Evan alone with his own wife. “Thanks for having me, Will. It was great to meet you, Harper and Jeremy.”
On his way out, Evan stopped beside Harper and said, “I’m sorry about what happened.”
But, honestly, at this point she was the one feeling sorry for him, going home with that woman. How on earth he could ever have wanted to marry her was honestly beyond Harper.
Then again, she knew people’s stories weren’t exactly linear, were they? Look at hers and Jeremy’s, for example. Who could have predicted this would be their life?
Again, she found herself wishing she knew more of Will’s story. But though he was always sweet and kind—and so sexy that she could hardly catch her breath around him—he wasn’t exactly an open book. She figured he must have his reasons, foremost among them the fact that they were just two people enjoying each other’s company for a little while.
“None of that was your fault, Jeremy,” Will said to her brother, breaking her out of her musings. “That’s just Whitney. Ignore her. We’ve all learned to do that over the years.”
“Whitney’s temper tantrums always make me hungry,” Daniel said with a hard and fast shake of his head, as if he were literally trying to shake Evan’s wife out of his system. “Why don’t you start the grill, Will? How do you like your meat done, Jeremy?”
“Rare,” Jeremy called out.
Matt grinned at Jeremy. “Jump in the pool and wash that margarita off your shirt. Last one in’s a rotten egg,” he shouted and landed with a cannonball in the pool, with Daniel right behind him.
Noah squirmed in Sebastian’s arms. “Me too! Me too!”
She could have kissed every last one of them. And Evan, too, not just for his simple apology, but also for the way he’d stepped in to end Whitney’s harangue before it got even worse.
As Matt joined the others in the pool for a game of Marco Polo, Will held out his hand to her and together they headed over to take care of getting food on for everyone. The barbecue was an entire counter with two grills, one with a curved top, the other a simple metal grill. A pot of water for corn on the cob bubbled on the range. The fridge held steaks, hot dogs, hamburgers, potato salad, green salad, and all the fixings, which was way more food than they could possibly eat, even if Evan, his wife, and Paige had stayed.
“What do you want? Steak, hamburger, or—” He grinned and waggled his eyebrows up and down in an exaggerated fashion. “—hot dog?”
She laughed, glad the sensation washed away a lot of her anger and frustration over what had just happened. As if he could read her mind, he turned serious again.
“I apologize for that, Harper. I should have warned you about Whitney and made sure not to put Jeremy in that position.”
“He isn’t your responsibility. I should have been watching. And I was the one who said it was okay.”
He shushed her with a kiss. “Stop. Evan’s wife’s attitude isn’t your fault.”
Finally stopping to take a breath, she realized he was right. Just as he was right about so many things when it came to her brother. She hadn’t had anyone to bounce things off in so long. Even though she knew this thing with Will wasn’t going to last forever, did that mean she couldn’t appreciate him while he was here?
“Is she always like that?”
Will began turning knobs on the grill. “In the beginning of their marriage? Maybe not. At this point, it’s pretty hard to remember how things used to be. All I know is that in the past year or so, she’s been worse than ever. Honestly, I don’t know how he can live with her. Whatever happens between them, though, we’ve got his back.”
She’d seen that—the way the men had surrounded Evan, making it clear that they were there if he needed them.
“We’ve all known each other a long time,” he told her. “Matt and Evan were ten. Daniel, Sebastian, and I a year older. Some bullies were picking on Matt.” He shrugged. “Something had to be done.”
Harper glanced at the huge muscles in Matt’s arms as he chased down Sebastian in the big pool. “Matt needed help?”
Will grinned. “He was a scrawny kid.”
She had a hard time picturing it. “So you rescued him.”
An expression she couldn’t quite read flashed across his face, but he wasn’t smiling anymore as he said, “Evan ran for the principal.”
“Smart boy.”
“That’s why he’s the money man.” But his face darkened even further. “We all eventually ended up living with Daniel’s parents. Susan and Bob raised us.”
“All of you?” Wonder laced her voice.
“It wasn’t a great neighborhood. Things happened.”
His answer was so understated, his features so expressionless, that she felt a little hitch in her chest. She wanted to ask what things, but at the same time, she didn’t want to make a mistake by pushing too hard. Not when Will had just revealed more to her about his past than he had at any time in all the weeks she’d known him.
“So we stuck together.” He blew out a hard breath, and then the cocky grin was back. She’d never been happier to see it. “The Mavericks.”
They weren’t brothers, not by blood the way she and Jeremy were. Yet she knew they would do anything for each other.
Meeting them shed new light on Will. He’d once said his word was his bond, that he always kept his promises. Seeing him with his closest friends showed her that it was no boast or throwaway phrase. He’d clearly been through hard times with these men, and he was there for them no matter what. Just the way he’d been there for Jeremy time and time again.
And though she kept trying to tell herself that this thing between them was just a casual thrill ride, she couldn’t help but hope that he’d be there for her, too.
CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR
“So,” Susan mused on the phone, “I hear things are progressing nicely with you and your new lady.” She’d waited a couple of days after the Memorial Day barbecue to call him, but Will had guessed it was coming after every one of the other Mavericks had already weighed in on the subject of Harper.
Evan had called Will first to apologize again for his wife’s snapping at Harper and Jeremy. He’d made an excuse about a migraine that Will wasn’t
buying, but he’d forced himself to let it go. Evan ended the call by telling Will not to screw things up with Harper. Matt was next on the horn to say that Noah kept talking about the pretty lady who had played with him in the pool. The boy had been terribly sad to learn she couldn’t be their new nanny because she already had an important job. Then Sebastian claimed he still couldn’t get over Will finally dating a woman with looks and brains. And finally Daniel had called to say, “You look happy, Will. I like her.” Which said it all.
In his high-rise office, Will swiveled his chair to face the San Francisco Bay glittering in the sun. “Who called you this time?”
Susan laughed. That’s what he loved best about her: her laughter. She’d never yelled at any of them. Even when he’d been a complete shit, Susan would give him a long look and ask, “Do you really think that was the right thing to do?” As if she’d known that he hadn’t been thinking, he’d just been doing, reacting, acting out in the wrong way. Somehow Susan always managed to forgive him anyway.
“They all told me,” she said.
“They’re a bunch of freaking busybodies,” he grumbled, though it amused him that men in their mid-thirties would rush to their mom with gossipy tidbits.
“How else am I going to be updated? You don’t tell me anything unless I drag it out of you.”
This was true. He’d talked to Susan several times since Harper and Jeremy had first come to his garage and work had begun on the Maserati, and yet he’d managed to avoid answering nearly all of her questions after that first call.
“You’ve never introduced your brothers to a woman before,” Susan observed. “They say she’s lovely.”
“She is,” he said softly.
“And they all really like her brother, too.”
“Jeremy’s a great kid.”
“We’d love to meet them both. I hope someday you’ll bring them to the house.”
The Mavericks had planned to buy the Spencers property out in one of the exclusive Chicago suburbs, but Susan and Bob had wanted an average home in an average neighborhood, nothing ostentatious. All they required was something large enough to house all their grandchildren and pseudo-grandchildren. Unfortunately, to date, the Mavericks had done a piss-poor job of filling up those extra rooms, and Daniel’s younger sister Lyssa wasn’t even close to starting a family.
But Will could easily imagine Harper and Jeremy and a white Christmas in Chicago. Susan would adore them both. She’d fill up the fridge and freezer with baked goods because Jeremy was “a growing boy.” And they would both love Susan, too.
“They’re good for you, honey, I can tell.”
But was he good enough for them?
That’s what plagued him. Even in something as simple as that scene by the pool with Whitney. He should have been standing guard over Harper’s brother to make sure no harm came to him, just as he’d promised her. But he’d failed. Badly enough that he couldn’t stop going over the situation in his head—and also couldn’t keep from asking Susan, “Did you hear about Whitney’s explosion at the barbecue?”
Susan sighed. She’d obviously been apprised of every nasty detail. “That poor girl. Whitney lost her way after that first miscarriage.”
“I’m sorry about that. We all are.” Whitney had had three miscarriages in the last two years. It had broken Evan into pieces, especially since he’d been on the road for work each time his wife had miscarried.
“They’ve been trying so hard for a family,” Susan said, “and Whitney’s disappointment is coming out in her testiness.”
Testiness? Will had a whole other word to describe it. “I know they’ve been through a lot. But still...Evan’s a saint.”
“He’s a good man. One who bends over backward to handle Whitney’s moods because he appreciates how badly she feels about not being able to give him a child.”
The Mavericks backed each other up to the ends of the earth, always there when anything bad went down, but they all turned to Susan when they needed to keep their emotional crap from festering inside. She was their sounding board on matters of the heart.
“Trust me, honey,” she added, “unfulfilled need can change a woman’s entire personality.”
He could see that, but the truth was that Whitney had always been more difficult than most. And he knew without a doubt that Harper, in the same situation, wouldn’t bust a guy’s manhood the way Whitney did.
The thought of Harper with a child, his child, growing inside her sent a wave of emotion flowing through him—delight, need, fear, desire. And something that felt giddily like happiness.
“I think that’s also why she doesn’t pay more attention to Noah,” Susan said thoughtfully, as if she’d just considered the point. “It breaks her heart. Hopefully when a baby finally comes, she’ll settle down again. Right now, Evan’s giving her the supportive environment she needs to try again, and I’ll be there for your brother. I know you will, too, all of you. But I also want you to realize that while I understand Whitney’s feelings, I’m not making excuses for all her bad behavior. And that incident with your friend…” She didn’t finish, and he could almost see the shake of her head.
Her words brought back the ache of guilt. “I shouldn’t have let Jeremy get hurt.”
“I wish he hadn’t been hurt, too. But the truth is that you can’t protect everyone all the time. No matter how much you wish you could. Trust me, I should know, with the five of you.”
Susan was right. The Mavericks had certainly given Susan and Bob a crazy ride those first few years. But Jeremy was different.
“I wish I could do more than provide a new job for him and work on the car. Harper works so hard to look out for her brother. But every time I offer to help, she insists on doing it all on her own.”
“Maybe that’s because she thinks she still is on her own.”
Frustration rose up in Will. “How can I get her to understand that I’m not going anywhere? And that I mean it when I say I won’t hurt her or her brother? What else can I do to get through to her?”
“You know how.”
No. The reaction was instinctive. Even before Susan continued with exactly what he knew she was going to say.
“Have you told her about your past yet?”
“I rewrote that story already,” he said in far too sharp a tone, considering that Susan was only trying to help him. Plus, as soon as the words came out of his mouth, he wasn’t actually sure they were true. Sure, he’d rewritten the part where he was poor, but what about the rest? Because he sure as hell had never been able to forget that he came from a worthless thief and bully who hadn’t deserved to be called a father. Still, he had to ask Susan, “What’s so important about my past that she needs to know?”
“Will.” There was a slight note of exasperation in Susan’s voice. “She needs to know because you love her. And love means being completely open, even if you’re scared.”
Will had given Susan and Bob a merry ride, pushed their limits, tested their boundaries. After his dad, he hadn’t trusted anyone without proof that they were worth it. Susan and Bob had passed with flying colors in the end, and he’d do anything for them.
But Susan saw right to Will’s core—so deep that there was no point in even trying to deny what he was feeling. Not any of it.
“I think I’ve been in love with her from the first moment I saw her standing outside my hangar with her brother, so protective, so beautiful, so strong.” And then so free and passionate during their first fast ride. His heart brimmed over with all that he felt for Harper. “I admire everything about her. But if she knew about me—”
“You were a child, Will. Your father made you do those things for him.” Susan, God love her, made excuses for everyone, even him.
“I kept doing them even when I got older. After he went to prison.”
“It was all you knew. All you had to go on. But then you learned what was wrong, you learned what was right, and you never mixed up the two again.”
“
I learned those things from you,” he said softly, remembering her never-ending patience. And loving her for it.
“Does it matter where or how or from whom you learned it? You made yourself into the man you are. That’s why I’ve always said you don’t need to wear that tattoo as some sort of reminder about your father and the life he forced you to be a part of. You’re your own man, not the least bit tainted by him in any way. And I’m so proud of you, honey.”
He could hear the tears in her voice. Susan rarely cried when she was upset. She cried when she was happy. “If you reveal who you are, I know she’ll love you as much as I do. How could she not?”
But unlike Susan and Bob and the rest of the Mavericks, Harper hadn’t lived not knowing where her next meal would come from and had no idea of the depths to which people could sink. She hadn’t known men like Will’s father. She’d never stolen or lied simply because someone ordered her to.
What if she didn’t understand that sometimes you became exactly like the very person you hated because that reflection in the mirror was the only thing you knew how to see?
“I can’t tell her, Susan.”
“Listen to me—I’m proud of you because I know what you went through. Because you rose above it. I’ve never known better men than any of my boys. And that most definitely includes you.”
Her words humbled him.
“Tell me something, Will. Do you think Harper is worthy of love? And happiness?”
“Of course she is. The biggest love. The most happiness.”
“Is she worthy of your trust?”
“Without a doubt. She’d never lie or cheat or steal.” Not like me.
“Neither would you. Not now. Not ever.”
Again, it was as though Susan was right there inside his head, hearing all the voices that had never gone away. The ones that said he didn’t deserve any of this. Not the success. Not the money. Definitely not love. And certainly not Harper.
But three days ago he hadn’t told Harper the whole story about the day he’d met the Mavericks. Despite the sun and the pool, he’d kept his T-shirt on to hide the Road Warrior tattoo. And he hadn’t told her the full truth about those bullies who had gone after Matt. Nor had he told her anything about that terrible day when he was sixteen...and he’d made the worst mistake of his life.
