by Mia Carson
Harold was reading the paper to give his mind a chance to catch up with itself and stop wondering what Anna and Jenny might be talking about at the house. Walter’s voice carried through to his office, and he ignored it until he heard a woman’s voice. Through the door, it was too muffled to make out for certain, but his heart leapt, thinking Anna was here to see him. The door opened and Bailey appeared in her dark red heels and matching dress that hugged her body like a second skin. Her cleavage greeted him before her smile did, and his lips thinned. If she worked for him, that wouldn’t be appropriate attire. That dress was too short for the office, in his opinion, but she did it for her male clients and the male lawyers she went up against in court. Bailey was a smart woman, but she didn’t always rely on her brain. She let her body sway the minds of those around her.
Too bad Harold’s mind was completely on Anna. He shook out the paper and acknowledged her with a subtle bob of his head. He caught her grinding her teeth, annoyed, and he lifted the paper higher to hide his smirk. All those times he’d checked her out, he wondered if she’d seen him. Too bad he was officially pulling himself off the market, at least until he knew with one hundred percent certainty there was no chance in hell for him and Anna to make a relationship work.
“I hear you’re not feeling quite yourself this morning,” Bailey purred, strutting around his office. Harold, keeping the paper up to cover his face, made a few noncommittal noises. “Walter said you were out of sorts. No vest, no tie, and running late. Very unlike you. Perhaps it has something to do with that Crawley woman clawing her way back into your life?”
Harold snapped the paper and laid it on his desk. “If you have something you wish to say to me, then say it. You know how much I hate people beating around the bush.” He’d assumed she’d let off all her steam yesterday about the Anna situation. Apparently, he was wrong. “Well?”
“Why is she staying at your house, Harold?” Bailey asked, her voice shaking with pent-up anger.
“Her place was broken into and vandalized,” he explained easily. “She needed a place to stay, and since I’m working on her case—which has now grown into something more than simple assault—I saw no reason why she shouldn’t stay with me until all of this is sorted out.”
“You’re making a mistake, letting her into your home.”
“And why is that? Please, tell me everything you know about the woman I was with for six months.” He glowered as he rested his fists on his desk and stood. “Enlighten me how you know oh so much about a woman you despise on principle without even trying to get to know who she is.”
Bailey scoffed, crossing her arms over her chest. “Everyone knows all about Anna.”
“Everyone? You mean they know how she lost her parents and took over her dad’s bar—a bar that is essentially a legacy in this small city of ours?” he growled, marching around the front of his desk to face her down. “Or how she lets local charities use the space four times a year, for free, to help them raise money for the vets in our city, or the orphans, or the homeless shelters? How she is probably one of the most selfless people I know and donates as much of the bar’s profits as she can, giving it back to those in need in our home town? All she has is that damn bar, and look what she does with it. She tries her best to make this world a better place.”
“So she does some good deeds,” Bailey muttered, rolling her eyes mockingly. “That doesn’t excuse her attitude or the way she treats us.”
“People like us,” he informed her stiffly, “treat anyone we feel is beneath us with contempt they don’t deserve.” Blinking furiously, he smiled bitterly. “She was right,” he whispered to himself, shocked. “She was right about all of it. About me…about you.”
“What are you mumbling about?”
“Nothing that concerns you. Get out of my office unless you’re here on business.”
“I’m here because I’m worried about my friend,” she argued. “Isn’t that good enough? You see what she does to you? She twists you up inside and messes with your mind. She tries to turn you against us!”
Harold laughed. It started quiet and turned into a boisterous sound, filling his office. “You see, that right there has always been my family’s problem, and yours, and every other high-class person in this state. There’s no them or us! And maybe I’m sick of playing the role of the arrogant rich man.” He stormed to his door and held it open for her. “Out, now.”
Bailey backed up a few steps, shaking her head. “No, I am not leaving here until you realize what’s happening. Your mother—”
“My mother? What does my mother have to do with this?”
“I called her yesterday and told her about the situation, about you and that woman,” Bailey informed him, lifting her chin in the air. “Did you really think I wouldn’t try and put a stop to this nonsense before you were dragged into another mess?”
Harold’s hand squeezed the doorknob until his palm ached. “You have no right digging into my life.”
“But I do. I’m your friend, one of your oldest friends, in fact, and I’m looking out for you.”
“No,” he said, leering as he walked closer and her smug smile fell. “No, you’re looking out for yourself. Why, after all these years, is the most eligible bachelorette of Concord still single? Why do you never date anyone, Bailey? Why are you always hanging around me, or Christian, or Rodric?”
Her body shifted and she stepped backwards as he grew closer. “Perhaps I haven’t found the right man, or maybe I’ve had no offers.”
“That’s a lie and we both know it. Men hit on you all the time, yet you stay single.”
“I’m allowed to be single,” she said tartly.
“You are, but I doubt that’s why you’re doing it. All this time, you hoped I would fall into your arms and admit my feelings for you,” he mused, the laughter bubbling up again. She clenched her jaw and he had her. “That’s why you’re so against me being with Anna. You’re jealous.”
She whipped around, showing him her back as she straightened her shoulders. “I am no such thing. Don’t be ridiculous. I know what’s best for you, nothing more.”
“What’s best for me is not being with you.”
“I never said it was.”
“Your body language does,” he insisted, turning her around. “Why are you constantly in my office if you don’t need a consultation?”
She sputtered, searching for the right words, but gave up. Her hands balled into fists and she swung her arms down hard, glaring at him through narrowed slits. “You bastard! I am the perfect match for you! Everyone says so, including your mother, but no. You would rather mess around with the pink-haired daughter of a biker! Have you lost your mind? Do you have any idea what a woman like her will do to you, to your family name? She’ll ruin it, all of it!”
Harold’s hands slipped into his pockets and he smiled. “Her hair is violet.”
Bailey let out a strangled yell of annoyance and shoved past him for the door. “Your mother will never let you have her!”
“My mother has no control over her son who is nearly thirty years old,” he shot back.
“You’ll regret this, you’ll regret everything! She’ll destroy what you could be. I hope you realize that.”
“No, she’s going to help me get back to the man I should have been before I let myself be twisted by you and the rest of them.”
Bailey shrieked in rage and stomped out of his office. She yelled at Walter as he walked by, and Harold followed her out, resting his shoulder against the doorframe as his spirits lifted as they had been once many, many months ago.
“Sir? Is everything all right?” Walter asked, wearing a mix of a confused and amused smile.
“I think it will be now, yes. Did you manage to get ahold of Mr. Tory?”
Walter smirked as he shuffled his papers together and handed a post-it to Harold. “He’s willing to meet with you on Friday morning.”
“It figures he wants to wait until the end of the week. F
ine, that will work. Thank you.”
“Anything else, sir?”
“No—oh wait, yes,” he said stepping back out of his office. “If Bailey, Christian, Rodric, my mother, anyone except Jenny or Ms. Crawley try to come in and see me, stop them, would you? Even if you have to call the cops.”
Walter’s smile faltered. “Sir?”
“Thank you, Walter, that will be all for a while.” He winked and closed his office door.
His phone taunted him, but if he called home his sister would answer, tell him to stop bugging them, and promptly hang up. What he wouldn’t give to be a fly on the wall during their conversation, but he had to work out his plan with Anna anyway. Her case was close to being dismissed. The moment he proved Johnny was involved with the break-in and setting up Anna in the first place, all charges against her would be dropped. If he played his cards right, he could even win her sole control of the bar without having to pay a penny.
But the case wasn’t what made him anxious all morning. Anna told him he had never admitted how he felt about her. Her words rang truer than he wanted them to. When he tried to say them, he faltered every time. He stumbled over emotions he was unused to feeling so intensely about anyone, including about himself. Bailey and the others, they held him back by holding him to such high and ridiculous standards. Respecting the family name and legacy and all that other bullshit, which meant nothing at the end of the day. He was tired of coming home to an empty house and a life lacking in the one thing he knew he had with Anna, the one thing he’d let slip through his fingers.
Love. He loved that woman, every bit of who she was, and this time…this time, he would get it right and show her exactly what type of man he was.
***
“Your brother is a pain in the ass, you know that?” Anna held the hot coffee mug between her palms, sitting on the couch as Jenny sat down beside her. “I tell him one thing, and it’s like he hears me but doesn’t at the same time. Does that even make sense?”
“Yes, and I grew up with him, remember?” Jenny teased.
Anna groaned, her head falling back to the couch. “I don’t even know what I’m doing here.”
“You’re here because despite what you keep telling me, you want a second chance with him,” Jenny told her gently. “You both want that chance.”
“No…I don’t think Harry knows what he wants.”
Jenny’s lips curled into a Cheshire grin. “He loves when you call him that, by the way.”
Anna’s heart fluttered. “He does? I swore he hated it.”
“Loves it.” She shifted on the couch, her face furrowed into a worried frown. “He missed you, you know. Every day. He never said it, but I heard it in his voice. The happiness you gave him was simply gone.”
“I never wanted to leave him,” Anna admitted. “But I saw the man he wanted to be, little glimpses of it. Every time, I thought to myself this is it. This is the time he’ll finally break through that last wall and I’ll see what’s really going on inside that head. I’d know how he felt about me.” She smiled sadly, chewing on her tongue as she remembered the last night with him and the rest of his friends and family gathered close. “He could never let me in.”
Jenny’s hand covered hers and squeezed it heartily. “He’s a bit thickheaded, everyone in my family is, but you can’t give up on him.”
“I’m tired, Jenny. He had my heart and he couldn’t bear to let me have his. How much more can I do?”
“You can push him,” she insisted. “Push him until it hurts. Push him until he finally lets it all out. He needs you in his life, whether you see it or not.” Her hand slipped away, and she stood, walking to the fireplace to pick up a framed photo of her and Harold from when they were younger. “A long time ago, he knew how to laugh and be happy. He was excited to take on whatever life threw at him, got his hands dirty, and told me of his dreams to be a lawyer for the people. Helping people who couldn’t help themselves, that’s what he told me.”
Anna had never heard that story from Harold. He’d hinted at wanting to do more, but he seemed to lack the conviction to break from the tradition of the Jenson family legacy. “What happened to that boy?” she asked.
Jenny set the photograph back in its place. “Our parents. They were both lawyers, but they catered to the rich and powerful. They liked being the big fish in a little pond and used the excuse that helping those in power would eventually help those beneath them.”
“Interesting theory. Too bad it doesn’t work that way.”
“Not usually.” She sighed sadly, twirling her finger around a strand of black hair. “Our parents dashed his dreams, mostly Father. They beat him down and told him the only way he would ever help anyone in this world was to make a name for himself, or rather carry on their name. His friends didn’t help much.”
“I can see why,” Anna murmured, sliding the charm around the chain on her neck. “When I was with Harry, he was so much more relaxed. He was fun, actually.”
“That’s who he was when we were younger. I miss my brother sometimes.”
It amazed Anna how a person could be so completely different from who they were meant to be because those around them shaped and molded them into someone completely different. Harold had mentioned his father to her numerous times, how proud he would be of Harold’s accomplishments. No one else seemed to hear the bitterness in those words, except Anna. He regretted not doing more and following his dreams of helping those less fortunate than him. She resisted pushing too hard before for fear of losing him.
And look what happened? You lost him anyway.
“Anna, I have no right to ask you to do this, but Harold needs you to give him a right kick in the ass,” Jenny told her. “I don’t want to cause you any more grief, but you’re the only one who can drag the old Harold out. Break through those barriers.”
She was right, but that didn’t mean Anna was ready for the fight her pushing Harold would bring. “How did you manage to not turn out like the rest of them?” she asked curiously.
Jenny flipped her hair over her shoulder and strutted as if she was on a runway. “I, my dear Anna, moved far away as soon as I could. I’ll admit when I’m home, I put on a different face. I have to in order to avoid the lectures from Mommy dearest.”
“Well, I can’t move away from my bar,” she mused, “and I doubt Harold will move out of this city any time soon.”
“I have faith in you.”
“I’m glad one of us does.” She drained the rest of her coffee and stood. “Right. I have to get to the bar and try not to think about my ruined apartment.”
“And make a plan for Harold?” Jenny urged.
“I can’t make any guarantees and honestly, I’m not sure I’m strong enough to do it, but I’ll try. We were given a second chance, and I’d be an idiot to toss it away. Swing by the bar while you’re in town. First round is on the house,” Anna promised her.
She hurried upstairs to change. As she zipped up her black boots, she pondered her next move with Harold. Getting him to see he was better off embracing the man he was meant to be was no easy feat. She had failed the first time, but she hadn’t pushed as hard to get him to open up to her. This time, there would be no pulling punches. She had missed him as much as he apparently missed her. Too bad he had yet to admit it straight up or tell her how he really felt. The next time she saw him, she would let him have it and give him a choice. Either let her in or she would walk away again, and there would be no coming back.
Chapter 7
Harold was out the door of his office at exactly five o’clock. “Night, Walter,” he called hastily over his shoulder and hardly heard his assistant’s reply. He needed to get home and speak with Anna. The words were a mess in his head, but none of that mattered. He had to see her, hold her again, kiss her, and pray that somehow, everything would flow out of him. His cell dinged with another voicemail, most likely from his mother, but he ignored it. He had no doubt in his mind Bailey had called to inform Prentice
of her son’s actions and how he would ruin everything the Jenson family had spent the last few decades building.
He would deal with her and her yelling later. The only agenda he cared about was Anna. He sped home, threw open the front door, and called out for her.
“She’s not here,” Jenny’s reply came from the living room.
“What do you mean? Where is she?”
“Well, don’t you look a right mess,” she commented. “You look even worse than you did this morning. Care to share with the class?”
“Jenny, where is Anna?” he demanded, tossing his briefcase into the empty chair.
Jenny closed the book she was reading and tossed it on the other end of the couch. “Where do you think that woman is? You know you can’t keep her away from the bar for long.”
“The Crawler.” He whirled around, ready to charge out the door when Jenny called him back. “What?”
“You’re going after her, right?”
The smile that spread across his face reflected on the face of his sister. “What do you think?”
“Thank God,” he heard her say as he ran back into the cold. He floored it back through the city and cursed when it took him too long to find a damn place to park. A car pulled away from the curb out front, and he whipped his into it. The gusting wind blew past his face, but he hardly felt the chill or the snowflakes as they melted against his cheeks. He ran into the bar, having a brief moment of déjà vu, but instead of Missy behind the bar staring at him as if he’d lost it, Anna was there. She cursed when the beer she was pouring overflowed and she had to start over. “We need to talk—now.”
“What about?” she asked, turning her back to him.
“Us,” he replied without hesitation for once. “I’ll wait here all night if I have to, but you and I have unfinished business.”
A few of the regulars he recognized at the bar glanced from him to Anna, waiting for her reply. She blinked furiously and slammed the beer on the counter in front of Aiden. “And whose fault is that?”
