Harper And The One Night Stand (Scandalous Series Book 3)

by R. Linda

  “It’s crossed my mind.”

  “Say the word, Ace, and we’ll go,” Linc said.

  “Really?” Indie spun to look at him.

  “If that’s what you want. It’s your day, so you can choose.” He kissed her head. Yeah, I was totally fine with their relationship as long as he kept putting her first.

  “It’s our day. You have to want it too.”

  “All I want is you to be happy.”

  “All right, you two, give the sappy crap a rest.” I cringed and walked over to give Mum a hand, not wanting to witness any more.

  Linc just laughed.

  ***

  I was a sucker for punishment. Two days after Linc and Indie announced their engagement, I found myself at the roadhouse again, in the hopes of seeing Harper. After such a dark and depressing day, I really wanted to see her pretty smile and cute button nose.

  “You look like crap and smell even worse,” Johnny said when I walked in. I was beginning to like the guy. He was brutally honest. I knew I looked a bad and had definitely smelled better. The soot and scent of smoke was in my skin. It would take more than one shower to wash this day off.

  “Yeah,” I sighed and sat on a stool at the counter.

  “What can I get you?”

  “Tequila?” I was only half joking. He raised an unimpressed eyebrow and grunted. “A milkshake’s fine.” I slumped over the counter and rested my head on my arms.

  “Rough day?” Leaning down under the counter, he pulled out a beer then flipped the top and slid it across to me with a nod.

  “The worst.”

  “I’ll get something to eat too,” he said and pushed through the kitchen doors. “You got a visitor.”

  Harper peered around the door, her eyebrows pinched together. “Nate?”

  “Hi, friend.”

  She rolled her eyes. “What are you doing here?”

  “Wanted to see you.”

  “Why?”

  “Because we’re friends, and I had a terrible day.”

  She leaned on the counter in front of me, a look of concern mixed with surprise on her face. “And you came to see me? Why not Linc or Brody?”

  “They don’t have your smile. And I kind of need something bright to break through the darkness.”

  Her mouth pulled up into a smile, and pink tinged her cheeks. She ducked her head and tried to hide behind her hair.

  “Walk with me?”

  She nodded. “Hang on.” She darted out to the kitchen and came back a few minutes later with a brown paper bag and two bottles of orange juice. “Let’s go.”

  I drained my beer in a quick few mouthfuls and threw the empty bottle in the recycling.

  I didn’t know where we were going. The roadhouse was on the outside of town with nothing around for miles, but Harper seemed to have an idea, so I followed her.

  “The water tower?” I asked as we rounded the back of the diner and began to trek through the field. Taking the brown bag from her hands and peering inside, I inhaled the scent of fried meat and potatoes and groaned, suddenly hungry.

  “Not today.”

  We walked past the water tower and continued through the knee-high grass in the direction of a large willow tree at the back of the property. The sound of water trickling became louder the further we got from the diner, until finally we reached the shade of the willow tree on the bank of a stream.

  Harper sat on a worn patch of grass and folded her legs underneath her.

  “Come here a lot?” I sat beside her and leaned against the tree, closing my eyes only to open them again to stop the images flashing in my head, the screams echoing in my ears.

  “Sometimes.” She opened the bag and pulled out a burger and fries, handing them to me before digging back into the bag for her own.

  We ate in silence, which was both a blessing and a curse. I didn’t want to talk about my day. I didn’t want to rehash the details and go over it again for the thousandth time. But in the silence, the thoughts crept in, plaguing my mind with doubt.

  What if I did things differently?

  What if I was there earlier?

  What if? What if? What if?

  Rationally, I knew there was nothing I could do, but it still didn’t make it any easier.

  It didn’t lessen the guilt or the pain. Nothing could ever prepare you for it. No amount of training and practice runs and theory could ever prepare you for death.

  “Want to talk about it?” Harper asked, throwing her rubbish into the brown bag and moving to sit beside me.

  “No.”

  She sighed and settled in against the tree trunk beside me, her long, milky white legs crossing at the ankles. She was the palest person I had ever met. Her skin almost glowed, it was so fair, yet her hair was so dark. Snow White—that was Harper, only edgier with skin-tight jeans and spiked leather boots.

  “Want to walk again?”

  “No.”

  “Swim?”

  “No.” Her questions barely registered in my distracted mind. In all honesty, I was content just sitting beside her as long as I didn’t let my thoughts run away from me too much.

  “Skinny-dip?”

  “No.” A tiny part of me wondered, if I’d said yes, would she have followed through and skinny-dipped with me in the stream?

  “Want to make out?” She wiggled her eyebrows.

  “You want to kiss me, friend?” I teased, grateful for finally getting my thoughts out of the cloud of smoke they were caught under, even if it only lasted a while.

  “Will it cheer you up? You’re worrying me.” Her lips turned down into a frown as she brushed a hand across my cheek absently before jerking her arm back as if realising what she was doing.

  “Sorry. I dragged you out here because I had a really, really bad day, and now I’m being a terrible friend.”

  “You’re not being a terrible friend. You’re definitely not being a fun one, but I can understand that. Something happened at work, didn’t it?”

  I nodded. “How did you know?”

  “You look and smell like you got stuck in a chimney.” She rubbed her fingers across my forehead and cheeks, wiping away the soot that was still there.

  “It was bad. The house was old and already fully engulfed in flames by the time we got there. We tried. So hard.” I paused, needing to take a moment to get my head together again.

  “Nate.” Harper shook her head, at a loss for words, and reached for my hand, threading her fingers through mine. That was what I needed. Comfort. No words. Her touch. The warmth of her skin on mine.

  “The screams. I can still hear them. A whole family, Harper. Trapped upstairs in that house,” I ground out, my jaw clenched so tightly my teeth ached, but I barely noticed. “The smoke was so thick, we could hardly see.”

  Harper’s hand tightened around mine while she wrapped the other around my waist and laid her head on my chest.

  “The beams were falling down on top of us, the stairs crumbling beneath our feet every time we tried to take a step. We couldn’t get to them. The ladders were no use. The moment Richie climbed through the top story window, the floor beneath him gave out. There was nothing we could do.” I choked back a sob, and Harper lifted her head to look at me, tears in her eyes. I wiped one away when it silently slid down her cheek.

  “Eventually, our captain ordered us out. It was too dangerous, and he couldn’t put our lives at risk. By this stage, the screams had stopped, and the fire was under control. There was nothing left of the house. We stood in the street and watched it collapse in front of us. They were dead. All of them because of a faulty air conditioner.”

  “Nate, I’m so sorry. I don’t know what to say. How to make this better. Nothing is going to bring them back or take away your pain,” Harper said, hugging herself to me.

  “But she’s alive,” I whispered. I was still in shock. It shouldn’t have been possible. No one could have survived that fire.

  “Who? You just said they all…I don’t understand
.”

  “The girl. Can’t be more than seventeen. I was outside talking to Brody. He was there, you know, to treat any victims and get them to the hospital. We were out in the middle of the road when I heard the cry. I was sure I imagined it, but it happened again. When Brody and I just looked at each other, I knew he heard it too. So we ran together into the falling-down house that was still smoking and hot to touch and searched everywhere. The captain was on the phone to the fire marshal and abusing the hell out of us for being in a dangerous building and ordering us out. We ignored him for a while and continued to look for her. We were just about to give up when we heard her again. Climbing over furniture and timber that was pure charcoal by that stage, we found her amongst the rubble in the bathroom, naked, burns to half her body, suffering bad smoke inhalation and part of the floor above holding her down.”

  “Oh, my god. How did she survive?” Her eyes were sad as she brought her hand to her mouth.

  “She must have been in the bathroom when the fire started upstairs. It tore through the top floor so fast, and most of the damage downstairs came from the top floor falling in. Somehow the pipes in that bathroom hadn’t been affected, and if it wasn’t for the fact she covered herself in wet towels, she’d probably have died.”

  “What happened?”

  “We wrapped her in the towels, careful not to touch her skin, and carried her out. Her screams were excruciating, and she kept writhing in pain. She passed out by the time we had her in the back of the ambulance. Brody gave her painkillers and sat with her as they rushed her to emergency.”

  “She’s going to be okay?”

  “Define ‘okay.’ She lost her entire family in that fire. But if you mean make a full recovery and live, then I guess…Yeah, she’ll be okay.”

  “That poor girl. I can’t imagine.”

  “You don’t want to. She’ll be in hospital for a while so they can treat her burns. Brody called on my way here to tell me.”

  Harper didn’t say anything. Instead, we sat there holding hands and watching the water trickle over the rocks in the stream until the sun set and it turned cold. There was nothing to say. A young girl nearly lost her life today, and her entire family perished. And there wasn’t a damn thing I could do to stop it.

  Chapter Eight

  Harper

  Kenzie burst into my room the following morning. “Have you seen this?” she asked, waving an envelope in my face. I rolled over and buried my head under the pillow, completely uninterested in whatever it was that had her so excited.

  “What?” I mumbled into my mattress.

  “The invitation to Linc and Indie’s engagement party.”

  They were getting married? I was happy for them, but I couldn’t even muster the energy to fake excitement. I spent the entire night tossing and turning, my mind on Nate and what he’d told me about the fire.

  “Did you hear me?” she asked. Why couldn’t she just leave me alone and let me sleep?

  I grunted out a response.

  “Why are you still in bed?” The mattress dipped when she sat beside me. She pulled the pillow off my head and poked me in the cheek.

  I swatted her hand away and grumbled, “Nate,” not realising my mistake until it was too late.

  “Nate?” She climbed over me and lay down beside me. “Well, this just got interesting real fast. Tell me more.” She nudged me with her elbow.

  “No. Not like that.”

  “Really? I’ve seen the lingering looks, and there was that one night in Fi—” I pinched her mouth closed to shut her up.

  “Nothing happened.”

  “You woke up in Nate’s bed with no pants! Something definitely happened.”

  “Kenz, please,” I pleaded. I did not want to relive that moment because then I’d be forced to think about each and every other moment I ended up in Nate’s bed without my pants. If that happened, I knew I couldn’t be held responsible for my actions later, like if I just happened to lose my jeans and fall through Nate’s window, only to land in his bed—completely not my fault.

  “One day you will tell me what is going on.”

  “Nothing is going on. We’re just friends.”

  “Best friends, actually,” Nate said from where he suddenly appeared in my doorway with that heart-stopping grin. What was he doing here?

  Kenzie’s eyebrows shot up as I scrambled to rearrange the blanket and cover myself a little more, ridiculous as it seemed, given our history.

  “Okay, well, I’ll leave you to besties to, you know…talk.” Kenzie winked and climbed off the bed, patting Nate on the chest as she walked past. She turned around and gave me a thumbs up before indicating to Nate and rubbing her chest. She either wanted me to rub my chest on Nate or wanted me to let him rub my chest. I wasn’t sure, but either way, it wasn’t happening.

  “Just remember, Nate, she has class in an hour. So, make it good and make it fast.” Her laughter could be heard all the way down the stairs.

  “Sorry, I didn’t mean to interrupt. I didn’t realise she was here.” Nate winced.

  “That’s okay. What are you doing here?”

  “I don’t really know. I didn’t even realise I was driving here, but since I am, want to grab a coffee before class?”

  “Ah, sure,” I said and threw off the covers, completely forgetting I was wearing nothing but a t-shirt. “Let me just have a quick shower.” I darted past him, only to be stopped when his fingers curled around my wrist.

  Turning back to look at him, I saw his dark eyes were focused on something outside my window. He tugged on my wrist and pulled me to him. Releasing my wrist, he gripped my waist with one hand, bunching up my shirt exposing my underwear while he wove his other hand into my hair. It was a weirdly intimate moment and so intense my heart thudded against my chest.

  His fingers skimmed the skin under my ribs, leaving a trail of goose bumps, while he tilted my head back to look at him, only he was still staring out my window. I leaned into him, both welcoming and hating the way my body responded to his closeness.

  “You’re wearing my shirt,” he said in a deep, low voice.

  “I…I—” I didn’t know what to say. My brain had up and left. I only answered to his touch, which was leaving a blazing trail across my skin. I was wearing his shirt, one he left here one night more than three months ago. I had hoped he wouldn’t notice.

  “Raincheck on the coffee, friend?” he whispered, his lips grazing my forehead. “You’ve got a visitor right now, and I shouldn’t be here.” With one last lingering touch on my waist that turned my legs to jelly, he left.

  A visitor? Who would be here, and how would he know? I stepped over to the window and peered outside. Dammit. Brody. What was he doing here? And how was Nate going to get away without being seen? Surely, he’d have seen Nate’s car in the parking lot.

  Deciding to skip a shower, I pulled on a pair of denim shorts, slid on my white canvas shoes, and tucked the shirt into my waistband at the front and ran down the stairs.

  “Hey, man, what’re you doing here?” Brody asked Nate as I rounded the corner into the diner.

  “Uh…” Nate was caught, and he couldn’t lie to save his life.

  “Aunt Julie asked if he could stop by and take a look at the ice machine because Uncle Johnny is useless,” I said smoothly, coming to stand between them.

  “I heard that,” Johnny grumbled as he came out of the kitchen. “There’s nothing wrong with the ice machine.”

  “That you know of.” I glared at him and pushed him back into the kitchen before he could say anything to make Brody suspicious.

  He walked off, mumbling something under his breath about damn kids not respecting their elders.

  “I heard that,” I called back through the door before standing in front of Nate. Perhaps a little closer than appropriate for a friend, but when it came to him, my body had a mind of its own.

  “What are you doing here, Brody?” I turned to him, trying to act cool and like I was completely una
ffected when Nate’s fingers began playing with the hem of my shirt, twisting the back where Brody couldn’t see.

  “Thought I’d see if you wanted to grab a coffee,” Brody said, his eyes bright, hopeful. What was with these guys and coffee? Two guys, two coffees, and I only wanted one.

  “Oh, I’d love to…” I froze when Nate’s fingers dug into the small of my back. A warning. “But I have class. I was just coming to see if I could take Johnny’s truck today, because mine needs new tires.”

  “Well, that’s easy. I’ll give you a lift, and we can grab a caffeine hit on the way. After the hellish couple of days I’ve had, I need it.” Brody’s smile was so easy-going that it was hard to say no.

  I didn’t want to hurt his feelings and tell him to back off, even though I was absolutely not interested in him at all. No, I was completely invested in the guy who was trailing his fingers along the waistband of my shorts, unbeknownst to Brody standing directly in front of me.

  “Ah, sure. Thanks.” I forced a smile, even though I would have much preferred to go with Nate. “Let me grab my stuff.”

  “Yeah.” Nate cleared his throat, removed his hands from my skin, and stepped around me. “I’m off now. But tell Julie I’ll be back tonight to look at the fryer.”

  “You mean ice machine?” Brody corrected.

  “Whatever.” Nate narrowed his gaze on me. “Tonight.”

  I stared, unable to form words because I knew it meant he was coming back tonight to see me, since there was nothing wrong with the ice machine or the fryer.

  “See ya, man.” He clapped Brody on the shoulder as he walked away, only to pause at the door and face us both again. “Nice shirt, Harper. Looks kind of familiar.”

  I ducked my head in embarrassment, the blood rushing to my cheeks. He just had to go and say that in front of Brody, who now stared at me in confusion.

  “What’s with the shirt?” Brody asked once the doors had closed behind Nate.

  “Uh…it was Indie’s. Guess that’s why it looks it familiar,” I said like a complete idiot, but I could hardly tell him it was Nate’s. “I’ll be two minutes.”