by Carol Ross
“I bet.” Then he muttered under his breath before asking, “Did you accept?”
“Is there a reason I shouldn’t?”
“Yes,” he snapped.
Harper’s lungs constricted tightly as her pulse kicked up a few notches. “Okay...?”
Kyle huffed out an exasperated sigh. “I’m not saying he’s a bad guy or anything. But he’s a player, and I’d hate to see you get hurt.”
Jealous. She barely smothered a satisfied, Ha! She let herself enjoy the moment. Just because they’d agreed that a romance wasn’t a good idea, that didn’t mean it wasn’t what she wanted. Admittedly, she was struggling. So yes, maybe she wanted him to suffer a bit with wanting her, too.
After a pause, she said, “Thank you for the warning, then. Now I’m glad I turned him down.”
“You’re welcome,” he muttered, the relief evident in the slight relaxing of his shoulders and the way he loosened his grip on the poor steering wheel.
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
“THAT’S THE BEST NEWS, Mia! No, of course, it’s not too soon. We’ll see you in the morning.” Harper clicked off the call, apparently with his sister, and beamed at Kyle. “I did it!”
“What did you do?” Kyle put the last of the dinner dishes in the dishwasher and checked the time. Harper would likely be going to bed soon. He needed to call Josh and give him an update. Not that he had anything new to add, but Josh had been urging him to deliver, and he could at least report that Harper was beginning to soften toward him. Soften, Harper, kiss... He let the memory swim before him.
“I can’t believe it worked! The weather is supposed to be clear. I hope the light cooperates.” Harper turned toward him and bounced a little on her toes. “I wanted to surprise you.”
“Surprise me?” he repeated, still not focusing on much beyond the shape of her smiling mouth.
“Kyle, everyone cleared their schedules so we could do this before you leave. Josie had to switch shifts at the hospital, and Levi was supposed to go to Portland with Ty’s family. But when Ty heard about it, she rescheduled. Craig took a day off. And Mia pushed all her appointments back. She’s got a vet colleague covering her emergency calls.”
Schedule clearing? A vaguely itchy feeling crept over him as he absorbed her little speech. “Everyone did what? What’s going on?”
She took a step closer. “Family pictures. At your sister’s house. Tomorrow morning. Isn’t this great?”
Irritation churned inside of him. He would never ask his family to disrupt their lives in this way, not for him. Frustration seeped into his tone as he said, “I wish you would have asked me first.”
“Why? So you could shoot me down?”
He bit back the yes on the tip of his tongue.
“Kyle, this is going to be awesome. I promise.”
Head shaking, he picked up his phone. “I need to call Mia.” He needed to apologize for putting everyone out in this way.
“Put your phone down. You’re not canceling. Everyone is excited about this.” Pausing, she tilted her head. “Everyone except you, apparently.”
“How did this even happen?” Throwing up his hands, he let them fall back down to his sides. “No, I am not excited.”
Undaunted by his reaction, Harper calmly explained, “I got the idea when we were having lunch with your family. I was talking to your mom, and I asked what you were like when you were a little boy. She showed me your baby picture and then she mentioned that the three of you had never had a photo taken together—a professional one—which I still can’t believe. Then Josie said that they’d never had a family picture taken either. I suggested a photo shoot. And since you’re leaving, we thought it would be prudent to do it sooner rather than later. But it took a while to put it together. That’s a lot of busy people to organize.”
“Prudent?” Kyle repeated because he didn’t know what to say. He didn’t want to hurt her feelings, but this was not okay.
Harper frowned. “Yeah, it means wise, practical, sensi—”
“I know what it means, Harper,” Kyle returned flatly. He could feel his composure slipping.
“Why are you upset about this?”
“I’m not upset!” he snapped. “Fine, I’m a little upset. I don’t think... You didn’t need to...” With a frustrated groan, he leaned back, resting his hips against the counter. “Everyone shouldn’t have to rearrange their lives for me.”
“They’re not rearranging their lives, it’s just one morning, for a family portrait.” Harper narrowed her gaze thoughtfully and tapped a finger on the countertop. “You don’t think your family thinks of you like family, do you?”
As unpleasant as this was, he could no longer keep this from Harper. Not when she kept assuming that things were better than they were. “I don’t deserve for them to think of me that way. Certainly not Mia, and not my mom either, for that matter. Even though my mom is the most incredible human and forgives me for everything so easily. Too easily.”
“Kyle, what are you talking about? Forgive what?”
“Since you’re not going to leave this alone... I have been a terrible son and an even worse brother. I spent my childhood chasing after my dad and my entire adult life in the military. I basically blew them off—my own mom and sister. I never came home. I rarely contacted them at all.”
“Your mom talks about you like you’re her everything. You and Mia both. I’m not sure I’ve ever seen a prouder mom. Deservedly so, you are both successful and accomplished and completely wonderful to her.”
Slowly, Kyle shook his head. “You don’t understand. I can promise you that Mia does not want to have her picture taken with me. She’s doing this for you because you’re difficult to say no to.”
Harper exhaled a sound of disbelief. “What I don’t understand is this thing you have about your sister. She clearly adores you!”
Kyle raked a frustrated hand through his hair. How could he make her comprehend this? “Harper, Mia does not adore me. She...the opposite of adores me.”
“You’re wrong.”
Her expression and her tone were so confident, and yet so misguided that it pushed him over the edge. This was his Achilles’ heel, his, and how dare she profess to understand an issue that had taken years of misdeeds and neglect, on both his own and Bill Frasier’s part, to develop?
Kyle pushed off the counter to stand straight, the muscles of his neck and back screaming with tension. “Look, Harper, I know you’re trying to help, but you cannot possibly understand my relationship with Mia. Growing up, I was...not nice to her. She tried repeatedly to be a good sister to me, but I wasn’t interested. For most of my life, my priorities were screwed up. I was obsessed with my work, with the military, with my dad. As kids, he treated Mia badly, ignored her basically. And I went along with it without realizing how hurtful I was being. I don’t deserve for Mia to include me in her family photos.”
Harper looked stricken and Kyle was, if not glad, then at least gratified. He deserved her contempt on this subject, just like he did Mia’s. “But she loves you, Kyle. Anyone can see that. I think there’s more to her feelings than you realize.”
Kyle sighed and raked a frustrated hand across his jaw. “Harper, as the only child of a doting single father, I don’t think you can grasp how complicated family dynamics can be. Of course, Mia and I love each other, but it takes more than that to make a relationship.” A relatively simple concept that he was beginning to believe he’d learned too late.
“Maybe that’s true.” Harper shrugged, eyes flashing with frustration and what looked like sadness. “But empathy isn’t exclusive to shared trauma, Kyle. You don’t need to live through something yourself to understand it, to feel compassion, to want to help. If I see a train wreck, I cry for the victims because I imagine what they’re going through. It hurts me to see you torturing yourself like this.”
She went on before he could respond, “And I’ll tell you another thing—I’d love to have this problem that you have. To have a family that’s bigger than two people. Do you know how lucky you are to have so many people who love you just for being you? Do you have any idea what it’s like to never have to doubt or wonder if they have some secret motivation for being kind to you? For wanting to spend time with you? Levi, Laney, Mia, Jay, Josie, Craig, even the little ones. Your mom! I can’t even...
“I would trade everything I have in this world for five minutes with my mom. I don’t remember her. I only remember a feeling, and it’s so fleeting and frustrating because I can’t hold on to it. It’s like trying to grab smoke. Growing up, I used to ask my dad all the time what he missed the most about her. And you know what his answer was? Time. Just time.” She added a helpless little shrug. “All the little moments that make up the time you get to spend with a person you love. That’s something I’ll never have with my mom. So maybe you didn’t do that when you could. That’s not cool. But it’s not too late. You have that time now. And you could have it with Mia. If you guys would just quit avoiding the issue and talk.”
Tears welled in her eyes and Kyle realized that she might be right. But still, he didn’t appreciate her trying to fix this for him. It made him uncomfortable, how she’d nosed her way into his family business. Plus, she had no room to talk when it came to avoiding issues, prompting him to say the words, “You know all about that, don’t you? Not talking about things that make you uncomfortable. You won’t even tell me what happened with you and Owen.”
Breaking eye contact, she turned around with a tired sigh that almost had him regretting his words. “I’m going to bed. I’m leaving for your sister’s at 7 a.m. Whether you’re with me or not is your choice. But I can say with absolute certainty that your family—particularly your sister—will be crushed if you’re not there.”
* * *
“OKAY, EVERYONE, SCOOCH together a bit more for this one. Levi, move a little to your left...” Harper called out bright and early the next morning while motioning with her hand. “Nora, if you could step to the right, you’re hidden behind Dean. Yep, that way. Perfect!”
Harper clicked the shutter. First, she’d taken some shots with Mia and Jay’s house in the background, then turned them all, so their backs were to the ocean. Then she’d herded everyone about fifty yards down the beach to a gigantic driftwood snag that had washed in against a stretch of pebbled shoreline.
“Jay,” she called out in a teasing tone, “your dog holds still better than you do. Any chance you could look right here?” She waved a hand behind the camera. Everyone laughed. Excitement bubbled inside of her because she could see the group relaxing and that’s when family photos turned out best.
In the soft light, mild temperature and barely discernible breeze, the session was going better than she’d hoped. Especially considering the strain between her and Kyle. They’d barely spoken that morning, but he’d come over freshly showered and dressed according to Mia’s request of casual attire in neutral tones. He was gorgeous in jeans and a gray cotton sweater with the collar and tail of his white shirt showing.
She didn’t regret what she’d said; he and Mia needed to talk. Between what she’d learned from Mia and Nora and what she’d heard from Kyle, their issue was fixable. If Kyle could learn to forgive himself. Although, his final words the night before kept running through her mind.
He was right; it was easy for her to say that he and Mia could resolve their issues when she wasn’t the one who had to talk about matters that were painful for her. What he didn’t understand was that the truth about Owen would be painful for him, too.
She repositioned everyone a few more times. Satisfied that she had plenty of good images, she moved on to divide the family into smaller groups in various combinations: Jay and Josie, Jay and Josie and their siblings, all of them with the addition of Mia and Craig, then Levi and Laney, Dean and Delilah, just the girls, just the boys, then Nora with Mia and Kyle, and finally Mia and Kyle.
When she finished, she encouraged everyone to mingle around and play on the beach so she could get some candid shots for a family collage. Dean and Delilah didn’t need to be told twice. Levi ran up to the house and retrieved beach toys. Plans for a grand sandcastle were hatched, and construction was soon underway. Kyle might not be thrilled about this day, but the rest of the bunch were having a blast. That made Harper happy and strengthened her resolve. Now, if there was only some way to help Kyle accept that he deserved to be a part of it all.
* * *
“KYLE, CAN I talk to you for a minute?”
Kyle turned to find Mia standing behind him.
“Sure.”
Mia glanced toward the group, some of whom were working on the sandcastle, others were sitting and chatting on a blanket. Laney and Delilah frolicked in the shallow waves with George. Levi played fetch with Coastie. Harper moved around the group photographing it all.
“Let’s walk.” Mia took off. Kyle followed.
They hadn’t gone far when she asked, “You and Harper are more than friends, aren’t you?”
“Yes,” he said, “but it’s not what you’re thinking.”
“What does that mean?”
Kyle felt an inexplicable urge to confide in his sister. Maybe Harper was right that he needed to take advantage of these moments when he could. “If I tell you, can you keep it to yourself?”
“Of course.”
“I’m her employee.”
Mia’s head tipped back in surprise. “You’re her employee? What kind of employee?”
“Security consultant.”
“What, like a bodyguard?”
“Sort of, but it’s more about teaching her how to keep herself safe.”
“Why does a photographer need a security consultant?”
“Remember that news story a few weeks ago?”
“When you saved David Bellaire, you mean?”
“Yes. Harper is David Bellaire’s daughter...” Kyle explained, doing his best to keep it brief and excluding the part about her being Owen’s ex-fiancée.
“Wow. I had no idea.”
“I know.” Kyle smiled. “Harper likes it when people don’t know who she is.” He found himself repeating Harper’s words, “It’s surprising the problems that are unique to famous people.”
After he’d cooled off last night, he’d thought about their conversation, trying to imagine how it would feel to always wonder if someone’s friendship or love was genuine. Despite Harper’s bravado and engaging spirit, he knew her life had been lonely. She alluded to it in ways that he wasn’t even sure she was aware of. It made his heart hurt to think about what she’d gone through. And yet the loneliness, suspicion and uncertainty hadn’t made her cynical. It hadn’t hardened her heart toward people or dampened her enthusiasm for life as one might expect. The positive energy she exhibited was a lot like Nora’s. You could even see it in the photos she took. It made him want to protect her even more, from the internal pain as much as the physical danger.
“She keeps expecting Levi to figure it out. But I think that’s part of the reason she’s fallen in love with you guys, because you like her for her.”
“Yeah, that’s it,” Mia said with a sarcastic chuckle.
Kyle shook his head to intimate that he didn’t get what was funny.
“Sure, we’re awesome and all but the reason she’s fallen in love with us is because she’s in love with you.”
A mix of longing and anxiety swamped him, nearly stopping him in his tracks. “Mia, I don’t think that’s true.”
“Kyle, the way she looks at you, it’s like... Well, it reminds me of the way I feel about Jay. Why else would she do this for you? You know how busy we all are. Organizing this took a lot of planning. Not to mention, she loses a perfect morning of work herself. I know what this nice weather means
for her. Not to mention all the time and money that she’ll put into editing and printing. Do you know how much a good photography session like this would cost? Plus, the prints? And she insists that this is a gift for us all. Mom is beside herself with joy. I can’t believe I didn’t think of this sooner.”
Kyle did like how happy this seemed to make Nora. And everyone else for that matter, including Mia.
Mia added, “And you’re clearly in love with her.”
“What are you talking about?” Kyle asked the question, but not, he realized, because it wasn’t true, but because he wondered how Mia had figured it out before him. He’d been fooling himself by thinking he could keep himself from falling for her. Not loving Harper would be like trying to stop the tide from rolling in. He so badly wanted to be the one to end her loneliness forever, to show her how much he didn’t care about her money or who her dad was. To show her how much he loved her for her. To be the man who deserved her trust. But that was impossible. He’d already betrayed her; she just didn’t know it.
“For someone as intelligent and stunningly capable as you are, you can be pretty dense, you know that?”
“Yes. I do know that. Especially when it comes to women.” Kyle stared down at the smooth gray sand. “My own sister included, apparently.”
“So, listen, about your girlfriend.”
“Mia, I don’t want you to get your hopes up there. Harper and I—”
“And I’m telling you, she should be your girlfriend if she’s not. You would be a fool to let her go. Anyway, Harper and I have been talking. She’s very perceptive about people and relationships, by the way. There are some things I realize I need to say to you.” She inhaled a deep breath and then released it in a long sigh. “Things I should have said before now.”
When she didn’t continue, Kyle nodded.
“It’s difficult to say something when you don’t know how it’s going to be received. You know what I mean?”
“Yes,” he answered softly. “Very well. But I can handle whatever it is you want to tell me.”
