by Brenda Novak
Tobias rummaged around in the tissue paper, hoping to find a card or note that would resolve the mystery, but there was none.
Damn. He wanted to know who’d given it to him.
He could ask Uriah to take a look at the security feeds in the morning, he decided.
Although that wasn’t really necessary. He could guess who’d given it to him. Harper was about the only person he knew who’d have the money for something like this. She’d have good reason not to sign her name, too.
Yes, it had to be her. No one else made sense.
But if she was getting back with her ex-husband, why was she buying him an expensive watch?
* * *
As soon as Tobias woke up the following morning, he grabbed his phone to text Harper.
Did you drop something off at my house last night?
She must’ve been with her family—or she was trying to figure out what to say—because it was fifteen minutes before he got a response. No.
He frowned. Are you sure?
About not coming over? How could I be wrong
about that?
Could it have been someone else? He’d been so certain it was her. It had to be you, he wrote. Who else could it be?
I don’t know what you’re talking about. Did someone bring you cookies or something?
Was she just trying to throw him off the trail? Not cookies, no.
What, then?
Something much more expensive.
You’re not going to tell me what?
A watch.
Do you like it?
I love it, but I’d like to know who to thank.
Sounds like whoever gave it to you doesn’t want any thanks. If I were you, I’d just enjoy it. Are we still on for ice-skating?
He scratched his head as he read her latest. If it was her she wasn’t going to admit it. Yes, he typed.
Okay. See you soon.
That was it. She’d dismissed the subject. But she wasn’t going to get away that easily.
After pulling up his contacts, he called Uriah.
“Your truck’s in the drive,” Uriah said as soon as he answered.
“So?” Tobias asked, confused by this greeting.
“You’re calling me when you could just walk a few feet?”
Poor Uriah was wondering why Tobias was suddenly making himself so scarce, but if Uriah wanted peace and a real chance to repair his relationship with his son, it was better if Tobias stayed away. Other than a few of the assholes he’d met in prison, Tobias had never disliked anyone quite as much as Carl. “Sorry. Just woke up and wanted to ask a quick question.”
“If you come over, I’ve got some zucchini bread for you.”
“Another gift from one of your many lady friends?”
“Yup. Helen brought this one.”
“I bet it’s good, but I can’t come over right now.” Especially because chances were high that Carl would be there. He never seemed to go anywhere in the mornings, although he was probably still sleeping. “I just wanted to ask if you saw someone come by my house last night.”
“Who?”
“That’s what I’m trying to figure out. It might’ve been late.”
“I didn’t notice anyone, but you know I go to bed early. Give me a sec. I’ll wake Carl. He’s the night owl.”
The sound of Carl’s name was like nails going down a chalkboard. “You don’t have to bother him.”
“He’s supposed to be up by now, anyway,” Uriah said. “He’s got work to do.”
Tobias wondered how many more days Carl would tolerate having his father drag him out of bed to do what he was supposed to do. But, fortunately, when Uriah asked him, Tobias heard no arguing in the background.
“Carl didn’t see anyone, either,” Uriah reported when he came back on the line.
That was actually good news. If it was Harper who’d come by, Tobias didn’t want Carl anywhere near her. “Is there anything on the security feeds?”
“Hang on, let me check.”
While he waited, Tobias got up and put on a pot of coffee.
“Looks like a woman hurried down the drive to your place at about ten thirty,” he said when he came back on the line.
“How long did she stay?”
“She didn’t. Ran right back.”
“Can you tell who she was?”
“You must not realize how blurry these feeds are.”
“She must’ve had a car.”
“There was no vehicle in the frame. I’m guessing she left it out by the road, beyond the range of the cameras. The way she crept down the drive, eyeing my place as though someone might jump out and grab her—she definitely didn’t want to be seen.”
She’d probably been afraid that Carl would be lurking about. Tobias was wary of that himself. “Shit.”
“What’s going on?”
“Nothing big,” he said. “Someone brought me a gift. That’s all. I just wanted to know who it was.”
“Well, I can tell you it was a woman, but that’s about it.”
“Thanks.”
“Are you sure you don’t want any of this zucchini bread?” he asked before Tobias could sign off.
Tobias figured he should probably make himself walk down, even if Carl was there. “Sure. Just let me have a shower.”
“Oh, wait. Never mind. Carl’s got an appointment with his attorney—and I’ve got to drive him. I’ll just bring you some when we leave.”
Tobias guessed Carl wasn’t too disappointed about getting out of work. “Sounds good.”
Uriah came by a few minutes later, as promised, and then left right away to get his son to the attorney.
Tobias was enjoying the zucchini bread when he heard another knock. Assuming Uriah had forgotten to give him something else, and was trying to do it before he took off, he swung the door wide without checking to see who it was—and found Susan Brooks standing on his stoop.
Oh, damn. Of course she’d show up on the day he was supposed to take Harper and her family ice-skating. He didn’t relish the idea of seeing Harper when he had scratches all over his face. Susan had left some pretty deep gouges last time.
Squaring his shoulders, he stepped out and shut the door behind him. Uriah owned the house and most of the furniture. He couldn’t let her in and have her start destroying stuff.
“Ms. Brooks.”
She said nothing. Didn’t move, either.
He shifted uncomfortably. A chill wind whipped at his short hair and cut right through his thin T-shirt, but he didn’t mind the cold. He figured it might be smarter to be a little numb for this. “Did you want to...um...tell me something?”
No response.
His gaze lowered to the bag. He hoped she didn’t have a gun inside it. Since she was an eye-for-an-eye kind of person, he had virtually no doubt she’d shoot him if she had the opportunity.
Then her eyes started to fill with tears.
Oh, God. She’d obviously reached a breaking point. She’d only ever shown up at his place one other time, and that was right after he’d been released. She’d been crying then, too—wailing, actually. He’d never forget the sound of it or the hate that had slammed into him with every blow.
“I’m sorry if it upset you that I came by the store,” he said in an attempt to head off whatever was coming. “I...” He swallowed hard. “I meant well.” He didn’t expect her to believe him, but it was true so he figured it didn’t hurt to say it.
A tear slipped over her eyelashes and ran down her cheek as she lifted the bag.
He would’ve stepped back at that point, but he had the door behind him. He lifted his hands in a defensive position, instinctively trying to ward off any threat.
But she didn’t pull out a gun. She tried to hand him the whole bag.
“What’s this?” he asked when she shoved it into his chest.
She sniffed as another tear fell, obviously trying to talk, but she was too choked up, so he accepted the bag, since that seemed to be important to her, and peered cautiously inside.
It was filled with...boxes of cookies from her store? And they weren’t just any cookies, he noticed. They were pumpkin and chocolate chip with cream cheese frosting—his favorite.
“I’m...so sorry,” she managed to say, almost choking on the last word as the tears came faster.
Sorry? Tobias’s jaw dropped. She wasn’t angry? She wasn’t out to punish him some more?
He was so stunned it took him a moment to decide how to react to this wildly unexpected occurrence. “You don’t have anything to be sorry for.” He tried to return the cookies. He didn’t expect gifts from her. He didn’t expect her to be friendly to him, either. He didn’t even know how to react to kindness, not when it came from her. He just wanted her to stop being so spiteful and mean to Maddox and Jada, since they had nothing to do with what had happened to Atticus. “I know I’m the only one to blame for everything.”
“You were seventeen,” she said on a sob and, ignoring his attempt to get her to take the bag back, she turned and left.
22
“Are you nervous about seeing Tobias?” Karoline asked.
Harper pretended to be far more engrossed in doing the dishes than she actually was. The girls were in the other room, watching a Disney movie with their cousins while their uncle watched professional basketball on his phone. “No, why?”
“Just wondering.” Her sister grabbed a dish towel and dried the pot Harper had just put in the rack. “Did you get your Christmas shopping finished last night like you wanted to?”
Harper kept her gaze on the spatula she was scrubbing. “For the most part. Thanks for watching the girls.”
“It was no problem. They just played with their cousins.” Karoline wiped down the counters. “Seems like you were out pretty late,” she added a few seconds after.
“The malls stay open later during the holidays. And I had a long drive from LA.”
“What did you end up buying?”
“A few stocking stuffers for the girls,” Harper said, but that wasn’t all. She’d purchased a nice watch for Tobias from an expensive sporting goods store. But she wasn’t going to admit that to anyone, not even him. She didn’t care how expensive or wildly inappropriate it was—or that she felt the need to hide it. As soon as she’d found the watch, she’d known she wanted to get it for him. It was her one indulgence, her own little celebration of the season, and she wasn’t going to second-guess herself or worry about it now that she’d already made the decision. She was just going to enjoy imagining him out in the wilderness, using that great watch while she was in Colorado, facing the hard work of putting her life back together—whether or not that included her ex-husband.
“Things still going okay with Axel?”
“Yeah, of course. Why?”
“You didn’t say much when the new flower arrangement arrived this morning.”
Because the flower arrangements made her nervous. She kept remembering the clip she’d seen of him accepting something from that fan in the front row and wondering if his extravagance was meant to compensate her in some way.
If so, it wasn’t a fair trade. She didn’t want flowers in place of faithfulness.
Maybe things would be different, easier, once he got home. She certainly hoped so. Her children were so excited that their father was suddenly paying more attention to them. She didn’t want to do anything that would take that away from them. “The arrangement’s gorgeous. I just... I already have a lot of them, you know?”
“Can a girl get too many flowers?” her sister joked.
“Have you seen my room?” Harper asked dryly.
“I have. It’s a bit much. But it’s kind of impressive that he’s trying so hard to win you back.” Karoline bent closer, to see around the fall of hair obscuring her face. “Right?”
“It’s not like you to beat around the bush,” Harper said, turning on the water so she could use the sprayer to rinse the frying pan she’d washed. “So...what are you really digging for?”
“I’d like to know how you’re feeling about him, I guess. Are you happier now that the two of you have basically decided to try again?”
She’d be happier if the problems that had driven them apart in the first place weren’t still part of the equation. “I’m...cautiously optimistic.”
“Axel called me last night, by the way.”
At this, Harper turned off the water and lowered the frying pan back into the soapy water.
“He wanted to know where you were,” Karoline continued. “Said he hadn’t been able to reach you for most of the day and all of the evening.”
“I was trying to finish my shopping,” she explained, but that wasn’t the case, not exactly. She hadn’t accepted Axel’s calls because she didn’t want to talk to him. She had no idea why. She had no proof he’d slept with the girl who’d been worshipping him in the mosh pit. For all she knew, she was reading far more into it than was warranted.
So what was going on with her? Was she beginning to look for excuses not to take the risk of getting back with her ex? People sometimes sabotaged themselves.
That was all she could figure; she had no other reason to explain why she’d been compelled to buy such an expensive gift for another man.
Karoline nodded slowly. “Gotcha.”
Harper finished rinsing the pan and set it on the rack. “Did Axel have anything else to say?”
“Not much. Why? You didn’t talk to him? Didn’t you call him when you got home?”
“No, I was too tired.”
“Shopping can be exhausting,” Karoline said, but Harper didn’t like the tone of her voice or the skeptical expression on her face. She knew Karoline could tell something wasn’t right.
* * *
Tobias almost couldn’t believe what’d happened, but Susan’s apology seemed sincere. Maddox had called an hour ago to say she’d stopped by his house, too, and apologized to him and Jada. Apparently, Atticus had confronted his mother and drawn a hard line—told her she was the one ruining his life because she wouldn’t allow the family to heal. He’d told her he’d never speak to her again if she didn’t let it go.
No doubt that was a difficult thing for Atticus to do, and an even more difficult thing for Susan to hear. But Tobias felt it was warranted—not for his sake but for Jada’s. He hoped this was the beginning of a much better relationship between Jada and her mother and—even if Susan changed her mind about him again, which she might—he hoped she’d finally give her son-in-law a chance. Jada and Maddox both deserved to be treated better than they had so far. Just thinking that might happen made Tobias happy.
But he was a little leery about going skating with Harper. He’d had a good day so far and wasn’t sure he should push his luck. Seeing her would only make him want her all over again. And it might get awkward with her sister, brother-in-law, children and nieces around. Would they be able to tell—by the way he looked at her or touched her—that their relationship had gone well beyond platonic?
He closed his eyes, remembering the first time they’d made love, and felt his groin tighten. What he felt for Harper went well beyond the sexual—although it manifested itself in that way—and yet he was going to spend the evening with her, pretending he didn’t feel anything.
He was wasting his time worrying about it, though. It wasn’t as if he was going to cancel. Even an awkward or frustrating meeting was better than no meeting at all. That was how he knew his interest went much further than wanting to take her back to bed.
He heard the girls first. They came running into the ice rink while he was trying to find skates that might be small enough for them. New Horizons was for girls
older than Harper’s, but because Aiyana had decided to open the rink to the public one Saturday a month beginning in January, she’d purchased some smaller skates to rent out.
“There you are!” Piper said as soon as she saw him.
He found himself grinning at her. She was so damn cute. Her nose was pink from the cold, her hair was falling out of its ponytail and she was dressed in tan leggings with a leopard-print top and a pair of boots lined with fake fur. “Are you excited to get on the ice?”
“Yeah!” she cried. “So is Everly.”
“I hope I don’t fall down.” Everly looked slightly concerned when she saw the sharp blades on the bottom of the skates.
“If you’re careful and don’t go too fast, you’ll be fine,” he said. “Besides, I’m going to help you, remember?”
Amanda and Miranda came in after Everly and Piper but before the adults. “Wow, it’s cold in here,” Amanda said, and her sister agreed, hugging herself and shivering.
“You’ll warm up once you get moving,” Tobias told them. “What size shoe do you wear?”
He was handing each of the twins a pair of skates when Harper, Terrance and Karoline finally caught up.
“It’s really nice of you to do this,” Karoline said after they’d exchanged greetings.
“It’s no problem.” Tobias turned on the Christmas music before getting the rest of the skates.
Terrance helped his girls and Karoline with their skates, so Tobias focused on Piper, Everly and, finally, Harper.
He could feel Harper watching him as he finished tying her laces. “I like your hands,” she said.
He glanced over to see if Karoline had heard. But the kids were talking and laughing so loudly she probably hadn’t. She was too busy telling her husband that her left skate needed to be tightened, and Terrance was trying to fix it.