Daring to Fall

by Shannon Stults

  Chapter Eight

  Harper hadn’t been to Wade’s since they rebuilt it after the fire three years ago. Not that she’d been missing much. From what she could tell, Lilly, the bar’s owner, had restored the place to all its former glory. Aside from the fact that everything in it looked new—including a large flat screen hanging up over the corner of the bar and the framed slab of charred chalkboard poised proudly on the wall for all to see—Harper almost couldn’t tell Wade’s had burned down and been built back up again.

  “Take a seat anywhere, and I’ll be right with ya,” Lilly’s rough voice called from behind the bar, her eyes focused on the beer glass she was filling from the tap.

  Harper stood just inside the door, her eyes scanning over the many tables and booths occupied by the day’s lunch crowd. There were even more tables around the corner from the bar that led back to a dimly lit pool table where two boisterous, and likely drunk, men were in the middle of a game. Opting for more lighting and less drunken babble, Harper found a small booth in the far-left corner by a covered window. She pulled back the green-and-white plaid curtain, instantly brightening her darkened corner, and started glancing through the menu on the table in front of her.

  A pair of high heels clacked loudly across the hardwood floor, and she turned to watch Lilly, her hips swaying in a pair of tight-fitting jeans, approaching with a smile and wearing a bright blue halter top and a level of confidence Harper could only dream of.

  “Haven’t seen your face around town in a long while. You’re one o’ Henrietta’s grandkids, right?”

  Harper nodded.

  “Such a sweet lady, always stopping you in your tracks to ask how you an’ your family’s doing. Of course, I don’t think she left her house much in the last year or two, so I hadn’t seen her around lately. Still, I was real sorry to hear she passed.”

  Harper forced herself to smile. She hated when people tried to give her sympathy, regardless of how good their intentions. It reminded her too much of pity. And after her parents’ deaths, she’d had enough pity to last her a lifetime. “Thanks, Lilly. That’s very sweet.”

  The older woman smiled kindly, her leather-like skin stretching over her slender, angular face. Lilly flipped her bright red hair over her bare shoulder before placing her hands on her hips. She nodded to the menu in Harper’s hands. “You know what you want?”

  “Just a sweet tea for now. I’m waiting for someone.”

  Lilly nodded. “All right, I’ll get that for you real quick.”

  “Thanks,” Harper called as the bartender sashayed back to the bar. Harper returned her attention to the menu in her hand, attempting to ignore the nervous fluttery feeling in her stomach. She didn’t know why she was so nervous about this lunch meeting. It was just Cam, after all. He’d sounded friendly enough when she called him up and asked if they could talk over lunch at Wade’s, and it wasn’t like they couldn’t be friends after everything that happened between her and Cowboy. Surely, his brother wouldn’t blame her for their fallout. Then again, seeing as Cowboy’s was the only side of the story he would have heard, it was possible. Which meant there was a decent chance this lunch would not go as smoothly as she hoped.

  Okay, so she knew exactly why she was nervous.

  Lilly clicked over to the table, setting Harper’s sweet tea down in front of her.

  “Thank you,” she muttered then took a sip.

  She peeked out the window to the parking lot. She hadn’t seen Cam in three years, but she couldn’t imagine he’d changed much in that brief time. He was a handsome guy, though not in the same way Cowboy was. Where Cowboy was tall and muscular, Cam was on the slightly lankier side. Cowboy had light blond hair and blue eyes while his brother’s hair and eyes were dark brown. Cowboy had a confident, even cocky, grin compared to Cam’s shy but endearing smile. And he was nowhere near the flirt Cowboy was.

  While totally different in looks and temperament, both Hart boys had the ability—not to mention the genetics—to make a girl swoon. Not that Harper had ever really seen Cam that way. She wasn’t sure she’d ever be able to see past Cowboy in that regard.

  “This seat taken?”

  Harper’s head snapped up as the last person she wanted to see right now sat down across from her. The menu fell from her hands, and she stared wide-eyed at Cowboy. He settled into his seat and folded his tanned arms on top of the table, grinning innocently at her. Harper shook her head and ignored the butterfly wings in her gut and the tightening in her chest.

  She cleared her throat. “As a matter of fact, I’m waiting for someone.” She grabbed her glass of sweet tea and took another sip.

  “Oh right, Cam,” he said, nodding. His hair was hidden under his Georgia cap, and he smelled like sweat and sunlight and fresh air, which only made Harper’s stomach flutter faster. “Unfortunately, he’s not going to make it.”

  “What? Why not?”

  Cowboy shrugged. “He told me about your lunch thing, and I kinda threatened his manhood and any future possibility of children if he didn’t let me come instead,” he said, ending it with another grin.

  This wasn’t the same broken and pleading Cowboy she’d seen in her front yard over a week ago. This was the cute and flirty one who’d always made her laugh even when she didn’t want to. The one who told the world that nothing, and nobody, could hurt him.

  Only she knew better.

  “Don’t do this, Cowboy.”

  “Do what?”

  She sighed. “Don’t pretend like everything is okay between us. Like what happened didn’t happen.” She certainly couldn’t.

  His cocky smile slipped before he looked at her earnestly. “Look, I’m just trying to be your friend, Harper. Nothing more than that. We were friends once, in case you don’t remember.”

  “Oh, I remember.” There’d been a time when she considered Cowboy her best friend.

  “Good.” His blue eyes were bright and hopeful; his intent gaze never wavered from hers. “So is there any way we can get back there? I miss my friend, even if she is a Tech fan.”

  She sighed, ignoring the playful jab. If she was being completely honest with herself, she’d missed his friendship, too. But she still couldn’t get past the hurt and heartache just being near him stirred up.

  “Come on, Midge, give me a chance,” he said. Then his lips lifted in a crooked grin. “I dare you.”

  Those three words summoned a torrent of memories, most she’d prefer to keep locked away at a safe distance. How could she keep them at bay and stay focused on the task at hand if he was constantly around to dredge it all back up? She couldn’t let anything derail her new plans, and she had too much at stake to let him distract her now.

  “This isn’t a game, Cowboy. You can’t just say those three magic words and expect everything to go back to the way it was. Three years is a long time; we’re different people now. Who’s to say we’d even still be friends at this point?”

  “Fine. We’re just two random people sitting at a table together, making polite conversation.”

  “Cowboy—”

  “Great.” He sat tall and clapped his hands together loudly, grabbing the attention of everyone in the bar. He glanced over at Lilly with a gesture indicating he wanted a drink. When the bartender confirmed with a smile and a wink, Cowboy turned back to Harper. “Now, let’s start by discussing why you were meeting my brother here for lunch.”

  “You don’t even know?”

  “Well, I didn’t really give Cam much of a chance to explain before I locked him in his basement and slashed his tires.”

  “You’re not serious.”

  “No, but I did throw his keys out in the field to get a head start. So what’s the deal? I assume it’s not a date since you have a boyfriend, and Cam is in a very serious and committed relationship with his work.”

  She stared at him, not sure she’d heard him right.

  He stared back, and his grin slipped again. “Wait, was this a date?”

  “N
o, of course not. Don’t be stupid.” She shook her head. His reaction both gutted her and set her heart pumping. Friends didn’t want their friends to be jealous of another guy. Especially when that guy was his brother, and Harper was not even the least bit interested in him. “You said boyfriend.”

  “Yeah, the guy on the porch with the garlic bread and the man-bun and the tattooed arm hanging all over you,” he said with a slight sneer just as Lilly placed a beer bottle in front of him.

  Harper nearly laughed. She’d almost forgotten the show her friend put on for Cowboy’s benefit. “He’s not my boyfriend.”

  “Does he know that? He was practically pissing a circle around you.”

  “Trust me, he wasn’t. Aiden’s gay.”

  Cowboy stared at Harper before slumping back in his seat. “Huh, no kiddin’.” He grabbed his beer and took a long sip. “Well, I guess that explains the way he was looking at me. I thought he was sizing up his competition. Turns out, he just thinks I’m a hot piece of ass.”

  “No, he doesn’t.” He totally did. “You’re not even his type.” He’d asked if the girl code against calling a friend’s ex applied to gay men.

  He grinned at her. “He was totally checking me out.”

  Harper rolled her eyes but said nothing.

  “Not that I can blame him, really. He’s probably not the first man to find me so irresistible, and he sure as hell won’t be the last.”

  “Still as humble as ever, I see.”

  “Eh, who needs humility with abs like these?” Cowboy stood from his seat and made a show of pulling his landscaping T-shirt up unabashedly, putting his painfully well-defined set of abs on display.

  There were a few whistles and catcalls from the bar. “How many times do I have to tell you to keep your shirt on in my bar, Cowboy?” Lilly shouted. “I’m going to start getting complaints again!”

  He dropped his shirt and quickly sat back in his seat like a chided schoolboy. “Sorry, Lil.”

  Harper slumped down in her seat, trying to ignore the eyes now fixed on her and Cowboy. “Complaints, huh?”

  “It’s true. Guys don’t really appreciate when their dates are staring at another man’s body.” He shrugged and took a quick sip from his beer. “Go figure.”

  Harper couldn’t help but laugh, and the warmth it created in her chest was better than anything else she’d felt since coming back to town. Already she could feel some of her stress melting away like it used to around him.

  “I was meeting Cam here because I wanted to get his advice on something.”

  Cowboy’s eyes narrowed. “Advice on…?”

  “Business.” Harper took a drink from her deliciously sweet tea. “I was thinking about starting up the B&B again. It’s just an idea Byrdie had, and I started considering it. But I’m not sure. It’s probably stupid.”

  Cowboy shook his head. “Uh-uh, stop. Don’t tear yourself down before you even get started.”

  She nodded, her eyes falling to where her hands fidgeted nervously in her lap. “I talked to Burt Glarrow last week, and he said the B&B looks good for the most part. There are a few things I’d need to fix up, and I’d want to update it a bit.”

  “I think that sounds amazing. You’d be great at that.”

  Harper looked up, hope flooding her heart at the confidence in his voice. Confidence in her. “Really?”

  “Hell yeah. You used to love that place. And you’re smart, so the business side would be no problem for you.”

  She cringed. “I’m not so sure. That’s why I wanted to talk to Cam about it, since he studied business at school. I don’t know anything about business.”

  “I can help you.”

  “You?”

  He sat up. “Sure, why not? I’ve been running a business for five years now, and doing a pretty damn good job of it, too. Plus, I can probably get you a good deal with a contractor. And you’re going to need someone to install and maintain the landscaping, which means more business for me. It’s a mutually beneficial arrangement,” he said with a smirk.

  He made some very good points. He had been doing well with his landscaping business, and it would be nice to have some help from someone who at least could pretend like he knew what he was doing. Unlike Harper who had about as much confidence as a mouse. But that wasn’t the part that had her concerned.

  It was the idea of working closely with Cowboy on this. Seeing him all the time, asking him for advice and relying on him to help bring her vision to life. It wasn’t that she didn’t trust him—at least, not when it came to this. More like she didn’t trust herself. Being around Cowboy was painful, and she wasn’t sure how much she’d be able to take.

  Then again, she’d really missed this part, laughing and joking with him without a care in the world. Maybe being his friend again was finally how she’d get over Cowboy and everything that had happened between them for good. Like exposure therapy. The more she exposed herself to the painful stimulus, the less it would hurt. Eventually.

  “Okay, Cowboy,” she said. “You’ve got yourself a deal.”

  Chapter Nine

  Sadie was sitting at the bar tapping away at her phone and munching on peanut butter and apple slices when Harper entered the kitchen.

  “Where’ve you been?”

  Harper blinked. That was it? After three weeks of the silent treatment, that was all her little sister had to say? Then again, anything was better than nothing at this point. And if she made a stink about it now, who knew when Sadie would deign to talk to her again.

  She grabbed the pitcher of sweet tea from the refrigerator. “I was just having lunch at Wade’s.” She took an empty glass from the cabinet and poured herself a drink.

  Sadie looked at her phone. “It’s four o’clock.”

  “I know. Time got away from us.”

  She and Cowboy had eventually ordered food and sat talking for over three hours about her plans for the B&B, and he had listened patiently and with his own enthusiasm, even adding in his own ideas occasionally.

  “Who’s us?” Sadie asked before taking a bite of her crunchy apple slice, all while still tapping on her phone.

  “Me and Cowboy.”

  Sadie sat up tall in her seat, her full attention on her sister. “Really?”

  “What?”

  “Nothing.” Sadie shrugged. “I just didn’t realize that was happening again.”

  Harper laughed humorlessly. “It’s not. Cowboy and I agreed to be friends. That’s it.”

  “Uh-huh. And would he skip work in the middle of the day to have a four-hour lunch with any of his other friends?”

  Harper hadn’t thought about it like that. She hadn’t once considered how lunch with her was keeping him from work in the middle of growing season.

  “We were just talking business,” she assured herself as much as Sadie. “Which is something I’ve been meaning to talk to you about, too.”

  Harper rested her elbows on the island and looked at Sadie. Now was as good a time as any. “How would you feel if I opened up the B&B again?”

  “You?”

  Harper adjusted her glasses. “Yeah. I’ve been thinking about it for a couple weeks now. We’ve got the money. We live close enough that we could stay here and still manage the house. I remember most of the stuff Mom taught me, and Cowboy’s going to help me out with the business stuff I don’t know. But only if you’re okay with it. I won’t do it if you don’t want me to. The B&B is just as much yours as it is mine.”

  Sadie tilted her head, considering it silently.

  “So…is it okay?”

  “Sure. I mean, if that’s really what you want. I didn’t even know you wanted the B&B.”

  “It’s been years since I thought about it, but it used to be all I wanted before Mom and Dad died. And the more I think about it now, the more excited I get.”

  Sadie nodded her approval. “Then I say you go for it.”

  “Okay, great. Thanks.” Harper’s relief spread across her face in a wide s
mile. She’d been expecting another fight with Sadie—which, combined with the silent treatment, was probably why she’d been putting off talking to her about it for so long. But having Sadie’s blessing lifted a huge weight off her shoulders she hadn’t even realized she was carrying.

  Sadie stood from her stool at the bar and carried her empty plate to the sink. “So listen, a guy in my class is having some friends over, and I was planning on going.”

  “You mean like a party?”

  She scrunched her nose. “Not like a party party. Just a couple people hanging out, really low key.”

  “I don’t know. Do I know this boy? Do I know his parents?” Harper felt a mild panic build in her gut. “His parents will be there, right?”

  “Yeah, of course. It’s not a big deal. We’ll probably just end up watching a movie or something. Plus, Brett Woods said he’d be there, and he’s really cute and—”

  “Wait, Brett Woods? Isn’t he the one with the weird hair and the acne?”

  “He’s changed a lot in the last couple years. He’s even in a band.”

  “Huh.”

  “Anyway,” Sadie went on, “can I go?”

  Harper hesitated. Her instincts combined with just about every teen movie she’d ever seen told her to say no. But things were going so well between them right now, joking and talking about boys, and she didn’t want to mess it up now. “Okay, I guess. Just promise me you’ll be home by eleven.”

  “Sure. Now I just have to figure out what I’m going to wear.” She grabbed her phone from the bar and darted out of the room.

  Harper’s phone started ringing in her pocket, mixing with the sound of Sadie’s boots running up the stairs. She answered on the third ring.

  “Hey, Aiden. What’s up?”

  “Not much. I had a few minutes before I go into work and thought I’d call and check in on you.” There was a rustle on the other end of the line, and then the familiar crunch of potato chips. “So, how are things?” he asked through a full mouth.

  “Things are pretty good. Actually, I’m thinking about reopening my parents’ old B&B.” She’d already told everyone else; she might as well tell Aiden, too.