“Take it easy, sweetheart. So you’re a little late. You deserve a break now and then.”
She slipped on her bra and panties. “We have a lot to do today. We’ve got all the appliances, kitchen equipment and dishes for the dining room to pick out. I was going to stay at Maggie’s for the night and come home tomorrow, but now I want to get home to you.”
“That’s good.” Ethan’s mind was in turmoil. He couldn’t let her go before she knew the truth. “Before you go, can we talk for a few minutes?”
She pulled her T-shirt over her head. “Can you make it quick? I’ve got to run back to my cottage to shower and change.”
He couldn’t explain the reason he’d held back the truth for so long in a few minutes. He needed time.
He gave her a quick, hard kiss. “For now, I want to tell you that last night was the most amazing experience of my life.”
“Ethan.” Her smile was tender. She clasped his face between her hands and kissed him. “I feel exactly the same way.”
“There’s lots more I need to tell you, but it will have to wait until you get home tonight and we have more time.”
“Okay. I’ll get back as soon as I can. There are things I want to say to you, too.”
Ethan’s heart lifted at her words. He kissed her again. “I look forward to it.”
“Me, too. But right now, can you help me find my pants?”
The wayward pants were soon located and with one last kiss, she was off. Ethan walked out onto his porch to watch her run down the road to her cottage. She rounded a bend and was soon hidden from his view by the thick forest.
Despite the loving way they’d parted, fear lingered at the back of his mind. He couldn’t predict Harper’s reaction to his confession. She valued honesty. He wasn’t sure she’d understand his reasons for hiding his identity. And he was afraid he’d carried out the charade too long to deserve her forgiveness. He ran his hand through his hair, worry replacing the contentment he had so recently found in her arms.
CHAPTER NINETEEN
Harper drove hard, making it to the city in record time. She pulled up to Maggie’s apartment building at ten-fifty a.m., nearly an hour late. But she couldn’t regret her tardiness, not when she remembered why she was late. Waking up with Ethan, making love with him again this morning, had been incredible. A shudder of desire coursed through her body as she thought about his hands and his mouth on her. She couldn’t wait to finish her business in the city so she could rush home and make love with him again.
Was he going to tell her he loved her? Was that what he wanted to talk to her about tonight? She prayed that’s what he wanted to say, because she desperately wanted to tell him she loved him, too.
Humming, she locked her truck, ran up the steps and pushed the intercom button. Maggie answered immediately, as if she’d been waiting for her.
“Hi, I’m here,” Harper said. “Sorry I’m late. Why don’t you come down and we can start our shopping right away?”
“Can you come up?” Maggie asked. “I’ll buzz you in.”
The buzzer rang. It seemed she didn’t have a choice in the matter. Harper pulled open the door, trying not to be annoyed. After all, she was the one who was late. She hurried to Maggie’s second floor apartment.
The door was partially open when she arrived. She pushed it open.
“Are you almost ready? I’d like to get going—”
The words died on her lips when she saw Scarlet standing in the middle of Maggie’s living room. Harper went to her immediately and enveloped her in a hug. “Scarlet, what a wonderful surprise! I didn’t expect to see you. Are you here to help us with the shopping?”
Scarlet’s face was pale and anxious. “No, I need to talk to you. That’s why I came to Minneapolis.”
Harper’s gut twisted. Scarlet wouldn’t leave work in Chicago in the middle of the week unless something was very, very wrong. “Scarlet, you’re scaring me. Are you all right? Are you sick?”
Scarlet took her hands and squeezed. “No, nothing like that. I’m fine. I … I have something I need to tell you.”
“What is it?”
Scarlet swallowed and glanced at Maggie before turning back to her with a look of resigned determination on her face. “Let’s sit down.”
Harper’s heart picked up pace as she followed Scarlet to the sofa and sat beside her. Maggie sat across from them in an armchair, wearing an anxious expression identical to Scarlet’s. Something was definitely wrong.
“Do you know what’s going on, Maggie?”
She nodded reluctantly. “Yes. Scarlet just told me.”
Harper turned back to Scarlet. “Whatever it is, spit it out. The suspense is killing me.”
“Okay, but I want to tell you I take no joy in giving you this news.” She reached for a tablet and booted it up. “I did some digging. It seemed very odd to me that you’d never met Mr. Hainstock. From what you told me, he was always unavailable. I wondered if he had something to hide.”
“Hainstock Investments and the Hainstock Foundation are totally legit. I checked them out myself. I had our lawyer investigate the worth of the company before we signed anything. I’m not an idiot, Scarlet.”
“Of course, you’re not. But you didn’t expect someone to deliberately deceive you either.”
A sick feeling began to build in her stomach. “What are you talking about?”
Harper watched as Scarlet opened some websites on the tablet. “I did a search online for Ethan James, but I couldn’t find anything. No Facebook page, no Twitter or LinkedIn account. Nothing. Most people normally have some kind of online presence.”
Harper didn’t like the direction the conversation was taking. Ethan had been completely honest with her regarding his association with Hainstock Investments. “So what? I don’t have any of those things either.”
Scarlet gave her a quick grin. “I said normal people.” The grin disappeared. “So then I started to search for something personal about Mr. Hainstock, not just about the company. And I found this.”
She handed Harper the tablet. The headline on the Minneapolis Star Tribune screamed out the news in bold type. “Duluth resident wins largest lottery in Minnesota history”. The article was dated five years previously.
With trembling fingers, she scrolled a little further down, afraid of what she might find. When a picture of Ethan rolled into view, her worst fears were confirmed.
He lied to me.
“He isn’t Mr. Hainstock’s representative. He’s Ethan James Hainstock, multi-millionaire businessman and philanthropist, thanks to a hundred and seventy-five-million-dollar lottery win a few years ago,” Scarlet said. “I don’t know what kind of game he’s playing with you, but I thought you needed to know the truth. I’m sorry, Harper.”
Harper nodded absently, her attention still on the newspaper article. The story talked about how Ethan was three days away from being unemployed when he won the lottery. The pulp and paper mill he’d worked at in northern Minnesota was going out of business.
Harper was sick to her stomach. The worst thing that could possibly happen had happened. For a moment, she was ten years old again on that terrible day when Grampa Bill told her that mom and daddy were dead. Ethan had lied to her, and he was going to abandon her just as her parents had.
Was that what he’d planned to tell her tonight? That he was leaving her?
She wouldn’t let it happen again.
She handed the tablet back to Scarlet and stood. “I need to go home. I need to talk to Ethan.”
“We’ll go with you,” Scarlet said. “You’ve had a shock. You shouldn’t be alone.”
She shook her head as she headed to the door. “No, I need to do this on my own.”
Maggie followed her. “What about our shopping? We need to order the appliances and equipment so we have them in time for the lodge’s reopening.”
“It doesn’t matter anymore.”
“What are you talking about? Of course it matters. You�
�ve been working on getting the lodge in shape for weeks. You’ve been planning this for months, years even.”
She stared at her little sister’s incredulous face. Didn’t she understand that nothing mattered anymore? Renovating the lodge wasn’t going to bring their parents or grandparents back. She’d been delusional all this time, but the scales had finally fallen from her eyes.
They were totally alone in the world, and they needed to get used to it.
“I have to go.”
Maggie stood in front of her, blocking her path. “Harper, don’t go. Not like this.”
Scarlet put her hand on Maggie’s arm. “Let her go. We have to let her work this out for herself.”
“We should have driven out to the lodge, told you our news there.” Maggie said. Tears filled her eyes and spilled onto her cheeks. “At least you wouldn’t have to face this drive.”
“It doesn’t matter,” Harper repeated. She was numb and dead inside. Ethan had made love to her, listened to her confession of being an virgin, her retelling of her parents’ deaths and throughout it all, he was lying. Playing her for a fool.
“I’m sorry, Harper. This is the last thing we wanted to have to tell you.” Maggie wrapped her arms around her. Harper felt stiff and awkward in her embrace, as if her body had turned to stone.
Like my heart.
“I have to go,” she repeated.
Maggie let her go and Scarlet gave her a fierce hug. “Call us as soon as you get home. Let us know you arrived safely, okay?”
Harper nodded, then left Maggie’s apartment.
The drive back to the lodge passed in a blur. Pieces of conversation kept playing in her head. She’d actually thought he was as excited about this project as she’d been. Worse, she’d actually thought he’d been interested in her. How stupid she’d been, how gullible. It had all been nothing but a business deal for him.
When she got back to the lodge, workmen were everywhere. As she drove past the lodge on her way to her cottage, Ethan waved to her, but she kept on driving. When she confronted him, she wanted to do it in private.
She didn’t have to wait long for that confrontation. A few minutes after she arrived, Ethan knocked on her door, then came inside. He walked toward her as if to touch her, but Harper evaded him by stepping behind the island.
Worry lines creased his brow. “Harper, what’s going on? Are you okay? I thought you and Maggie would be shopping all day.”
There was no point beating around the bush. “Why didn’t you tell me about the lottery?”
He stood completely still in the middle of the living room and stared at her. She held his gaze, praying he would tell her it was all a terrible misunderstanding, even though she’d seen the evidence with her own eyes. But when he turned away, his face a mask of guilt, she couldn’t pretend any longer.
“How did you find out?”
“It doesn’t matter. It’s not like you can hide the truth about that much money forever.”
He turned back to face her. “I’m sorry, Harper. I should have told you.”
“Yes, you should have.”
“I wanted to, a hundred times. But every time I thought about telling you who I really was, I got scared. People change when they know you have that much money. I’ve had some bad experiences.”
“So you didn’t trust me. Is that what you’re saying?” Anger burned in her chest.
“No! Once I got to know you, I knew you were the most trustworthy person I’d ever met. But the longer I kept my secret, the harder it was to tell the truth. I was going to tell you tonight, I swear.”
“I told you everything! Do you know how hard it was to tell you my father murdered my mother? I was so afraid that once you found out you’d walk away. But I told you because I thought you deserved to know. I wish you could have given me the same honesty.”
He came around the island and lifted his hand to touch her, but when she backed away, he let it drop to his side. “I’m sorry, Harper. I never meant to hurt you. What I’ve done is about me, not you.”
“How am I supposed to believe that now?” She choked back her tears, not wanting to cry in front of him. “Tell me the truth. Why did you come here? Why did you bother with the lodge?”
“Because it reminded me of the inn where I grew up. Small, intimate, and off the beaten path. Everything I told you about my family, my parents, was true. I was honest about that part of my life.” He closed his eyes and ran his hand over his brow. “Maybe I wanted to right some wrongs from the past. I couldn’t save my family’s inn, but maybe I could save this one.”
He opened his eyes to look at her. “And I wanted a project. I wanted something I could get involved with, something I could build. For the past couple of years, I’ve had people running the foundation and the investment firm. I don’t have to do a thing, and I’m bored out of my mind. I needed this.
“And then I met you. You were so passionate about the lodge, and you had so many dreams. I wanted to make all of them come true for you. I still do. I believe in you. I believe in us.” He stepped closer and took one of her hands. “Last night, that was the truth. Everything we said to each other, everything we did was the truth. That was the real Ethan.”
She shook her head. Pulling her hand from his grasp, she gave a bitter laugh. “So did you think that if you slept with the poor, pathetic virgin she’d be so grateful she’d give you a bigger share of the lodge’s ownership? Does money mean so much to you?”
He stepped back as if she’d struck him. “No! Harper, you know none of that is true. I want to bring all your ideas for the lodge to completion. I want to have a life with you. I love you.”
Yesterday, she would have given everything to hear him say those words. But today, they sounded hollow and empty.
She shook her head again. “It doesn’t matter anymore. The dream is over and I’ve finally woken up. Thinking I could make the lodge into something special was as stupid as believing we had something together.”
“You don’t mean that. I know how important the lodge is to you. Last night… I thought I meant something to you, too.”
Despite all the lies, she still loved him. But she couldn’t trust him. She stepped out from behind the island, needing to put some distance between them. “I think you should go back to Minneapolis.”
“No, no way. I still have work to do here. I’m not going anywhere until the lodge is finished.”
“What if I don’t want you here anymore?” She crossed her arms over her chest, struggling to keep from falling apart.
“We signed a binding contract and I intend to live up to my end. The lodge is going to be rebuilt.” He paused to take a breath, his head downcast. When he looked at her again, she saw the resignation on his face. “I can’t tell you how sorry I am for deceiving you. But I won’t abandon this project. I know what it means to you. And, maybe you don’t want to hear it right now, but I won’t abandon you either.”
Harper stared at him, too angry to believe a word he said. It had been about the money all along. He must believe the lodge so valuable it was worth sleeping with her to secure it.
The idea made her sick to her stomach. The logical part of her brain told her she was the one who made the first move last night, and that the Ethan she knew wasn’t capable of such deception. But the frightened ten-year-old inside her was hurt and questioned everything he’d ever said. She wrapped her arms around herself to stem the pain.
She shrugged, feigning indifference. “Do whatever you want. I don’t care.”
He stepped forward, reaching out his hand to touch her. “Harper—”
She moved out of his reach, afraid that if he touched her she’d be lost. She couldn’t trust him, but her traitorous body still wanted him. “I think you should go.”
He lowered his hand. “I’m sorry. I never wanted to hurt you. I love you, Harper.”
He turned and left the cottage, closing the door quietly behind him. Harper stood in the middle of the kitchen, tremors r
acing through her body. The protective numbness that had allowed her to confront Ethan was rapidly crumbling.
Sinking to the floor, she let waves of grief and tears wash over her.
Ethan paced back and forth on Harper’s front porch. It had been three days since she’d discovered who he really was, and he hadn’t heard a word from her. He’d tried to call her numerous times, had sent dozens of text messages, but she hadn’t responded. His only alternative was to confront her in person. He had to make her understand why he’d done the things he’d done.
So there he was, camped out on her front porch, waiting. Where the hell was she? It was getting late, nearly nine p.m. If she was working the dinner shift at Miller’s Resort, she should be home by now.
Was she out with another man?
The thought made his gut twist. He leaned against the porch railing and took a deep breath. Had she moved on so quickly?
No. He couldn’t believe it. But still, the idea of some other man kissing her, touching her, made him want to punch his fist against the solid wood door of the cottage.
Finally, headlights made their way up the hill to the cottage and he drew a relieved breath. A moment later, Harper pulled up to the front porch. She got out of the truck cab, then came to a complete stop when she saw him.
“What are you doing here?” she asked.
She didn’t sound happy to see him. Ethan swallowed. “I had to talk to you. You wouldn’t take my calls, so this was the only way.”
“There’s nothing you can say that can make up for lying to me.”
“I know that.” He walked down the front steps. “But I need to tell you why I felt I had to hold back the truth.”
“Don’t bother. I think you should go.”
“Harper, please. Hear me out. Don’t I at least deserve that much?”
She hesitated. In the dim glow of the front porch light he couldn’t see her eyes clearly, couldn’t read her emotions. Had she thought about him the last three days? Had she missed him the way he’d missed her? His body was an open wound, his heart ripped from his chest.
Lies and Solace Page 22