“You’re serious?”
“As a heart attack, although Vanessa says I need to stop saying that because it’s tempting fate.”
He smiled at the mention of Vanessa. “You’re still going strong?” Teagan asked.
“She’s the moon to my stars.”
Teagan cracked a smile at the older man’s poetic statement. “That’s great.”
“How about you and that little firecracker, Harper?”
His smile faded but he tried to put a good face on it. “Wasn’t in the cards for us, unfortunately. We went our separate ways after the cruise.”
“That’s a shame,” Stuart said, nodding. “She seemed real taken with you.”
Teagan didn’t want to talk about Harper. Too many nights spent replaying memories that both scalded and made him yearn for more had plagued him since the cruise. Gently redirecting the conversation, he said, “I accept your offer. When do I start?”
Stuart slapped his own knee with enthusiasm. “Excellent! That’s exactly what I’d hoped you’d say. I took the liberty of starting your paperwork with my secretary. All I need is your John Hancock on a few papers and we’re good to start talking schedules.”
They talked shop for the next half hour, then Teagan signed his life away for a boatload of money.
Teagan was still a bit dazed at the number of zeroes in Stuart’s offer. He never imagined making that kind of money in his lifetime, much less a year.
But hell, Teagan wasn’t opposed to trying it out.
As he was leaving, Stuart handed him a gilded invitation.
“For the wedding,” he explained.
Teagan grinned, happy for them. “Wouldn’t miss it.”
“You better not, you’re my best man.”
Teagan stared, stunned. “Come again?”
Stuart laughed at Teagan’s surprise. “I know, I know, you’re probably thinking why would I ask you to fill that role when we hardly know each other but, like I said, I have a feeling about you. So, say yes and I’ll have my tailor fix you up with an appropriate monkey suit.”
Things were moving at the speed of light.
Teagan could only nod in shock. Stuart pumped his hand in a solid handshake, man to man.
“I’ll see you in a week, my boy,” Stuart said. “After the wedding, we’ll talk in more depth about your responsibilities. I’ll be in touch.”
Teagan was left to puzzle over what’d all just happened.
It felt dreamlike.
The job, the wedding, the sudden change in his lifestyle that was going to throw his world upside down...
All of it.
And the one person he wanted to share all the craziness with was the one person who didn’t want him.
Thankfully, he had a feeling Stuart was going to keep him so busy, he wouldn’t have any more time to miss Harper.
And he was ready for that blessed relief.
* * *
HARPER ANSWERED HER front door and found a courier standing with a huge dress box and a gilded invitation in his hand. “Miss Harper Riley?” he confirmed. At her confused nod, he had her sign for the package and then handed off the box and letter with a short bow as he left.
Surely this had to be from Vincent, right?
But Vincent’s gift-giving style was more in keeping with Tiffany’s than Vera Wang.
Harper carefully untied the ornate box to reveal an exquisite dress nestled in delicate tissue paper.
“Goodness gracious me,” she breathed, lifting the beautiful work of art from the box to hold it up to herself. It was a perfect fit by the look of it. Harper carefully returned the dress to the box and grabbed the invitation.
“You are cordially invited to the private wedding of Ms. Vanessa Vermeulen and Mr. Stuart Buck at the Château du Muguet this Saturday. Invitation only.”
Harper blinked back tears of genuine happiness for Vanessa and Stuart as she stared at the invitation. She shouldn’t go but she wanted to.
She wanted to watch at least two people join in marriage for all the right reasons.
Vanessa didn’t care about Stuart’s money—Harper had since found out, Vanessa had her own cash—and Stuart was over the moon for his sassy lady.
That was how love was supposed to work.
It wasn’t calculated or manipulated.
It just happened.
Like a wildflower pushing its way through the dirt to find the sun.
Suddenly, Harper was sobbing uncontrollably, crushing the invitation in her hand as she dropped to her knees.
Why couldn’t she let herself fall in love?
Why couldn’t she trust that not all men were like Rex? That her fate wasn’t going to be the same as Anna’s?
Harper desperately wanted to believe that things could be different. She wanted to believe that she didn’t have to lower herself to sleep with men she cared nothing for just to survive.
Hell, she wanted to believe that she could stop the punishing workouts and enjoy an order of cheesy fries without worrying that men will stop finding her attractive if she softened around the middle.
No, that was bullshit. If she were being honest, she wanted one man to feel that way about her.
One man to tell her all those things.
One man to love her unconditionally.
One man...
And his name was Teagan Carmichael.
The doorbell rang again and Harper scrambled to her feet with the desperate hope that it might be Teagan standing on the other side but when she saw another courier, she nearly started crying all over again.
Flowers.
She thanked the courier and opened the small card.
To my sex kitten, my dreams are filled with you. See you soon.
Harper groaned and ripped the card to shreds. Then, because she wasn’t satisfied with simply destroying the words, she stomped on the flowers with all the rage and disappointment she couldn’t voice.
She didn’t want Vincent.
Heaven help her, if that man tried to touch her again, she’d stab his beefy little fingers with a shrimp fork.
That tiny voice of reason told her to get a grip. Throwing a temper tantrum wasn’t going to solve anything. Neither was pining for a man who wasn’t meant to be hers.
Should she go to the wedding?
Her gaze strayed to the dress.
It looked hand sewn.
Stuart and Vanessa had gone to great trouble to provide her with a beautiful dress to wear to the wedding.
She didn’t want to insult either of them.
But...how would she manage to put Vincent off for a week while she attended a wedding Teagan might be attending?
A sudden thrill tickled her insides—a wild jump of adrenaline that she could neither control nor stop—and she knew that seeing Teagan again was the worst thing to do if she wanted to stick to her plan.
Could she see Teagan without falling straight into his bed?
Her gaze strayed to the dress.
What would Teagan say to her if he saw her again?
Probably nothing nice.
Maybe he wouldn’t come.
Maybe he wasn’t invited.
But chances were high that if Stuart and Vanessa invited her, they’d extended the same invite to Teagan.
She worried her bottom lip.
Harper wanted to go.
A voice warned, Don’t go.
Tears crowded her eyes again.
Just one more time.
I swear it’ll be enough.
She just wanted to see Teagan once more and then she’d close the book on whatever feelings remained.
Releasing a shaky breath, she allowed a tremulous smile at the possibility th
at Teagan might be at the wedding.
If fate wanted it so, he would be there.
If not, that seemed a pretty damning indication that they were never meant to cross paths in the first place.
Honestly, she didn’t know which outcome she was hoping for.
25
TEAGAN ARRIVED AT the swanky Château du Muguet and allowed the sharply dressed valet to park his car.
He straightened his tuxedo, pulling the minute wrinkles from the fine cloth, before heading inside.
The air was clean—a sharp difference from the usual Los Angeles muck that clogged the skies—but Big Bear Lake was a far cry from the crowded city.
Teagan was ushered down an expansive hallway, his dress shoes clicking as he went, to a private room where the groom’s party was supposed to be hiding out until given the green light to start the processional.
But as Teagan entered the room, he saw only Stuart, dressed neatly in a fine black tuxedo, nervously adjusting his cuff links. Stuart broke into a warm smile as Teagan entered, gesturing for him to come and join him.
“Where’s the rest of your party?” he asked, confused. “Am I too early?”
“You’re perfectly on time,” Stuart reassured Teagan. Then he turned to face Teagan, chin lifted high for his assessment. “How do I look?”
“You look great,” Teagan said with a puzzled smile. “But I’m a little confused...”
“Ah, right, yes, about that... Vanessa and I only wanted the people who meant the most to us to share in our special day. It was only fitting that we invite you and Harper to join our children for our wedding. Vanessa’s daughter and my two sons are here as well. I think you’ll really get on with them. Good people.”
Teagan could only nod as the import of what Stuart had shared rolled over him. “Harper?” he repeated. “Did she come?”
“Yes.”
“She’s here?” The breath felt stuck in his lungs. “Does she know that I’m here?”
“I doubt it. She’s cloistered away with my beautiful bride.”
Teagan nodded, his mouth suddenly dry. “Do you have something I could drink? Water? Beer? Anything?”
Stuart chuckled and pointed to the minifridge. “Help yourself.”
Harper.
He’d known there was a slight possibility that she might come, but honestly, he’d talked himself into accepting that Harper wouldn’t.
And now that he was faced with the realization that he was about to see her again, he couldn’t stop shaking.
Great, maybe he had the flu.
Another sharply dressed person politely informed Stuart that they were ready to begin and Stuart drew himself up to his full stature, looking happier than any man had a right to be.
“Are you ready?” Stuart asked.
Teagan chuckled weakly. “Isn’t that my line?”
“Son, I’ve already done this once before. I know what I’m doing and I have no regrets. She’s the one. Through thick and thin and whatever time we have left on this planet, Vanessa is my other half. And I can’t wait to get on with it.”
Stuart made it sound so eloquently simple.
But life wasn’t that uncomplicated.
Or maybe it was.
Hell, he didn’t know anymore.
“You’re a good man,” Teagan choked out, not sure if he was choking on his own emotion or the admiration he had for Stuart.
Stuart grinned and patted Teagan’s face. “Let’s do this,” he said, placing the ring in Teagan’s hand for safekeeping. “My bride awaits.”
Outside in the garden, a beautiful bower filled with autumn flowers framed a brilliant evening sky.
The officiant awaited beneath the bower.
Teagan and Stuart took their places alongside two grown men Teagan assumed were Stuart’s sons, opposite a pretty young lady who must’ve been Vanessa’s daughter and folded their hands to wait expectantly for the bride and her maid of honor.
The music started and Teagan held his breath.
Harper entered first.
Her dark hair was twisted in a messy knot of curls with tiny sprays of baby’s breath woven in the thick mass, and she looked a vision in an off-white gown that flowed down her body and pooled delicately at her peep-toed feet.
He thought he would pass out from holding his breath.
She was a vision.
The sun backlit her dark hair giving her an ethereal glow that made his heart beat in time with the murmur of a single name: Harper.
Harper met his gaze and sparks ignited between them—the weeks disappeared and it was as if they’d just spent the night entwined in each other’s arms.
In all his life, he’d never loved a woman like he loved Harper.
He’d been avoiding that realization—fighting against it tooth and nail—but seeing her now, he knew it was hopeless.
Harper was his.
And he was hers.
That unspoken message, seared across their hearts in tandem, each knowing in that moment, that there was no running from what they were feeling.
Not ever again.
Come what may, Teagan wasn’t leaving without Harper.
And she knew it.
Harper saw it in his eyes—the unending promise Teagan’s heart declared with each beat.
And he saw in Harper’s the tremulous acceptance of what neither could explain nor live without.
His heart cried, Be mine.
And her heart answered, Always.
There, in the Château du Muguet at someone else’s wedding, Teagan had found his bride.
Damn, if that didn’t sound like a fairy tale—one that he would spend the rest of his life telling to anyone who would listen.
Because he was one lucky son of a bitch.
Epilogue
HARPER STARED AT the letter in her hand, unable to quite comprehend what she was reading.
Anna had passed weeks after Stuart and Vanessa’s wedding, quietly slipping away, her suffering at an end.
Harper had been grateful for Teagan’s support throughout as Anna’s passing had been more difficult emotionally than she’d been prepared for.
But she certainly couldn’t have imagined that Anna would’ve managed to write what she was reading right now.
Anna must’ve written the letter before she’d lost function in her hands and the fact that she could hear her mother’s voice in her head as she read, caused tears to flow.
My dearest Harper,
You are my greatest success and my biggest heartache. I failed you in life by not teaching you what true love looks like but I didn’t realize what I was looking for until it was too late. My love for you was the purest love I could ever imagine experiencing.
If you’re reading this, I’m gone.
I wish I had been more of a mother when I was alive, one you could count on, but we are dealt our hand and must live with our decisions.
Somehow, in my ignorance, I gave you the wrong message about love.
Love is kind, generous and compassionate.
It yields with grace and sings with joy.
I know this because whenever I looked at you... I felt it.
I’m sorry I never got the chance to show you properly what it means to love.
The reality is that my death is the only blessing I can offer you.
Please take this money and carve a beautiful life for yourself.
All my love,
Mom
Tears blinded Harper as the paper shook in her hands. She looked to Teagan, unable to read any further. He helped her, grasping the paperwork and reading it for her.
Finished, h
e looked to Harper and said, “Your mom left you as the beneficiary of her life insurance. It’s a tidy sum of money.”
“What?” Harper wiped at her eyes, confused. “What are you talking about?”
“Seems your mom found an insurance company willing to take her on, in spite of her illness. She must’ve been early in her diagnosis. She knew she was going to die eventually and she wanted to be there for you in some way.”
Harper broke down and sobbed. This whole time she’d never known.
All the times she’d unfairly judged her mother for decisions that couldn’t be changed, for a past that wouldn’t die because Harper nursed that anger to feed her justifications—the unfairness of Harper’s judgment clogged her throat with misery.
Teagan gathered her in his arms and she wept her eyes out.
She didn’t know how long she cried, but Teagan’s warmth curled around her, holding her tight, and enabled her to get through.
“That was an incredibly selfless thing for your mom to do,” Teagan told her softly. “She loved you very much.”
Harper nodded against his chest, still unable to believe she’d been completely unaware. “She must’ve known how I was paying for her care,” she realized with a sad hiccup, feeling foolish for assuming her mother hadn’t been smart enough to figure it out. “I feel terrible.”
“Don’t,” he said firmly, releasing her so he could meet her gaze. “Your mom knew you were doing the best that you could do and that’s why she did this—to show you that she understood and wanted to make up for so much in the only way she could.”
Teagan was right. Harper nodded and wiped at her eyes. “It’s a lot of money,” she said, still in shock. “What should I do with it?”
“Whatever you like,” he answered without hesitation. “It’s your money.”
Since Teagan had started working for Stuart and Vanessa, his income had hit the stratosphere. They were more than comfortable and still enjoyed the perks of traveling wherever they liked on Stuart’s private jet.
“I want to make a donation to MS research,” she decided. “Not all of it, but a good portion. The rest I’ll invest. I know she would’ve liked that.”
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