He didn’t want to say good-bye to her. Wasn’t ready for it. He’d just found her. It was too soon.
“We’re going to figure this out,” he said against her mouth.
“I know. No barriers.” She repeated the new plan.
“Exactly.”
When the SUV pulled away from the curb five minutes later—taking Harper with it—the only thing that helped the ache in his chest was the fact that he was going to get to see her in less than two weeks.
Let the countdown begin, and let it get to the end as fast as possible.
* * *
Liam’s deep, rich voice filled the tiny space of Harper’s bedroom while she unpacked and did laundry. As she had neighbors on all sides of her—some a little bit older who had never hesitated to complain—she had to listen to music at somewhat subdued levels. Though she was pushing the boundaries a tad bit tonight, her volume just a little louder than usual. The current song coming through her speakers was “Wild and Reckless.”
“Tearing down the road in the middle of the night. My only guide the glow of the moonlight…” she sang along.
It was Liam’s first big song and she knew every single word of it. Again, the fact that she hadn’t made the connection that he was Liam James was freaking ridiculous. How had she never Googled what he looked like before?
She still couldn’t believe how they’d found each other again, either. Because really, what were the odds? Slim, that was for sure. But hey, considering the fact that she’d gotten pregnant even with the use of all those condoms, maybe the odds were a little skewed.
She dropped the basket of laundry onto the bed and immediately put her hand over her belly.
But her getting pregnant was not an unlucky occurrence. It might not be the most optimal timing in the world, but this was her child…Liam’s child…their child.
He was going to be involved, and the relief at that fact was freeing. And then there was the added bonus that she hadn’t screwed everything up beyond repair.
I still want you, Harper. That hasn’t changed.
Those words kept repeating in her head, and that—combined with the low rich timbre of his voice crooning through her apartment—resonated through her body. The power that his voice had over her was scary as all hell, and the fear she’d felt all those weeks ago was still present, niggling at the back of her mind.
There was no denying the fact that she was in love with him. It hadn’t been some overwhelming rush of hormones six weeks ago. It hadn’t been just great sex…really great sex. It had been him. Liam James.
But there was no more running. She couldn’t. The future held a good amount of unknown that wasn’t comforting in the slightest, but wasn’t that life? There were no guarantees with anything…
She wished they’d had more time. Wished they hadn’t had to leave, and she had no doubt that Mel, Bennett, and the boys would’ve given her more time. But Liam hadn’t had the time. He’d needed to catch a flight to California, and he’d looked genuinely unhappy about leaving her. He’d wanted more time, too.
That hadn’t been a figment of her imagination, had it?
I hope our child has your eyes.
More words that kept repeating on a loop.
There was a lot of uncertainty coursing through her, but something she felt in her bones was that Liam James was a man of his word. So she was going to go with that, uncertainty and all.
At least the overwhelming anxiety that had been plaguing her for the last few weeks had lessened significantly. She guessed it was because of the truth finally being out there and all. Well, the truth being out there to Liam…she still had to tell her parents, a prospect that wasn’t in the slightest bit appealing.
But she didn’t need to worry about that tonight…that was on the docket for tomorrow.
She’d actually planned on telling them everything when she’d gone to pick Luna up that afternoon, but her father had been out at a farm checking on a sick colt. She couldn’t tell one without the other there…and really the thought of telling her mother alone was terrifying.
So yeah, she didn’t need to worry about that until tomorrow.
Her cell phone rang on the nightstand next to her, vibrating against the wood. Liam’s name flashed on the screen and she grabbed for the phone immediately, hitting the Accept button before even thinking about it.
“Hi.” Her heart was beating erratically out of her chest.
“Hey, I…” He trailed off for a second, the phone going silent. “Are you listening to my music?”
“Crap!” She dropped the phone into the pile of clothes before she practically pole-vaulted over her bed to get to the speakers set up on her dresser. Luna jumped up from her dog bed in the corner and started barking as Harper fumbled with her iPad. It took her a couple of tries before she was able to mash the Off button successfully.
Well…that had just happened.
“Luna, shhh.” She picked up the still barking dog and held her to her chest.
Luna let out a few more chuffs before Harper set her on the bed. The dog stopped barking as she spun in a circle, making herself comfortable on a throw blanket by the pillows.
It took Harper a second to successfully retrieve her phone from the still warm pile of clothing, and she heard Liam’s chuckle coming through the speaker before she even had it to her ear.
She cleared her throat before talking. “Sorry, I, uh…dropped the phone.”
“Yeah, I noticed that.” The smile in his voice was evident. “Luna not a fan of my music?”
“Wh-what?”
“She was barking.”
“Because I woke her up when I made a mad dash across the room.”
“Ahhhh, I see.” He chuckled again, the rich warmth of it settling low in her belly. “So, what are you doing?”
“Unpacking and washing laundry.”
“Well, aren’t you a party animal?” The teasing in his voice wasn’t helping with the erratic state of her heart.
“Yup. What are you doing?”
“Settling into the hotel.”
“Your flight was okay?” she asked as she propped the phone between her ear and her shoulder and started twisting a washcloth in her hands. Why was she so nervous? It wasn’t like this was their first conversation, yet she was barely able to think of what to say. Next thing she’d be asking him about the weather.
“Yeah, but I came to a conclusion.”
“A conclusion?”
“This whole catching-up thing is going to need to be balanced.”
“Balanced?” Or she’d just turn into a parrot and repeat the end of all of his sentences.
“Yup, I want an entire conversation where I get to ask you anything. You know way more about me than I know about you. And I’m at a disadvantage as a lot of information about me can be found on the Internet.”
This was very true. Case in point, the entire ride back she’d been regaled with interesting tidbits about Liam.
As it turned out, Hamilton was a huge fan, so he knew quite a few facts without the assistance of the World Wide Web. And fan or not, the vetting process on whether Liam was good enough for Harper began, and Dale had been more than happy to help out. The two must’ve looked up every ounce of information that could be located about the guy, and repeated it for everyone else to learn.
The only person in the car who knew about the pregnancy was Mel, but as they’d all been witness to Liam making out with her in front of the hotel, they obviously knew something was up in some capacity. Couldn’t exactly miss it, now, could they?
For the most part, Liam wasn’t much for being in the spotlight when he wasn’t on the stage; must’ve been a family trait as Logan was pretty similar on that front. Liam had dated a few semi-famous women—an actress or two, other musicians, a model—and those facts had all come with somewhat painful pangs. But as none of those relationships seemed to have been all that serious, she was able to breathe a little easier.
There was a part of h
er that had felt guilty about learning this information…like it was an invasion of privacy. But in the end, it was information that she was pretty sure he would’ve told her himself and really none of it was anything that was all that personal. It was observations from outsiders. She’d found out more about him within the first hour of meeting him than what the boys had pulled up on their phones.
“You Google me yet?” Liam asked, a shuffling on his side of the phone like he was moving papers around.
She pulled her bottom lip into her mouth…chewing on it as she tried to figure out how to answer.
“Honey, remember the new rule: no barriers.”
She dropped her lip from her teeth, smiling at the fact that he was calling her honey again. “I didn’t.”
“Ahhh, so it was one of your companions. My money is on Dale and Hamilton.”
“You’d be correct.” She dropped the towel she was still twisting and sat on the edge of the bed, holding the phone to her ear with her hand.
“Well, in that case I get two conversations of asking you questions. And you don’t get any follow-ups until then.”
“Oh, is that so?” Her eyes focused on the mirror across from her and she was taken off guard by just how massive that grin on her face had gotten.
She’d never seen anything like that before.
“Yup, and I’ve made a list.”
“Really now?” She grabbed a pillow and placed it on the space behind her on the bed, lying back and settling in.
“Spent the entire flight working on it, too. Could take hours to work through.”
“Well, then you should get started.”
“Question number one.” Papers rustled again and he cleared his throat. “When is your birthday?”
“July thirty-first.”
“Question two: Where were you born?”
“So you’re starting from the very beginning?”
“The more interruptions you make, the longer this is going to take. I have a lot of questions, honey.”
Honey. Yeah, her grin was somehow still growing. She was going to have to get a grip, because not only was it hard to talk around it, but it was going to crack her face in two any second now.
“Atlanta, Georgia, and it was four seventeen in the afternoon,” she answered.
“You being sassy will not make this process go any faster, either.”
She had absolutely no problems whatsoever with a long conversation with Liam. How shocking.
* * *
Harper ended up staying on the phone with Liam until well after midnight. When they’d hung up—both more than a little reluctantly—she’d passed out with a massive smile on her face. A smile that had been there the entire time she’d gotten ready that morning…and hadn’t budged in the least bit on her drive to Café Lula.
The first order of business that morning was breakfast with Mel and Grace, where she was grilled for about an hour. Even though Mel had known a lot of what had happened over the weekend, she hadn’t been privy to all of the facts of Harper’s conversation with Liam. Mel had been kind enough to refrain from interrogating Harper in the car—something she couldn’t have done without revealing the pregnancy. But neither Mel nor Grace refrained from asking Harper every question under the sun over coffee.
Well, coffee for the girls and green tea for Harper. It was her first caffeine in weeks and she was going to happily enjoy every sip of it between answering—in great detail of course—all the questions thrown at her.
The beginning of the conversation consisted of Grace’s opened-mouth shock interspersed with more are you kidding me’s than Harper could count while the party portion of the weekend was recounted. And by the end of the conversation, both Mel and Grace were grinning just as much as Harper was.
“Well, this sure has taken a lovely turn,” Mel said happily.
“No kidding,” Grace agreed.
“So you guys are going to get to know each other?” Mel drummed her fingers across the table. “Just talk for a little while?”
“Yeah. Maybe this way we can actually get some talking in without, well—”
“Screwing each other’s brains out?” Grace finished.
“Exactly.” She nodded, taking another bite of her cranberry orange muffin that was settling surprisingly well with her tea.
Keeping food down for the win.
Harper’s phone was face-up on the table and it buzzed against the wood, alerting her of a text from Liam. She grabbed the phone immediately, sliding her thumb across the screen as she read the words.
Surprises on my morning run.
When she opened the text conversation—empty until now—a picture popped up of about forty peacocks blocking the path. A second later the three floating dots indicating he was typing were moving on the screen.
How are you feeling this morning?
Exhausted, but well worth it. She even tagged on a smiley face emoji for good measure. Looking forward to many more late-night conversations.
Who says we need to wait for the late night? I’m going to need my three facts about you before noon.
Yes, sir, she typed quickly before she looked up to find both of her friends staring at her.
“What? It’s Liam.”
“Really?” The mock surprise in Grace’s voice was beyond exaggerated. “We had no idea.”
“Which just goes to show how oblivious we are, as that smile you’re rocking is giving the sun a run for its money on brightness this morning. Good thing I have my sunglasses.” Mel tapped the pair sitting on the top of her head, and they fell down onto her nose.
“Was it this blinding when she was around him?” Grace asked Mel. “Because I might need to invest in sunscreen stock when I get to meet the man. And when is that going to be?” she asked, turning to Harper.
“In two weeks. He’s coming to my next doctor’s appointment.”
“Is he now?” Mel pushed her glasses back into her hair before she rubbed her hands together. “And staying for how long?”
“We haven’t discussed that.”
“And where will he be staying?” Grace this time.
“We haven’t discussed that, either.”
“Well, maybe you should discuss it. When are you guys talking on the phone again? And I don’t mean texting,” Mel said before she finished off her muffin.
“Tonight.”
Harper already had the countdown going down in her head. It was the only thing distracting her from the inevitable conversation she was going to have with her parents in just a few hours.
* * *
It was a little after seven when Harper pulled into her parents’ driveway that evening. She spent a solid five minutes sitting in the car, staring up at the house while she prepared herself for what was going to go down.
And while she was at it, she listened to the rest of Liam’s song that was currently playing through her car’s speakers. Because obviously she’d been listening to his music at any and all opportunities all day.
“You only get one chance at this life. So live it up, live it up right…”
Yup. That was the plan. Living it up right.
She couldn’t help but think of the last time she’d had to prepare herself for a very similar conversation not five months ago. She’d sat her parents down at the dining room table and just ripped the Band-Aid off.
Brad is gone. The wedding is off.
Paul had said good riddance. “Any man who doesn’t realize what he has with you, isn’t good enough for you.”
Delilah had cried…Harper predicted a repeat showing of that performance tonight.
As it was after seven she was hoping they’d already eaten dinner. She wanted this for two reasons. One, her parents would no doubt ask her to join them, and food just wasn’t going to be an option for Harper tonight—less so because of nausea and more due to the fact that her stomach was tied up in knots. Reason two, she had no doubt both of her parents weren’t going to be pleased with the news…and might in f
act lose their own appetites.
No need to ruin everyone’s dinner.
The last chords of the song echoed around her. She reached up and shut off the ignition, taking one last deep breath before she got out of the car and headed for the house.
“It’s now or never,” she whispered as she walked in the front door.
Actually it was now or now.
She found both of her parents in the living room at the back of the house, the evening news chirping away in the background while Paul read the newspaper on the sofa and Delilah played solitaire on her iPad, reclining in her chair while she mumbled about corruption in the government.
“Knock, knock,” she said as she rasped her knuckles on the door frame.
It was then that Darby was alerted to another person in the house, rousing from her deep sleep as she bolted off her bed in the corner and ran to Harper.
“Hey, sweet pea.” Paul folded his newspaper and stood up, giving Harper a quick kiss on the temple.
“Were we expecting you?” Delilah asked, closing her iPad and setting it down on the coffee table in front of her. She pushed the pop-up footrest of her recliner down, sitting up and putting her feet on the floor.
“No.” Harper shook her head. “I was hoping you guys had a second, though. I need to talk to you about something.”
“Something serious?” her father asked, his brow furrowing in concern as he sat back down.
“Yes.” She nodded before taking a seat on the empty space next to her father on the sofa.
She’d barely settled down when Delilah blurted out, “Tell me you didn’t lose your job.”
“No.” Harper shook her head, trying to swallow the sudden lump in her throat and wishing she had a glass of water. “I’m still gainfully employed.”
“Well, that’s a relief.”
The humorless laugh that escaped Harper’s mouth was unavoidable. “Yeah, I don’t know that you’ll be saying that in a second, Mom.”
“Harper?” Paul shifted forward, placing his forearms on his knees.
Better out than in.
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