It Was Always You (Harpers Ridge Book 1)

by Ann Carver

After changing, they went around town to another park and four construction sites. When they returned to the shop, Harper was exhausted and felt thoroughly disgusted. She couldn’t wait to get home to sanitize her body and throw away her clothes.

  After showering, she filled the tub and sank into it to relax. She propped a towel behind her neck, closed her eyes and let the Epsom salts do their thing. She knew she’d be sore tomorrow, but for now, she just wanted to do nothing.

  Which would be great if she could make her brain do nothing. Flooding thoughts of Joey filled her head. Good and bad thoughts. But in the end, it was only the hurtful things stirring around.

  “Why did you think I didn’t change, Joey?” she asked quietly to the ceiling. But she knew she wouldn’t get an answer. As easily as he let her leave all those years ago, she didn’t expect to see or hear from him ever again now.

  When she dragged herself out of the tub, she made herself a simple dinner of waffles and eggs. Not that she had much to choose from, anyways. After eating, she climbed the stairs and stopped at her bedroom door.

  She wanted to go inside and see a ceiling instead of a hole in the roof. But she couldn’t bring herself to do it. She’d wanted to share that moment with Joey, but that wasn’t going to happen. Perhaps she’d just make a different bedroom her own.

  For lack of anything to do, she crawled into bed and stared at the ceiling for hours. She wondered all sorts of things. Joey. Work. Money. Halloween….which was this weekend. Joey. The block house. Harpers Ridge. Joey.

  Maybe she should sell the block house and move away. Far, far away, like California. Then, maybe, she could forget about her life here.

  But she didn’t want to forget. She still loved Joey. She loved the block house and she didn’t want to leave. Her life was mending from a broken web that she didn’t fully understand. And, she finally realized she didn’t need to understand how broken it was. She simply needed to mend it from this point forward.

  She closed her eyes and waited for sleep to overcome her.

  Chapter Thirty-Two

  Several days went by and Joe was still working on the right words to say to Harper. Every time he’d written something down, it wasn’t right. It sounded like he was the sole wrong doer, and he wasn’t. Harper had a hand in their demise as well. Other times it sounded like she was all to blame, and she wasn’t.

  He’d worked every night through the week and was even called in for a double shift two days ago. When he wasn’t working, he was torturing himself with how to approach Harper. He missed her. He missed her smile, her laugh, her red hair and her fiery attitude. He missed falling asleep with her and waking up next to her every morning. He missed making love to her.

  Rebecca and Dylan had made his life a living hell. They hounded him day and night about making things right with Harper. Even his grandpa called him once and told him to get his head out of his ass.

  He’d just finished reading what he wanted to say to Harper when there was a knock on the door. Without thinking, he said, “It’s open.”

  The door opened and in walked Tristan. “What the hell is wrong with you?” he said by way of greeting.

  Joe exhaled. “I don’t have time for this Tristan,” he said as he shuffled his papers into a pile.

  “Don’t care,” his brother said as he took a seat across from him. “You’ve been avoiding me all week and I leave tomorrow.”

  “I haven’t been avoiding you,” he lied. “I have a lot going on.”

  “Don’t bullshit me. Grandpa said you and Harper broke up. Why?” he asked as he leaned back in his chair.

  “It’s none of your business,” Joe snapped at him.

  “You’re my brother, it’s always my business and seeing as you’re avoiding me and not Grandpa or Andy, I have the feeling your mad at me for something. But, for the life of me, I can’t figure out why. I’m a big man, I can handle it, but you need to explain what happened with Harper. You two seemed so good for each other.”

  “I’m not discussing Harper with you,” Joe said through gritted teeth as he stood and gathered his papers.

  “What the hell is your problem?” Tristan asked as she stood and scrapped his chair along the floor.

  Both men were staring, angrily, at each other in a stand-off. Tristan just wanted answers while Joe looked like he was ready to hurt something…or someone.

  Joe pointed, angrily, at his brother. “You’re my problem,” he yelled.

  This took Tristan by surprise. He pointed at his chest with his thumb. “How the hell am I your problem?” he asked.

  Joe shoved his chair in and glared at Tristan. “Just get out of here. I’m busy,” he said and stomped toward the living room.

  “No, tell me what the fuck is going on,” he said as he grabbed Joe’s arm and pulled him back.

  Joe swung around and connected his clenched fist to Tristan’s jaw. He was so angry with Tristan for betraying him. He’d never hit his brother in such anger and even in doing so now, it didn’t make him feel better.

  Tristan let go of Joe’s arm and clutched his jaw. When he peeled his hand away, there was blood on his fingers. Joe had cut Tristan’s lip from the punch.

  When Tristan saw the blood, his eyes flared. Then he grabbed Joe by the shoulders and shoved him into a chair. He pointed a finger into his chest and said, “If you weren’t my brother, you’d be on the ground right now. You better explain yourself before I forget you’re my brother.”

  Joe tossed his head back. “It doesn’t matter,” he said as he winced from the pain in the knuckles of his hand. “You’ve taken the best thing I’ve ever had, so you might as well take our brotherhood away too.”

  Tristan ran his hands through his hair and a worried look crossed his face. “What the hell are you talking about? I haven’t taken anything from you,” he said, confused.

  “Whatever,” Joe said and tried standing.

  Tristan pushed him back in the chair and trapped him in with each hand gripping the chair, enclosing him in. “I’m losing my patience here, Brother. What did I take? I’ll give it back, but I have no idea what you’re talking about.”

  Yeah, just what he wanted. He could take Harper from him, use her, and then give her back to him, he thought to himself, sarcastically. But his fight went out and he slumped in the chair. “Why did you sleep with Harper?” he asked full of exhaustion and defeat.

  Tristan stood up promptly. “What?”

  Joe only looked up into his brothers questioning eyes. If he hadn’t been so exhausted, he would punch him again. How could he look at him as if he didn’t know what he was talking about?

  When Tristan realized Joe wasn’t going to repeat the absurd question, he said, “I didn’t sleep with Harper.”

  Joes teeth clenched together. “Don’t give me that shit. I saw you. Carrying her around on your shoulder. Laughing. Then taking her into your tent.”

  Tristan’s eyes widened. “You were there? Why didn’t we see you?”

  “How else would I know what you did?” he asked in angrily.

  Tristan ran his hands through his hair again. “I didn’t sleep with Harper that night. Her friends were getting it on in her cabin and she didn’t have a place to sleep. So, she slept in my tent, but we didn’t have sex. Shit, man, I wouldn’t do that when I knew you were together.”

  It didn’t go unnoticed that he said, “that night.” Joe pressed the palms of his hands to his temples. “I don’t believe you. You’ll probably tell me you didn’t sleep with her when we were in high school too, huh?” he asked, condescendingly.

  Tristan held his hands out to his sides. “What the hell are you talking about?”

  Joe stood and pointed at his brother. “You. You slept with Harper when we were in high school and you slept with her again, last weekend.”

  Tristan put his hands on Joe’s shoulders. “Joe, I did not sleep with Harper. Not last weekend and certainly not when you were in high school. Shit, she would have been jail-bait for me,” he said
as he shook his head.

  Joe didn’t believe him. “Right, like you’d tell me the truth.”

  His brother began to lose his patience with him. “Fine, if you don’t believe me, ask Andy. If we’d had sex in the tent, Andy would have heard us. His tent was two feet away from mine.

  Great, let’s bring Andy into it since he slept with her too. “I wouldn’t believe him anyways because he slept with her too.”

  Tristan’s eyes grew bewildered. “I don’t know what the hell’s gotten into you. You certainly don’t trust Harper or me and Andy. Sounds like the problem isn’t us, but you. You’re the common denominator here,” he said, clearly frustrated.

  “You know what? I got over the fact that you and Andy slept with Harper when we were in high school because we weren’t together then. But now we are and you both knew it, yet, you sleep with her anyways.”

  Tristan closed his eyes and took a deep breath. When he opened his eyes, he placed his hands on Joe’s shoulders, again. “Joe, I didn’t sleep with Harper. Not in high school, not ever. I don’t believe Andy did either, because he’s a by-the-book kind of guy. He would have never had sex with a minor,” he said as seriously as he could.

  Joe shrugged out of his brother’s grip. “Just leave,” he said and walked into the living room and plopped onto the couch.

  Tristan followed him. He stood in front of him and said, “I love you, little brother. I would never do anything to hurt you like that. The only time I hurt you, which I regret every day of my life, is when I left home and left you here, by yourself, with Dad.” He shoved his hands through his hair again. “I’m so sorry for that. I can’t make you believe me, but I hope you do when I say I haven’t slept with Harper. Ever.”

  Joe didn’t say anything. He didn’t even look at Tristan. He simply let the words sink in and he started analyzing them.

  “If you broke things off with her because of this, you have a lot of groveling to do,” Tristan said and then walked out the door.

  It was at that moment that he knew his brother told him the truth. After all, he had nothing to gain from lying. Tristan always bragged about his women conquests and the more he thought about it, Andy would never had done something so stupid as having sex with a minor.

  Then he had to consider the source of the rumors in high school. Everyone gossiped in high school. One time there was a rumor that a fellow student had been beaten by his father. Come to find out, his father had died before he was born and his mother had never remarried or had a long-term boyfriend. There were always rumors going around in school, but he’d got caught up into them just as most people had.

  He was definitely an asshole! Here he was trying to find a way to apologize for his half of the blame, when in fact, he was all to blame. He looked at the papers sitting next to him on the couch. He picked them up, crumpled them and threw them across the room.

  Chapter Thirty-Three

  Friday morning, Harper went to work, thankful it was the last day of her work week. Not that she hated her job. In fact, it was just the opposite. She loved her job. She’d gotten the hang of it and barely got her work gear wet, yesterday. But just in case it was luck, she would be sure to wear it again today.

  The best part of it being the end of the week was that tomorrow was Halloween. She’d dipped into the money she owed Vinny, since he hadn’t been by yet to claim it, and bought Halloween candy. She wanted to buy decorations for the porch and yard, but didn’t want to go overboard. There was always next year for that. This year, she’d settle for handing out candy.

  When she pulled up into the driveway of the block house, she got a sick feeling in her gut. Vinny was in the driveway. Damnit. She’d just bought the candy on her way home from work. But it wasn’t the candy that put her behind. Well, twenty dollars of it, but no, she was still about five hundred dollars short.

  She slowly exited her truck and waved at him. “Hi, Vinny. I’ll write you a check for your services,” she said before going very quiet. “I’m really sorry to tell you, I’m about five hundred short. I promise to get it to you as soon as possible. Should only take two paychecks.” She felt awful.

  “Hey, no problem,” he said. “I came back to see if I left a bucket of nails and screws here.”

  “Come in, I’ll get you that check,” she said as she entered the house, hoping he didn’t notice the bags of candy.

  He followed her inside where she put the bags on the counter and shoved them in a corner. She opened a cupboard door and pulled out her check book and wrote a check out to Vinny.

  She handed it over. “I’m really sorry I don’t have it all,” she said sadly.

  “I know you’re good for it, Harper,” he said as he took the check. “Well, I gotta get going.”

  “Did you find what you were looking for?” she asked.

  “What? Oh, no. I’ve been to so many different places that it could be anywhere. Have a good day, now,” Vinny said as he high-tailed it out of the house.

  Harper thought it was odd that he was in such a hurry to leave, but on the other hand, she was glad he didn’t stay. She felt bad about not having all his money and didn’t want to face him in shame. She walked to the front door and pulled it open just in time to wave to him leaving the driveway.

  The weather had cooled and a wind picked up, making something move on the porch that caught her eye. Harper turned and saw some flowers swaying from the wind. She hadn’t noticed them when she walked inside with Vinny. No wonder, she was so nervous about not having his full payment.

  She looked at the shadow box attached to the outside wall and saw more flowers and small gourds tucked inside of it. Upon further investigation, she found a swag of beautiful autumn flowers hanging from her door and a large, bright orange pumpkin next to the bench.

  Immediately, she turned toward the road. Had Vinny done this? But she shook her head, shaking the thought from her head. Why would Vinny do that? He wouldn’t even know that she’d like it so much. Joey?

  No. She hadn’t heard from Joey in almost a week. One time she got close to calling him. Her finger hoovered over the call button, but she ended up not being able to do it. If he had wanted to talk to her, he would have called.

  She walked out into the front yard and around the small apple tree was a stack of hay bales with a scrawny scarecrow sticking out of it. Against the garage was another set of bales and similar scarecrow. Along the sidewalk were various Halloween signs. Each one was a different character. A werewolf, ghost, witch, vampire, Frankenstein and pirate.

  She couldn’t stop the smile that spread across her face. Who would have done this? It had to have been someone that knew how much she loved the autumn and Halloween, but who? Lila and Lily, maybe, but she didn’t think they would do all of this. Besides, Lily was back in the air.

  All thoughts kept leading back to Joey, but he couldn’t have. Without speaking to her for so long, she couldn’t understand why he would do it. It wouldn’t be Tristan or Andy. They were leaving tomorrow and she hadn’t seen them since the rafting trip.

  She was at a loss. If it wasn’t Joey, then she didn’t know who would have done it. Either way, she’d be thankful. Now, when she handed out candy tomorrow night, she wouldn’t be so sad not having decorated.

  A big gust of wind picked up and blew leaves into Harpers hair. She shuddered at the cold air and made her way back inside. She closed the door and went into the kitchen to make herself some dinner. A peanut butter and jelly sandwich. Her stomach made a noise. She agreed with it. She couldn’t wait for pay day either.

  After eating, she walked to her real bedroom door. She put her hand on the door knob and turned it, but didn’t open it. She was so emotional about that room. She wanted to only share it with Joey, and going in alone didn’t seem right.

  She let go of the knob, turned and walked back to her other room. The room she’d been staying in since moving in to the block house. While lying on the bed, she closed her eyes and thought about Joey’s kisses and tou
ches. The way his hands moved along her skin. The things he did with his tongue and other body parts.

  She didn’t have the energy to cry anymore, but those memories of making love were forever burned into her brain.

  Joe’s back was killing him. He was too big of a guy to be scrunched down on the floorboard of Vinny’s truck, but he didn’t want Harper to see him. It had been close. Luckily he spotted Harper’s truck while he was getting something out of the truck. He dove on the floorboard and pulled the door shut.

  It seemed like it took forever for Vinny to get in the truck. He knew he got caught by Harper, but he hoped his friend didn’t call him out. Just when Joe didn’t think he could stay squished anymore, Vinny opened the door and slid in.

  “Sorry, man,” he said frantically as he started the vehicle. “She wanted to pay me for the job so I had to follow her in the house.”

  From the floorboards, he asked, “Did she figure out what you did? What we did?”

  “Man, that’s the best part,” he laughed. “She didn’t even notice a damn thing. I think she was worried because she was short on the payment.”

  Joe winced. He knew Harper only had limited money and his stomach dropped in sympathy. “How short was she?” he asked.

  “Five hundred,” he said without seemingly caring.

  “I’ll get it to you,” Joe said, wanting to fix the situation.

  “No way, I like you better alive,” he said with a guttural laugh.

  Joe looked at him, perplexed. “What do you mean?”

  Vinny laughed louder. “She’ll kill you if she finds out you paid the remainder of her balance. She’ll pay me…I’m not worried about it.”

  “You’re a good friend, Vinny,” Joe said, extremely thankful for his friends. “Is the coast clear? I’m dying down here.”

  “Yeah, you’re good.”

  Joe sat up and stretched his aching back. “Damn, that was close. I thought for sure she’d know I was behind putting the decorations in her yard.”

  Vinny raised a brow to him. “She’ll figure it out when she sees them. And like all the other chicks, she’ll love you and hate you for it,” he said with laughter.