by Jeannie Moon
“No,” Kevin said. “That’s what kind of flipped me out. She doesn’t want anything. I think she told me because I live here now and she knew she couldn’t keep it a secret.”
“She’s going to get ripped by Meg and Caroline,” Josh said. “No doubt about it.”
“I know. The thing is, she deserves it.”
That was the truth, and Kevin sensed even Harper knew she was going to be blasted for this. The fact that she didn’t dispute the fact made him feel more protective. He couldn’t win.
Josh placed his beer on the cooler and nodded toward the sledgehammer. “Got another one of those?”
“On the back porch.”
Josh left and returned with the spare sledgehammer and a pair of goggles that had been hanging on a hook by the door. He positioned himself in front of a bare section of wall marked with a big red X. “This wall coming out?”
“Yeah, I’m combining the kitchen with that small sunroom over on the other side. It’ll be nice in the morning.”
“Uh-huh. It’s a big house.” Josh looked at the wall and struck it, smiling when the plaster caved in. “Shit, this is fun.”
Kevin smiled and hoisted his own hammer onto his shoulder. “Nothing like it. You sure you’re not going to break a nail or something, rich boy?”
“Fuck you,” Josh said, responding to the familiar trash talk.
Kevin swung the hammer and put a hole in the wall the size of a basketball, but then reality struck again and the fun was gone. “I have a kid, man. No warning. What am I supposed to do?”
“Damned if I know. I’d talk to a lawyer if I were you. You want to make sure your rights are protected.”
“I’m more concerned about making sure I’m legally Anna’s father. I don’t know what’s on the birth certificate, and I don’t want there to be any question.”
“You might want to see if Jason can tell you anything about Harper. He can give you some insight about how you should handle her.”
“I don’t even want to talk to her right now. I’m so freaking pissed.”
Josh knocked another piece from the wall. “You won’t be able to stay pissed at her forever. You’ll forgive her.”
“It doesn’t feel like it.”
“Maybe not, but you will. Plus, it’s better for Anna if Mommy and Daddy appear to be on the same page.”
“I know. Harper makes me crazy, though.”
“She’s really under your skin?’
“Yes, and I wish she weren’t.” He took two quick swipes at the wall and watched the hole grow. “Does it show?”
“Yep.” Josh lowered the sledgehammer and leaned on the handle. “Kevin, look, you two have a lot to work out, but it’s not fatal. And if you like her . . .”
Kevin stood with his back to Josh for several minutes. Then he tilted his head toward the ceiling, almost like he was looking for an answer. “How could she do that to me? How could she not tell me?”
“I’d lay money that she’s just as confused as you are.”
“I can’t get my head around it, you know. If I hadn’t moved back it could have gone on for years. YEARS!” Kevin’s rage boiled over, and he swung the hammer and let it hit the wall. He then turned his wrath on the cooler, kicking it and sending Josh’s beer flying.
He’d been dreading seeing Harper again, but he knew the two of them needed to have a private conversation about how they were going to move forward with parenting Anna. The problem was he didn’t know what to say, didn’t know how he would stay in control.
This wasn’t going to be easy. He wanted to know everything about his daughter and about everyone in her life. Which meant he needed to meet the nanny, Kim. Calling first would be the nice thing to do, but Kevin decided a surprise visit was in order.
He didn’t want to deal with any more lies or secrets, so he had to keep Harper guessing. The way he saw it, it was her turn.
***
“Harper Poole,” she said crisply into her phone.
“Your name is Emmalyn.”
Her mother. Great. Could her week get any more complicated? It was bad enough that she was waiting for the axe to fall regarding her announcement to Kevin. He’d told his family. She was sure of that, but there hadn’t been any fallout. She thought she would hear from someone connected to the family today, but there was nothing. It was weird.
Of course, knowing the Campbell and the Rossi families the way she did, Harper was fairly certain they were plotting their retribution in grand fashion.
“Emmy, are you there?”
“I’m here, Mama. What’s up?”
“Why do you use that horrible name? I gave you a lovely name.”
“Harper works better for business.”
“Hmmpf,” she responded. “It’s not you, but I’ll try to remember.”
“Thank you.”
“I really enjoyed seeing you and the baby. I was thinking about coming to visit you for a bit.”
“No, Mama. You can’t right now. It’s not a good time.”
“Why? I want to see you and my grandbaby again. I worry about how long it will be until you find time in your busy schedule to see me.”
The last thing Harper needed was her mother moving in. The last time she came for a “spell” it had meant three months. And as much as Harper had always wanted a close family, she’d long ago resigned herself to the fact that she wasn’t going to have one.
“I’m surprised you answered. I usually get your voice mail.”
Harper forgot to check the caller ID before she picked up. That would teach her.
“Anna is fine and so am I, but I am very busy with my job right now. Plus I don’t have anywhere for you to stay. My nanny has one room for nights she stays over, Anna has another, and then there’s my room.”
“Can’t you move things around? I don’t need much room, and Hill can sleep on that couch.”
There it was. Hill. He was not coming near her daughter. “No, Mama. I can’t.”
She and her mother were never close, and since her stepfather had passed away five years before, her mother only wanted to see her when she needed something. At least that’s how it seemed. Harper wondered how much influence Hill had over her mother and how many of these conversations were his doing. Harper had refused to see him since the last time she visited home and he gave her a welcome kiss that ended with him trying to stick his tongue in her mouth. The man was disgusting and she wanted nothing to do with him, and considering her mother was loyal to Hill, because she didn’t know what the bastard was capable of, Harper couldn’t have her own mother visit her.
It was best if they didn’t come to New York anyway. Harper had buried the family part of her life pretty deep. Her very country mother would certainly surprise the people who knew her.
Letting people think she was some prep school–educated trust fund baby was wrong, but her education was all hers. She earned both degrees the hard way and just finished paying off the last of her student loans.
No one could take her success away, but she knew she’d been less than honest with people close to her. And as she started to get closer to Kevin last year, it ate at her.
She didn’t think it really mattered because people never stuck around long, but she’d been at Reliance for five years. Jason, his family, and the people here were some of her closest friends.
And they didn’t know anything about her. Not really.
Her past was all secrets and lies and she was tired of them, which was why she came clean about Anna. She wasn’t going to turn her baby into another deception.
“You sure you don’t want us to come? For Thanksgiving maybe?”
“No, Mama. It’s not practical.”
“I guess I’ll just stay here, then. Maybe someone will invite us. Hill said something about Atlantic City.”
She cringed thinking about her mother in a casino, feeding nickels into a slot machine on Thanksgiving Day. “Can you afford to go to the casinos?”
“Oh, su
re. I have a little money. Hill’s been taking care of it for me.”
Harper’s head hurt. There was a driving pain behind her eyes, and she knew Hill was doing just fine with her mother’s money—for himself.
“Mama, I have to go, but you need to make sure Hill doesn’t have access to your bank accounts. That’s personal information and shouldn’t be shared with anyone.”
“He said you’d say that because you don’t like him.”
“I don’t like him. But more than that, I don’t trust him. I’m worried about you, Mama.”
“You don’t have to worry about me. You never did before.”
“That’s not true. I had to leave. I couldn’t . . . I couldn’t stay there.”
“Well, maybe, HARPER, you need to stop being so stuck-up. You’re just like us. Don’t forget that.”
“I’m sorry you feel that way.” What else was she going to say? She couldn’t exactly blurt out the truth after all this time.
Her mother cut off the call and Harper leaned back in her chair, grabbing at the drawer handle. There had to be some kind of pain reliever in her desk. She pulled out a bottle of ibuprofen and shook two pills out in her hand. She hoped two would be enough to kill the headache.
The way she was feeling, Harper had her doubts.
Chapter 7
The silence was killing her.
Harper was prepared for a full-fledged smackdown from Kevin’s sisters about Anna, but for a whole week there hadn’t been anything. Not a peep.
In fact, it was the silence that had her so freaked out. It wasn’t just Kevin’s sisters who had been conspicuously absent, but his brother-in-law and her boss, Jason Campbell, had been keeping his distance. That never happened. She was Jason’s right hand; she kept everything at this company running the way he wanted. He spoke to her half a dozen times a day. But this past week—nothing.
However, the noise she heard told her that might be changing. It was late afternoon, she was planning to leave work, and she heard the telltale clicking of high heels on wood floors.
Meg was here, and Harper knew this wasn’t going to be pretty.
Grabbing her phone, she sent a quick text to Kim that she was going to be late. A problem since she knew Kim had a date. Nothing about telling Kevin had been easy, from his reaction to Harper’s guilt, and now Meg was going to finish it off. Harper pretty much saw her career flash before her eyes.
“I don’t know how you live with yourself.” The voice from the doorway was low and calm. It was worse than if Meg had come in screaming.
“I know it was wrong. That’s why I told him.”
Her friend entered the room and sat in one of the chairs on the other side of Harper’s desk. Her legs were crossed demurely and her hands rested in her lap. This calm was eerie.
It was very unlike Meg, who had a fiery temper. Her decision to hold it back made Harper wonder what was coming.
“Maybe so, but you not only lied to him, you lied to all of us.” Meg dropped her head and wiped under her eye. “I love that baby. You watched me with her and know how I feel. How could you keep her from her family?”
Jesus. Meg wasn’t mad. She was hurt.
Harper rose and walked to the wall of windows behind her desk. How did she answer that? It was so complicated and Meg deserved some kind of explanation. Harper just didn’t know if she had it in her.
“I didn’t think he’d want her. He always said he didn’t want a family while he was playing.”
Harper turned and Meg was shaking her head. “Still, you should have said something. It wasn’t up to you.”
“I know that. That’s why I finally came clean. He’s a good man. He deserved to know. I just didn’t want him to feel trapped. I still think he does.”
There was silence that fell between them. Harper hated what was happening. She and Meg had grown close over the past two years, ever since Meg married Jason to protect their adopted daughter, Molly. It was a mess of a situation when Meg was named guardian to Jason’s niece and his parents sued for custody—in the end their marriage protected Molly and brought the high school sweethearts back together. Harper had been working for Jason then, and she wasn’t so sure what to think about the gorgeous blonde teacher who’d managed to bewitch her boss and good friend. But in the end, Harper and Meg had found a way not only to coexist, but to build a real friendship.
Harper knew she’d wrecked it. And she hated it.
“Kevin is honest to a fault, Harper. You couldn’t have trapped him.”
“I don’t know,” Harper said as she walked to the side of the desk where Meg was still seated. “He’s a bit of a do-gooder, your brother is. I wouldn’t put anything past him.”
“He’s thirty-five, Harper, and he doesn’t have to marry anyone if he doesn’t want to.”
Sitting in the chair to Meg’s right, Harper breathed out. “I know I made a mess of this. I just hope you all can find a way to forgive me.”
Meg shook her head. “Forgive you? I don’t even want to know you anymore. I wanted Jason to fire you, but he wouldn’t. He said as much as he wants to, it wouldn’t be right to allow something personal like that to creep into the business.”
Jason wanted to fire her? Oh, God. That was her worst nightmare come true. “I deserve it. I would completely understand . . . “
“No, Harper. You aren’t going to be fired.” Meg rose. “As much as I want you gone, and I do, at least if you’re here, I know you won’t take off with my niece.” She circled the chair Harper was sitting in. “I know we will have the chance to get to know her.”
“I won’t stop anyone from seeing her. You have to believe that.”
Meg chuckled, but the anger was clear. “You know, I almost believe you, but considering you kept us in the dark for months, I don’t trust anything you say. Nothing.”
“I’m going to see an attorney with Kevin so we can have papers drawn up. There won’t be any question about your family or how much you all can see her.”
“How generous,” Meg hissed, leaning against the desk. Quiet, upset Meg had left the room and Meg the fighter had taken her place. This woman was fierce.
“I don’t know that you’re even fit to be a mother. Who the hell are you, anyway? You have no family, no ties. You work ungodly hours, and honestly, I didn’t even think you liked children. You barely tolerate mine.”
Now she was throwing low blows and Harper would take some of them, but not others. “Don’t you dare question my commitment to my daughter. You know I’ve cut back on my hours and I’m a good mother to her.”
“I’ll question whatever I damn please. You were going to cut my brother out of his baby’s life. That takes you out of the running for mother of the year.”
“I fixed that.” Her phone chirped and Meg picked it up, handing it to her. The text was from Kim. “I know you’re going to be late, but I have to be out of here soon or cancel my plans. Anna’s father just showed up. Can he stay with her if I have to go?”
Harper shot a text back. She was somewhat annoyed because Kevin was supposed to call her first so she could let Kim know he was coming. Of course, he didn’t do that. Leave it to Kevin to make things interesting.
“Excuse me,” she said to Meg. “I have to call my nanny.”
Meg shrugged and took the seat she’d just vacated. Harper was going to leave the room to make the call, but decided to do this with an audience. She dialed and Kim picked up on the first ring. “I’m sorry I’m being such a pain in the ass,” she blurted out. “I know you have to stay sometimes.”
“It’s okay. I should have left sooner, but Kevin’s sister, Meg, stopped in to see me.”
“Oh,” Kim replied. “OH . . . damn, are you okay? He’s here.”
“I got that. How’s it going?”
“Fine. Want to talk to him? He’s sitting in the nursery watching her sleep. It’s kind of adorable.”
Harper could picture him, all handsome and big, in the girly bedroom, falling a little mo
re in love with his daughter. Her heart sped up just thinking about it. “Yes, let me talk to him.”
“He’s sweet, Harper,” Kim said. “And oh, my God, is he hot.”
“He is that.” Harper figured hot was an understatement when describing Kevin, but there were no real words that captured him accurately.
“Okay, handing you off.” She heard some movement. “It’s Harper,” Kim said to him.
“Yeah?”
“Hi,” Harper said. “Do you approve of Kim?”
“Yeah. She seems great. Sorry I didn’t say anything . . .”
“It’s fine. I’m running late, and I could use a favor.”
“A favor? I don’t know if you should be asking me for a favor.”
“Even if it’s staying with your daughter?”
She could hear his surprise come through the phone. “Wait. What?”
“Kim won’t say anything, but she has an appointment and I’ve been”—she looked at Meg, who was glaring at her—“I’ve been held up at work. I won’t be long, but would you mind staying with Anna until I get home?”
“Um, yeah. Sure. What do I need to do?”
“Feed her and change her if she wakes up. Kim will show you everything.”
“You trust me?” he asked.
“You’re her father, Kevin. Of course, I trust you.”
Meg’s ears perked up at that. She hated using Kim’s situation to make a point, but Meg needed a few points to be made. Harper fully understood that she’d screwed up, but she was also trying to make amends, and it wasn’t easy.
“Okay. I should be home in an hour and a half.”
“All right. Business call or something?”
“Actually, no. I was just getting ready to leave when Meg walked in. She’s still here.”
“Oh, shit,” he whispered. “I asked her not to talk to you about this.”
“Yeah, well . . . she didn’t listen.” Harper saw Meg grow uncomfortable. Her friend was pacing the room, obviously annoyed that she’d been caught. “I’ll see you soon,” she said to Kevin.
Harper finished giving instructions to Kim and when she hung up, Meg snapped at her. “You didn’t have to tell him I was here, did you?”