by Bella Andre
"I didn't mean to doubt your dishwashing prowess...it's just that you've already gone to so much trouble tonight." She rubbed a hand over her eyes. "I'm sorry. I didn't even think about what the house looked like when I sent you over or that you'd need to do the dishes so that you could have plates to eat with."
"I told you not to worry about anything tonight, Harper. And I meant it." He held up the bottle of Riesling he'd picked up. "I'll pour a glass of wine and fix you a plate."
"You don't have to." She clearly wasn't used to having anyone take care of her.
He pointed to the couch and put on his best boss voice. "Sit."
She shook her head at his tone, but he caught the way her lips were curving up as she relaxed into one end of the sofa. Slipping off her high heels, she leaned back with a sigh, obviously admiring the newly tidied room.
They'd also cleaned up in there, sorting Jeremy's crayons by color into the huge box. Will had learned that coloring was homework, likely a hand-eye coordination exercise.
"Can I watch Animal Planet?" Jeremy dashed across the room and picked up the remote, but stood motionless, his finger on the button, until Harper nodded. Then he plopped down on the carpet in front of the TV and started flipping channels.
"Not so close, please," Harper chided.
As Jeremy spider-walked backward, Will poured her wine. Between them, he and Jeremy had unloaded the dishwasher, found where everything went, and stacked all the dirty dishes in the machine. Which meant that Will not only knew where her wineglasses were, he also knew that she had too many cans of baked beans and an empty peanut butter jar, as if she always forgot to make a grocery list and couldn't remember what she needed when she got to the store. He'd also found the bag of white chocolate truffles in the cupboard next to the fridge, probably the only treat she let herself indulge in.
But most of all, he loved that her house was clearly a home, full of warmth and messes and laughter and love. His own spectacular compound seemed cold by comparison.
"This should ease the day's tension." He handed her the glass of wine.
She sipped gratefully, closing her eyes to savor either the flavor or the relaxing effects. "This is just what I needed. Thank you." She glanced up. "This is the same wine I had at Cannelli's."
"I remembered you liked it."
"You're too good to be true," she said softly, and something tightened in his gut. The same tightening that occurred when she'd called him sweet over the phone. Because if she knew the truth about the things he'd done...
Forcing the thought aside, just as he had so many times before with her, he plated a portion for her from each carton and finished off with a spring roll covered in sweet-and-sour sauce.
"Aren't you eating?" she asked when he sat on the couch empty handed.
"Jeremy wouldn't eat unless I did, too. And since I wasn't sure when you'd make it back--"
"I'm really sorry."
"Stop apologizing. In fact, as I recall, I promised that if you did it again--"
Will took her mouth in a second kiss that was a heck of a lot less sweet and soft than the first of the night had been. Jeremy might still be in the same room with them, but he was glued to the TV and wasn't paying any attention to them at all.
Forcing himself to draw back before he got completely carried away, Will said, "I enjoyed your brother's company. I always do."
"Am I allowed to say thank you for getting dinner and picking Jeremy up?" She gave him a cheeky smile. "Or do I say thank you too much, as well?"
"I love it when you're polite," he said as he curled a lock of her hair around his finger. Then he lowered his voice and added, "So polite one moment, and then so wild the next." He was close enough to appreciate the sound of her breath hitching in her throat at his suggestive words.
He drank from her glass of wine, then stole a cashew off her plate. It was another intimacy he enjoyed, just like playing with her hair. From the first day they'd met, he'd had a need to touch her in small ways as well as big. It didn't always have to be about sex--in fact, these little touches seemed to heighten their intimacy in a way simple sexual contact didn't. He'd never been like this with another woman, never so much as thought about becoming intimate with one of them beyond a few hours in the bedroom.
But Harper was different. She was important to him.
So important that he hoped the wine had mellowed her. She'd already had a harried day, and he didn't want to make things worse. But he didn't feel right trying to seduce her before he'd talked with her about what had happened at the grocery store.
"There was an issue at the store when I arrived."
She glanced at Jeremy, a deep line forming immediately between her brows. "What happened?" she asked in a low voice.
Will looked at Jeremy, too. Thankfully, the leopard cubs reigned over his attention. "He didn't do anything. It was busy. Like it always is at the end of the work day," Will added to bring home his point. "He wasn't bagging fast enough for the checker or the customer, and he didn't pack the groceries correctly. A cantaloupe on top of eggs."
She waited, an expectant and on her pursed lips.
"And," he said in a voice low enough that only she could hear, "the checker called him an idiot in front of the customers. Among other insults."
Her gaze shot to Jeremy again, her eyes darkened with worry. And a deep sorrow that Will wished he could erase permanently. "Is he okay?"
"He's fine. Your brother is resilient. Compassionate, too. He actually asked me not to have the woman fired, because she's got a sick mother."
Leaning forward, she slid her plate onto the coffee table, and somehow, when she sat back, she seemed farther away from him. "Why did he think you were going to have the woman fired?"
"I made her apologize. In front of everyone who had just witnessed her acting like such a jerk." He shook his head. "I know I'm always telling you not to apologize, but when people do something they know is wrong, they need to apologize for their actions."
He was one to talk, wasn't he, considering he could never say he was sorry for all the things he'd done in the past. Still, that didn't mean he would allow Jeremy to be denigrated.
"Do you know what it's like in that store at that time of day?" he asked.
She frowned again. "I know it's busy. I just never thought--"
Belatedly realizing his question might have sounded too harsh, he touched her hair again, drawing her back in. "What I'm trying to say is that I'm not so sure it's the best place for him. It's too chaotic."
Her jaw tensed as though she was clenching her teeth. "It gives him purpose. He's always said he likes it." Once again, her gaze shifted to Jeremy.
This was Will's chance to make a difference for them. "I've got a better idea. I talked to my people and I found him a place in my mailroom."
Her nostrils twitched. Like a mother rabbit sensing danger to her young. Yet again, she reminded him of Susan, who had taken better care of him than anyone in the world. Better care than he'd ever thought anyone would.
"You work in the city," Harper said. "He has school until noon, and the bus drops him off at the store. I can't get him all the way up to your office."
"I have a driver who can pick him up after school. And I can bring him home at the end of the day."
"I see you've thought everything through."
Yes, he'd considered the proposal from every angle. That's what he did: analyzed each scenario and conquered every possible problem that could arise. "I'll make it good for him, Harper. And he told me he'd like to do it, that he won't miss his job at the grocery store."
In a heartbeat, she went as cold as a Chicago night in winter. "You already told him about this? Without discussing it with me first?"
He felt the stillness settle around them. The TV played on, and so did the leopard cubs, while a chilly silence dropped over Harper and him.
And that was when Will realized, far too late, that he'd just made a huge tactical mistake with the woman who had already be
come the most important person in his life.
CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE
"Jeremy, don't you have some homework for tomorrow?" Harper heard the snap in her voice, but she wasn't able to moderate it just yet.
Her brother looked at her over his shoulder. "Uh-huh."
"Then you'd better go do it." She heard a sound in her head like rocks grinding. It was her teeth. "And say thank you to Will for dinner."
"Thanks, Will."
As Jeremy turned off the TV and headed for his room, Harper continued to feel like the breath had been knocked out of her. Her brother had been verbally abused at work. And she shouldn't have had to hear it from Will. She should have known, should have been checking in with Jeremy to make sure everything was okay at the store every day. But every evening when she picked him up, he came bounding out full of stories about anything and everything. She'd told herself that must mean things were okay.
How could she have been so careless?
She stood and grabbed her plate of food, which was growing more unappealing by the second.
"Harper," Will said, but she stalked out of the room without answering.
Will had figured out how to fix the situation. How to fix her failure. How to fix the fact that she was a rotten sister and a terrible guardian. She thought she'd been doing everything for her brother, but had she really, when all Will had to do was walk into the grocery store and spot all the problems in a second?
"Harper," Will said again, following her into the kitchen.
She almost slammed the plate down on the counter. The immaculate counter. He'd even cleaned up after her like she couldn't take care of her house. Like she couldn't take care of Jeremy. If she hadn't folded the laundry last night, he probably would have done that, too, showing what a mess she was. And look--he'd even cleaned up Jeremy's crayons.
Damn it, she thought as frustration ate her up from the inside, I'm doing the best I can.
But clearly it wasn't good enough.
"How could you tell Jeremy without even talking to me first?"
"I wanted to gauge his reaction. If he wasn't interested, the new position wasn't something I would have pursued."
"You should have gauged my reaction first."
"I see that now, and I'm sorry."
"Don't apologize," she snapped, because he kept saying the same to her. "Just stop imposing your will on us."
"I wasn't trying to impose my will."
Will. His will. His name said it all. Didn't he get what would happen down the road? "Look, when this car project is over--" And you've moved on to another pet project. "--Jeremy will be out of a job. He won't have anything."
"The car won't be finished for months. Besides, the Maserati has nothing to do with his working in my mailroom."
"So you'll just keep on sending your driver to pick him up?"
He shrugged, shook his head slightly, like she wasn't even making sense. "If that's what it takes, that's what we'll do."
Did she really have to spell it out for him? "What about when you get tired of doing all this for him?" And what about when you get tired of me? "Buying a Maserati because Jeremy wants it. Dreaming up a job for him. In a few weeks or even months, if you get bored with the whole thing, where will that leave Jeremy? Out in the cold. He's not going to understand. I've seen this happen before. I've dated men who befriend him. Then they're gone. And I don't want to see Jeremy get hurt like that again."
"I've already told you this, and I'll keep saying it until you believe me--I'm not going to hurt your brother. I promise."
"Right." She was on a roll and couldn't seem to stop. "And I'm just supposed to take your word on that."
Something changed in him then. After she'd freaked out, he'd been on the defensive, trying to explain himself, trying to get her to understand that he'd meant no harm. But now, it looked like she'd managed to wound him.
"My word means everything. I do not break it." He held her gaze. "I'm not like the men you've dated, Harper. And don't forget, I met Jeremy first, not you. He wrote to me. I liked what I read. So what's between you and me has nothing to do with him." Will held up his hands. "You're right that I should have talked to you first. But I wouldn't have given him the job if I didn't think it would be something new and different for him to try. He can stretch himself. He might even be fine for a few hours by himself. You've got to see that he's capable of pushing himself to do more. Is there something you're afraid of, Harper? Something I haven't figured out yet? You know your brother a hell of a lot better than I do. What am I not seeing?"
He sounded so reasonable and his explanations so good. Which made her feel churlish on top of everything else. He had a way of making her feel totally out of control, whether it was over Jeremy, or on the hood of his car, or while practically naked on her living room sofa.
Honestly, at this point, she wasn't sure there was much Will wasn't seeing. Not when it sometimes felt as though his dark eyes could see all the way through every wall she'd built up.
Finally, she told him, "I'm just afraid of seeing Jeremy hurt."
And yet she hadn't been there to rescue her brother today. Will had done that. And then he'd come up with a solution. One that she knew she had to consider, especially if there was a chance that what he offered might truly be the best thing for Jeremy.
Harper had always been afraid change wasn't good for her brother. But what if she was wrong about what Jeremy needed? And what if the problem was more that she wasn't fond of change herself? Especially after all that had happened in the wake of his accident and then their parents' deaths.
She worked to swallow the emotions threatening to rise up in her throat and strangle her. And as her head of steam finally began to peter out, she realized the injustice of what she'd been saying. Will had only ever been good to Jeremy. He was endlessly patient as he showed her brother how to do each new task on the car. He was never short with him on Skype. He was always considerate of his feelings. And he was the one who'd discovered the problem at the store.
That was why she'd gone off on him. Not just because he'd screwed up by not checking with her first about the new job, but because she was so damned guilty over her own failures. It was humbling to realize she needed to put her own ego aside--the decision had to be about what was best for Jeremy, nothing else.
"I might have been a bit hasty just now," she admitted. "You're right that a new job might be good for him. And that it might expand his horizons." But she'd still ask if Jeremy wanted the job as badly as Will needed to give it to him.
"It might be good for you, too, Harper." He came close again, his body heat enveloping her. Cupping her face in his hands, he held her steady, captured her with that dark, commanding gaze. Mesmerized her. "Your brother has you to protect him. But who looks out for you?"
"I do." But she honestly didn't know if she was any better at that than she was at taking care of Jeremy.
"Let me help." His voice was just short of a whisper.
She felt herself weakening, bending, needing, longing. But if she allowed Will to take over even a little, what if she lost herself completely?
And then, when he was gone, what if she couldn't manage to find her way back?
"You're doing enough already for Jeremy," she said softly. She had to draw on the iron will she'd developed over the past few years to force herself to step out of his arms. "Thank you for picking him up and feeding both of us. Thanks for cleaning up my house, too. You went above and beyond tonight, Will, and I appreciate it. But it's been a long day, so..."
He stared at her for a long moment, one where she got the sense he was trying to decide between kissing her--or letting her kick him out again. She knew it was bad that she was secretly hoping for the former...and that she was so disappointed when he chose the latter.
"Say good-night to Jeremy for me."
"I will."
"You won't be coming to work on the car this weekend, will you?"
How could she when she desperately needed
to take a long, hard look at what she was doing? Because it was one thing to tell herself she was having a fun, sexy affair--and that she deserved to have something so delicious for once in her life. But it was another thing entirely to watch how easily Will could take over if she wasn't careful. Especially when the only thing that had held Harper and Jeremy together for the past several years had been her tight grip on their lives.
"I think it would be best if we skipped this weekend."
Will's eyes were as dark and intense as she'd ever seen them. Full of disappointment, and something that looked like regret, too. "I know I screwed up," he said softly, "and I'll do whatever it takes to make it up to you."
Before her conflicted brain could even try to think of a reply, he was gone.
CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO
Will didn't blame Harper for pulling back to reassess things--he had completely screwed up by forgetting that she was the boss when it came to her brother. Will might be able to make suggestions, but he'd never again make the mistake of taking decisions out of Harper's hands. She was too strong, too smart, for that kind of behavior. He knew he had a lot to prove, and a lot of ground to make up, but he wasn't giving up.
They quickly established a routine over the next few days. His driver Benny picked up Jeremy from school, and Will drove him home. Fortunately, Harper's brother loved his new job and he also loved the people he worked with. Will checked several times each day to make sure his employees were treating Jeremy right. He'd promised Harper he wouldn't let anything hurt her brother, and he would die before he broke that vow.
The first night, Harper thanked him for bringing Jeremy home--and then shut and locked the door.
The second night, he brought takeout and made sure the bags he was holding at her front door smelled so good that it would be really hard for her stomach, at least, to turn him away. She'd been quiet as they ate together in her kitchen that night, mostly letting him and Jeremy do the talking, but even if it was just a baby step, at least it was one in the right direction.
The third night, while they were eating another takeout meal, he wanted to tell her that she and Jeremy filled up all his empty places. He wanted her to know that he'd drop anything at a moment's notice when one of them called. He wished he could tell her that taking care of them had grown into a need inside him, on a deeper level even than the bond he had with his fellow Mavericks. His friends--his brothers--weren't kids anymore, and they hadn't needed anyone to fight their battles in years. But Jeremy and Harper needed him.