by Bella Andre
Not that she had any business thinking about him that way, of course. But Harper still felt a lump of emotion well up in her throat. Emotion that grew with every kind thing the Mavericks said to Jeremy at the barbecue and the realization that Will's closest friends had gone out of their way to make her and Jeremy feel like part of their family.
They were an amazing group. Will, of course, was totally sexy in a pair of black swim trunks. His black T-shirt emphasized his muscles, the width of his shoulders, and his broad chest. She had to repeatedly remind herself not to drool. Honestly, she was glad he was the only one wearing a shirt by the pool, because if he'd taken his off like the rest of the men, she wasn't sure she'd have been able to control herself around him. That's what he did to her--made her lose control again and again and again.
Noah's dad, Matt Tremont, was a leading manufacturer of robotics equipment. He was huge with rippling muscles. And he gazed at his son with such adoration. She couldn't help but wonder where Noah's mother was.
Sebastian Montgomery was the TV media mogul. She'd expected some smooth-talking salesman, but Sebastian slouched in his chair, legs spread as he watched Noah and Will. "If you're going to teach Noah, you gotta learn how to throw right," he called out to Will. He was the tallest of them all, probably six-three, and his sable hair, chocolate-brown eyes, and chiseled features were even more mesmerizing up close than they were on camera. Still, she didn't think he held a candle to Will.
"If you think you can do better, get over here." Will held up the ball while Noah squealed for another free throw.
"There isn't room enough for both of us in that pool," Sebastian shot back.
"You're just worried you won't do any better," Daniel said. He grinned at Harper and told her, "Sebastian always sucked at sports."
Daniel Spencer owned a nationwide chain of home improvement stores and produced a TV show on do-it-yourself remodeling. With dark, wavy hair and some really impressive muscles, Daniel was a mountain-man type. Someone had mentioned during the course of the afternoon that he was building his own cabin near Tahoe.
"I didn't suck," Sebastian said mildly. "I just figured I might as well let you win at something."
Daniel laughed, taking the ribbing good naturedly. "Still can't get over that game back in high school where we all piled on you just outside the touchdown zone, can you?"
They called themselves the Mavericks, and they constantly gave each other a hard time. Yet Harper could see the incredibly strong bond between them, along with the way no offense was ever taken. Their connection went right through to the way they all looked after Noah. He wasn't just Matt's son, he was precious to all of them, and she had the sense they would each protect him with their lives.
Evan Collins, however, wasn't quite like the rest. Not that he didn't belong--he was just as handsome and big and strong as the other Mavericks--but he was quieter and didn't always join in the banter. Harper wondered if his wife could be the reason. She'd tried to like Whitney, but it wasn't an easy task. Evan's wife seemed to wear her sunglasses so she wouldn't have to waste time actually looking anyone in the eye, and her mouth didn't seem to be made for smiling. Not even for Noah's super cute antics.
Of course, just as Harper was thinking uncharitable thoughts about her, Whitney made her presence known. Or maybe it was because she hadn't been getting the attention she felt she deserved.
Holding up her glass, she waggled it in the air and called out, "Evan, darling, I need another margarita." She continued texting with one hand.
"I'll get it," Jeremy said.
Just as he did at work, if there was something someone needed, her brother jumped to do it. Whitney was the only one who hadn't said a word to him, so maybe he felt he needed to prove himself to her.
Whitney pulled her sunglasses down to look at Harper over the rims. It was quite possibly the first time the woman had made eye contact with her. "Can he do it?"
Harper tightened her lips for just a second. Be polite. "Yes, he's perfectly capable of pouring you a margarita out of a pitcher."
"All right then." Whitney pushed her sunglasses to the bridge of her nose and handed the glass to Jeremy. "Not too much ice," she said with a false note of sweetness in her tone.
But Harper doubted there was an ounce of sweetness in her. Yet there had to be a story as to why Evan Collins was even with this woman.
"I put the pitcher of margaritas in the fridge," Evan told Jeremy. It wasn't the first time Whitney had demanded a refresher.
"Thanks, Evan," Jeremy said in his overloud outdoor voice.
Harper felt Will's eyes on her and glanced up to see him smiling at her. The rest of the guys had gone quiet. Even Noah had dropped down on his butt in the water. Almost as if Whitney's voice were a sponge that sucked all the fun out of the air.
Thankfully, conversation resumed as Jeremy skipped to the bar. Sebastian pushed up from his seat and kicked off his deck shoes. He hunkered down at the edge of the kiddie pool and asked Noah, "How about a swim?"
"Yay!" Noah crowed.
Each of the Mavericks had been taking turns throughout the day teaching Noah to swim. He could tread water for at least a minute, and he didn't panic if his head went under. Harper remembered teaching Jeremy to swim when he was a little boy, and she smiled as Will lifted Noah out of the small pool and secured his water wings.
No question about it, he would make an awesome dad. And if she'd been able to pay attention to anything but Will, his laughter, his smile, then maybe she might have noticed Jeremy returning at a run with Whitney's cocktail in his hand. She looked over at him just as his foot caught on a flagstone, and the tall glass lurched, splashing the contents all over Whitney.
"Look what you did!" Whitney's glare skewered Jeremy. "This swimsuit is one of a kind couture!"
"I'm sorry," Jeremy whispered, clutching the plastic margarita glass to his chest, getting his shirt all wet. He backed away, out of the line of fire.
Whitney turned on Harper. "Sorry isn't good enough."
"It was an accident," Harper said. She wouldn't humiliate Jeremy by apologizing for a simple accident. Though later, when they were alone, she'd remind him about running with anything in his hand. "I'll be happy to pay for it if it's ruined." Even if it was likely worth more than she made in a month.
"You said he could handle it," Whitney snapped.
"Whitney, enough!" Evan stepped in between them. "It was an accident. Jeremy didn't mean any harm. So back off. Now."
Whitney turned her glare on her husband. Her nostrils flared, and her lips turned ugly with tension. "If my own husband could have bothered to get me a drink, then none of this would have happened."
Evan stepped forward, his feet right along the edge of a flagstone as if it were a battle line drawn between them. Paige jumped in before either combatant crossed it.
"It'll wash out, Whit," she said, in a mediator's tone. A psychologist, Paige was pleasant and chatty in a let's-fill-any-awkward-silences kind of way. "I've got that book that tells how to get out just about any stain. Although I don't think margarita mix even stains."
"Fine," Whitney snapped. "You can wash it for me."
"Whitney." Paige said her sister's name softly, but firmly. "I think it's time for us to thank Will for a great barbecue and head home."
Harper itched to take her down a peg--a hundred pegs would be even better--and she was glad to see Paige stand up to her sister.
Anger lines stretched past the frames of Whitney's sunglasses. She tossed her cell phone into the bag beside her chair. "Good idea. I can't wait to clean up and forget about this whole day." Whitney threw on the see-through flowered cover-up that matched her swimsuit and slipped her feet into high-heeled sandals.
Harper glanced over her shoulder, realizing that Will had climbed out of the pool and was now standing close enough to Jeremy to put his hand on his shoulder. Sebastian stood beside Will, holding Noah in his arms. Daniel and Matt flanked Evan. Battle positions.
Evan d
idn't look at all happy about leaving, with a muscle in his jaw jumping as he stared at his wife. But he was clearly too much of a gentleman to send her home without him. Besides, continuing the fight in front of everyone would put a damper on the whole group, and Evan would care about that, too, Harper was sure.
"All right," Evan said, his voice clipped and tight. "I'll take you home, Whitney. Paige, are you sure you don't want to stay?"
"I can drive you home later," Daniel offered.
But she simply shook her head. For some crazy reason, Harper had the sense that Paige didn't want to leave Evan alone with his own wife. "Thanks for having me, Will. It was great to meet you, Harper and Jeremy."
On his way out, Evan stopped beside Harper and said, "I'm sorry about what happened."
But, honestly, at this point she was the one feeling sorry for him, going home with that woman. How on earth he could ever have wanted to marry her was honestly beyond Harper.
Then again, she knew people's stories weren't exactly linear, were they? Look at hers and Jeremy's, for example. Who could have predicted this would be their life?
Again, she found herself wishing she knew more of Will's story. But though he was always sweet and kind--and so sexy that she could hardly catch her breath around him--he wasn't exactly an open book. She figured he must have his reasons, foremost among them the fact that they were just two people enjoying each other's company for a little while.
"None of that was your fault, Jeremy," Will said to her brother, breaking her out of her musings. "That's just Whitney. Ignore her. We've all learned to do that over the years."
"Whitney's temper tantrums always make me hungry," Daniel said with a hard and fast shake of his head, as if he were literally trying to shake Evan's wife out of his system. "Why don't you start the grill, Will? How do you like your meat done, Jeremy?"
"Rare," Jeremy called out.
Matt grinned at Jeremy. "Jump in the pool and wash that margarita off your shirt. Last one in's a rotten egg," he shouted and landed with a cannonball in the pool, with Daniel right behind him.
Noah squirmed in Sebastian's arms. "Me too! Me too!"
She could have kissed every last one of them. And Evan, too, not just for his simple apology, but also for the way he'd stepped in to end Whitney's harangue before it got even worse.
As Matt joined the others in the pool for a game of Marco Polo, Will held out his hand to her and together they headed over to take care of getting food on for everyone. The barbecue was an entire counter with two grills, one with a curved top, the other a simple metal grill. A pot of water for corn on the cob bubbled on the range. The fridge held steaks, hot dogs, hamburgers, potato salad, green salad, and all the fixings, which was way more food than they could possibly eat, even if Evan, his wife, and Paige had stayed.
"What do you want? Steak, hamburger, or--" He grinned and waggled his eyebrows up and down in an exaggerated fashion. "--hot dog?"
She laughed, glad the sensation washed away a lot of her anger and frustration over what had just happened. As if he could read her mind, he turned serious again.
"I apologize for that, Harper. I should have warned you about Whitney and made sure not to put Jeremy in that position."
"He isn't your responsibility. I should have been watching. And I was the one who said it was okay."
He shushed her with a kiss. "Stop. Evan's wife's attitude isn't your fault."
Finally stopping to take a breath, she realized he was right. Just as he was right about so many things when it came to her brother. She hadn't had anyone to bounce things off in so long. Even though she knew this thing with Will wasn't going to last forever, did that mean she couldn't appreciate him while he was here?
"Is she always like that?"
Will began turning knobs on the grill. "In the beginning of their marriage? Maybe not. At this point, it's pretty hard to remember how things used to be. All I know is that in the past year or so, she's been worse than ever. Honestly, I don't know how he can live with her. Whatever happens between them, though, we've got his back."
She'd seen that--the way the men had surrounded Evan, making it clear that they were there if he needed them.
"We've all known each other a long time," he told her. "Matt and Evan were ten. Daniel, Sebastian, and I a year older. Some bullies were picking on Matt." He shrugged. "Something had to be done."
Harper glanced at the huge muscles in Matt's arms as he chased down Sebastian in the big pool. "Matt needed help?"
Will grinned. "He was a scrawny kid."
She had a hard time picturing it. "So you rescued him."
An expression she couldn't quite read flashed across his face, but he wasn't smiling anymore as he said, "Evan ran for the principal."
"Smart boy."
"That's why he's the money man." But his face darkened even further. "We all eventually ended up living with Daniel's parents. Susan and Bob raised us."
"All of you?" Wonder laced her voice.
"It wasn't a great neighborhood. Things happened."
His answer was so understated, his features so expressionless, that she felt a little hitch in her chest. She wanted to ask what things, but at the same time, she didn't want to make a mistake by pushing too hard. Not when Will had just revealed more to her about his past than he had at any time in all the weeks she'd known him.
"So we stuck together." He blew out a hard breath, and then the cocky grin was back. She'd never been happier to see it. "The Mavericks."
They weren't brothers, not by blood the way she and Jeremy were. Yet she knew they would do anything for each other.
Meeting them shed new light on Will. He'd once said his word was his bond, that he always kept his promises. Seeing him with his closest friends showed her that it was no boast or throwaway phrase. He'd clearly been through hard times with these men, and he was there for them no matter what. Just the way he'd been there for Jeremy time and time again.
And though she kept trying to tell herself that this thing between them was just a casual thrill ride, she couldn't help but hope that he'd be there for her, too.
CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR
"So," Susan mused on the phone, "I hear things are progressing nicely with you and your new lady." She'd waited a couple of days after the Memorial Day barbecue to call him, but Will had guessed it was coming after every one of the other Mavericks had already weighed in on the subject of Harper.
Evan had called Will first to apologize again for his wife's snapping at Harper and Jeremy. He'd made an excuse about a migraine that Will wasn't buying, but he'd forced himself to let it go. Evan ended the call by telling Will not to screw things up with Harper. Matt was next on the horn to say that Noah kept talking about the pretty lady who had played with him in the pool. The boy had been terribly sad to learn she couldn't be their new nanny because she already had an important job. Then Sebastian claimed he still couldn't get over Will finally dating a woman with looks and brains. And finally Daniel had called to say, "You look happy, Will. I like her." Which said it all.
In his high-rise office, Will swiveled his chair to face the San Francisco Bay glittering in the sun. "Who called you this time?"
Susan laughed. That's what he loved best about her: her laughter. She'd never yelled at any of them. Even when he'd been a complete shit, Susan would give him a long look and ask, "Do you really think that was the right thing to do?" As if she'd known that he hadn't been thinking, he'd just been doing, reacting, acting out in the wrong way. Somehow Susan always managed to forgive him anyway.
"They all told me," she said.
"They're a bunch of freaking busybodies," he grumbled, though it amused him that men in their mid-thirties would rush to their mom with gossipy tidbits.
"How else am I going to be updated? You don't tell me anything unless I drag it out of you."
This was true. He'd talked to Susan several times since Harper and Jeremy had first come to his garage and work had begun on the Maserati, and yet h
e'd managed to avoid answering nearly all of her questions after that first call.
"You've never introduced your brothers to a woman before," Susan observed. "They say she's lovely."
"She is," he said softly.
"And they all really like her brother, too."
"Jeremy's a great kid."
"We'd love to meet them both. I hope someday you'll bring them to the house."
The Mavericks had planned to buy the Spencers property out in one of the exclusive Chicago suburbs, but Susan and Bob had wanted an average home in an average neighborhood, nothing ostentatious. All they required was something large enough to house all their grandchildren and pseudo-grandchildren. Unfortunately, to date, the Mavericks had done a piss-poor job of filling up those extra rooms, and Daniel's younger sister Lyssa wasn't even close to starting a family.
But Will could easily imagine Harper and Jeremy and a white Christmas in Chicago. Susan would adore them both. She'd fill up the fridge and freezer with baked goods because Jeremy was "a growing boy." And they would both love Susan, too.
"They're good for you, honey, I can tell."
But was he good enough for them?
That's what plagued him. Even in something as simple as that scene by the pool with Whitney. He should have been standing guard over Harper's brother to make sure no harm came to him, just as he'd promised her. But he'd failed. Badly enough that he couldn't stop going over the situation in his head--and also couldn't keep from asking Susan, "Did you hear about Whitney's explosion at the barbecue?"
Susan sighed. She'd obviously been apprised of every nasty detail. "That poor girl. Whitney lost her way after that first miscarriage."
"I'm sorry about that. We all are." Whitney had had three miscarriages in the last two years. It had broken Evan into pieces, especially since he'd been on the road for work each time his wife had miscarried.
"They've been trying so hard for a family," Susan said, "and Whitney's disappointment is coming out in her testiness."
Testiness? Will had a whole other word to describe it. "I know they've been through a lot. But still...Evan's a saint."
"He's a good man. One who bends over backward to handle Whitney's moods because he appreciates how badly she feels about not being able to give him a child."