“Wow,” I breathed. “This is incredible. I also think I suddenly understand even better why not having many people around works for you. To have this all to yourself whenever you just want to sit and relax must be amazing.”
Harrison tied our horses to a low-hanging branch nearby, then spread out a blanket he’d rolled up and stowed in one of his saddlebags. Just as we were sitting down and spreading out the goodies we’d transferred from the backpack to the saddlebags, my phone rang.
It was such a foreign, shrill sound in that moment that it made me jump. Then I started laughing at myself when I realized what it was. Harrison watched me with amusement lighting his eyes, patting the blanket as I pulled my phone out of my pocket.
Seeing my mother’s face on my screen was like being doused in cold water. The woman wouldn’t be ignored, though. Even though the last thing I wanted to do right now was spend an hour discussing last-minute wedding arrangements, she’d just keep calling if I didn’t pick up.
“Hey, Mom,” I said once I’d resigned myself to taking her call and getting off it as soon as I could. “How are you? I can’t really talk right now.”
“You can never really talk these days,” she said, sighing but not sounding snippy or angry. “I’ll get straight to the point then. I haven’t seen anything about a plus one from you for the wedding, and we’re busy finalizing the seating chart. We really do need to know. There’s a lovely colleague of Nick’s who’s—”
“I have a date, Mom,” I said, cutting off her attempt at matchmaking. “I’m really sorry if I didn’t send the card, but I thought I had. I am bringing a date.”
“Really?” she asked, disbelief ringing clear as a bell in her voice. “If you don’t, it’s nothing to be ashamed of. Like I said, I’ll happily set you up with a man who exists—”
“He does exist.” I felt my cheeks flush when Harrison quirked a brow at me. “Would you like to speak to him? He’s right next to me right now actually. He very much exists, and we’ll both be there. We’re bringing our dog as well.”
“There are no pets allowed,” she said. She kept me on the phone for a few minutes more, fishing for information about my date but not taking me up on the offer to speak to him. When I finally hung up, he was laughing quietly with his gaze fixed to mine.
“Our dog, huh?”
I glanced down at Dottie, who had snuggled up against my leg as soon as I’d sat down. “Well, at this point, she’s really just my dog.”
He didn’t break eye contact, but there was something that shifted in his gaze when I said it. The hazel warmed, and when he nodded, he snagged my hand and pulled me closer until I fell against his chest.
“Yeah, I think she might just be.” He pressed a kiss to my mouth, and his woodsy, masculine scent enveloped me. “She comes with an owner, though. If you take her home with you, you’re going to have to take me too.”
I chuckled and ran my nose along the length of his before I kissed him again. “That can be arranged. I’m almost as fond of her owner as I am of her.”
It was true, too. I hadn’t known Harrison for very long, but I felt like I knew him on a deeper level than I’d known any of the guys I’d dated before. Just like it had with Jamie, it was like my soul had claimed him as hers. If Jamie was my friendship soulmate, it felt like Harrison might just be my romantic soulmate.
It was a thought that should’ve been terrifying but it wasn’t, not when his soft lips descended back onto mine and he kissed me in that way of his again. In that moment, it wasn’t terrifying at all. It was exhilarating.
I should’ve known it was too good to be true.
21
HARRISON
After all the talk with Keira about how incredible it was out here, I decided on Monday morning to take the week off from the Hynes Group and drove right back to the farm. There were several urgent things I would have to see to while I was there, but that was what a laptop and an internet connection were for.
There was nothing I could do at the office that I couldn’t do from the comfort of my preferred home. I’d stopped in town to stock up on groceries since it had been a spur of the moment decision and Keira and I had cleaned out what had been left in my fridge for the sandwiches.
With my laptop bag in one hand and the groceries in the other, I trudged up the steps to my door. Ashton’s voice piped up from behind me as I was pushing it open.
“What’re you doing here on a Monday?” he asked. “Did the city get evacuated or something?”
“Or something,” I mumbled. “I took the week off from the office. When I was driving back last night, I realized I was getting burnt out by all the hustle and bustle there.”
“That’s because you weren’t built for that place any more than I was,” he replied, the sound of his footsteps on the stairs letting me know that he was coming in. “Why are you still working there anyway? You keep complaining about the place and you spend every spare minute here. Are you one of those commitment-phobes or something? Too scared to commit to the farm over the city because of what you might miss out on if you’re here?”
“I just got here,” I grumbled when I set my laptop bag down on the small dining-room table that would double as my desk for the week. “Do you really have to start giving me shit before I’ve even put the cream in the fridge?”
He hummed noncommittal noise. “Giving you shit is part of my job. You didn’t happen to buy any coffee to go with that cream, did you?”
“As it happens, I did.” I walked into the kitchen and started unpacking the groceries while he plugged in the coffeemaker and got it going. “What are you doing over here? Don’t you have better things to do than hang around my house when I’m not here?”
He snorted. “I came to find that chicken snake. If you want me to, I can leave him here. We’ll see how well you do with him if you come across him before I do.”
“I’ll be fine, but I’ll help you look for him anyway,” I said. “He seems to have gotten under your skin a little bit.”
“I just have a bone to pick with him, is all,” he grumbled. Reaching for our mugs, he leaned against the counter and watched me unpack while he waited for the coffee. “You really here for the whole week?”
“Yep.” I emptied the last bag of cold stuff and moved over to the pantry to put away the last few things. “I’ve got to head back on the weekend for that wedding I’m going to with Keira, but I’m here until then.”
“Who’s Keira?” He scratched the side of his head before snapping his fingers. “Right. Right. The prissy girl who couldn’t get on the horse.”
“No, not that one.” I finished with the groceries and accepted the mug he held out to me filled with steaming liquid. “That was Hailey. It’s her wedding we’re going to, but Keira’s her sister. The one who did actually ride on the weekend she came out to learn how.”
“Oh, yeah. Now I remember.” A strangely soft, longing expression came over his wizened face when we sat down on the porch. “Believe it or not, I used to love weddings.”
“You?” My brows tugged together as I shook my head. “No way. I wouldn’t have pegged you as the romantic type.”
He scoffed. “I was the king of romance for my wife, I’ll have you know. She deserved the best any man could give her and I was the lucky one she chose to give it to her.”
A quick glance at him was all it took to know that it was still hard for him to talk about his late wife. Wanting to lighten the moment if I could to make it easier for him, I shot him a smirk. “So, you were always first on the dance floor at any wedding then, huh?”
He chuckled. “Nah. I’ve never been much of a dancer. I can spin a woman around the floor as well as the next guy, but it wasn’t the dancing we used to love at weddings. It was the ceremony.”
“The part before the party?” I slammed my hand over my heart like I was shocked. “I can’t believe it. How could you, the life of the party, have preferred the part before the party?”
A playful pun
ch landed on my shoulder, but the look in his eyes when I turned toward him made it feel like he’d punched me in the gut instead. “You young ones see a wedding as a party nowadays. We used to enjoy the party, but it was all about the ceremony. The vows people made in front of all of their loved ones. The wife and I used to recite the vows to each other right along with the bride and groom at each wedding.”
“Didn’t that kind of steal the thunder of the wedding couple?” I asked.
He rolled his eyes at me, but they were still filled with sadness. “We didn’t do it out loud, idiot. Sometimes, when you know someone as well as we knew each other, you don’t need the words. All you need is to hold the person’s hand, look into their eyes, and give a squeeze when it’s done.”
Recognizing that maybe he didn’t want the moment to be lighter after all, I sat back and tried my best to be real about things. “I’m sorry you lost her. I can’t even imagine having something like that with someone and then having it ripped away. To be honest, I’m not even sure I’ve tried to form a connection like that with someone. Is it worth it?”
He was quiet for several long minutes, but he nodded and swiped his tongue across his lips, his eyes falling closed as if it was just too painful to keep them open. “It’s the most worthwhile thing you’ll ever do, even if it does feel like you’ll never breathe again once she’s gone.”
Neither of us said anything after that, sipping on our coffee as we left the other to his thoughts. After a while, Ashton set his empty mug down and leaned forward to prop his elbows on his knees. He rested his chin on the bridge formed by his fingers but kept his gaze staring into the distance.
“It seemed like you and that Keira girl hit it off quite well. Is that why you’re asking if it’s worth it? Do you think she might become the future Mrs. Hynes?”
“I don’t know,” I said honestly. “She’s the first woman I’ve ever met that has made me feel like she could be, but things are complicated between us right now.”
“Complicated is just a fancy word you kids use when you’re trying to cover up your own bullshit. There ain’t nothing complicated about it. If you love her, then you be good to her and that’s about it. If she loves you back, she’ll be good to you too and you’ll be the luckiest son of a bitch on the planet to have a woman love you that way.”
“I’d never do anything but be good to her, but I fucked up early on and I’m not sure how to fix it.”
“Early on?” He let out a dry laugh. “You’ve known the woman for a little over a week, son. It is still early on. There’s nothing you could’ve done in a week that will fuck it up for good, not if you make it right and apologize like your life depends on it.”
“I’ll keep that in mind, but I can’t apologize right away anyway. Even if I wanted to, which I do. If I do it before the wedding, she might kick me to the curb and then she’ll get shit from her family for it.”
He gave me a long look but didn’t say anything immediately. When he did, his words were measured and careful. “I don’t know what you did, but that sounds like a lame excuse to me. If you’ll feel better telling her after the wedding, then do it. It’s only another week, but mark my words, even one more week is going to mean your apology will have to include a proper explanation.”
Before I could dodge or move out of the way, his hand came up and smacked me upside the head. “That’s for fucking up in the first place. Whatever you did, you better fucking tell her about it as soon as the wedding is over—if you’re serious about her.”
“I will,” I promised, holding my fingers over the stinging spot on my scalp. “That was really unnecessary, though.”
“No, it wasn’t.” He shrugged. “She struck me as a good woman. Good women ought to be treated well. Hell, every woman ought to be treated like a queen. You’ve already fucked up with her and you’ve only known her for a short time. Someone had to smack you and your mama ain’t around to do it.”
He rubbed his palms along his thighs, drummed his hands on them a few times, and then pushed up from the chair. “Now, are you going to help me find this chicken snake or are you just going to sit here all day?”
“I haven’t even been on the farm for an hour. That’s hardly sitting around all day,” I said but stood up anyway. “I’m coming. Just keep your panties on.”
The last vestiges of sadness disappeared when he let out a bark of laughter. “You’d be so lucky to see my panties, but I’m afraid they’re never coming off for you, son. Stop stalling. We’ve got a snake to send to its maker.”
Hunting for a snake seemed like an odd way to take his mind off missing his wife, but Ashton was like that. He was always just focused on getting on with things. I supposed there was no point dwelling on it anyway, but I also knew it would be easier said than done.
Ashton and his wife had had the real thing. Being without her was a reality he had to face for the rest of his life. I guessed that left him with many years to dwell on it if he wanted to. For now, all he seemed to want was to finally catch the damn chicken snake, so that was what I would help him do.
22
KEIRA
Damian grinned when I walked up to my cubicle on Monday morning. He was dressed as immaculately as ever in a slate-gray suit with a white button-down shirt, his shoes polished and shining. He looked freshly shaven, his goatee perfectly shaped.
While I was used to seeing him looking like a million bucks, there was always an extra sparkle about him on days when we had a big meeting. Frowning as I mentally combed through our calendar for the day, I came up empty.
As far as I knew, we didn’t have anything exciting going on. Damian didn’t usually wait for me at my desk, though, so something on our schedule had to have changed.
“What’s going on?” I asked as I let my purse slide off my shoulder, setting it down next to my computer. “Or have you decided to be my welcoming committee every morning from now on? That would be amazing.”
His pearly white teeth flashed when he smiled. “If this meeting goes well, I’m the celebratory committee.”
“What meeting?” I frowned, hitting the button to switch my computer on. “I feel like I’ve forgotten about something. We didn’t have anything big scheduled for today.”
“Oh, we do.” He put his hands on my shoulders and turned me around to face him. “I didn’t tell you about it before because I needed to see if I could swing it, but you and I have a meeting with Donny.”
My jaw went slack and my heart started racing. “Donny? As in the Donny? The training supervisor?”
“That’s the one,” he replied cheerfully. “Your big boss. The decision-maker.”
“What decisions are we asking him to make?” My voice was cautious. I didn’t know what to think about a surprise meeting with the big boss of the training division. “Is it good or bad?”
“If it goes according to plan, it’s very good.” Damian released me to take a step back, then shook his arm as he lifted it to check his watch. “Let’s get in there. He only has a few minutes free for us.”
He opened his hand and gave an elegant wave toward Donny’s office. “Are you ready?”
I smoothed out my skirt and redid the button on my jacket. Nerves bombarded me, my hands shaking slightly as I lowered them back to my sides. “As ready as I’m going to be. Are you going to give me any hints about what we’re going in there for?”
“You’ll find out in a few,” he said, the beginnings of a smug smile on his face. “I think you’re going to be very happy with it, though. So happy that you might even want to be my welcoming committee for the rest of the year. A welcoming committee every morning with coffee and a pastry.”
I glanced at him. “Coffee and a pastry, huh? What are you planning on doing? Recommending that I graduate out of the training program?”
When he didn’t say anything, my eyes became huge and my mouth dried up. I slammed to a dead stop, blinking rapidly as I stared at the back of his head. Realizing I wasn’t next to him anymore,
he turned with a satisfied gleam dancing in his dark eyes.
“Don’t put the cart in front of the horses,” he said. “It’s only a recommendation. He doesn’t have to take it, but if we don’t get in there, I’m not even going to be able to make it.”
“Right.” I swallowed past all the lumps in my throat. “Let’s go then.”
My mind raced as I followed him to Donny’s assistant. She told us to have a seat in the small waiting area just off his office, and I couldn’t get my knee to stop bouncing once we were sitting down.
Becoming a fully-fledged stockbroker was a huge deal. I hadn’t been expecting this to happen for at least another few months, and now that the day was here, I couldn’t quite get my head wrapped around the implications.
My heart nearly leaped out of my chest when the door to Donny’s office opened and the red-faced man himself appeared. The training supervisor always looked pissed off and was built like a linebacker. The combination of those two things—plus the fact that he held my future in his hands—made him one of the most intimidating human beings on earth for me to have to face.
Damian, on the other hand, didn’t appear to be ruffled by him in the least. He stood up and extended his hand with a pleasant smile on his face. “Donny, thank you for agreeing to meet with us on such short notice.”
Donny pumped his hand so hard I was afraid it might fall off, but again, Damian didn’t seem fazed at all. “You were very insistent. Let’s go get this over with, shall we?”
“We shall,” Damian replied, motioning for me to precede him.
It didn’t escape my notice that the boss hadn’t even looked my way, which didn’t bode well. But I was here with Damian and the meeting was really between the two of them. If my understanding about the process was correct, Damian hadn’t even needed to bring me. They could’ve decided my fate without me even knowing the meeting was taking place.
Not Fake For Long Page 13