With only two weeks until his unit deployed, she needed to strategize a graceful exit. She had every intention of using this month for résumé polishing and job-hunting, but she had spent the majority of her time working or naked.
She didn’t feel particularly remorseful about her priorities. However, she was dangerously close to getting carried away with their faux romance. A little shot of reality, however painful, was a healthy reminder of what she needed to focus on.
Guiltily, Harper thought about the handful of emails her friend Hannah had sent her with job postings in Fremont that she hadn’t even opened yet.
Thanks to the generous salary Luke gave her and the fact that he refused to let her pay rent or utilities, her savings account was being rebuilt, and she would have plenty for a security deposit and rent on a new apartment. She’d even have a little left over for some furniture.
A little place of her own would be a good thing to focus on when it came to getting over Luke.
Harper sighed and dumped her files on the floor. “Let’s go grab some lunch before we tackle the shredding. My treat.”
***
When Luke came home that afternoon, he found Harper perched on a barstool squinting at his laptop. Harper lifted her face for a kiss, and he caught a glimpse of the screen.
“Looking for a new job on your boss’s computer? Classy.”
Harper wrinkled her nose at him and pulled him down for another kiss. “Very funny. And yes.” She turned her attention back to the screen. “I’m also trying to figure out how to make being in this position for only a month not sound flaky on my résumé.”
Luke went to the sink to pour two glasses of water. “Call it a short-term contract position.”
“God. You’re a genius. No wonder I want to get in your pants all the time.”
He immediately felt himself go hard. Keeping the island between them, he slid a glass to her. “I can write you a reference letter, if that would help.” Where the hell had that come from?
Those big gray eyes widened with hope. Always a punch in his gut.
“Are you serious? That would be amazing!”
Great. Now he had to do it or look like an asshole. Writing an email was difficult for him. How was he supposed to put a glowing review on paper? Not that Harper didn’t deserve it. She had taken his floundering mess of an office and started pushing it down the road to being an efficient operation in just two weeks.
Maybe he could make Sophie write it.
“So where are you looking for jobs?” he asked.
Harper took a sip of water. “I’m focusing on my original plan of Fremont. It’s no Benevolence, but I think being close to Hannah again would be nice.”
“Have you thought of staying around here?” What the fuck was wrong with him? He hadn’t even known he was thinking it before it was shooting out of his mouth.
Harper shifted in her seat and looked away from him towards the cabinets. “Uh, yeah. For about a minute. I don’t think it would work.”
Now he had to ask. “Why’s that?” He pretended to flip through the mail on the counter.
She cleared her throat. “I don’t want to say because you’ll take it the wrong way and go into panic mode.”
Luke decided to just stare her down until she broke. It took her about thirty seconds of squirming before he won. “I thought about staying until I realized what it would be like to run into you and your future girlfriend and then wife at the grocery store every week. Every time I’d see you, I’d think about what it was like to be with you while knowing that now someone else gets to be with you that way...” She shuddered and shook her head. “That’s not the way I want to spend the rest of my life.”
His gut churned at the idea. Not of him with someone else. That wasn’t going to happen. But Harper would move on. She deserved to move on. He would see her around town with some guy who would ask her to marry him. He’d see her with kids at sporting events. They’d run into each other at the lake in the summer and it would be some other lucky asshole’s hands on those perfect curves.
Luke set his glass down with a bang on the granite. Harper jumped.
“See? I told you you wouldn’t like it. I’m not saying I’m in love with you, Luke. I just don’t like the idea of you moving on.”
Right back at you, baby.
“Good point. Hey, your first mail here.” He tossed the envelope with her name written in scrawling handwriting to her. Harper glanced at it and frowned.
“Just junk mail,” she said shoving it under the laptop. “So since we’re on the subject anyway, what are we going to tell your family about me leaving?”
