“Fine.”
He gripped her legs. “Fine?” He had expected more of an argument.
“It’s your life. Your decision.”
Luke had the distinct feeling he was being played. “You’re fine with going back to the plan?”
“Yep.” She stared pointedly at his hands on her legs until he removed them. Harper turned her attention back to her menu. “I’ll see you back at work.”
“How about I buy you lunch?” he offered. The club special looked pretty good.
“No thanks. I’d rather eat by myself.” She snapped her menu shut. “But I’ll put your coffee on my tab. You can go.”
And just like that, Luke was dismissed.
***
He took the moratorium seriously and slept on the couch for two nights, thankful that it was a million times more comfortable than his grandmother’s. Yet it still paled in comparison to his bed and Harper.
What he thought was a move to simplify only turned out to be a complication. A rock hard one. The weekend turned into a two-day erection. Now that her body was off limits he wanted it even more. Those sweet curves called to him, demanding his attention, his hands.
He started avoiding her like the drunk uncle no one wants to talk to at a reunion after he found her bent over the kitchen island reading a magazine in freaking boy shorts and a tank top. He turned around so fast he rammed straight into the refrigerator.
And damned if he didn’t see the smirk on her face before he hustled out of the room. She had to be playing him. It seemed like her skirts were getting shorter, her shirts tighter, and his dick harder.
He was pissed off all the time. A fact that Frank was currently pointing out.
“What the hell crawled up your ass today?”
“I’m just not in the mood to hear how another client pissed you off.”
Frank snorted and tossed the scrap wood in the back of his truck. “I was going to tell you that the doc called today about that addition she’s been talking about. She’s ready for the expansion. But since you’re being a whiny little bitch, I guess I’ll have Harper put the consult on the calendar.”
Luke slammed the lid of his truck toolbox. When someone like Frank called him out on it, he knew he had to be acting like an ass.
“Sorry, Frank. I’m just ...” What was he? Hard, frustrated, agitated, distracted beyond belief by a certain curvy blonde who looked through him rather than at him in the kitchen this morning. “Stressed,” he finished lamely.
“Stressed? What the hell for? You’ve done this before. Your dad and I have everything covered.”
“It’s not work.” Luke used some water from his thermos to scrub the drywall dust off his hands.
“Would it have something to do with a certain female office manager who looks like she wants to jump you one minute and strangle you the next?”
“So it’s not just my imagination?”
Frank sighed and leaned against the truck. “Son, let me tell you something about women. Don’t piss them off under any circumstances. It’s not worth it. You’re risking life and limb over something that probably doesn’t matter in the first place. My advice? If you pissed her off, apologize before she turns your life into a living hell.”
It was Luke’s turn to sigh. “Should I really be taking advice from a man who’s never been married?”
“Don’t have to jump off the cliff to know you die at the bottom.”
CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO
One Week...
Harper had decided to let Luke have his way and give him some space to be stupid, but the idiot was driving himself out of his own house and making his last days home miserable.
When he texted her to ask her if she could come back to work for an hour or so that evening to help with a proposal, Harper decided to put a stop to the madness.
