He tensed. “What about it?”
“I’m sorry. I’m not trying to be invasive,” she said. “We don’t have to discuss it if you don’t want to. But it’s just… you make sense to me now. How hard you work. When I thought work was the only thing you cared about, it didn’t add up that you could also really love your brother. But I could see that you did. It’s obvious by the way you are around one another that he looks up to you, and that you’d do anything for him.”
“That’s true,” Theo murmured.
“So, I couldn’t understand why you didn’t seem to want to help plan this wedding. I’msoexcited about it, I just couldn’t see why you didn’t feel the same way. But I get it now. Youdowant to take care of your brother. You just do it so differently from the way I would. You do it by making sure he’s provided for financially. I get that. If I were in your shoes, I bet I would want to do exactly the same thing.”
They walked along in silence for a moment. Theo didn’t acknowledge what she’d said. But Harper thought she understood him well enough by now to know that if she had gotten it wrong, he wouldn’t have let it slide. He would have tried to argue with her.
She had him right. She was sure of it.
But then he spoke, and he managed to surprise her after all. “The truth is,” he said, “I’m not sure this is the right thing for him.”
“What? You mean… marrying Tara?” She bristled. If he thought he could say anything negative to her about her best friend, he had misunderstood her, and badly.
“Don’t get me wrong,” he said quickly. “Tara’s an amazing woman. I don’t think he could find anyone better. And they’ve got kids together, and they’re a family, and I support that. All of it.”
“So, then, whatdon’tyou support?”
“It’s the idea of marriage. Why do they need to do that? They’ve already got a good thing going, so why mess with success?”
They reached the rustic wishing well at the back of the property. There were a few benches around it, and Harper moved to sit down on one of them. Theo followed suit.
“I guess they just want to make things official,” Harper said. “I can’t really blame them for that — can you?”
“I mean,why, though?” Theo asked. “It doesn’t make it any less likely that they’ll break up.”
“I don’t think they see it as that,” Harper said, slightly taken aback. “I know Tara doesn’t. She’s not marrying your brother to make sure he doesn’t leave.”
“Then whyisshe doing it?”
“Because she loves him,” Harper said. “Because… because she wants to stand up in front of her friends and family and celebrate the fact that they love each other. And because she wants to show her kids that they really are a family, in every way possible. I think it’s a beautiful thing. You really don’t think so?”
“I just don’t see what good it does anyone,” Theo said. “It won’t change anything. And I’m not saying they’d ever split up, but if they ever do, all that legal paperwork just makes things that much more difficult.”
“Well,that’sromantic.”
“That’s the whole problem,” he said. “People get so soppy and romantic about these things, and they forget to be practical. Marriage isn’t practical. You’re spending a bunch of money — and I’m happy to spend money for my brother, don’t get me wrong — but I just don’t see why he wants this so much.”
“So, you never want to get married?”
“Marriage made my parents miserable,” Theo said. “You’d never catch me doing that, no. I’m much happier on my own than I could ever be tied to someone else.”
“It seems a little sad,” Harper said. “You’ll just… never be in love enough to want to marry someone? You’re so sure?”
“To tell you the truth, I don’t see myself falling in loveat all,” he said. “That’s a lot of reliance on another person, and I find things go most smoothly in life when you just rely on yourself. At least you can trust yourself.”
“I suppose,” she murmured. It sounded awfully lonely to her, but if that was what he wanted, she supposed it was a good thing that he knew it.
He glanced at her. “You’re not married either,” he pointed out.
“But I’d like to be.”
“Do you have a boyfriend? Or is that too personal a question?”
“It’s not,” she said. “You’d find out at the wedding anyway, because I’m not going to bring a date.”
“So, you’re single?”
