“Okay, it’s something but I can’t talk about it now. Besides, here come more customers. We’ll talk about it later.”
“Promise?”
Savannah rolled her eyes. “Would you like me to pinkie swear?”
“If that’s what it takes,” Rachel said and went to attend to her customers.
Harlan didn’t knowexactly what was going on with Savannah but he was ninety-five percent sure Randall Taylor had something to do with it. She’d been acting strangely since her father had dragged her off Friday night. But try as he might, he hadn’t been able to get her to talk.
They spent Saturday night and Sunday together but she went to her own apartment Sunday night. She still refused to talk about what was bothering her. And while the sex between them was as intense as ever, he sensed a barrier that hadn’t been there before.
Even so, if she was willing, he couldn’t turn her down. He wanted her too much. And damn it, even worse than that, he’d fallen in love with her. Again. In a matter of days.
He’d gotten over Savannah. Had gone on with his life, had lovers, been married. And yet, he’d always felt that something was missing. Was that something—someone—Savannah? He’d wondered occasionally through the years. Now that they were together again...he knew. Savannah was the one. The one woman who was right for him, the one woman he wanted.
Coming into the office after meeting Logan and Eli out at the winery site, he paused to watch Savannah at work. She clearly didn’t realize he had come in. Rather than working, she had her arms propped up on her desk and her head buried in her hands. He walked over to her and put his hand on her shoulder. “Problems?”
She jumped and raised her head. “Harlan. I didn’t hear you come in.”
“No, you clearly had something on your mind. Want to talk about it?” He sat on the edge of her desk. When she didn’t answer, he added, “It’s your father, isn’t it? This is about whatever he said to you Friday night. You’ve been acting sq—” he started to say squirrely but changed it. “You haven’t been yourself since then.”
“Do either of us really know what the other is like? We were together once, years ago. Did we know each other then? Do we know each other now, after a little more than two weeks?”
“I thought we did. What am I missing?”
She gazed at him for a long, long moment, her expression increasingly troubled. “Is Alan Lang your illegitimate son?”
What the fuck? How in the hell had she dreamed that up?Then it hit him. Of course. Randall Taylor had put that image in her head. He must have found out Harlan had helped Judy when she got pregnant and the piece of shit father of her baby blew her off. Judy was a friend of Laurel’s and his sister had turned to him for help for her friend. He and Judy had formed a lasting friendship, but it had never been romantic. They looked on each other as practically brother and sister.
He stood. “No, I don’t have a son. Legitimate or otherwise. Or a daughter, for that matter. Which I told you days ago. Why would you think I do?” he asked, though he knew the answer.
“I...my father...my father told me. He said that was why he broke us up. Because you’d fathered a child. Not only that but you did it while you were supposed to be with me. And you wouldn’t marry...Judy when you found out she was pregnant.”
“And you believed him.” It wasn’t a question. Obviously, she had.
“No! I didn’t. I said you’d have told me if that was true.”
“But now you’re wondering.”
“I didn’t think it was true. But you’re obviously close to Judy and then, when you brought Alan to the park...I didn’t want to believe it, but you could have been father and son.”
“Jasper might have something to say about that.” Harlan clamped down on his temper. He was getting more pissed by the second but he knew losing it wouldn’t help matters. “Is that what you really think of me? That I’m the kind of man who would refuse to recognize his own child, refuse to take responsibility for a life I’d helped create?”
“He said you supported the child.”
“Oh, well, then it’s perfectly understandable why you’d believe that son of a bitch.”
“Harlan—”
He walked away to stare out the window. It was a gray, cloudy winter day, matching his mood. He turned back to Savannah. “I guess I shouldn’t be surprised you’d believe I was cheating on her with you, or you with her. You said as much when you admitted you thought I’d slept with you and dumped you right after because all I wanted was sex.”
Savannah stood up too. “What was I supposed to think? You dumped me flat, only days after we had sex. Can you really blame me for thinking you were...”
“Slime? Scum? A bastard?”
“Yes. All of that,” she snapped, clearly angry herself.
“I don’t blame you for what you thought fourteen years ago. You had no reason to believe I hadn’t left you voluntarily. But now is a different matter. I thought we had something together. Something good. Something we could build on.”
