“Harp—”
“By myself, please. Renaldo!” I call out. The giant, disturbingly quiet guy appears out of nowhere. “Please take me home,” I say.
“Wait, wait!” Aiden says and I pause. “The fundraiser. Go with…I mean, will you go with me? Please?”
I give him a sad smile and shake my head, “I’ll see you there.”
“Tell me honestly that you don’t want to go together,” he tries. I can’t tell him that. I turn and leave before his pleading puppy eyes change my mind.
Do I want to be his date for the most glamorous night I’ll probably ever have? Of course, yes. Yes! I mean, he’ll be in an actual tuxedo. And I get to wear a sexy, fancy dress and feel like the belle of the party.
But tonight has just cemented our fate. Unreal physical attraction aside, we are from such different worlds we’re in different galaxies. He’d never settle down in Juniper Falls. He has to keep moving to freaking earn his parents' love? Damn.
And he’s…he’s lost.
He’s about to achieve his one life’s goal, realize how pointless it all was and becrazy depressed.It probably explains his irrational fixation with me in the first place! It’s eerily similar to JimBo.
A horrible, painful lesson I refuse to repeat.
I know Aiden thinks he can wear me down about dating. That he’ll out-stubborn me. But this was just a quick, late-night lapse of judgment. There’s still quite a bit he doesn’t know. He thinks his contractors won’t back down? His rivals are tough? That I’ll just cave and be his date because he begged me to?
He can forget the Rockfords.
He has met his match.
CHAPTER 32
Aiden
“She is tormented.Tormented, I tell you,” I say as I work on my bow tie. I go on, “Let’s assess the facts, shall we? She lights up when I come into her store. She was adorably jealous about Eleanor the realtor. She knows me, really knows me, and wants to kiss me anyway. Talking together comes naturally and the not talking…bloody hell.”
I pause, remembering.
“I mean I have been wrong a few times here or there but I have never been more wrong in my expectations than how I thought that woman would kiss. It’s like every quiet, shy bone left her body and was replaced with…fire. I was exactly right in my estimation of those curves hiding under her aprons though. Exquisite. Unreal. Absolutely…”
I stop myself.
I look down, “I suppose I shouldn’t talk about your mum this way in front of you.” I scoff, “Shouldn’t be waxing poetic to a damn dog.”
He harrumphs as if he disagrees. I can only see his giant head in my bathroom doorway where he’s panting. The rest of his massive body is sprawled across the hardwood of my bedroom. Or rather, the rental’s primary bedroom.
A board member emailed me this week asking what the hell I was still doing here. The project is well underway and I’ve multiple projects I should be checking in on all over the world, let alone the U.S.
Yet, here I am.
“With you,” I tell the dog.
With her.
When I want to leave, I’ll leave. The moment hasn’t arisen yet. There will come a time, I’m sure, when pressing matters and interesting opportunities appeal to me more than staying here to help Harper make a few more dollars before she closes her shop.
And help get my other idea up and running. If I can convince that old miser, Newman, to work with me on it. Smart, secretly-wealthy bastard.
Maybe I’ll be able to bother him about it again tonight.
If I can even focus on something other than finding Harper, hopefully in some sinfully tight green ballgown, staring at her, stealing a dance…basically following her around like a little pup.
Honestly, what’s happening to me?
