Her sleepy eyes search mine…but I can’t read them. My heart is pounding like that jackhammer at the site this morning. Is her heart doing this too? Will she pull away? Slap me? Kiss me back?
Only one way to find o—
Bark!
“Uh! Yeah! Well, um, thank you for the ride,” she says quickly. I jerk away, the moment over thanks to Lewis’s damn dog. Harper nearly sprints to the back of the truck.
“I’ll get the bike, go on, go to bed. You’re not working first thing, are you?” I ask as I follow after her.
She shakes her head that no, thankfully, she isn’t.
“Thanks,” she yawns before going inside. I nod once, disturbed by how happy I am that she’s going to get to sleep. Why am I so worried about this girl? It’s not like she didn’t live a big, full, adult life before I got here.
With JimBo, apparently.
Hatethat name. And that guy, probably. Hillbilly little boy who couldn’t man up and do what he said he would do.
A Vanderwell would never.
If I’d told Marion I would settle in London and marry her, I would’ve done it. Our word is our currency, our very fortune. Since the time of handshakes and verbal agreements back when this country was founded.
That’s why I always say what I mean, what is true, even when uncomfortable, and I won’t agree to anything I can’t fully commit to. I didn’t with Marion, and thank God, since she was not who I thought she was. I also haven’t in business or…social arrangementswith women since then.
I put Harper’s bike in the garage, scratch Stu’s happy head, check the latch on the window, and close the garage. I take the truck to my driveway. It won’t fit in my garage with all the workout gear.
Well, not my garage. I rub absently at my chest as I lock the vehicle and head inside. Not my truck, not my town. I’m not like Lewis or JimBo. But the truth is that yes, I will leave too. Of course I will. This isn’t my home. I don’t even have a home. Even if I did want to settle in one place, which I don’t, it absolutely would not be Juniper Falls.
Why does that make me feel like a right bastard?
CHAPTER 19
Harper
“Bye, Aid, have a great day!” Steven calls at Aiden’s back as he leaves my store with coffee and cake donuts. The second Aiden’s car door—actually Steven’s truck door—closes, my old friend pounces on me like a cat. “Admit it! He has a crush on you!”
“He does not!” I whisper back at Steven, who is not whispering, even though he should. Not that it would matter.
Shelly chimes in, “Honey, no one is waiting until one in the morning to drive a girl home just to be nice.”
“So, he has a crush on her. Dat’s his problem,” Tyrone says. I point at him in silent agreement.
“Harper, be so for real right now. He’s rich, handsome, and totally into you. You’re not interested? Like at all?”
“No!”
“BS!” Maxine cries, “I see how your face turns purple when he comes in. We’re all watching it happen, shippin’ you two.”
“Shipping?” Tyrone asks.
Steven rolls his eyes, “Max, don’t do that with the slang, you’re as bad as Gary.” He looks at Tyrone, “It means rooting for them to be in arelationSHIP.”
“No,” Tyrone says, simply. I point at him again.
“C’mon you’re really still—”
I hold up a hand, “Really. Drop it.”
“Who’s going to tellhimto drop it.”
