Finally, we’re out back.
“Oh,” I say when I see her bike. “Carl still hasn’t fixed your car? I thought he had.”
She shrugs, “He’s busy.”
“It’s hot, Harper, let me drive you.”
“Not today, I have some things to do,” she doesn’t make eye contact. So she’s lying. But she adds, “But thank you.”
“Is this because I saw you throw up quite a bit the other night?” Her mouth falls open and her face scrunches. Okay, so, that was the wrong thing to say. “It was fine, you…you were cute.”
She grimaces, “Cute while I was throwing up?”
“No, not that bit, shit, I—”
Harper cuts me off and crosses her arms, “What did you want to ask me?”
Good show, Aiden, you can’t bloody well ask her now!
“Just about the Derby thing,” I say. She doesn’t move or soften or…is she even blinking? “Can I help?” I try. Nothing. “Please?”
Her posture relaxes, just barely. She sighs, “Okay, we can talk about it tomorrow.”
“Tomorrow?”
“Yeah, I really do have some things to go do. And no,” she emphasizes the word just as I open my mouth, “you can’t drive me to do them.”
I roll my lips between my teeth to keep myself from saying anything. I nod and step back, watching as she climbs over the bicycle, balances her huge bag on one side and then…
“What’s that?” I ask.
“A potted plant,” she responds like I’m daft. Maybe I am. But it hardly fits in the bike’s tiny basket. She’s going to topple over and hurt herself. “For Betty,” she adds, going shy again.
So, unable to help myself, I ask, “Where’s my plant?” Her mouth falls open adorably, just as I knew it would. I put my hands up, “Only joking!”
“You were not!”
“I was!”
She huffs, “You weren’t,” she says as she begins pedaling off, wobbling terribly, “and you’re not getting a plant! You’d just dump out the flowers, flatten the dirt and pour cement on top!”
“You’re still not over that, then?” I call out after her hoping and…there it is.She lifts her dainty, flour-covered hand and gives me the bird.
This is irrational, this reaction. I should not be pleased that the woman I want to start seeing is flipping me off. But it’sreal.It’s a glimpse ofher.And I guess at this point, I’ll take what I can see.
And tomorrow I’ll grow a pair of actual testicles and ask to see much more of her.
Hopefully.
CHAPTER 21
Harper
“Steven, could you, er, I mean, I got some of your mail,” I wave my hand at my friend so he’ll join me in the back.
He reads the room beautifully. I want to speak to him, alone. I almost asked him for help, which would have resulted in the whole town, and Aiden, also offering to help. I don’t need help, I need an opinion. Steven’s opinion.
“What is it,” he says, eyes wide with excitement when we reach my office.
