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.
“Close the door,” I whisper back.
“Oooooo,” he starts.
I shush him, “Shh, no it’s not that exciting, I just, don’t you think Aiden is being weird?”
“Honey, he was born a billionaire. He is weird. He can’t help it.”
“No, I mean, well, yes.” I plop down in my seat and pick up my stapler, which hasn’t had staples in it for at least a year, and click it a couple times. “But why is he staying around giving us business advice every morning?”
“To watch you,” Steven answers like it’s the most obvious thing in the world.
“No! What? Why?”
“Because he’s in love with you and wants you to have a bunch of little red headed babies for him, duh,” he goes off.
“Steven—”
“Hot damn, you guys would have the most beautiful babies.”
“Steven!”
“Can you imagine it? Because we are talking Gerber model babies, here, Harper, he—”
“Steven, you’ve said all this before! Twice!” I cut him off. With the cold, hard truth. He, we, I cannot keep romanticizing relationships. I’ve done it with new female friends, boyfriends…JimBo…
He grimaces, “Sorry. I do get carried away, I know. But seriously, why else would he sit around here? The vibes? I mean it’s a cute shop but…”
“No, you’re right, it’s probably not really his scene,” I admit. “Still, it’s not for me. It can’t be.”
“Why not? Weren’t you guys making out in the NogMobile at karaoke night?”
“What! No!” I shriek. He makes an oops face that I’m positive means he told the whole town that’s exactly what we were doing. I explain, “He’s claustrophobic. I was trying to talk him through it.”
“That is not what it looked like,” Steven says.
“Anywayyyyy, let’s say it is about me, what does he want? Maybe it’s about the coffee? Or the Roasted Chestnut? Maybe he’s opening a chain of bakeries?”
“Yes, Harper, I bet he’s opening a chain of bakeries.”
“You think?”
“No, girl, I think he wants to open up the baker if you know what I’m saying!”
“Shhh! Ewww! Why do you say things like that?”
Steven shrugs, “I am a lot. Sorry, not sorry.”
“That’s not going to happen,” I say, meaning it.
“Harp, would it be the worst—”
“Yes!” I stand up from my little desk chair.
“It would be the worst thing! I am not available, you know this. Plus, Janie went off about him and all the models in those pics you found online. It is not happening, so don’t encourage him.
Don’t spread the gossip or egg on the aunts or Tyrone.
It Can. Not. Happen.” I get up and start pacing, “He’s leaving in a matter of weeks.
He’ll move on to someone else. I’m just going to avoid him. ”
“Someone else?” Steven asks.
“Yes!” I point at him with the stapler, “Great idea. Set him up with someone!”
“Who?”
I continue to walk back and forth in the tiny office, “I don’t know, one of your hot realtor friends.”
“Hot realtor friends?”
“Realtors are hot and you know it! A chick from Cedar Point or Pine Bluff. Or New York! Fly someone in from Manhattan!”
“Fly? You’re losing it a bit, honey,” he murmurs watching me go left and right like a tennis match.
I point at him, “Don’t you play coy, Steven Mayweather, if anyone could get a gaggle of hot realtors here from Manhattan, it’s you! Work your social butterfly magic and get his focus off of me and onto some babe from out of town.”
“Let’s put down the stapler,” Steven says with the voice you’d use to tame a wild animal. “Hot realtors. Got it. But…is the lady protesting too much?”
I deflate back into my chair, “He’s hot, fine, I’ll admit that. He’s even almost nice? Sometimes? Helpful. But you know everything with JimBo and I just…I just can’t, Steven. You’ve got to help me.”
“Okay, Harp. Okay.”
We leave my tiny office, and I feel better.
I feel better the rest of the morning and afternoon, not running into Aiden outside the shop or near the house.
I feel better making it through the evening without any texts or noises from next door.
Yesterday I’m pretty sure he had his music cranked just so I would stomp over and yell at him. I did not.
I feel a lot better by the time my head hits the pillow. I’ve avoided him for a couple days. I can handle a few more.
_____
“Good morning,” I hear in the pitch black of my garage.
“AHHHHH!”
“Shhhhh!”
I grab my poor heart, surely about to just croak and call it a day. I get it. It’s been through enough. I look around for Stuart. He’s smiling at me from right beside Aiden’s leg.
“Some guard dog you are!”
Aiden leans down to pet Stu’s big head, “I would scold him but I was very happy he didn’t wake the whole neighborhood when I opened the garage.”
“Yeah, that! What are you doing in my garage?”
“Letting you know your car is fixed,” he says.
“I…what?”
“Your car is fixed, please stop cycling around in this muggy weather with your giant bag and your potted plants.” I glare at him, That was just one time. He glares back, making a show of opening Dad’s car door for me.
“But Carl said it would be another week,” I frown at the keys in Aiden’s hand.
“Yes, well, money doesn’t solve everything but it can skip one’s name to the front of the line, I’ve found.
Without fail, pretty much every single time.
Depending on the amount, and the line in question.
Some lines are harder than others, but then you just add a couple zeros. To the amount, not the line.”
He’s rambling. Which is weird. But, wait, what did he say?
“You paid to have my car fixed?”
He cocks his head and says, “I…paid Carl to fix your car first.”
“Don’t tomato, potato me! I didn’t ask you for this!”
He shrugs, “We’re friends. Friends help each other.” I wait, brows raised, We are not friends. He looks down at me, “Aren’t we?”
Why is he standing so close? Not again! Alert, Harper! Alerrrrt!
“Sure, we are. Thank you,” I grab the keys. “Okay! Bye!”
Stuart barks, probably calling me a big scaredy cat, and I just assume Aiden is going to hold his leash while I get the heck outta here. I think the beautiful, strange man is calling my name but I’m pretending not to hear.
Because remember this cannot happen, Harper. It can’t!
_____
I stay strong, avoiding him at the counter and hiding in my office while he sits in the shop.
Watching. Waiting. What is he waiting for?
Doesn’t matter. I’m leaving early. I file away some paperwork, text my employees that I’m leaving (rather than talk to them like a normal adult boss) and head to Tyrone’s to work on the Derby.
We work long into the night, me latest of all. Steven side-eyes me when he leaves near nine, knowing I’m basically about to turn into a squash. I’m staying out only partially so I don’t have to see my neighbor. We also have a lot to do and Betty took care of Dad’s dinner so I had the night off.
But, yeah, mostly the neighbor thing.
I yawn a couple times in a row and Tyrone kicks me out. I’m happy to go. I’m pooped.
I manage to keep my eyes open on the drive home and…what the heck is that? What is…
NO.
He cannot be serious.
I look over at Aiden’s house. Lights are mostly off. Still, he’s probably awake in there, since most people stay up much later than I do. He wants me to come over and yell at him. Or at least ask how, when?
So, I’m obviously not going to do that.
He may be getting hotter and kinder by the day but he’s still too much of a bully for me to just roll over and do what he wants. I get out my phone instead.
Harper: Did you get me a new fence?
The Dark Lord: I got Stuart a new fence.
The Dark Lord: At this point he’s more my dog than yours.
The Dark Lord: [selfie]
Holy crap.
“Holy crap!”
It’s a selfie. Aiden Vanderwell sent me a selfie. A SHIRTLESS SELFIE. WITH MY DOG.
This must be after a run. I bet Stuart got out and ran with him. They’re outside in the perfect evening light. He’s almost smiling…sweaty…his torso…his massive arm around my big furry doofus…
This is maybe the hottest image I’ve ever seen.
I…I have to tell someone! But Janie will scold me and Steven will celebrate…and probably save it as his phone background. Lily is too far removed. I’d have to fill her in on the whole situation. She probably won’t even have time to take my call, too busy with world domination.
Well. Too bad.
She’s my sister. She’ll have to make time. I manage to stop drooling over the photo long enough to swipe over to her contact and tap the video icon.
“Hello?”
“Hey, I need to show you something.”
“Is everything okay? It’s past nine there,” she says, knowing me too well.
“Yes. No? I have a lot to tell you,” I get out of my car to open the garage. An empty garage, thanks to the new, giant fence Aiden bought. “And then I have to show you something. Drop everything, okay? Stop working and talk to me?”
“Of course, you’re scaring me.”
“It’s not scary, sorry, just, uh, buckle up.”
I tell her everything that’s happened since I sent her a text that said I think someone might be making an offer to save the town.
Basically the show down at the council meeting, St. Patrick’s day, The Maple Tap, the Mud Bog, the Easter market, the secret karaoke and the amped up trivia night…
and Stuart and Dad and my neighbor and the car and now the fence and finally…
“Shut the front door!”
“I know,” I say.
“Shut the front door in my face right now, Harper Louise! First, you are in such such deep shit that you didn’t tell me how bad things are.
You still have Stuart? Seriously? And Dad’s cutting himself open in the middle of the night?
And I want to circle back to the ice penis and, seriously, later I am going to be so so mad at you, but look at that man’s bicep, Harper! ”
“I’m looking,” I say, nodding along with everything she’s saying.
“He bought you a new fence?”
“I mean, he has money,” I hitch a shoulder, “That’s nothing to him.”
“A selfie with your dog is not nothing,” she says.
I nod, “I agree with you there. Even if he’s not quite my dog.”
“I’m still mad at you about the dog! And Dad, is he okay?”
“Same as before, good days and bad days, up and down on a downward trend overalls.”
“Overall. Okay. Before we get into that, what do you think of him?”
“Dad?”
“No, not dad, the hot billionaire who wants in your pants!”
I wince, “He…he doesn’t want that. But he’s…I thought he was a bully. He still kind of is, and you know the policy on bullies.”
“He’s kind of a bully?”
“He’s blunt,” I say. She raises her eyebrows, using my signature move on me, “Too blunt. Direct and abrasive. Like a grumpy bull in a porcelain shop.” I catch myself, “China! China shop.”
“But do you like him?”
“No,” I say. She waits again. “I don’t think so. Not enough to…I mean you know. I’m not up for all of it.”
“What if ‘all of it’ is just dating? Just having a little fun?”
“It’s never just a little fun, someone catches feelings, usually me, and then someone leaves, usually not me,” I say. I know the last part will probably make her feel bad but it’s the truth. She is a someone who left, too.
She raises her hands in my screen, “Okay, I trust your judgment. I pushed you to try a real relationship with Lewis and look how that turned out.”
“Yeah,” I say.
“No, I mean look at that dog trapped in that bicep! I can’t look away!”
We both laugh. We talk honestly about Dad, even though it’s hard.
We talk about the shop and the possibility that it will be gone in just a few months.
No more dream store for dad, no more baking for me.
Also hard. Eventually I decide to steer the conversation to an easy topic, Lily’s job, which she loves.
“Eh, it’s busy. So, what are you going to do about him?” I pause, studying her. She’s never reacted that way about work, ever. “What will you do about Aiden?”
“Continue to avoid him as best as I can before he leaves,” I say, propping her up on my bathroom counter so I can start my nighttime routine.
She asks, “That’s really what you want?”
“Yes, I’m just…I don’t want to deal with…everything.”
“Okay, Harp, I hear you. I’ve got to go, keep me posted okay? Like in real time from now on,” she scolds.
“I will.”
“Love you.”
“Love you too.”
We hang up and I start scrubbing my face. Aggressively. Because I’m angry. I don’t feel like I really have a choice to see how something might go with Aiden, even if I wanted to. Which I don’t.
BECAUSE HE WILL LEAVE LIKE EVERY OTHER DAMN PERSON.
I stop scrubbing.
These thoughts are not serving you, Harp.
Positive thoughts. Gratitude. Blooming. Blossoming. Boss Harper.
We are going to prove Aiden wrong and I am going to keep Dad’s shop open. My last couple ideas have worked. It’s not millions in revenue but we’re finally seeing an uptick in all the stores after each weekend. It’s working.
I just have to keep going. Keep pushing and tweaking. Keep avoiding Mr. Shirtless Selfie.
No! Mr. Vanderbully.
No?
…Aiden.
I just have to keep avoiding Aiden.