CHAPTER 28
Harper
“I’m telling you, he was about to cry,” I tell my sister. I hold up two dresses to my body in front of the mirror and also in her line of sight over FaceTime.
“Damn, that’s crazy,” she says, as shocked as me, “Black one with a jacket if you think you’ll get chilly later, striped if it’s warm. You’d think he’d’ve grown up with huge elaborate parties with petting zoos, and, like, Ed Sheeran hired to play or something.”
I throw the striped milkmaid style sundress on my bed and tuck the black back in my closet as I pile on, “I know! His whole life, not one party. We didn’t even sing this morning! I didn’t even have a candle for him to blow out!” I say, kicking myself.
“Uh, yeah, his sad little rich boy life aside, why exactly did you throw him a party at all? He’s Juniper Falls enemy number one,” Lily points at me, or at the phone camera, with a chopstick.
“He’s not though, not really. I mean half of us on Main are mad about the parking lot, yes, but the other half can’t wait for his resort to save us all. Plus, between now and July he’s really been trying to help.”
“He can help by not tearing the shop down!”
I sigh, “That’s what I said. But he said it can’t be changed. Optimizing the slope of the mountain and so on and so far.”
“Forth,” she corrects with a slurp of her noodles. She lifts a shoulder and says, “Okay, so I guess it was the same as the birthday parties you threw for Steven or Uncle Tyrone.”
I frown at her, “I…didn’t throw a birthday party for Steven or Tyrone.”
She turns on the camera and screeches, “Exactly! You like him!”
“No I don’t!” I yell back, “He’s all alone here and he was coming in for coffee anyway.”
“Harper.”
“I don’t!”
“HARPER.”
I shake my head, “I don’t. He’s just become a friend.”
“A hot friend who bought you your dream car?”
I groan, “Ugh. Like I texted you the other day, I’m not keeping it. I can use that money when I sell it. But I still want to ask him how he knew that was my dream car.”
“Agree about the money though I’m sad for you that there’s no other way. When you ask him, time it during one of his shirtless workouts,” she murmurs.
I point to the camera this time, “You think he’s so hot, you come and date him!”
“Any heterosexual woman with fully functioning eyeballs thinks he’s hot, Harp.”
I roll my eyes, “Hot is overrated.”
“True,” she says, looking longingly into her ramen. I study her for a minute, sensing again that something is off.
“Lily are you…are you in pajamas?”
She nods, “Took a sick day. But that just means working from home, you know me. So I better get back at it.”
“Okay, love you.”
“Love you too. And hey, turning the side of Aunt Kim’s old barn into a drive-in theater is yet another great idea. I hope you make a killing.”
“Thanks Lil. Bye,” I say, letting her go because that’s what she obviously wants, not because I believe her little fib about working from home.
Plus, I need to get ready. I get to get ready. I have a whole afternoon to pamper myself. The shop was slower after Aiden’s mini-party so I got a head start and Madison is covering the rest of the prep for the new popcorn balls DJ will sell tonight.
Now I can actually shower and wear something other than a bakery shirt. I am putting actual product in my hair. I might even paint my nails!
I laugh at myself.
Nah, I probably won’t. It will chip at 4:30 in the morning when I grab a tray of muffins and that’ll be that. I am going to look cute though. For me. Not for any other reason or person or anything.
Not because I keep reliving how a certain someone gripped me to his chest this morning like I was his sole light force.
Life force. Like he’d fight to the death, Bridgerton style, just to protect me.
Like he was about to pull back and kiss me senseless and then, I don’t know…
maybe lift me up onto my little office desk and have his wicked way with me?
I sigh.
Get real, Harper! You told him to get lost!
Even if he still wanted to do any of that, I’d never let him get that far in real life. Because as wonderful as it sounds, it wouldn’t lead anywhere. Or it would lead somewhere other than here, which is where I’m stuck.
Not stuck! Where God has me! Where I’m busy blooming.
I roll my eyes at myself in the mirror.
I take my time getting ready and feel pretty confident by the time evening rolls around.
My curls are down and tamed, I have actual foundation and eye shadow on, versus my usual sweat-proof-mascara-only look.
I am short but I’ve been told I have a great set of boobs and, well, this dress is helping to show them off.
I swipe on some lip gloss with a half-smile right as my phone buzzes.
Steven: So we’re still NOT shipping Haiden, right?
Harper: What?
Steven: You and Aiden, that’s still an absolute no-go?
Harper: Right
Steven: Okay good because I did what you asked.
Steven: [photo]
I almost drop my phone.
Aiden is laughing. With a woman. A realtor from Cedar Ridge, or somewhere, I’m positive.
She’s tall like him, lean and strong like she works out, but sporting perfect, long, caramel waves, as if that rigorous workout was at the beach.
They look amazing together with their bright white smiles and tailored clothes.
I can’t…
I don’t…
He’s laughing?!
I am stuck staring when another message comes through.
Steven: Nailed it, right?
Steven: Elizabeth is the perfect distraction for him! I bet they won’t even make it to intermission
Right. Right.
I asked Steven to find Aiden a distraction, and he delivered. Gosh, did he deliver. Elizabeth is such an old money name. I bet her last name is, like, Washington or something else forefather-y.
Good. This is good. He’ll stop buying me things and asking me to dinner.
He’ll buy Elizabeth things and take Elizabeth to dinner. Then she’ll leave Cedar Ridge and travel the world with him and they’ll have a massive wedding in London and pop out three perfect white-teeth babies and it’ll be all anyone can talk about.
And I’ll be here.
Right.
Good.
Great.
This is great.
_____
“This is some bullshit,” Maxine grouses the second I arrive at the barn.
We’ve set up a concession stand inside the big structure that was sitting empty.
I frown in confusion at her, since the barn is full of paying customers, so she goes on, “I didn’t go by your shop to watch you two hotties fall in love every single morning for months just for him to get snatched up by some Pine Bluff bimbo! ”
“What!” I squeak.
I shake my head at all the wrong things she just said in one sentence.
“You heard me. She’s moving in on your man, Harper. Question is, what’re you gonna do about it?” She makes a show of pointing at me, then at the big doorway.
I look and squeak again. There he is, in his button up shirt and slacks, no tie. Or, rather, there they are, walking together. He looks…less grumpy than usual. Relaxed, hands in his pockets. She laughs at something he mutters then touches his arm.
“Hm?” Maxine pushes, challenging me to react.
So, of course, I deck behind a rack of Maxine’s key chains, back between a couple tables, and bolt out the back door as fast as I can.