Chapter 6
FOUR WEEKS…
“ Y ou don’t have to do this, you know.” Luke gripped the steering wheel of his truck like it was someone’s neck. Five minutes previous, they had pulled into his parents’ driveway, a winding ribbon of asphalt that led to a charming two-story farmhouse with a porch that wrapped around both sides.
Harper bit her lip to keep from smiling. “Luke, they’re your family. How bad could they be?”
“You’ll see.”
She patted his shoulder. “It’ll be fine, boyfriend. Or should I start calling you something gross like Lukey Bear?”
He grimaced.
“Poor baby, it’ll all be over soon. Let’s get in there and get it over with. Unless you just want to hang out here and make out.”
“You don’t know what they’re like.”
“Are they mean?”
He shook his head. “More like well-meaning. Obsessively so.”
“There are worse problems than a family who loves you and wants you to be happy,” she said, arching an eyebrow.
“I realize that. I’m just having trouble thinking of any right now.”
She pinched him. “I thought you were this big, tough, manly guy. And here you are cowering in the driveway because you’re scared of a little family get-together.”
“I’m not scared.”
“My mistake.” Harper glanced out the window and made a chicken noise.
He sighed and reached over to ruffle her hair. “Come on, dear . Let’s get this party over with.”
“Dear? Seriously? Is that the best you can do?”
They approached the house by way of a meandering walkway.
He slung an arm around her shoulder and pulled her closer.
He smelled like spices and sawdust. Harper tried to quell the pitter pat of her pulse.
It was just a fake relationship. Nothing to get physically excited about.
They were doing each other a favor, not actually banging like red-blooded adults.
“Ready?” he whispered in her ear.
Harper was suddenly the nervous one. “What if they don’t like me?” she whispered back.
“Now who’s scared? Trust me, you could have two heads and a criminal record and they’d still want to like you.”
“Because I’m awesome?”
“Because I’m fake dating you.”
Harper snorted.
“Actually that gives me an idea,” he said. “Mind if we have a little fun with this?”
“Oh, way ahead of you. We met online two weeks ago in the Craigslist missed connections,” she said.
“I just couldn’t say no to your topless profile picture.” He guided her up the walk.
“Don’t be modest. That shot of you in just a tool belt was pretty spectacular.”
They stepped up onto the wide front porch, and Harper saw the lace curtain twitch.
“I think they’re watching us,” she said without moving her lips.
“Uh-huh,” he answered through a jaw-straining fake smile.
Luke pushed the bright red Craftsman-style door open without knocking and found the entire family—all eight of them—standing awkwardly in the airy foyer .
“Hi guys.”
“Hello, sweetheart.” A woman with a pixie cut and a soft pink sweater stepped forward to kiss Luke on the cheek. “We were just checking out a squeak in the floor.”
“The one that’s been there for twenty years?”
The woman ignored him and held her hands out to Harper.
“You must be Harper. Since my son’s manners seem to have deserted him, I’m his mother, Claire.
This is Luke’s dad, Charlie,” she said, gesturing to the tall, silver-haired man at the back of the pack.
Charlie raised a hand in a silent greeting.
“Our youngest son, James,” Claire continued, pointing at a slightly younger, leaner version of Luke who was making short work of an apple. He winked at her.
“Sophie, you know,” Claire put her hands on her daughter’s shoulders, and Harper was struck by their resemblance. All dark hair and olive tones. “And this is her husband, Ty Adler, and their little one, Josh.”
“Nice to see you again, Slugger,” Ty, in a hooded sweatshirt and jeans instead of his deputy’s uniform, said while tickling his mini-me toddler on his shoulders.
“This is Uncle Stu and Aunt Syl,” Claire said, waving at the mustached man Luke had pointed out at Remo’s last night and his smiling, lanky wife. “And I think that takes care of the introductions.”
“Hi, um, everyone,” Harper said, waving awkwardly. “I’m Harper.”
“Hi Harper,” they answered in unison.
Luke sighed and took Harper’s hand, leading her through the throng. The floor did, in fact, squeak under her foot.
“Smells good in here, Ma. What’s for lunch?”
The crowd filed into the spacious kitchen behind them. Something bubbled away on the granite island’s range. Claire slapped Luke’s hand away from the glass candy dish.
“Pot roast with mashed potatoes and roasted root vegetables. We’ll be ready in about half an hour, so why don’t you give Harper the grand tour and get out of my way? Harper, can I get you a glass of wine?”
“I’m fine, Mrs. Garrison. But I really would like that tour.”
“It’s Claire, please. And you two go ahead. We’ll call you when lunch is ready.”
“You’re finally going to let me have a girl in my room? It’s about time.” Luke put his hands on Harper’s shoulders and pushed her back down the hallway.
“Sorry,” he whispered in her ear.
She enjoyed the tickle of his breath against her skin. “That was only a little awkward.”
“Awkward and suffocating.” He guided her towards the stairs.
The farmhouse was laid out in a simple four-square formation on the first floor with the two rooms on the right opening into each other to create one large gathering room. Pictures plastered the walls and flat surfaces, and there was a mixture of antiques and modern amenities. It was homey.
His hands slid to her hips as she started to climb the stairs. She leaned back against his chest as they ascended.
“If this is too much, tell me,” he said. “Soph said to sell it.”
“I don’t mind,” she said, her pulse jumping.
The stairs opened up into a wide hallway of sorts with a window seat built over short bookcases. “What a great way to use this space!” Harper leaned down to get a closer look. The shelves were stuffed with paperbacks and photo albums, each neatly labeled with a year range or name.
Luke stuffed his hands in his pockets. “Dad and I built this years ago after Mom ran out of room in the den.”
“Can I look at Luke One?” Harper fingered the spine of a navy-blue linen album.
“Uh. Sure,” he said unenthusiastically.
Harper didn’t wait for him to change his mind. She plopped down on the thick cushion of the window seat and began to page through. “You were pretty adorable as a toddler.” She peered at a picture of three-year-old Luke trying to put on his father’s tool belt, grinning with pride.
He sat down next to her and grimaced. “Why don’t we look at Soph’s album?—”
“Don’t even think about it, Handysome.”
“Repeat that name again and I’m going to have to murder you.”
“Roger that, Lukey Bear,” she said, unfazed by the threat. “Oh, look at your first day of kindergarten! That backpack is bigger than you are.”
Luke sighed heavily and wiped his hands down his face.
Harper paged through Luke’s childhood, pausing to admire his woodworking skills on a birdhouse in Boy Scouts.
On the pages of the album, he transformed from a gawky pre-teen to a hunky teenager.
He was captured triumphantly crossing the finish line at a track meet and grinning as he led his football team off the field.
“Wow. You must have broken a lot of teenaged girl hearts.”
“I’m sure you did your fair share of impressing the boys.”
“I was flat-chested and gangly until I was seventeen. It wasn’t impressing, it was depressing.”
“I’d like to see photographic evidence of that,” he teased.
“Thankfully, there is no photographic evidence of my awkward teen years.”
“How is that even possible?”
His grin faded when she turned the page.
“Look at you at Homecoming!” Harper pulled the album closer and studied Luke in a suit, stoically staring at the camera on a gray speckled backdrop, a gaudy crown perched on his head.
He had his arm around a willowy brunette in a sparkling silver gown that perfectly matched the tiara.
“Homecoming king and queen? You really had a fairy tale life, didn’t you? ”
Luke pulled the album out of her hands and slammed it shut. “We’re falling behind on the tour. Let me show you the upstairs, and then I’ll introduce you to Mom’s chickens.”
“Um, okay.” Harper was confused by the sudden change in him. He half dragged her away from the window seat and towards the first door.
The quick tour of the upstairs bedrooms revealed spacious rooms with very little clutter.
The master was a sunny space with a claw-foot tub in the bathroom.
Luke’s bedroom had been converted into a sewing room for his mother, and the other two rooms were outfitted as guest bedrooms. It was a tidy home designed around a bustling family life.
The free-range chickens in the backyard were Claire’s current pride and joy. The chicken coop that Charlie built was nicer than most of Harper’s apartments.
Everything seemed like a fairy tale to Harper and left her wondering what had made Luke distance himself from it all.
Luke accepted the basket of rolls from Harper and passed it on to James at his right. He usually didn’t mind his family’s monthly Sunday meals—too much—but having Harper with him added another dimension.
He watched as she chatted with his father about gardening while making faces at his nephew, who was refusing to eat his turnips. She seemed relaxed, but he knew she couldn’t help but notice the long looks from his relatives.
Under the microscope.
He was used to the intense study, having been under it himself for quite some time. But he imagined it was more awkward for someone unaccustomed to it.
Soph winked at him from across the table and nodded subtly towards Harper. Luke got the message loud and clear. It was the first family meal in a long time that he hadn’t had to suffer through poorly disguised fix-ups and casual attempts to discern his mental state.
He just might be getting as much out of this deal as Harper was or at least more than he bargained for.
The family adjourned to the deck for slices of the peach pie Harper brought from the grocery store and homemade vanilla ice cream.
“Go easy on that pie, bro,” James teased Luke. “I want you to put up some kind of fight in football before I destroy you.”
“Ooooooh,” Sophie and Ty cooed tauntingly.
Harper snickered.
“Don’t you start, Harper. You’re the ref,” Luke warned, taking a sip of his beer.
“I want to play!”
“No.” His tone left no room for argument. “Not in the shape you’re in.”
Harper sulked and took another bite of pie.
They picked teams with Sophie and James pitted against Ty and Luke. The game’s action quickly escalated from casual fun to all-out war. Competition definitely ran in the Garrison blood, Harper noted, as Luke tripped James after his brother “accidentally” kicked him in the shin.
She stayed on the sidelines and enjoyed the chaos. The players tiptoed around Josh when the toddler chased a chicken across the field of play, and no one batted an eye when Sophie put Ty in a headlock so James could run down the field.
Distracted by Claire asking her if she’d like some coffee, Harper didn’t see the freight train of Luke and James hurtling towards her after a long bomb thrown by Ty until it was too late .
Luke caught the ball out of mid-air, and she saw the exact second that it registered that he was about to crush her.
He twisted open in the air and wrapped one arm around her while cushioning their fall with the other. They landed halfway in one of Claire’s flowerbeds. Surrounded by azaleas, Harper stopped moving under Luke’s weight.
His hips pressed into hers, and she forgot all about bruises and the ground beneath her.
“I keep finding you like this,” he teased, his breath warm on her face.
“It’s nice to not be unconscious this time.”
She saw the subtle change in his eyes and held her breath as he lowered his mouth closer to hers. Harper parted her lips.
“Touchdown, Uncca Luke!” Josh threw himself on Luke’s back.
That night, Harper stared into the mirror’s reflection as she brushed her teeth. She had wondered if Luke would acknowledge their “moment,” but he had simply pulled her to her feet and gone back to the game until it was called on account of darkness and they said their goodbyes.
Claire had wrapped Harper in a gentle hug and told her she was welcome any time. It had been a great day with his family.
Luke rapped on the door. “You decent?”
Harper spit and rinsed. “Yep.” She reached for her hairbrush while Luke joined her at the sink.
“I really like your family,” she said, tugging the elastic band out of her hair.
Luke shrugged, loading up toothpaste on his brush. “Yeah, they’re not bad in small doses.”
“Not bad?” She ran the brush through her hair. “Everyone gets along. Your mom’s an awesome cook. There was no bloodshed at the table. I’m starting to think you conned me into this charade with a phony story about how crazy they are.”
“There’s nothing fake about their crazy. They just haven’t shown it to you yet,” he said, starting to brush.
“Maybe you’re just overly sensitive and can’t tell normal from crazy anymore,” Harper offered.
Luke glared at her in the mirror, and she laughed.
“Anyway, I had a really nice time. It was fun hanging out with everyone talking and eating and picking on each other. I like them a lot.”
Luke rinsed and put his toothbrush back in the holder. “They like you.” He was quiet for a moment, watching her brush her long hair in the mirror before skirting around her to the doorway. He paused. “Thanks for doing this.”
“Don’t thank me yet. I might be a disaster at the office tomorrow.” She winked, and he turned on a sigh and left the bathroom.