Fifty-three
Harper juggled her keys to the sounds of a celebration behind her and opened her driver’s door. She needed to leave before she collapsed and howled in misery at losing everything.
‘You’ve had a really rough few weeks, haven’t you.’ It was Ash, right behind her. ‘What with your parents, your sister, but also how me and my brothers treated you too, which was rude of us and not fair to you.’
She couldn’t respond or even look at him.
‘Where are you going?’
‘Back to town.’ She inhaled deeply, and forcefully turned to face him, trying to pretend that everything was okay.
‘Then what?’
‘I don’t know. Maybe I’ll go back—’
‘To Belgium?’
‘I quit that job.’
‘Why?’
‘After being out here, and speaking with the locals, I saw a whole different side to life. I learned to step off the hamster wheel of politics, away from the stress of my job, and the anxiety that went with it.’
‘What are you going to do?’
‘I don’t know.’
‘But you usually have a plan.’
‘And I learned how plans change and to just go with it. You taught me that.’ She gazed at the large horizon and at the simple farmhouse with a horse parked out front like a car. Most of all she saw the family who worked, lived, and celebrated life together in this place they called home.
‘Did you honestly enjoy living out here? Away from that busy world and the shopping?’
She gazed at the beauty of the sunset and colossally enormous sky and smiled. ‘Yeah, I did. I missed this place. I missed the freedom you have that comes with this lifestyle. I missed not clockwatching.’ She lifted her wrist, tapping on her watch.
‘Even Dex?’
‘Meh.’ She rolled her eyes. ‘Mason, absolutely.’ But she didn’t think they’d let her see him just yet. It would take time. And time was finally becoming her friend, as she learned to work with time and not against it.
‘And me?’ He tilted his head. It was impossible to avoid his bright, all-seeing gaze and untrusting scowl. She’d done this to Ash.
Where was her gorgeous, smiling stockman now?
‘I am truly sorry, Ash, for not telling you who I was when we met in the supermarket, and I should have. But, when I first met you, with that flat tyre, I had no idea where Mason was or if you knew about him yet. But then you seemed so unsure about keeping Mason, when I wanted more than anything for you to bond with him, so he could have a home with his father.’ But that cheeky, smiling, tanned, and gloriously beautiful stockman had been her hero. Honestly, he’d dazzled her. ‘And then, after we got closer, and you did start bonding with Mason, I wanted to tell you, but I didn’t want you to hate me.’ But he did now.
‘So, what now?’
‘Well, maybe you could send me photos of Mason growing up, like the ones you send your mum. And I’ll send him birthday and Christmas presents. Then, maybe, when Mason is older, and you trust me again, I’d fly Mason out to join me for summer holidays or something. It’s what I’d always planned with Gemma. I was going to be the fun aunt—who’d hire a nanny. Not be one.’
‘Do you still want to be part of Mason’s life?’
‘Absolutely. I can tell him about his mother. I have photo albums and things that belonged to Gemma that I’ve kept for Mason.’ She sighed heavily. The burden of saying goodbye and losing something that felt like a home was horrible. ‘I never wanted to cause trouble. And I never meant to …’ She paused, licking her bottom lip.
The pause just got longer.
His eyes narrowed at her. ‘Go on, what were you going to say.’
‘Oh, what the hell …’ She had to say it, or she’d regret it for the rest of her life, even if she knew she’d lost him. ‘I never meant to fall in love with you.’ There, she’d said it.
Ash’s brow crinkled as he stepped back.
‘I know, bad timing as public enemy number one. Right?’
‘Harper, you come from a fancy political family who has a ski chalet. You can’t mean that.’
‘But I do.’ She stepped closer, facing the only man who mattered to her. ‘Sure, if my father was alive, he’d hate you. But in time you’d win him over, when he’d see what I see.’
‘I have faults, Harper, plenty of them. But I am growing, I am working on it.’
‘But you also have this inner wealth at the way you look at the world, and where you live, how you live and who you live with makes you far richer than some kings I know.’
‘See, look at your list of contacts. And I’m just …’ He removed his hat, raking fingers through his hair.
‘You didn’t think like that before you knew who I was, did you?’
He slid on his hat. The sexy way it shaded his eyes made her heart ache that it was over. ‘No. But I know now.’
‘You know I’m not like that. I’m the girl who’d rather eat a packet of shortbread that I shared with someone over a cup of coffee, like we did, than eat caviar or truffles. Where I come from none of those people are my friends. Not like Bree, who was there for me without any hidden agenda. You were there when I was scared or in danger, and you also taught me about friendship and family, too. My father had this mantra: there are no friends in politics, you only have family to rely on. You have that, Ash, and you have no idea how lucky you are.’ She nodded at the table full of people celebrating the victory for their home.
‘It still makes little sense. You. Me.’
‘Why should it? I may not have the experience you have with relationships, but I can honestly say that I am thankful for all the heartbreaks, trials, failures, angst, and misery I went through before I found you, in this amazing place you call home. Without it, I never would’ve found you or appreciated the genuine gift you were to me, I just didn’t realise how deep it went until you threw me out—’
‘Harper.’
She held up her hand. ‘I wish I could rewind time for so many things. But if I was to rewind back to one time, it would be to that moment we first met. I would have done things differently, even at the risk of your rejection, but I would at least have that memory of meeting you. So, this is the last time you’ll see me—’
Ash stepped towards her, gripping her chin, he kissed her, hard. His warm lips pressed against hers, his hand cupped the side of her face where he controlled the kiss, consuming her completely. All she saw, felt, heard, and tasted was Ashton Riggs.
‘There is no such thing as the last time not when it comes to us,’ he murmured, holding her close to his chest, leaving her to swim in his warm eyes as a fingertip tenderly stroked her cheek. ‘These past few days, I have felt fear on so many levels. The fear of failure, the fear of trying, the kind of fear that tried to cheat me out of the best thing in life—my son. And the fear of losing my home. But my greatest fear is losing you, because I love you.’
‘You do?’
He sighed, but it was there in his eyes, the same love she felt deep inside. It might not have made sense, but it made sense to her soul.
‘Hearing you love me, even though our story started with the wrong time, wrong place,’ he said, ‘and I know this is a new world for you, but you are the right person for me. You make me want to do better. You have this gift for giving me the confidence to try and be better, helping me realise I could be a father. You helped me pull out all those plans I wanted to throw away, while listening to my crazy ideas, where I finally found the courage to share them with my brothers.’
‘You did?’ Her eyes widened with hope surging inside for Ash.
He tenderly held her arms as if to keep her in place. His head lowering as he stepped in closer, with a hint of smile spreading across his lips. ‘It’s starting, all those ideas are starting because of you. I want to plan a future for us, where we’d never need to look back at the bad, but only at the good memories we create together. I want you to stay, because I love you, Harper. Because you belong here, with me. And I want you to move back into your old room.’
‘And where will you be?’
His lips bent into one of those delicious grins. ‘I plan to prove myself to you and try to move in there.’
‘Yeah-nah, mate, I’m not that easy.’ She grinned at his arched eyebrow, sounding like a long-time local in the pub. ‘You haven’t even taken me out on a date.’
‘I plan to fix that. We’ll have weekly date nights, where we can talk freely away from any other influences, where we’ll be free to just be us because I’m only ever like that with you. I love you. You’re family to me, to Mason, to us. That includes my brothers.’
‘Even Dex.’ She screwed up her nose.
‘After what you did for this station, you’ve earned their respect. But most of all, you won me.’ He then lowered his voice, and said, ‘Do you realise how sexy hot you are when you get all businesslike?’
‘Stop it.’ She dropped her head, the heat brushing her cheeks.
‘Hey?’ He lifted her chin, making her face him. ‘You’re not going anywhere, because your place is here with me and Mason. This is your home.’ With his lips pressed to hers, he pulled her against his chest. His hands slid around her body, bringing her closer, where her heartbeat matched his and there was nothing more perfect in the world than kissing him right now, in a kiss that was better than any first kiss, because kissing Ash—kissing the man she loved—was like kissing heaven.
‘Breathe, Harper. I won’t leave you and I’m not letting you leave me.’ His voice penetrated the haze of lust. Even if her self-esteem was at its most fragile, she was no longer the nanny, she wasn’t someone’s daughter, she wasn’t some assistant or office worker, she was part of something truly fabulous. She was with Ash, and he was with her. And it was a warm, delicious, and gloriously intoxicating world that only held the two of them, that tasted of eternity, and of that deep soul-fulfilling love. The once-in-a-lifetime kind of love she’d always dreamed of was now a reality.
‘Oi, that’s enough, you two. There are children present,’ called out Dex.
It was enough to break their kissing connection. Ash’s darkening eyes matched the hunger she had for him as his thumb dragged over her bottom lip. ‘Can we ignore him, and just go inside, to your room?’ murmured Ash, his nose tenderly rubbing hers, while their arms wrapped tightly around each other, oh so deliciously close.
‘Oi, you two,’ this time it was Cap speaking. ‘We just got an invitation to pizza night at the caretaker’s cottage.’
‘Yeah, it’s party time at the neighbours,’ said Dex. ‘I’ll even find you some wine, Harper.’
‘ARPER, ARPER. H-H-Harper .’
‘Mason?’ Harper whispered, with her heart tight in her throat, as the tears welled up at the sight of the small boy, holding Ryder’s hand by the front door. Did she dare move? ‘Who taught Mason to say H?’
‘I did. When we were out doing the troughs.’ Ash gave that beautiful sexy grin with the dimple, the grin she loved.
‘Go see your aunty.’ Ryder helped the boy down the front steps and his little legs raced across the red dirt.
‘Mason!’ Harper ran to scoop up the toddler and squeezed him tight, breathing him in.
‘Harper home? ’
Ash slid his arm around Harper’s shoulder to kiss her forehead, while she held his son between them. ‘Yes, Mason, Harper is home to stay.’