Chapter Seventeen
Harper squinted into the sun as they turned the corner and moved from the shade of the building into the blazing bright sun. She didn’t really see the details of Charlie’s car until Charlie opened the passenger door, slid the seat forward, and called Franky.
Harper caught the wings with a B in the middle on the back of the car and tripped over the sidewalk.
“Is something wrong?” Charlie said, her head tilted to the side.
“Um, no. Sorry.” She shook herself and started walking again, giving Franky enough leash that she could jump into the back seat. “Is this a Bentley?”
Charlie turned slightly pink. “It is.” She pushed the front seat back once Franky was standing in the back. “But it’s just a car, right?”
Harper could do nothing but stare. It wasn’t just a car. “Oh, sure. Yeah. These are as common as Toyotas, aren’t they?” She laughed and brushed her lips across Charlie’s before sliding onto the buttery soft seat.
And oh my God, how were those seats so soft? It was like being cradled on a cloud. How much money does Charlie have?
“It’s a very nice car. In my previous life, I would have said it doesn’t have anything on my former boss’s because his was much bigger, and mine is just a sports car. But today I am going to tell you that I just love this car.”
She’d known that Charlie had a lot of money, but in that moment, she realized just how wealthy she had to be.
To Harper, she was just Charlie, the new yoga teacher.
It was a wild thought. She wanted to google her, but she wouldn’t.
It felt like an invasion of privacy. “There’s nothing just about this car.
She’s gorgeous. I love the slightly matte finish too.
It suits you.” The car was a deep navy, but its matte finish gave it a level of sophistication that was sexy as hell.
“I can see you tearing around Manhattan in a killer pantsuit, ripping someone apart on speakerphone as you weave in and out of traffic.”
Charlie laughed and rolled her eyes. “You’re ridiculous.” She pushed the ignition button in the center console, and the engine let out a throaty roar that rumbled luxury and power rather than screamed it like some sports cars she’d been in.
“Are you trying to tell me that you didn’t drive this baby all over the city in a sexy pantsuit?
Or maybe even a skirt suit with wind occasionally whipping in the window and swirling air around your legs?
Did you take your heels off to drive so it was just your bare foot touching the pedal? Or were you wearing stockings?”
“Of course I did. I would’ve killed myself driving around in those skyscraper heels.
And no stockings for me. Those, thankfully, were removed from the dress code a year or two before I started.
Though I might have occasionally worn a skirt.
And that breeze can be…interesting.” Charlie winked as she pressed a button on the dashboard.
Harper had been planning to joke about how hot Charlie had probably been driving around New York like she owned it, but her mouth had gone dry as she pictured her fingers tracing a path up Charlie’s bare leg the way she imagined the wind had.
Charlie cleared her throat as she stared at her phone, thankfully breaking Harper’s daydream, and she noticed that the dashboard had rotated into a screen. “What are you doing?”
“Plugging in directions to Key Largo. I know the way out of Key West, but I haven’t driven this car in months, and riding a bike is different.”
“No, I get that, but really, this car is…something else.” Harper was still staring at the dashboard like it had turned into a spaceship. Which she kind of felt it had.
Charlie smirked and lifted her brows, and Harper’s heart skipped a beat. “It is what it is, I guess.”
Her words were ridiculous and delivered irreverently, yet Harper was captivated.
She hadn’t ever been a car person and thought this one was a little ridiculous, yet the combination of this car and Charlie’s confidence with it had her so hot, she didn’t recognize herself.
It wasn’t like she and Kelly hadn’t been affluent or powerful.
They’d both been partners at their firm and had taken pleasure eviscerating opposing counsel, but the idea that the woman in front of her who regularly wore yoga leggings and tank tops had this powerful past that made her think that a Bentley was no big deal was…
sexy as fuck. “Well, it’s good that you’re holding them to such a high standard, I guess. ”
Charlie revved the engine without breaking eye contact.
“Yeah, a woman has to have standards. But she also has to be on time.” She leaned in to kiss Harper before flicking the shifter into gear and pulling out into traffic.
Harper couldn’t look away. Intellectually, she knew this was a strange thing to be so into, yet…
Charlie looked inexplicably irresistible driving this car, and the heat constricting around Harper’s body was the physical proof.
Jesus.
Charlie hummed as they passed the airport, and the view along US 1 changed from the urban scape of Key West into nature and the successive bridges that connect the chain of islands.
“Ooh,” Charlie said, but it was nearly a groan as the speed limit went up to fifty-five, and she loosed the engine a little more.
Harper squeezed her thighs together and suppressed the shudder that ran through her at the sound. What was happening to her?
“I didn’t realize how much I missed driving,” Charlie purred as she glanced at Harper.
Harper turned away, hoping Charlie wouldn’t realize she’d been staring. “Why’d you stop?”
Charlie pursed her lips and seemed to think about her answer. “Key West isn’t very car friendly, and I don’t have anywhere to park it nearby.”
“If you have enough money to own a car like this, I’m sure you have enough to park it somewhere.”
“I do. But I park it on the other side of the island. Closer to the airport.” She said it so innocently, but Harper was pretty sure she was being intentionally cagey and really wanted to understand. She wanted to truly know Charlie.
“Okay, fair. But I don’t think that’s the real reason.
Even if you don’t need it every day, you could still occasionally take it out for a spin.
I mean, look at this scenery.” She gestured out the window at the tropical blue liquid all around them as they passed over the bridge heading toward Sugarloaf Key.
“It doesn’t get much better,” she said as the sun shimmered across water that Harper still had a hard time believing was real, even after living in Key West for three years.
Charlie’s chest rose as she took a large breath of air and held it before slowly letting it out.
“When I came down here, it wasn’t planned.
You know that much.” Charlie’s fingers started to tap a staccato beat on the gear shifter.
“I wasn’t in a good place. The company that I had been with since grad school had basically fired me for reporting something that seemed off—that they didn’t want reported—and as the miles rolled by on my way south, my disgust multiplied.
I’d spent decades working my ass off for that place.
I created so much wealth for so many people, myself included, and it was always a race to have the newest, the most luxurious, the fanciest everything.
It didn’t even matter what. The company fostered this toxic competitive environment that was engrained in the culture.
And suddenly, on my spontaneous drive, the grossness of the opulence just made me nauseated.
And this car, as much as I love her, is so opulent that I couldn’t stomach it. ”
“That sounds…”
“Horrible.” It was the word Harper had been thinking but hadn’t wanted to say.
“Looking back,” Charlie continued, “I hate so much about myself and who I’d become.
But this car… I bought this car because I loved it.
I test-drove a lot of cars, and she handles like a dream.
” She chuckled. “I think, now that I’ve had a little space, I can see it a little differently in this one case.
I mean, it’s already paid for, so it would be more wasteful to get rid of it, wouldn’t it? ”
Charlie looked at her, her smile tentative, and it pulled at Harper’s heartstrings. She was surprised at Charlie’s revelations in the past few minutes, but she certainly didn’t think that she should feel bad about anything. “It would be a travesty. Especially since it’s paid off.”
Charlie slid her hand onto Harper’s thigh and squeezed, but when she went to pull away, Harper held her there.
Charlie’s thumb found the sensitive skin of her thigh below her shorts, and something clenched inside Harper in the best way, so she tried to distract herself.
In the car heading to meet Charlie’s parents was not the right time or place to be getting turned on.
But she also didn’t want to lose the warmth and connection of Charlie’s hand against her leg.
“Are you going to make up for lost time and start driving everywhere?”
“God, no.” Charlie’s shoulders shook as she laughed.
“Why is that so funny?”
“I really love riding my bike. Now, might I take an occasional drive up the highway? Perhaps. But getting around Key West without having to find somewhere to park is fantastic.”
They laughed and joked for the two hour ride up to Key Largo, the time passing faster than it ever had on this drive for Harper.
She kept Charlie’s hand firmly on her thigh and absolutely loved every second of it.
In the lulls in conversation, Harper wondered what issue Charlie had tried to report but didn’t want to pry.
It obviously made her uncomfortable, and she had enough stress with the reunion with her parents looming.
They killed a little time walking hand in hand along some beach on Islamorada since they were nearly an hour early and still arrived fifteen minutes before they were supposed to meet Charlie’s parents.
“Are you ready for this?” Harper asked as Charlie parked in the gravel lot in front of an unassuming little beach restaurant, a common style all along US 1 throughout the entire length of the Keys.
Charlie’s head tipped back until she was looking at the roof of the car. She took a deep breath and huffed it out. “Ready or not, we’re here.”
Harper was in awe of the way Charlie seemed to take control of the nerves she’d been displaying all morning and somehow looked every bit the confident investment banker, even in casual clothes.
She leashed up Franky, and they headed toward the restaurant, walking close but not holding hands.
When Charlie’s steps faltered, Harper paused with her and looked around, catching sight of an older couple sitting on a bench in front of the restaurant.
Oh. Her parents?
When Charlie didn’t start walking, Harper leaned closer. “Are you okay?” Franky had gotten a few steps ahead but also came back and leaned into Charlie’s legs.
Charlie nodded and grabbed Harper’s hand with a death grip.
Harper gave her a light squeeze and watched as she let out a breath and took a step forward, then another one, Franky moving with them.
They walked in what felt like slow motion toward the older couple, who were now standing and holding hands, watching them.
When they reached them, Harper released Charlie’s hand and stayed slightly behind, not wanting to intrude on the moment.
“Mom, Dad,” Charlie said, her voice barely audible. Harper found herself holding her breath, hoping this went well for all their sakes.