Chapter 14
Chapter Fourteen
Harper
T ears blurred Harper’s eyes as she ran. Why did she ever trust anyone? All they did was lie.
Her sister was meant to be her best friend, but Isla wouldn’t talk to her. Her dad was meant to be there for her, but all he ever wanted was to make Isla’s career a success. Nobody ever asked what Harper wanted. She was just expected to go along with everything.
And she hadn’t minded. She really hadn’t. But when would it end?
Harper’s tears streamed down her face. She hadn’t realized how unhappy she was. When would her own life start?
Her feet pounded as she ran, her breath coming in choking sobs. Harper passed Wilde Buns, narrowly missing a woman pushing a stroller. She had no idea where she was going, just that she needed to get away.
To get away from Logan and his patient green eyes.
His lying eyes.
A car pulling into a driveway blocked the sidewalk and Harper turned, darting across the road. The screech of tires as a car braked to avoid hitting her didn’t even register.
“Harper!”
Logan’s voice broke through her circling thoughts, but she ignored him to pump her legs faster. Tears blurred her vision as she dashed into a park that faced the marina. Harper dodged and weaved around pedestrians. A stitch pulled at her side and she clamped a hand over it, breathing fast.
“Sorry,” she called breathlessly as she skirted a woman walking three dogs, almost tripping over one of the leads.
The wind whipped Harper’s hair around her face. She pushed it back with a hand, her heart pounding in her chest.
In the end, it never mattered what she wanted, did it? She only wanted to make her family happy. To make them proud.
And she couldn’t even do that.
For one small moment she thought she wasn’t alone in this mess. For one brief snapshot of time, she thought she had someone she could talk to. Someone who saw her as a person and not Isla Holden’s sister. Even that was too much to ask.
She couldn’t trust anyone.
Oh god. And the whole mess was only going to get worse.
People loved to see other people fail. And celebrities were fair game.
This was going to be the worst thing that had ever happened to her. Her father would never talk to her. Her sister would hate her more than she already did. The press would have a field day.
Harper stopped at a stone wall that overlooked the water, hands landing on it and dropping her head to take heaving breaths.
She dropped to her knees, buried her head in her hands and sobbed.
Logan’s footsteps sounded next to her and then she was suddenly pulled into his arms. Big, strong arms. Her face pressed against his chest, and she slid her hands up to grip his soft, cotton button-down shirt.
The world narrowed to just the two of them, as Harper clung to him as if she would float away without him as her anchor.
“Hey. It’s alright, Harper. It’s going to be alright.”
Logan’s deep voice washed over her, and her hands loosened slightly. She took a big heaving breath, fighting to get herself under control.
How could he say it’s going to be alright? Everything was upside down. She’d failed everyone.
Harper tried to speak but only managed to let loose a sob.
Logan’s hand settled on the middle of her back. His strong fingers were gentle as he touched her, and she let the rhythmic motion soothe her.
“It’s not going to be ok,” she said quietly, head resting on his chest with her eyes closed.
His hand stopped moving at her words. She frowned at the change and pulled back slightly, blinking to clear her eyes as she looked up at him.
“Why do you say that?” Logan asked.
“You lied to me.” Her bottom lip wobbled. She pushed at his chest, suddenly needing space. With him so close she couldn’t think clearly. “Let me go.”
He released her immediately and she stumbled backward, her backside hitting the stone wall. Her hands gripped the stone behind her, resting either side of her hips. She heaved in deep breaths, watching him warily. Logan’s hands were opening and closing rhythmically by his side.
“I know you have no reason to trust me, Harper. You hardly know me. But I didn’t tell Cassie who you are. I didn’t tell anyone.” His green eyes were sincere as he watched her, as if there was nothing more important to him right now than her.
How did he do that? His focus on her and only her, like he didn’t see anything else in the world.
Harper struggled to meet his eyes. She was still breathing hard, suddenly conscious of all the people in the park.
She dropped her head. “I don’t know what to believe anymore.”
Logan nodded and sighed, taking his cap off to run his hands through his hair before putting it back on again with a decisive tug. “Will you let me help you?”
Harper wanted to accept more than anything, but what would that say about her if she did?
But did she have a choice? With every day she felt time running through her fingers. She could choose to accept the help he offered or… What? What else could she do?
She’d already wasted another day. The timeline that seemed beyond difficult is slowly becoming completely impossible.
Who am I kidding? It was always impossible. It’s almost like dad wants me to fail.
But she had to know.
“Why?”
Logan looked over her shoulder, across the water. “I’ve been where you are now.”
“I find that hard to believe.” What could possibly have brought this man to his knees?
Logan gestured to the wall next to her. “May I?”
Harper nodded.
Logan moved to lean against the wall with one hip, facing her. Harper was conscious of how close they were—she could reach out and lay her hand flat on his chest if she wanted. There was something about his solid presence that was reassuring.
She laced her fingers together in front of her, head lowered. Had she completely overreacted? Maybe.
The sound of the water lapping rhythmically against the rock wall soothed. The breeze lifted her hair off her neck, cooling the sweat that dampened her skin.
Ok, definitely an overreaction.
She’d just felt cornered. It had been just like at the gala all over again and she’d panicked.
Harper closed her eyes and took a long breath in, working to calm her heightened senses.
One day at a time.
Had Logan given her any indication that he wasn’t trustworthy?
No, he hadn’t. Not really. Okay, not at all.
Despite her reaction to Cassie’s words, Harper didn’t believe Logan would tell her secret. What was there for him to gain? If he really wanted to profit from her misfortune, he could tell a tabloid, not his sister. Cassie was a fan of Isla, after all. Harper was never in the limelight like her sister, but some of Isla’s fame rubbed off. Plenty of people she had never met knew who she was. She mentally berated herself for being so pessimistic, but something still wasn’t right. He couldn’t be for real. Every time someone showed an interest in her, and they found out who her sister was, they dropped her like a hot potato.
All he’d done was try to help her, even when it inconvenienced him. But it was hard not to forget the past.
“Do you remember I said I played a little football in college?”
She opened her eyes and looked up to find Logan watching her carefully.
“Yes.”
Going by the width of his shoulders and the chiseled torso she’d ogled while he’d chopped wood, he hadn’t lost much condition in the years since he’d played.
“It was a little more than that,” Logan’s voice was low. He hesitated before continuing.
“What happened?” Harper turned to face him, her hip propped against the rock wall, unconsciously mirroring his pose. She was no longer concerned with the people in the park that she could hear talking, kids running around and playing.
Normal life happening nearby.
“When I graduated college I came home for the summer.” He looked down at his hands as he spoke.
Harper reached out and took one of his large hands in her much smaller one, rubbing her fingers over the backs of his knuckles. His fingers are scarred and callused. Evidence of a life of using his hands. Strong hands, and yet he could be so gentle, as he had with Harper.
“Go on.”
“Mason was on leave from the Marines, one of the few times he’d been home since he’d enlisted, and Dan had just finished high school.”
Harper’s brows drew together. “Dan?”
Logan’s lips pressed into a thin line. “Yeah. He was my youngest brother. A few years older than Cassie.”
Harper nodded, a tight feeling in her chest. This wasn’t a story that had a happy ending.
“Dan took dad’s truck out one night to go to a party with some friends. He’d been drinking, and…” Logan stopped and cleared his throat.
“You don’t have to tell me.” Harper reached out and put a hand on his arm. His strong muscles bunched and then relaxed under her touch.
Logan nodded. “I know. But I want to tell you. Maybe you’ll understand if I do.”
“Alright.” She nodded, but her chest ached in sympathy at the pain written across his face.
“It was raining, and Dan was going too fast. He drove off the road and into a tree.” His voice caught, and he looked down at his hands. “He died instantly, they said.”
Harper blanched. What had Logan thought when he’d seen her car that night? That must have been horrible for him to see.
“Oh, no. I’m so sorry, Logan.”
His smile was sad. “Thanks.” He looked out across the water before he began speaking again. “Dad wasn’t the same afterwards. He blamed himself. With five kids in the family—six if you count our cousin Rhett who’s more like a brother anyway—it was a little chaotic at times. Dad said he’d let Dan down.”
Harper’s stomach twisted. Imagine having a parent who blamed themselves when you did something wrong? She couldn’t help but compare her own father to what Logan was saying.
“I’m sure that wasn’t the case,” she said.
Logan nodded. “Yeah. Mom tried to convince him too, but it didn’t matter who told him, he blamed himself. And he withdrew. He stopped caring about lots of things. Everything changed. Mason never smiled after that. Rowan left for Europe and didn’t come home for years. Cassie was just a kid.”
Harper swallowed. “And your mother?”
Logan looked back at Harper. “Most days she couldn’t get out of bed. Dad couldn’t help, he was struggling just get through the days. If it wasn’t for Cassie, I’m not sure what mom would have done.”
Harper found it hard to imagine the vibrant woman in the tie-dye shirt bedridden with grief, but she knew more than most that looks can be deceiving. Her throat thickened as she fought back tears for the family who had lost so much.
“And what about you?”
Logan nodded. “I got drafted.”
Harper’s eyebrows rose. “The NFL?”
Logan nodded. He just watched her, the same way Harper watched people when they realized who her sister was, gauging their reaction.
“But you didn’t play, did you?”
Logan shook his head. “No. I didn’t sign. I couldn’t leave my family the way they were and live with myself.”
Harper’s brows knitted in thought. “There’s something else, isn’t there?”
Logan huffed a laugh, but it was humorless. “Isn’t there always?”
Harper squeezed Logan’s hand in encouragement. She gave him a small smile.
The boats moored at the marina bobbed gently in the water as seagulls circled overhead. It’s a beautiful day, and she wished she were spending it with Logan in some other way. Under other circumstances.
“I’d been dating a girl I met at college. I thought she was the one.” He shook his head and looked away, across the water.
“I asked her to marry me when I graduated.” He smiled sadly and turned his head to look back at Harper. “When I told her I wasn’t going to sign, she gave me back the ring.”
Harper gasped. Some woman was lucky enough to have Logan West as a fiancé and she just threw that away?
What an idiot!
“She broke up with you because you weren’t going to be in the NFL?”
Logan nodded. “Yeah. It turns out she was pretty shallow. She mailed me back the ring.”
Harper gasped. “She didn’t even tell you in person?”
Logan laughed as he shook his head. “Nope.”
Harper scowled and growled. “I’d say you dodged a bullet with that one.”
Logan quirked a brow and grinned. “Harper, are you jealous?”
Cheeks heating, she turned away and jammed her hands into the pockets of her jeans. “Of course not.”
Logan hummed as he kept grinning at her.
Harper darted a look at him.
“You must have been pretty good.”
Logan settled next to her, back against the wall, his shoulder bumping hers. Harper’s skin tingled from where they touched—hip to shoulder.
Harper looked up at him and then away. “I mean, you must have been a pretty good player. To get drafted.”
Logan hummed.
“Do you miss it?”
Logan didn’t answer for so long, she began to think he didn’t hear her question.
“Nobody asks me that.” He sounded surprised.
“I’m sorry.”
Had she just gone and put her foot in her mouth again?
He laughed. “No, don’t be sorry. I mean that everyone assumes I miss it. Nobody actually asks me if I actually do.”
“Oh.”
He grinned a lopsided grin, showing a dimple half hidden by the scruff of his beard.
“I miss playing, yeah. But I help coach the local high school during the season and I get a lot out of that.” His grin dropped. “The media attention after I didn’t sign was intense. It showed me a side of the sport that I hadn’t seen before.”
Harper nodded, knowing all too well what he’s talking about.
“So I get it, you know? I’m not going to put you through that, and neither will my family. They saw what I went through. They protected me when we were all hurting from losing Dan and the press turned up to ask questions.” Logan took his cap off and ran his hand through his hair before shoving it back on his head.
Harper looked up and met Logan’s gaze with her own. “I know that now. Thank you for telling me.”
Logan nodded and pushed off the wall. He held a hand out to Harper and she looked at it before sliding her own into his. His palm was huge, and his fingers wrapped around her own, enveloping her. It was a small thing, a connection of their hands, but a shiver ran through her at the intimacy of the moment.
Sharing confidences was not something she took lightly. It seemed like Logan was the same.
As they walked back to where Rowan had parked his truck, Harper came to a decision. She had a choice—she always had a choice—and this time she chose to trust.
And to stay.