Chapter 11
“Oooo, I love this one!” Summer said, holding up the leg of a white pair of slacks with tiny blue pinstripes running vertically up and down each leg.
Harper wrinkled up her nose. “I don’t know. I’m not feeling it.”
“What do you mean? Why not? Think navy blue sweater, maybe with three quarter length sleeves. A pair of navy kitten heels. You’ll look sharp! Business smart and stylish at the same time.”
“Meh,” Harper said, turning away to thumb through a different rack of ladies’ clothing indifferently.
“Alright. What is your problem?”
“He’s being too nice.”
“Who’s being too nice?”
“My dad. He’s up to something.”
“Oh, I thought you meant someone else. He’s just making sure that taking this trip for him is as easy on you as possible.”
Harper pinned her with a doubtful look. “I thought you could read people better than that. And who else did you think I meant?”
Summer stopped with her attempt to be positive and uplifting. “I can. I know he’s got ulterior motives. But I’m just thinking as long as you’ve agreed to go, why not get the best out of it, you know?”
“While I wait for the serial killer salesman to jump out of the shadows at me?”
“Okay, I know your father may be up to something, but I’m pretty sure it’s not a serial killer popping out at you.”
“Maybe he’s going to buy the Bigsby place and make them promise to keep me off of it.”
“Maybe. But unlikely.”
“How’s it unlikely?”
“Didn’t you say they want to move to Florida and retire?”
“Yes,” she admitted reluctantly.
“If he buys it, they’re not going to stay here to run it, so he’ll have to run it because it will be his and he’ll lose money if he buys it and doesn’t make it profitable, and then he’ll have no choice but to let you do it, because he doesn’t know the first thing about horses.
And we all know he’s dead set against you working there, instead of at your place.
So, not a problem because it’s not happening — let’s buy some clothes. ”
“Not that I believe you, but why would he be pushing me to take a more prevalent role in the trade show. He’s making me be the face of our farm.”
“Maybe he’s just really having trouble getting around. He is missing a lower limb, you know.”
“That male gets around better than he ever has thanks to my mother and her homeopathic therapies and insistence that he keeps up with his physical therapy, too. He just wants me out there. I haven’t figured out why.”
“Everybody gets tired, Harper. Maybe he just wants a break.”
“Maybe.”
“Come on, either way you’re going to need some clothes. You can’t show up to this trade show or convention or whatever it is without looking the part. Your stained jeans and leather gloves aren’t going to do it.”
“You sure?” Harper teased.
“I’m sure.”
“And by the way, who else did you think could have been behaving too nicely?”
“I don’t know,” Summer said evasively.
“You thought I meant Clay, didn’t you?”
“Well, yeah. You did check for his message most of the night before you passed out, and again when we woke up. But then I thought, that’s not particularly nice behavior, though — he said he’d call and didn’t. So, I convinced myself I was wrong about that.”
Harper glared at Summer. “I’m sure he’s got a reason.”
“I’m sure he does. Maybe his mate doesn’t want him checking in with other women.”
“You’re really beginning to irritate me,” Harper said.
“Yes, I know. But you love me anyway.”
“I’m second guessing that.”
“You can’t. You promised — best friends forever. So you’re kind of stuck.”
Harper took her phone out of her pocket and checked for a message from Clay. There still was none.
“Seriously?”
“I’m sorry! He said he’d let me know.”
“Did you or did you not say you are just friends?” Summer demanded.
“I did. But, we’re kind of hovering in the middle of somewhere between friends and maybe something more.”
“Hovering how?” Summer said, immediately putting down every piece of clothing she was holding and advancing on Harper.
“We kind of, kissed.”
“You kissed?! And you didn’t think you needed to mention that?”
“Well it was just kissing.”
“Wait, one kiss or multiple kissing?”
“Multiple kissing. A lot of multiple kissing, and other things.”
“Other things?!” Summer shouted.
“Shhhhhh! Will you be quiet?!” Harper demanded.
“What other things?” Summer demanded right back, keeping her voice hushed.
“I don’t know. Just things.”
“Did he mate you? Did you mate him?!” Summer asked on a harsh whisper.
“No! I expressly said we shouldn’t. Kind of. But we just left it at we like each other and we don’t know what’s going to happen.”
Summer’s eyes kind of rolled toward the ceiling where they stayed as she thought about this new information. “I have so many questions,” she finally said to herself.
“Yeah, me, too,” Harper admitted.
“So, let’s start with what do you want from this thing with Clay?” Summer asked.
“I don’t know. I kind of thought we were wanting the same thing, but he was in such a hurry to get us dressed and rush me back home that it’s like he was ashamed. It kind of hurt. Because I know he didn’t want anybody to know.”
“Get you dressed?! That’s more than multiple things, Harper! That’s all the things!”
“Be. Quiet!” Harper snapped.
Summer sputtered at her unable to even find the words.
“And then there’s the girl that he found that he thinks might be his one, and I don’t know, maybe she is. People can have more than one mate, right? I mean, Uncle Maverik and his mates and then Riley and Maia and Cristie’s birth mother. But surely he wouldn’t have found us both at the same time.”
“You’re mates?” Summer asked, having decided to tackle the information one point at a time.
“I think so. But like I said, he wasn’t in a hurry to declare anything, and he refuses to talk about this girl that he said he might have found.
So, should I feel bad that I let what happened — well, practically asked for what happened to happen — though I already knew he thought he might have found his mate?
I’m so confused. But at the same time, he was so caring and so gentle and I think he feels what I do, has since we were in high school at least. But, his behavior was confusing.
He wants to hide us, but caring and confessing how he felt about me when we were younger, too, you know? ”
Summer stood there, her mouth open, her brows raised in shock as she watched Harper ramble on about sleeping with Clay, as though them sleeping together was a normal thing.
“I don’t know! What the hell is happening here?
There’s a girl? Who’s the girl?” Summer demanded.
Then she had a sudden realization. “That’s why you’re bathing yourself in all that awful smelly stuff! ”
“I don’t want my father to know until I’m ready for him to know. He’d probably force him to mate me. And while, it would be what I want — I think. It might not be what he wants.”
Summer hadn’t moved a muscle. She was still standing there with her mouth open and her brows almost to her hairline. “I need a drink.”
“It’s not that bad!” Harper said.
“Clay’s not bad at all. But all this back and forth and what does he want and what do I want is confusing as hell!”
“He’s got finals coming up. I can’t distract him to make him talk to me about what all this is right now. Help me find some ground I can stand on that doesn’t make me feel like I’m sinking,” Harper begged.
Summer sighed and finally moved from the spot she’d been frozen in.
She took Harper’s hands in hers and looked directly into her eyes.
“I don’t know what any of it means, Harper.
I wasn’t there. But it would seem to me that if he had even an inkling that this other woman might possibly really be his one, he wouldn’t have had even a slight flirtation with you.
That’s not how it works. Once they meet their one, once we meet our one, there is no one else that can turn our heads.
And I’m sure more than one mate is a possibility, but it’s after one has been lost through whatever means, not multiple at the same time. ”
“You think so?” Harper asked hopefully.
“I know so.”
Harper sat down on one of the ottomans set strategically throughout the store. “Okay. I feel better.”
“Glad one of us does.”
Harper sat there, chewing on her nail, her mind elsewhere. “What do we do now?” she asked.
Summer looked around them, taking in all the clothes racks, and all the fashion choices. “We buy you clothes. That’s the whole reason we’re here. Go through the motions of a regular day every day, and it’ll move you to each tomorrow until you can talk to him again and get the answers you need.”
“Okay. Yeah, that’s good.”
“Yeah, it is. And it’s a good thing, too. Because you have a trip you have to get through.”
Harper seemed to fold in on herself. “Fine,” she breathed out. “Dress me,” she said, holding her hands out to her sides.
“Consider it done,” Summer said.
~~~
Harper stepped off the plane and made her way up the concourse to the security gate only ticketed passengers were allowed beyond.
The area just on the other side of the security check point was filled with people chattering and hugging and crying and laughing as they were reunited or saying goodbyes whichever the case may be.
Her phone vibrated and she took it out of her pocket and glanced at the message.
“Somebody will be picking you up. Love you, Dad.”
Harper looked over at all the people again. “How am I supposed to find somebody I don’t even know in the middle of all that?” she grumbled under her breath.