Chapter 16 #2
“Yes. He messaged me to let me know he’d made it back to school. Then I answered and told him I missed him. And then he answered, but I don’t know what he said because the last two messages were deleted,” she said, the end of the sentence taking on an angry tone.
“Why’d you delete them before you read them?”
“I didn’t. But I left my phone on the table when I went to the restroom in the hotel restaurant one morning.
When I got back I didn’t check my phone because we had to go to the opening day of the trade show and I’d already overslept and made us a little late.
But looking at the times of the deleted messages, it could have only been one person that deleted them,” she said, a rumble under her voice.
“Who?” Libby asked.
“Joel. He was sitting with me, and no one else has had access to my phone.”
“Are you sure you didn’t just accidentally delete them?” Libby asked.
“Anything is possible I suppose, but no, I did not.”
Libby shook her head as she sipped her coffee. “Finish your gingerbread, baby,” she said as she got up and went back into the kitchen.
Harper happily did as her mother asked.
A few minutes later Libby was standing beside her with two containers.
One was the square cake pan the gingerbread had been baked in and was now covered with foil.
The other was the glass bowl the whipped cream had been made in and was topped with it’s matching sealing lid. “Here, take this with you.”
“I’m going outside to work with Dad.”
“No, you’re not. You’re going back to Summer’s or whatever it is you want to do today. I’m going to deal with this here and now. I’ve heard enough.”
“Mom…”
“No. It is not your responsibility to keep the peace between your father and me, and it is not your responsibility to swallow your feelings because he’s kissing the ass of a possible business connection.
This is all bullshit, and I’ve had enough.
You take your breakfast with you and you go have a wonderful day.
And don’t you worry about a thing, I can handle your father, and he can handle the bastard that disrespected my daughter.
He might be able to explain it off as vaguely misunderstood to your father, he cannot explain it away to me.
He needs to go and frankly I don’t care who likes it or not. I’ve heard and seen enough.”
Harper sat in her chair, her hands on the containers her mother had prepared for her to take. “I’m sorry, Mom.”
“For what? For having enough and not taking anymore? You should never have been put in the position of having to accept any behavior that you were not comfortable with. Joel is an asshole of the first degree. He’s probably been like this all his life and sees nothing wrong with it.
And I know all about the attraction humans have to shifters, but that doesn’t make any out of line behavior acceptable.
Had you been just encountering someone in general, you’d have taken care of it and not even considered holding your tongue or your fists.
But because your father put you in the position you were in, you felt like you couldn’t rock the boat.
Guess what? I can rock the damn boat. So, go back to Summer’s and don’t you for one minute even consider being sorry.
You didn’t do a damn thing. This is your father’s mess and I’m going to clean it up. Today.”
Harper took a deep shaky breath and let it out slowly.
“I love you, baby. I’ll see you later.”
“I love you, too, Mom.”
Harper picked up the containers Libby had packed for her and pushed the chair she’d been sitting in back to the table.
“Oh, before you go, let me take a picture of your message thread where you think he deleted messages that you received from Clay.”
Harper put the containers down and took out her phone.
She pulled up the message thread and held it out for her mother.
“You can see the time stamps from when they were received and also the deleted time stamps. I was in the restaurant with Joel then. Only the waitress or somebody else in the restaurant might have had access when I left it on the table when I went to the bathroom, and I highly doubt that.”
“Me, too,” Libby said as she snapped a photo with her phone and put it back in the pocket of her jeans. “I’ll talk to you later,” she said, hugging her daughter tightly. “Love you.”
“I love you, too, Mom.” Harper gathered the containers and walked to the door. She looked back at her mother.
“Go on, now. I want you gone before I start showing my ass like I haven’t since your father came back from the military. I think he’s forgotten that I’m easy to get along with because I choose to be. He’ll remember after today.”
“Call me if you need me.”
“I won’t need you, but I’ll call you later anyway.”
Harper reached up to the pegboard beside the door where all the keys hung when not in use.
She took the keys to her car off of it and slipped outside.
She wasted no time getting in her car and starting it up.
She waited only long enough for the engine to level off from her starting it, then backed out of the drive way and headed off toward Summer’s house.
Libby sat down at the table and waited as she enjoyed the piece of gingerbread and a dollop of whipped cream she’d served herself before she sent the rest away with Harper. Just as she expected, it was less than ten minutes later that the door opened and Travis and Joel stepped inside.
“Where’s Harper? Was that her car I just heard driving away?” Travis said, as he took his place at the table, expecting to have his own gingerbread for breakfast. He gestured for Joel to sit across from him.
Libby nodded, then took her last bite of gingerbread, taking the time to lick the fork exaggeratedly. “Damn, that was good.”
“You make the best,” Travis said distractedly. “She better be coming back. She gave me her word that she’d be here to help with this.”
Libby leveled an expression at him that had his Tiger wincing in the back of his mind. “She came to uphold her promise and I sent her away.”
“Why would you do that?” Travis asked irritatedly.
“Because somebody had to protect her. You’ve obviously forgotten your priorities, or at least I hope you’ve forgotten.
Because if you’ve moved this tree farm above your own child in priority intentionally, then you have a much bigger problem than me not allowing her to keep her word to you.
You have no right to demand she keep any word to you after the way you’ve treated her. ”
His brows rose in surprise as he got to his feet. “This is not the time…”
“It’s exactly the time. Sit down Travis,” she said, slapping her hand on the heavy oak table they were sitting at.
Joel stood from his place. “Perhaps I’ll go for a walk to give you some privacy.”
“You will sit down, too!” Libby ordered.
Joel shared a look with Travis, then sat down hesitantly as Travis gave him a singular half-nod.
“Honey, you’re obviously upset. What is this about?”
“Well, I was going to blast this entitled prick, but I’ve since decided that you’re the problem here, not him.”
“Now, hold on. Like I told Travis, I haven’t done anything wrong.”
“Shut up!” Libby half-shouted. “I know exactly what you’ve done.
And I also know you see nothing wrong with it.
You’ve probably done it dozens if not more times in the past and never had a complaint at all.
You actually think that any woman would be pleased to have your attentions.
Well, my daughter doesn’t feel that way.
And if you’d been anyone else she’d have knocked your ass out and left you on the ground where you stood the first time you tried to insert yourself into her personal space thinking you had a right to.
But she didn’t. You know why? Because this male,” she said, pointing at Travis, “who is her own father, put her in the position of having to carry responsibility for his family tree farm. So, she felt like she had no choice but to endure your unwanted advances.”
She looked away from Joel to pin Travis with a glare. “You even sent him to pick her up and asked him to take care of her, giving him the perfect in to insist that she spend time with him.”
“I was trying to make sure that she wasn’t alone and overwhelmed in a city she wasn’t familiar with. And I don’t appreciate you…”
“I don’t give a damn what you don’t appreciate, Travis!
When has Harper ever been overwhelmed with anything?
I’ll answer that for you. Not once, not until this asshole thought he could press for what he wanted and get away with it.
That in itself should have told you something.
But you just swept the possibility that what she told you was the truth under the rug.
Because you didn’t want to have to do without whatever it is you think he can do for your farm.
He spoke the words, Travis, ‘you’re not making it seem like you’re easy to get along with and that’s not looking good for your father to do business with us’.
How in the hell can that be misconstrued?
It was his last ditch effort to force her into tolerating him and submitting.
If you can’t see that, you’ve lost part of your common sense and I’m seriously concerned about your mental welfare. ”
“You just don’t understand. It was not said in that context,” Joel said.
Libby swung her gaze to Joel again. “I thought I told you to shut up. If you don’t shut up and sit there until this is finished, I plan to phone your company and tell them all about every single thing that I’ve decided is bullshit.”
“This is getting blown all out of proportion. Nothing happened.”