Chapter 16
THEO
The sunlight coming in through the massive window on the back wall woke Theo.
There was no moment of disorientation, no struggle to recall where he was or how he had gotten there. He felt the warmth of Harper in his arms before he opened his eyes, and he knew exactly what he would see when he did.
But even so, he wasn’t prepared for it.
He couldn’t have imagined how beautiful she would look in sleep, with all the usual guarded tension gone from her face, with her hair spilling loose around her.
She was like a different woman. He lay there for a moment, amazed at the fact that he got to see her like this, that he got to experience this side of her at all. It felt like a miracle.
Then he heard a scraping at the door and snapped out of it.
He sat bolt upright. They weren’t expecting rescue until tomorrow.
But someone was pushing the door open, and in a minute they would be able to see him and Harper.
They could probably explain away the fact that they had come out here and stayed the night after their car trouble, but he didn’t think the proprietors would be nearly as understanding about what had taken place on these couches last night.
He scrambled over the back of his, hurried across the room, and threw himself down on another nearby sofa, hoping it would appear to onlookers as though that was where he’d spent the night. He closed his eyes and did his best to feign sleep, even though his heart was pounding madly.
“What the hell?”
The voice was a female one. Theo opened his eyes, pretending it had woken him. He sat up and blinked, pretending to be confused.
The woman stood in the doorway, clearly hesitant about coming in. Theo didn’t blame her — for all she knew, she was walking into an ongoing robbery.
He held up his hands. “I can explain this,” he said.
“We came out here yesterday hoping to tour the place. Our car broke down and our phones were dead. When we realized the door was unlocked, we decided our best bet was to just let ourselves in and stay the night, hoping someone would show up in the morning and turn your phones on so that we could call a tow truck.”
The woman was eyeing the plates and wine glasses from their makeshift dinner, which sat on the bar. “Looks like you helped yourselves to a few things.”
“We had to eat,” Theo defended himself.
“And you had to open a merlot?”
“I’ll pay you back triple what that’s worth.
And we’re hoping to book a wedding here, and we’ll pay really well for that, too.
My brother is getting married, and I want him to have the best of everything.
” He glanced over at Harper, unable to keep himself from thinking about how moving their conversation had been, how powerful it had felt to be seen so clearly by another person.
“He would love this place. I really am sorry for coming in when no one was here like this. I didn’t mean to alarm you. It just felt like our only option.”
The sound of voices had stirred Harper. She sat up slowly, and to her unending credit, she didn’t appear to be alarmed by any of what was going on. She didn’t try to jump into the conversation. She waited and allowed Theo to do the talking.
The woman nodded slowly, taking in Harper, clearly put at ease by the presence of another woman. “I’ll go connect the phones,” she said. “You can call your tow. But I’m going to check the place for damage before you leave, and take pictures.”
“That’s reasonable, I’d do the same,” Theo said. “We’ll give you our identification, too, in case anything comes up.”
“Then I don’t think this needs to go any further than the three of us,” the woman said. She walked off in the direction of the reception desk.
Theo waited until she was a good distance away, then hurried over to Harper and helped her out of the nest of couches. “Are you all right?”
“Just a little startled.” She smiled. “Last night was fun, though.”
“It really was. A lot more than I would have expected.” He smiled. “I think we’ll be able to handle the rest of our time together planning this wedding.”
“I don’t think we’re going to have the same problems anymore, no.” She grinned.
He took a deep breath. They did need to address the elephant in the room.
She’d given him no indication that she was the clingy type, but how many times had he thought he was spending a night with a woman who understood his intentions, only to realize that she’d expected something more?
“We do need to be careful to keep things professional moving forward, though,” he said.
She raised her eyebrows and said nothing.
He found the silence unsettling. It seemed as though maybe this was her way of trying to get him to go on talking, and if it was, it was going to work.
He felt the words coming up like vomit. “You know I’m not interested in anything serious,” he said.
“I don’t think you are either — at least, not here.
You’re looking for marriage, and you know I’m not that guy. We were just having a good time.”
“Of course,” she said evenly. “You’re right; that is what I want. It’s exactly what I was hoping for when I found out I was going to be working with Max’s best man to plan the wedding. All I needed was someone I could enjoy myself with, and it seems like that’s what I’ve got.”
“Exactly.” He felt himself begin to relax — they were on the same page, just like he had assumed last night when they had gotten themselves into this.
It wasn’t going to create problems for them moving forward, and that was a relief.
“I had a great time, and I’m glad you did too.
And I’m glad we’re going to be getting along better moving forward, but this was a one-time thing. ”
“Agreed,” she said.
He thought he caught a shadow of something on her face, but then a moment later he was sure he had imagined it.
She twisted her hair into a bun and secured it with the elastic band around her wrist. “We should talk to that woman before we go, and make sure we can get this place for the day of the wedding. It would be great to have that all squared away.”
As if on cue, the woman came back. “The phones are up,” she said. “You can make your calls.”
“Are you who we would speak to about a wedding reservation?” Harper asked.
“My name is Cynthia Johnson. I can help you with that, yes.”
Harper nodded. “I’m Harper Martin. I’m an events coordinator, and I’ve worked with this space before, but I don’t think you and I have ever been introduced. Of course, if we had, it would have been less of a shock for you to find me in your lobby this morning.”
“You make a habit of that sort of thing?” Cynthia Johnson smiled wryly.
“No, of course not. But I imagine seeing a familiar face would have been less alarming than seeing a stranger. Truly, I am sorry about all this. I wonder if we can talk about dates?”
“I’ll get the book,” Cynthia said.
“I’ll go call for the tow,” Theo offered.
Harper smiled at him. “Thanks,” she said. “The sooner we can get out of here, the better. And do you have some spare phone chargers, Ms. Johnson?”
“I might be able to find you something.” The two women went off together.
Theo made his way over to the phone. Not having the number for a tow company handy, he had no choice but to dial the only phone number he had committed to memory. Max answered on the third ring.
“Max, I need your help,” Theo said without preamble. “My car broke down and I’m stranded, so I need you to send a tow out to pick me up.”
“What do you mean, your car broke down?” Theo could hear one of the kids crying in the background. “It’s seven thirty in the morning, Theo. Where are you?”
“I can’t tell you.”
“You can’t tell me? How am I going to send you a tow?”
“Just… give me a number for a towing company. I’ll make the call.”
“Theo, am I just supposed to not worry about this? You call me and tell me you’re stranded, but you can’t tell me where? How would you react if I did that to you?”
“Max—”
“You’d panic, that’s how. And you’d be right to, because that’s a crazy thing to say to someone. I’m not giving you the number of a tow truck. Tell me where you are, and I’m coming to pick you up right now.”
“No, you aren’t. Your kids—”
“Tara can watch them. She can call in to work.”
“Don’t be ridiculous.”
“I’m not the one acting like I’m in the middle of some shady crime deal gone bad.”
“Oh, my God — I’m doing a wedding thing, all right? I don’t want to tell you where I am because I don’t want to spoil a surprise.”
There was a long silence on the phone.
“You’re doing a wedding thing?” Max said finally.
“Yeah, that’s right.”
“You’re up at seven thirty in the morning doing something for my wedding?”
“Don’t get all mushy on me. I wouldn’t have gotten up this early. The car broke down yesterday, and we were stuck out here. I haven’t been able to make calls until now, that’s all.”
“We? Hang on. Harper’s with you?”
“Yes, we’re working together, which is what you asked us to do, if you’ll recall.”
“I know, but…”
“But what?”
“I guess I didn’t foresee it going as well as it seems to be, that’s all. But I’m glad it is,” Max added enthusiastically. “She’s a great woman, isn’t she?”
“She’s all right.”
“You don’t have to worry about surprises — you can tell me where you are. Let me come pick you up. Tara will come too, and we’ll bring the kids. Maybe we can all go out for lunch.”
Max sounded so eager, so excited, and there was a substantial part of Theo that wanted to just say yes to what his brother was suggesting. It did sound like a fun way to pass an afternoon.
But could he really sit next to Harper all day and not get lost in thoughts about what it had been like to have her in his arms?
To be with her so intimately… even though they had agreed it was to be a one-time thing.
He needed the rest of the day, at least, to shake it off before he would be able to really feel normal in her company again.
“Just give me the phone number,” he said.
“We want to keep this place our secret for now, so we can surprise you with it. Trust me. You’re going to be glad you went along with that.
And we can all go out together some other time, but right now I think Harper and I want to get home and take naps and showers. ”
“Are you sure you’re both all right?”
“We’re fine,” Theo assured his brother. “Just eager to get out of here.”
He looked over at Harper, who was standing across the lobby nodding at something Cynthia Johnson was saying. He wondered whether he would ever be able to look at her again without a flash of memory reminding him what it had been like to have her in bed with him.
“All right,” Max said. “I’ll grab that number for you.”
Theo nodded and fished out a piece of paper and a pen to write it down. They were finally on their way home.