The Pilot (Alpha Cove #3)

Chapter One

Harper stared blankly at the Walmart store at the other end of the parking lot. She was parked all the way in the back of the lot, under a light to be safe. Her adrenaline was still coursing through her body after the fight with her dad earlier in the evening.

She wasn’t even sure how the argument had started. All she knew was that she’d needed some space. Needed to get away. And her dad had the audacity to order her to leave . . . which was fine with her, since she was already halfway out the door.

Sighing, Harper closed her eyes and rested her head on the seat behind her. How had she ended up this way? In high school, she was part of the popular crowd, smart and with a ton of friends.

Well . . . she’d thought they were friends. The girls she’d grown up with, who she’d thought would stay in touch forever, seemed to disappear entirely a few months after graduation. Sure, they’d gone their separate ways, but Harper honestly hadn’t thought that would matter.

She’d moved to New York City, ready to take on the world.

She’d had aspirations of getting into modeling, which was ridiculous.

She wasn’t nearly skinny enough, liked sweets a bit too much, and while she was five foot ten, plenty tall enough to be a model, she was told she didn’t have the “right look.” Whatever that meant.

But Harper was stubborn, like her dad, and she’d refused to give up. She worked crappy jobs that barely paid the bills while attempting to get the one big break that would make her famous.

What a joke.

All moving to the city had ever gotten her was heartache.

Except for Kash.

Her boy was literally the only reason she was still breathing today. There were plenty of times when she’d wanted to give up. To throw herself in front of a subway train and end it all. But her little boy would have had no one. So she kept going, even when she wanted to quit, because of Kash.

She loved that kid more than she’d ever thought possible.

He was a bright spot in her otherwise bleak life.

Every time she lost a job—the buses were running behind and she was fired for being late one too many times, a boss thought she owed him sex just for hiring her, or the hours didn’t work out with Kash’s schedule—she’d think about moving back to Maine, putting her pride aside and asking for help.

But she always seemed to find another job right when she was at her lowest.

Except for that last time.

She’d lost their apartment, as shitty as it was, because she had no money for rent. She’d gone to a few shelters, but having Kash with her made things a little more tricky. And none of them really felt safe.

Then one night, when she and Kash were sleeping in her car—again—she’d heard his little stomach growling, because she didn’t have money to get them anything for dinner. And Harper was done.

She’d put her pride aside and asked her dad if she could move home.

Harper had known it would be difficult. Part of the reason she’d left home at eighteen was because of her dad. He was strict and judgmental. Never seemed to approve of anything she said or did.

When she’d called home and told him that he was going to be a grandparent, instead of being overjoyed, her dad had asked about the father.

When she’d admitted that he wasn’t in the picture, he’d harrumphed and told her not to expect any monetary help.

She’d made the decision to have a baby out of wedlock, so she was on her own as far as raising that child went.

It was a blow, but nothing she hadn’t expected.

She was now thirty-eight years old, almost thirty-nine, but there were times she felt as if she were eighty. Harper couldn’t think of anything she’d done in her life that was special. She was a failure at pretty much everything, except for her son.

And now here she was. Sitting in a Walmart parking lot in her hometown after storming out of her dad’s house in a snit.

Sighing, she opened her eyes and stared into space. Being here in the dark reminded her a little too much of those nights in the city, when she and Kash had found a dark corner of a free parking area to sleep. Was she really any better off now than she was then? Harper wasn’t sure.

Maybe her son would be better off without her around. Her dad could raise him. He’d have a warm and safe place to lay his head every night, and he wouldn’t have to be embarrassed that his mother worked an entry-level job in retail.

But the thought of leaving Kash at the mercy of her father’s influence made her lip curl.

That was the very subject of the argument that had sent her running.

Kash had come home from school so proud that he’d been chosen to be part of the robotics club. Apparently it was a pretty competitive thing, and while robots weren’t his first love, he enjoyed tinkering with them enough to want to join.

Her dad had actually laughed. Told Kash he would’ve been better off trying to join some sort of sport .

. . even though Kash didn’t have any interest in sports.

He backed off some after that, but when Kash went up to bed, he started in again.

Telling Harper that her son was going to be a laughingstock.

That he was going to be picked on. That he’d be bullied because he was such a nerd.

Harper saw red. She might allow him to bad-mouth her, but she wasn’t going to sit by and let her father tear Kash to pieces.

She’d lit into him, claiming he was a judgmental jerk and warning him to leave her son alone.

That had been enough for him to turn his judgment on her. Expressing his disappointment in how she’d turned out. Saying he’d expected so much more.

The last straw was when he’d said her mom would feel the same way.

It was a low blow, and Harper was done. She’d stormed away before she could say something she’d really regret.

To save face, her dad yelled at her to get out when she was already halfway to the door. It was typical Victor. Always determined to have the last word.

With nowhere to go, she’d ended up in the parking lot of her workplace.

Where she felt as if she spent most of her time these days.

She’d missed out on too much of Kash’s life.

Before she knew it, he’d be graduating and moving on.

She’d already missed his amazing performance at the crate race at Lobster Fest because she was working.

Her boy was growing up, and Harper both hated that and was as proud of him as she could be.

Pressing her lips together, she decided everything that was shit in her life was karma doing her thing.

Harper was well aware that she hadn’t been a nice person when she was in high school.

For no reason at all, she’d thought she was better than most of the kids in her class.

And when her so-called friends started bullying some of their classmates, she went right along with the pack.

Back then, it was more important for her to fit in than to do the right thing.

Those thoughts led Harper to think about Lincoln Young.

She’d been particularly horrible to him. A total bitch. A classic mean girl. And she had no clue how to make it right now. Or if she even could after all this time.

Linc had been a scrawny kid back then. Which didn’t make it right that she and her friends picked on him every chance they got.

And having a kid like Kash made her actions back then seem so much worse .

. . because he reminded her so much of the boy Linc used to be.

Smart, lost in his own head, obsessed with all things nerdy.

But the man Linc grew into was someone to be admired.

She’d heard the stories of his career as a fighter pilot in the Air Force.

How he was literally an American hero. It made her treatment of him when they were kids all the more painful.

She wasn’t the same person she was back then, but she wasn’t sure how to change the perception Linc, and everyone else, seemed to have of her.

The truth was, she liked Linc. Was grateful to him and his family for embracing Kash the way they had.

She knew about the fort in the woods that used to belong to the Young boys, the one that Kash had taken over.

She wasn’t upset about it in the least .

. . not like her dad would be. He disliked the Young family and did his best to discourage Kash from spending time with them, to no avail.

Kash loved Evelyn Young. She was the grandmother he’d never had.

After a misunderstanding about the kind of person she was—thanks to his very own grandfather—hanging out at Lobster Cove, the Youngs’ property, was one of Kash’s favorite things to do after school.

Mostly because of the cookies he got from Ms. Evelyn .

. . but also because he got to see Linc.

Harper’s mind went back to the man she’d so badly wronged when they were teenagers. He was so good with Kash. Had taken him under his wing, so to speak. Been a mentor to him. Encouraging him, supporting him, and her son had a huge case of hero worship . . . not that she could blame him.

She wished moving into the small house on the Lobster Cove property had worked out.

It would’ve been a huge break. Her dad was making her pay rent to live with him, which she honestly didn’t have a problem with .

. . but she was barely making ends meet.

She was managing, but living at Lobster Cove would’ve helped her actually save money.

Evelyn had only planned to charge her two hundred bucks a month.

Which was ridiculously low, but Harper wouldn’t have complained.

That opportunity had fallen through when unexpected repairs had to be made to the small house. Unfortunate . . . especially considering her dad had been even more impossible ever since she’d told him that she and Kash were moving to his neighbor’s property.