Chapter One #2
It was as if he considered it a personal attack against him, which it wasn’t. Harper would literally move into the heart of enemy territory if it meant improving Kash’s life. At this point, her life was all about her son. His needs. His wants. What she wanted didn’t matter.
Although Harper had no idea what she wanted. She’d been on autopilot for so long, struggling to keep her head above water, that she hadn’t been able to stop and think about what she hoped to get out of life.
Motherhood hadn’t been something she’d aspired to. Kash wasn’t planned, but she wasn’t sorry she’d chosen to have him. She didn’t even want to think about where she might be today if he hadn’t come along twelve years ago. Probably dead in a gutter in New York City.
With that depressing thought swirling through her brain, Harper didn’t even see the car pull up behind her and cut its lights. She was so lost in her head, she also didn’t hear the car door shut or see the man walking up to the driver’s side of her older-model minivan.
So when he rapped on her window with his knuckles, she jumped about ten feet and let out a girly little screech in fright.
When she turned her head, Harper saw the very man she couldn’t get out of her head, slowly backing away with his hands up as if to show he was no threat.
Her heart beating a hundred miles an hour, Harper frowned. What was Linc doing here? How did he know where she was? Was he driving by and just happened to see her car? Her face flamed. The store wasn’t open. So there was no good reason for her car to be sitting in the lot.
Karma, that bitch, was still hard at work. Making Harper pay for the way she’d treated this man all those years ago. Making sure he saw her at her worst, time and time again.
Frowning, Harper disengaged the locks and cracked her door open—she didn’t have the engine running, to save on gas, so she couldn’t roll down the automatic windows. “What’s wrong?” she asked Linc. “Is it Kash? Is he okay?”
She both hated and loved that her son had such a good relationship with Linc. That he felt comfortable enough to text him whenever the mood struck.
“He’s worried about you,” Linc said simply.
Harper closed her eyes for a beat. Of course her son had overheard her arguing with her dad. Of course he’d been worried. Her son had taken on the role of protector as well as he could at such a young age.
“I told him I’d check on you.”
“Well, you’ve checked on me. I’m fine,” Harper said, her words sounding sharper than she meant them to. This man brought out her defensiveness faster than anyone she knew. Well . . . maybe other than her dad.
In response, Linc stared at her for a beat, then walked around the front of her minivan to the passenger side. He climbed inside as if he had every right and sat, slamming the door behind him. He turned in the seat so he could see her better and simply stared without saying a word.
“What are you doing?” she asked.
“Checking on you,” he told her.
Harper sighed. Fucking karma. How long was she going to have to pay for the horrible way she’d treated this man? Wasn’t her life turning to shit while he’d literally soared to great heights enough?
Apparently not.
It felt as if every time she turned around, he was witnessing her humiliation.
“I’m fine, Linc,” she said, letting her head drop back on the seat behind her. Her head felt way too heavy to hold upright. She was exhausted. Mentally and physically.
“You don’t look fine,” he countered.
Harper let out an unamused huff. “Well, I am. I just needed a break from my dad. He’s kinda difficult. I’ll go back before Kash gets up for school. I work in the morning anyway, so I need to shower and change.”
Linc nodded. “Your dad is . . . he’s a lot.”
Harper turned her head where it rested on the seat and snorted as she said, “Yeah.”
“I’m sorry things didn’t work out with the house on Lobster Cove.”
Harper shrugged. She was sorry too, but there wasn’t anything anyone could do about it.
“You planning on living in your car again?” Linc asked, in that blunt way he had.
Harper blinked. “What? No!” She hated that he knew she and Kash had lived in their car at one point, but the gossip network was alive and well in Rockville.
And since he and Kash had gotten so close, she wasn’t surprised her son had told him about that time in their lives.
Just another humiliation this man was privy to when it came to her personal business.
“Look, I’m sorry Kash overheard my dad and me fighting.
I’m sorry if he thought I might have left the house for good to live in my car.
I’m sorry he contacted you in the middle of the night, and I’m sorry you felt the need to come all the way out here to find me.
If you get out, I’ll go home now. Will that make you happy? ”
“It’s not about what will make me happy, Harper,” Linc said, almost gently.
“It’s about you. And your boy.” He studied her for a long moment.
“You know I bought a house when I moved here. It needs a ton of work. It’s drafty, smells a little funky, and it’s probably not the most comfortable place in the world.
But I do have hot water—the water heater was one of the first things I replaced—and the roof is good, thanks to my brothers helping me put a new one on recently.
There are also more bedrooms than I know what to do with .
. . You and Kash could come live with me.
“There’s a bus stop on my street,” he hurried to add, almost as if rushing to get the words out now.
“I’ve seen kids standing out there in the mornings, so Kash can still get to school easily.
I’ll stay out of your way. I’m at Lobster Cove a lot anyway, and when I’m home, I’m usually working.
I recently finished one of the two main bedrooms in the house, the one on the first floor, which I’d planned to move into.
You and Kash can have the entire second floor to yourselves. I won’t bother you, Harper.”
She stared at the man sitting next to her in disbelief and shock.
Her first instinct was to refuse. To shake her head and say no way in hell was she going to live with the boy she’d tormented in high school. This was probably his sick way of getting back at her.
But . . . no. That wasn’t the kind of man Lincoln Young was. She knew that without really even knowing him. Though, Harper wasn’t sure about his motivation. Why was he trying to help her?
“Why are you being so nice to me?” she whispered, almost scared to hear his answer. “I was horrible to you. You should hate me.”
“Harper, that was twenty years ago. A lot has happened to both of us since then. It makes no sense to hold a grudge for that long. Yeah, you were a bitch, and when we graduated high school I was glad I’d never have to see you again. But life has a funny way of bringing things full circle.
“I don’t hate you. Did I ever expect I’d be sitting here, inviting you and your son to live with me? No. But I’m also not the kind of man who’s able to watch a kid I like and respect stress because he’s worried about his mom. Say yes, Harper.”
She wanted to. He was dangling the proverbial carrot in front of her, and it was taking all her strength not to grab for it. “How much would rent cost?” she asked, attempting to keep her voice level.
“No rent,” he told her.
Harper shook her head. “No, Linc. I can’t come live in your house and not pay my and Kash’s fair share.”
To her surprise, Linc chuckled. “You did hear me say how much work the house still needs, right? It’s pretty much a shithole at the moment.
You’ll probably walk in, then turn around and walk right back out.
The bones are good, but she’s in rough shape.
There’s no way I’d charge anyone to live there right now. ”
“I can’t,” Harper said, sticking to her guns.
He stared at her for a beat. Harper thought she saw respect in his gaze, but she was probably mistaken. She was pathetic at best. At a very low spot in her life.
“How about this? I know you’re working a lot right now, and you don’t have a lot of free time.
But what if when you are around, you help me with the house?
You and Kash. I could teach him things like simple carpentry and plumbing, how to install appliances, the right way to paint, how to put insulation in .
. . things like that. He could be my helper when he’s not at school. ”
Harper wanted to cry. She knew without a doubt Kash would love that. He didn’t have a lot of friends at school, and he already idolized Linc. Having his idol teach him “boy” things like fixing up a house would be a dream come true.
She swallowed hard. She didn’t like charity.
Didn’t like knowing she wasn’t able to give her son the things he needed and deserved on her own, the very reason she was living with her dad.
But Linc was offering something that might mean she could save enough to get her and Kash their own place by summer.
Independence.
He was offering her a way to get her pride back.
But a part of her still wondered about the catch. Because she certainly couldn’t see a lot in this arrangement for him. It wasn’t as if she or Kash would be that much help around his house. She didn’t know the first thing about home improvement.
“Say yes, Harper,” Linc repeated firmly. “I know you don’t like me, have never liked me. I don’t know why, it’s not as if I’ve ever done anything to you. Not back then and not since I’ve returned to Maine. But—”
“I like you!” Harper blurted, interrupting him.
“But more than that, I respect you. Linc . . . there aren’t many men, many people, who would do what you and your brothers did.
Move back to Maine when you had your own lives and jobs elsewhere, to help out your mom.
If Kash turns out half as good as you are, I’d be proud. ”
“You should already be proud of him,” Linc said with a scowl.