Pretend You're Mine: A Small Town Love Story (7 page)

He held out the lilies to her. “Trade?”

“You brought me flowers?” She put the brownies on the counter and grabbed the bouquet. “What’s the occasion?”

His mother’s shock and joy was enough to make him feel a little guilty for not thinking to do this sooner.

“No occasion. Just saw them and thought of you.”

Claire buried her face in them. “They’re beautiful, Luke!”

He scratched the back of his head, embarrassed.

“Do you want to stay for lunch?” Claire offered.

“Can’t.” Luke checked his watch. “I’m picking Dad up in 15 for lunch, but I’ll take two brownies.”

“As long as one of them is for Harper.”

Luke smiled. “We’ll see if she hasn’t run screaming for the hills yet after getting a look at the last six months of unfiled paperwork.”

“In that case, I’m packing four brownies and Harper gets to decide if you get any. She’s a lovely girl, Luke. I really like her.”

“I do, too.”

And he meant it.

***

C
harlie Garrison was a broad-shouldered man who had worn his silver hair in the same style since the ’60s. In homage to the brisk spring temperatures, he had traded his heavy Carhartt for a lighter flannel jacket. He slid into the booth across from Luke and pushed the menu to the edge of the table. He always ordered the same thing. They both did.

Luke accepted the unordered cup of coffee from the waitress and smiled as she slid a Coke into his dad’s hands. Claire had for her pre-diabetic husband a strict no-soda rule that was only broken at the diner.

“The usual, boys?” Sandra asked, not bothering to pull out her notepad.

“Yes, ma’am.” Charlie handed her the menus and she winked as she walked away. A retired elementary school music teacher, Sandra owned the diner and worked the lunch shift four days a week.

Luke leaned back, resting his arm on the back of the booth. “I wonder what she’d do if we ever ordered something different.”

“Probably bring us the usual anyway.” He plucked the straw out of the glass and put it on the table before taking a deep drink. “So what’s the occasion?”

“For lunch?”

“It’s been awhile.”

Luke nodded, toying with his mug. “Yeah.” It had been. What years ago had been a standing weekly tradition had slowly morphed into a sporadic occasion.

Sandra mercifully arrived with their food. A tuna melt and fries for Charlie and a bacon cheeseburger for Luke.

“Can I get you boys anything else?”

Charlie shook his head and reached for the ketchup. “No, ma’am.”

“Thanks, Sandra,” Luke said, hefting the burger.

“All right, try not to cause too much trouble,” she said before bustling off to the next booth.

Luke took a big bite of burger and watched his father dig in to his sandwich. “How’s the basement reno coming?” While technically retired, his father still liked to oversee a handful of projects every year. His neighbors, the Nicklebees, had hired them to finish their walkout basement.

Charlie took a swig of Coke and reached for a fry. “It’s coming along. The wiring’s finished and the plumbing’s almost done.”

“I saw your note about them adding a wet bar,” Luke said between bites.

“Yeah, I gave a copy to Harper this morning so she could update the work order and the estimate.”

Luke nodded. He had wondered how long it would take his dad to bring up Harper.

“So what do you think?”

“A wet bar is always a good idea.”

“Very funny. I mean of Harper.” His father followed the old-school businessman’s creed of keeping your opinions under lock and key so as not to offend customers. But he was a fair man and Luke valued his opinion.

Luke snatched a fry off of Charlie’s plate.

“Nice kid.”

“Yes, she is. Don’t you think I moved her in awfully quick?”

“Son, you could have moved in Angry Frank and I’d be happy. You have good timing. Your mom was getting ready to start calling cousins to set you up with.”

Luke felt himself go pale. “Isn’t that illegal?”

“They were mostly seconds and thirds,” Charlie quipped. He grinned, showing a dimple the just like Luke’s.

“Christ.” Luke grabbed for his coffee and leaned back.

“A mother’s love is a blessing and a curse,” Charlie said philosophically. “She was just worried.”

Luke scrubbed a hand over his head. “I know and I appreciate it. But there’s nothing to worry about. I’m fine. Everything is fine.”

“I’ll relay that to your mother. She likes Harper. Thinks she’s just what you need.”

“What? Barely controlled chaos?” Luke’s lips quirked.

“‘A breath of fresh air,’ I believe she said.”

“She’s more like a hurricane.”

“She’s definitely not Karen.”

Luke felt the familiar stab at the mention of her name. It had dulled over the years, but the wound was still there. It would never be gone. “No, she’s not.”

“That’s not a bad thing. Karen would never have taken on Glenn.”

Luke smiled in spite of himself, remembering the surprise in those big gray eyes when they opened to find him over her. “No, she wouldn’t have.”

“Did you get the numbers together on the Broad Street reno proposal?”

Luke knew his dad was changing the subject on purpose and was grateful. “I put some preliminary figures together, but nothing solid yet.”

“Well, we have until Monday to turn in the bid. Maybe Harper can help you over the weekend.”

It was weird to think that he now shared his weekends with someone, at least temporarily. He had grown to value his solitude, but there was something appealing about waking up to her in the mornings. It still gave him a little jolt to find her in the kitchen digging through the fridge or hunched over his laptop in the front room. She brought life to the house. He just wasn’t sure if he was ready for that.

“She’s got her hands full at the office. Have to see if she’s ready for me to dump another project on her.”

H
arper shoved her hands through her hair, hastily pulling it up in a messy knot. Luke’s files were a disaster. Nothing had been updated in the system for the past eight weeks. There were piles of disorganized paperwork everywhere. And the database was a joke. But she loved a project.

The office was on the second floor of one of the brick buildings in downtown Benevolence. It had high ceilings and huge half-circle windows that filtered sunlight onto the scarred, wide-plank hardwood floors.

She huddled over an old drawing table she had repurposed as a desk. She set it up in a corner and angled it to have a line of sight into Luke’s office. Not that he was in there now. And from the looks of the stacks of paperwork covering every flat surface, including the floor, he probably didn’t spend much time there.

Harper moved the now neatly organized stack of files to the edge of the desk and reached for a new pile. She liked being here. Liked being surrounded by Luke’s work. When he said he was in construction, he left out that he ran a ridiculously successful contracting and building firm.

Digging through the files, she discovered that both the bank on Second Street and the sprawling farmhouse on the outskirts of town that she had admired were Garrison projects.

Where some men couldn’t shut up about every minor accomplishment of their day, Luke was a vault. He could thwart a bank robbery and deliver a baby on his lunch break and the only thing he’d volunteer was that he had a BLT.

It only made her want to pry information out of him.

Harper jumped as a brown paper bag landed on the keyboard in front of her.

“Mom sends her best,” Luke said from behind her.

Harper pounced on the bag. “What. Are. These. Nevermind, don’t tell me.” She unwrapped a brownie and took a bite. “Mmm. Heaven!”

“She said you could share if you want to,” he hinted.

She eyed him over her brownie. “Let’s see if you’ve earned it. Did you save any old ladies from harm’s way?”

“No, but I didn’t put any in harm’s way either.”

“Good enough for me.” She handed him a brownie.

She watched him unwrap it and take a manly bite. “How’s your day so far, boss?”

“Not too bad. Just checking up on a new employee, making sure she’s not painting her nails and napping on the company’s dime.”

Harper wrinkled her nose at him. “Speaking of work, you should meet my boss. What a whip-cracker.”

Hmm, Luke with a whip. That was pretty hot. Hotter if he was shirtless.

Oblivious to her fantasy, Luke eyed her desk setup. “Have everything you need here?”

She kicked back in her chair and took another bite of brownie. “I think I can get by for the next month. And when I leave, you’re going to miss me.”

“We’ll see.” He said it with a smile.

A shrill jingle interrupted them. Harper snatched her cellphone off the desk and groaned.

She answered it with a vicious swipe. “Stop calling me,” she shouted into the phone and hung up.

“Problem?”

Harper rolled her eyes. “It’s Can’t Keep His Dick in His Pants.”

Luke frowned. “How many times has he called you?”

She scrolled to her call history. “Only twenty-three since Friday night.”

“Is he leaving voicemails?”

Harper adapted a slightly slurred manly voice. “Oh baby, I want you back. Tiffany means nothing to me. Do you know where my Batman shirt is?”

Her phone shrilled again and Luke snatched it out of her hands. “Do you want him to stop calling you?”

“Uh,
yeah!
How are you going to make that happen?”

“I’m your fake boyfriend. I have many powers.” Luke straightened away from the desk and answered the phone.

He walked a few paces away and Harper strained to listen. He stood with a wide stance, hand on hip, staring out the window. There was always such an intensity about him. Power and control were the driving forces behind everything he did.

Luke rarely divided his attention, making it seem like he was always fully focused on the task at hand. It was that intense focus that Harper felt every time he looked at her. She felt important. Worthy. Interesting.

And now the man who made her feel important, worthy, and interesting was in a conversation with the man who treated her as replaceable.

Luke hung up and walked back to Harper. He tossed her the phone.

“Well?” she asked.

“He won’t be calling you anymore, and he’s sending your last paycheck here to the office.”

Harper jumped out of her chair and whooped. She tossed her arms around his neck and planted a smacking kiss on his cheek, savoring the feel of his stubble under her lips. “I’m taking you out to dinner with that paycheck.”

His hands settled on her waist and held. “Don’t you think I should pay for our first date?”

“An unconventional relationship calls for unconventional etiquette. Besides, we’ve already slept together and you brought me brownies. That your mother made for me. We’re practically engaged.”

He looked nervous again. She could tell he wanted to back up and get some space between them. Harper liked that she could make him a little uncomfortable. It partially made up for the pointy butterflies that went careening around her stomach when he looked at her with those soulful eyes.

“We’ll see,” he said, stepping back. “I’m going to get some paperwork done and head out again. Need anything?”

“Nope. I’m good.” And she meant it. She watched Luke head into his office and smiled. This was her life now, at least for the next month. A good job in a great office with a boss and roommate so good looking she couldn’t stop staring at him.

She tried to focus on her work, but felt her attention pulled to the office in the corner. She had a direct line of sight to Luke at his desk, frowning at his computer screen, kicking back in his chair to make a call. Every glance or two, she found him already looking at her. Maybe he was as disconcerted around her as she was around him? Every time one of them caught the other looking, Luke’s frown deepened.

After nearly half an hour of mutual sneaked peeks, Luke pushed back from his desk and grabbed a stack of paperwork and his tablet.

“I’m heading out to a meeting. I probably won’t be back in after it.”

“Okay, boss, have a good day,” Harper smiled. She tried to keep her eyes on her monitor instead of his ass as he walked out. It wasn’t easy.

Harper got in almost another hour of work before she was interrupted again.

A short, slim man in blue flannel sauntered in, suspenders holding up his carpenter pants. Weathered blue eyes stared at her above a frizzy beard that was going more gray than red.

“So, you’re the girl who’s got the whole town riled up,” he said crossing his arms.

Harper raised her eyebrows. “It’s a small town. I have a feeling it doesn’t take much to rile it.”

He squinted at her. “The way I heard it, you’re supposed to be six-foot-one. And a redhead.”

“Sorry to disappoint.”

“I do like redheads.” He shook his head, clearly disappointed.

Harper didn’t know how to respond to that.

“I can’t decide if you’re stupid or crazy,” he said, leaning against the cabinets on the wall.

“Is there an HR department here that I should complain to about you?”

He snorted. “Don’t be so sensitive.”

“Wait a minute. Do you even work here?”

He snorted again. “Do
I
work here? I’ve been with this company since Luke started it and before that, I worked for Charlie.”

“Got a name?”

“Frank.”

“Frank, I’m Harper.”

“The boss moved you in awful fast, don’t you think?”

“To his house or the office?” Crap. Three days with Luke and he already had her answering questions with questions.

“What I’m saying is the boss had his reasons for taking you in, giving you a job. I’m not here to question his judgment — questionable though it may be. I’m here to warn you that if you mess with this company or that family, you’ll answer to me. They’ve all been through enough these past years and don’t need some crazy hot head coming in and messing things up for them.”

“You think I’m a crazy hot head?”

“You tackled a man twice your size screaming like a banshee, didn’t you? You’ve got that fist-sized black eye. Rolled into town homeless.”