“But I’d already agreed to stay in Razor Bay until next week.”
“I didn’t say it was well thought out.” She shrugged one elegant shoulder. “In my zeal, your work ethic slipped my mind, and I worried you’d get wanderlust and take off for a new adventure. I messed up, Baby Girl. But I vow I did so with the best of intentions.” She looked at Harper. “So you two had a fight?”
“I screwed up so bad,” she said, then gave her mother a rueful look. “It must run in the family.”
Ignoring the aside, Gina went straight to the heart of the matter. “What are you going to do about it?”
“I was about to hunt him down like a hound after a fox when you arrived.”
“Go.” Her mother waved her away. “Don’t worry about me, I can entertain myself. Go make amends. And after you do, bring your young man back to introduce to your mama.”
* * *
A
FTER
M
AX
LEFT
Harper’s cottage, he drove aimlessly through several of the little blink-and-you-miss-them towns outside of Razor Bay. Finally, thinking to distract himself with the boys, he headed for the Village.
That didn’t work out quite the way he’d hoped. He simply hurt too much, was too distracted and just couldn’t immerse himself in their doings the way he usually did. It didn’t help that both Owen and Malcolm separately asked if he’d seen Harper.
Ground glass in his intestines couldn’t have made him bleed more inside. It took every shred of willpower he possessed to answer levelly that Razor Bay Days plans at the inn were keeping her busy.
He was wrung dry by the time his group dispersed either to meet with a counselor or go to class. When the last boy disappeared through the doorway and the sounds out in the hallway began to die down, he bent forward in his chair to brace his elbows on his thighs. Dropping his head onto his fists, he dug his knuckles into his forehead where a headache throbbed.
God, what was he going to do? He couldn’t wrap his mind around living day after day after day with the kind of pain he felt right now. And one thing was certain. He had to get the hell out of here. As long as his mind was stuck in the never-gonna-get-to-hold-Harper-again rut, he was no damn good to these kids.
Slowly, he dropped his hands and straightened up. Blowing out a breath, he shoved to his feet. He felt like he was eighty years old.
A slight disruption in the air alerted him he wasn’t alone, and, hoping like hell it was Mary-Margaret or some other Cedar Village personnel and not one of the boys, he turned. He just couldn’t deal with another kid at the moment.
Harper stood in the doorway.
She was the last person he expected to see, and it damn near brought him to his knees. It took every resource at his disposal to not merely keep from buckling but to stand tall, as well. Slapping on his poker face, he met her olive-green-eyed gaze head-on. “What do you want?”
“I choose you,” she said in a voice that trembled slightly.
“Dammit, Harper,” he said. “Could we just not—” Her words sank in, and he shook his head to clear it, unsure he’d actually heard what he thought he’d heard. “What?”
“I put you first,” she said more strongly, stepping into the room and reaching for the open door to close it behind her. “I want to be with you. Want to love and live with
you.
”
His heart slammed up against his rib cage. “Are you messing with me?” God, if she was—if this was some sick joke, and she laughed and took it back after making him hope...
It would kill him.
“No.” She came a step closer. “God, Max.
No.
” Those long legs carried her another step nearer. “I love you.” She slicked her tongue over her bottom lip. Looked at him earnestly. “
Love
you. So. Much.
God.
So, so much.”
He held up his hand like a traffic cop as she started to take yet another step toward him. “Stay where you are. So, you want me to travel with you after all?”
“No, I—”
“You
are
fucking with my head.” He speared his fingers into his hair and clutched his skull, pressing the heels of his hands against his temples. “I never pegged you as having a cruel streak.”
“Just listen—I am
not
messing with you.” Ignoring his demand to stay back, she stepped up to him and took his face in her hands. “I love you,” she said. “Do you hear me?”
He nodded cautiously. Lowered his hands to his sides. But he couldn’t bring himself to touch her, for fear he’d discover this was a dream that would pop like a bubble the instant he did.
“When you walked out on me,” she said, “I realized I could travel until I was old and gray and never feel half as good as I do when I’m with you.” She brushed the pad of her thumb over his lower lip. “Right here in Razor Bay.”
“You were pretty adamant about how much you love your job.”
“But as
you
said, I love you more. I panicked for a minute when you told me that, but I so understand what you were talking about now. Because I do love you more than any damn job.
So
much more. I can talk to Jenny about working at the inn during the busy season. Talk to Mary-Margaret about maybe working part-time here.” She shrugged. “Or volunteering, if they can’t afford another employee. I have a decent nest egg saved. I can afford to take a break if I want.”
“Maybe—” his hands moved with a life of their own to slide around her hips “—we could put each other first and compromise like you suggested.” He shuddered with the pleasure of feeling the warmth of her body through her clothing. “Maybe it doesn’t have to be an either-or proposition.”
Her eyes lit up. “You mean maybe travel a week a month or every other month, something like that?” She considered. “Assessing grant applicants generally only takes three to five days. The time I spent here was the exception.” Then she shook her head. “But that’s not important. I can go without ever doing that again and be happy, Max. As long as I have you.”
He couldn’t hold back a second longer; he lowered his head and rocked his mouth over hers. At the first taste of her, he felt as if he’d come home, and he took his time savoring her flavors and reassuring himself that she was really here in his arms, her own winding tightly around his neck as she kissed him back.
He eventually raised his head and gazed down at her. A slight smile tugged at the corner of his mouth. “Do you really think the foundation would be okay with you only being on the road one week a month?”
“Well, I don’t know.” The smile she flashed damn near blinded him. “We’ll have to ask my mother.” She rose onto her toes to press a quick there-and-gone kiss on his lips. Lowering her heels back onto her flip-flops, she grinned up at him. “Who happens to be at my place.”
“Your
mother
is at your place? Here? In Razor Bay?”
“Yes.”
“Oh, man. She’s gonna hate me.”
She patted his chest. “No, she’s not. She’s going to love you almost as much as I do.”
He snorted. “Like hell. I’d lay odds she had someone a little more upscale than me in mind for her only daughter.”
Harper laughed. “That’s what I thought, too. But the reason she kept putting off telling Mary-Margaret that I’d approved the grant was to give me more time with you.”
His brows furrowed. “How would she even know we were spending time together? Did you tell her?”
“No. In fact, we’d barely stopped circling each other at the time. But she said my voice changed whenever I talked about you.”
A smile tugged at his lips. “Yeah?”
“Yes. She also said, and I quote—‘All I want for you is a man who thinks you hang the moon.’”
Tension he hadn’t realized had taken up residence in his shoulders released its grip. “That would be me.”
“Yes, it would. She also wants me to feel the same for the man I love. And I do, Max.” She nipped his lower lip. “I want to snatch that darn thing right out of the sky and hang it around your neck like an Olympic medal.”
He wouldn’t have thought it possible to go from the lowest point of his life to the happiest he’d ever been. But he had done exactly that. And it totally worked for him.
“Then I guess we both have our work cut out for us,” he murmured, bending his knees to kiss her again. Moments later he lifted his head and smiled down at her.
“I can hardly wait.”
EPILOGUE
L
EAVING
HER
MOTHER
browsing a few feet away in the towel department, Harper danced up to Max, who was trying to pretend he wasn’t associated with what he called the frou-frou section. “Look,” she said. “Aren’t these perfect for your guest bathroom?”
“
Our
bathroom,” he said, giving her a firm look. He kept insisting everything was theirs, even though she’d only moved in on Wednesday.
And she supposed she should start looking at it that way herself. “Okay, ours. Aren’t they great?”
He gamely inspected the little guest towels she held out, then snapped his head up to pin her with a look of horror. “They have ribbons on them!”
“I know, aren’t they gorgeous?” She stroked the rich stripes of colors appreciatively, even though she could see that they weren’t, in his eyes. You would have thought she’d presented him with something bristling with lace and glitter. “They’re not streaming ribbons,” she said with a laugh. “It’s two bands sewn across the ends. And just look at these colors—they’ll go beautifully with the paint job.”
“
Ribbons,
Harper. If my brothers see these, they’ll take away my man card.”
She kissed his chin, smiling against it at the feel of the slight stubble beneath her lips. Pulling back, she splayed her hand on the hard chest covering his heart. “Trust me, Max, we could deck you out in pink lace from head to toe and your man card would be safe.”
Her mother came up to them. “With a woman living with you, darling, you’re going to have to make some concessions to the feminine stuff.” She patted his arm. “But I agree with my daughter. I bet your man card is solid platinum.”
“Damn.” He shook his head. “First candles and now this. The invasion of girly stuff is traumatizing.”
His words said one thing, but his dark eyes were full of contentment, so Harper stroked his cheek and played along. “There, there,” she murmured. “Just keep telling yourself at least you didn’t have to go makeup shopping with me. And if you can hold on for five minutes while I pay for these, I’ll buy you an ice cream.”
He snorted and let Gina haul him over to the kitchen gadgets adjacent to the cash register.
As her purchase was rung up, she heard her mother say, “All the work you and Harper are putting into my farewell party? I have to tell you, Max, it touches me right to the depths of my soul.” Then she laughed wholeheartedly, making Harper smile. “Well, as long as it’s not because you’re just so damn glad to get rid of me.”
Max laughed. “Hell, I don’t want you to go at all,” he said as Harper accepted her change from the clerk. “If I had my way, you’d move here permanently.”
He was perfectly serious. It had been love at first sight between Max and her mom. Gina had taken one look and clearly seen right through his sometimes coolly reserved facade, for she’d started mothering him as if he were an orphan she’d pulled in from the storm. Max ate it up like the ice cream she’d just promised him.
And why not? No one else had ever taken the time to do the job right.
Watching Gina with him was an eye-opener for Harper, as well. She’d grown so accustomed to viewing Gina in a certain light that, until this visit, it hadn’t occurred to her the beliefs so firmly entrenched in her mind might not be the absolute truth.
Watching her with Max these past several days had jump-started all the good memories she’d relegated for far too long to a distant, dusty corner of her mind. She appreciated her mom again, and a small hollow space she hadn’t acknowledged was suddenly filled.
She crossed over to Max and Gina and gave her mother a hug. “I’m going to miss you, too, Mom.”
Gina’s smile was brilliant as she reached out to hug her in return.
When they got back to Max’s—
their—
place, her mom helped her arrange her girly stuff. Not long after they finished, their friends began to arrive for Gina’s farewell party.
“Where’s Tasha?” Harper asked Jenny a while later when everyone else had arrived and the strawberry blonde was nowhere to be found.
“Oh, sorry. She said to tell you she’s got a problem at Bella’s and not to wait dinner for her.” Jenny gave her a little hip bump. “But you’d be wise to save her a plate. She gets cranky when she misses a meal.”
The men went out to man the barbecue, but as the women gathered in the kitchen to organize the food, Harper heard the bathroom door close and Jake’s voice say, “Max.
Dude.
You have ribbons on your towels. That’s just wrong.”
“Watch it, bud,” Jenny called. “I’m looking at lace for the ones in our house.”
The women laughed, and Rebecca, a regular at their get-togethers, smiled at Harper over the fruit salad she was assembling. “How’s it feel to be retired?”
A little snort of laughter escaped Harper, and Rebecca raised her eyebrows inquisitively.
“She’s coming back to the inn next summer,” Jenny said.
“And working for me part-time as our official fund-raiser,” Mary-Margaret added.
“Plus she’s going to continue doing the usual assessments on grant applicants for the foundation—also on a part-time basis,” her mother said and gave Harper a fond look. “I tried to get her to take over some of my administrative duties for Sunday’s Child, as well. They have amazing computer programs these days that make that kind of long-distance participation possible. But my baby girl likes variety in her work.”
Harper just grinned and shrugged a shoulder. She topped off everyone’s wine. “What can I tell you—when Mama’s right, she’s right.”
“Still, you might change your mind once you see how much time each of your jobs takes and find yourself with too much still on your hands. I’m really hoping you’ll take over the foundation when I’m ready to retire.”
“Mom, you’re only fifty-four years old.” She gave her a knowing, who-do-you-think-you’re-kidding smile. “I don’t envision you relinquishing the reins for a good long while.”
“I might surprise you, darling.”
“I’m sure you will, but I doubt it will be with an early retirement. In any event, Sunday’s Child is in Winston-Salem. And sophisticated programs or not, now that I’ve found a place to call home, unless you move here and set up shop, I’m never going to be interested in running it.”
“Then perhaps I’ll do precisely that,” Gina said. “Especially if you give me grandbabies.”
A startled laugh escaped her. “Max and I haven’t even lived together a full week,” she said. “I don’t think we’re quite ready for a ride on the Baby Train yet.” She’d never even considered kids, for pity’s sake. And yet...
At the thought of someday maybe holding a mini Max in her arms, something deep inside gave a visceral lurch that felt suspiciously like yearning. She just knew that he’d make the best father.
* * *
W
HEN
SHE
AND
M
AX
climbed the stairs to their bedroom after the last guest had departed, the idea resurfaced. She watched him shuck off his pants and pull the silky T-shirt Jake had given him for his birthday over his head. “Have you ever thought about having children?”
He stilled in the midst of folding his shirt and looked at her. “You pregnant, sweetheart?”
“What? No! My mom said something about grandchildren when we were in the kitchen earlier, and it made me realize I’ve never really thought about having kids.”
He looked a little too noncommittal when he asked, “Does that mean you don’t want any? Ever?”
“I have no idea. I honestly haven’t given it any thought. But I don’t think I’d rule it out, out of hand.” She watched his shoulders relax. “You do want them, don’t you?”
“Yeah. I’d like some someday.” He studied her and slicked his tongue over his bottom lip. “You’d make really pretty babies.” Then one corner of his mouth crooked up. “Still, we can probably put off the big discussion until we’ve been together, oh, say, a month or so.” Then with a casualness that put her on alert, he said, “Along those same lines, this is sort of jumping the gun—but when I stopped by the department to pick up my check today, Sheriff Neward told me he plans to retire next June.”
She turned from her rummage through her pajama drawer. “Will you run for his position?” She beamed at him. “You’d be
perfect!
”
“You think?”
“I don’t merely think it—I
know
you would. You’ve told me quite a bit about the things you would do differently if the job were yours.”
He looked pleased yet uncharacteristically uncertain, and suddenly she faltered. “Oh, God, Max. Is it me? Will
I
be a detriment to your bid for sheriff?”
“Huh?” He looked baffled for a heartbeat, then gaped at her. “Your
race,
you mean?” He suddenly laughed, a loud boom of sound that exploded up from the depths of his hard belly. “
Hell,
no. This is Washington State, baby—Liberal Central. I’d bet today’s paycheck that, overall, the people here wouldn’t even blink at the idea of a mixed-race relationship.” He shook his head. “Damn, girl. You’re the one who’s opened up a shitload of friendships—or at least nodding acquaintanceships—for me with other people.”
She blew a pithy sound of dissent. “Not true. People like and respect you all on your own.”
He gave her tender smile. “They may have respected me, but, honey, damn few of them liked me until you came along.”
He looked confident of his facts, but not displeased by them, so she let the subject drop. And she felt unashamedly happy as she changed into a pink tank top and pink polka-dotted black pajama bottoms. Max went into the adjoining bathroom. Water ran, then turned off, and his electric toothbrush buzzed.
Then he was back.
“Hey, what was going on with Tasha? She said she didn’t feel so hot but she looked more, I don’t know—off.” He flopped onto the bed, propped his shoulders on a pillow against the headboard and folded his hands behind his head.
She looked up from rubbing lotion into her hands and feet where she sat across the end of the bed and shrugged. “It’s possible her sugar levels crashed. Maybe that’s what made her feel so sick. Jenny said she gets cranky when she’s hungry.”
“That doesn’t explain her and Luc, though. I didn’t think they’d even met, but it sure as hell looked like she was giving him an earful—a pissed-off earful—out in the yard after I thought she had left.”
“I don’t know any more than you about what’s going on. She was late because of a problem at the pizzeria, so it’s possible it hadn’t been fixed after all and she was worried about it. But you’re right, she wasn’t her usual self. I heard her muttering something about Luc being a guy named Diego and not Luc at all.”
For an instant she thought Max’s gaze went watchful. When she looked closer, however, all she saw were warm bedroom eyes, not his cool cop’s gaze. She shook her head. “I must have gotten it wrong, though, because that doesn’t make sense.” With a shrug, she rose and put the lotion back on the dresser.
“And it’s not like we could do anything about it even if it did make sense—at least tonight.” Max climbed off the bed and came up behind her to wrap her in his arms. “But I’ve known Luc for all of ten minutes in the greater scheme of things. So I’ll look into it tomorrow to be sure he’s on the up-and-up. It can wait until morning, though.” Hunching, he rested his chin on her shoulder. “Come to bed.”
“Well, I don’t know,” she said with faux reluctance. She tilted her head to rub her cheek against his. “It’s really not all that late, and I’m kind of a night owl. Whatever shall we do until I get sleepy?”
“Trust me.” The vibration of his deep voice made her feel as well as hear his words against the spot where her neck curved into her shoulder. Between that and the openmouthed kisses he started tormenting her with, she had to concentrate to make sense of his words when he said, “I have just the thing to help you sleep like a baby.”
Feeling his erection against her butt, she smiled and said drily, “You’re much too good to me.”
“Oh, honey.” He slid one tank top strap off her shoulder and laid a line of kisses from the curve of her neck out to the ball joint. Then he turned her in his arms and met her eyes. His burned with that light she’d temporarily despaired of seeing again, and warmth that had nothing to do with sex washed through her veins.
“You haven’t seen anything yet,” he said. “Because, baby? We’re just getting started.”
* * * * *