Jilted in January (11 page)

Harper stared. All the wind had been taken out of her sails. She couldn’t very well yell at Mrs. Dawson now. The woman looked on the verge of an implosion, as if she’d fold up on herself any minute. Clearly she was embarrassed by her husband’s confession that he wasn’t supporting her actions on the night of the Club Dinner.
“Uh…well, thank you, Mr. Dawson. I appreciate that.”

“Georgia?”

Mrs. Dawson let out a slow breath. Harper had the feeling if she ignored yet another request from Mr. Dawson to actually say something, there would be hell to pay. “Harper, I’m disappointed too. It’s hurtful that you would go out and find someone to replace Bradley so quickly without even giving him the proper chance to—”

“Georgia!”

“Quiet, Ben. Let me say my piece now, and I’ll never speak about it again. Harper, you’re young and you’re not yet a mother, so you don’t understand how much it hurts a woman to see her child in pain. Bradley felt terrible about his actions, and all he wanted was to make it right again. Whether or not you should have…found another boyfriend so quickly, is neither here nor there, but the whole thing broke my heart. I was only trying to help fix things so the two of you would be happy, and when I realized that there would be nothing I could do, well, I got angry and I did some things…I said some things I should not have said. I apologize for telling as many people as I did about you and Mr. Addison. I’ve told Mrs. Moriarty I was wrong to have suggested she not work with you. I understand she had quite the go-around with that man…with Mr. Addison, so I’m not sure she will ever go back to his establishment. I’m sorry for that, but I never did suggest she not do business with him.”

Harper raised a brow and glanced at Mr. Dawson. As far as apologies went, this wasn’t much of one, but on the other hand, she hadn’t expected any admission of guilt from Georgia at all. “Well, I guess we’ll just have to see if Taverna Fiora can weather the storm. The main reason I came here today was to tell you that I didn’t care what you said about me, but that I wouldn’t put
up with you or anyone trying to hurt the business Grant is working so hard at. I plan to do anything I can to make sure no one listens to Mrs. Moriarty and that Taverna Fiora doesn’t lose any clients because of her. I know I don’t have the right to expect it, but I do hope the two of you will support me on this. Mr. and Mrs. Dawson, I am sorry that this all happened the way it did, not for my actions, but because so many people were hurt and disappointed, and none of it was necessary. I don’t hate Brad, and I hope he doesn’t hate me. Good-bye.”

“Good
-bye, dear.” Mr. Dawson held the door for her, and Harper headed down the icy front steps. She thought she heard Mrs. Dawson say good-bye as well, but when she turned around to look they’d already closed the door.

The frigid air felt so good on her heated skin she toyed with the idea of taking off her coat. She would have, but she didn’t want to catch pneumonia and end up having to apologize to Grant from behind a paper mask to keep her germs off him.

“Two down. One to go,” she told herself as she climbed into her car and started the engine with still shaking fingers. Somehow she didn’t think her next speech would be as easy to deliver.

* * * *

Grant stood at his office window watching the snow fall. January had been a particularly brutal month and judging by the weather forecast, February would be even worse. Profits would suffer over the next month
, and he’d have only March, the most unpredictable month, to get TF back in the black or he’d be shipped back to the head office, or to the unemployment line.

He should have been thinking about strategies for drumming
up business, and in this small town it wasn’t going to be easy to ride out even the most insignificant scandal. Honestly, who really cared whom he slept with? He hadn’t stolen Harper from anyone, but Elaine had dutifully informed him she’d heard talk at the supermarket that her boss was the local Lothario responsible for breaking up a wedding—one he hadn’t even known about until it was already cancelled.

It didn’t matter.

Nothing really mattered except Harper.

Tired of watching the aimlessly drifting snow flakes, he grabbed his coat and headed down the hall to the lobby. “Elaine, I’
m taking lunch.”

“It’s
ten thirty,” she shot back, deadpan.

“Fine, I’m taking brunch. I’ll be back later. Maybe.”

He didn’t wait for another snappy comeback, just headed out into the cold, determined to find himself some sunshine.

* * * *

“He went to brunch at ten thirty,” Elaine informed Harper when she arrived at TF at eleven. Her heart sank. She could wait for him, but with her heart fluttering uncontrollably, she wondered if she wouldn’t pass out by the time he showed up. She needed to see him, to talk to him now. She thought of just calling him, but what if he didn’t answer? Or what if he was in the middle of talking to a client? She didn’t want to ruin another contract for him.

“Do you want me to leave him a message,
hon?” Elaine asked, her pen poised over a pink message pad.

“No. I’ll come back. Will he be in this afternoon?”

Elaine eyed the heavily falling snow which was starting to drift up against the glass lobby doors. “He said he might be back, but I don’t know. I’m only here until two, and we don’t have an event scheduled tonight, so the place will be closed by five.”

“Oh. Okay. Well, please tell him I was here, then
, and that he can…” She considered her instructions. How would it sound if she said he was welcome to drop by her house any time? What would Elaine think if she…

Stop!
Audrey’s voice cut through all the crap in her head. Who cared what anyone thought? “Yes. Please tell him Harper was here, and I’ll be waiting dinner for him at my place, and if he doesn’t show up, I’ll be back first thing tomorrow morning and every single morning after that until I get to see him in person.”

“
Uhh…okay.” Elaine seemed a bit dumbstruck by her suddenly forceful tone. “What’s your address?”

Harper smirked. “He knows it.”

She turned on her heel and strode out of the lobby feeling confident for the first time all day. She’d fix things with Grant. Whatever she had to do, she’d do it because she might not have been able to tell Bradley wasn’t the right person for her, but she sure as hell knew Grant was.

* * * *

For the second time since he’d started back to Taverna Fiora from Harper’s house, Grant considered pulling over. The snow swirled relentlessly in front of him, almost obliterating the roads which hadn’t yet been plowed. He’d already seen one car careen through an intersection, and he had no desire to end up in a snow bank, so he slowed down to a crawl. He worried about where she might be in this weather and hoped she’d gone to her friend’s house. He’d just have to call her as soon as he got off the road, but he hadn’t yet decided what to say to her other than just to beg her to see him again, regardless of what anyone in Spring River Valley or anywhere else thought about them being together.

He considered stopping just to call Elaine and tell her to lock up the lobby and go home, but technically he was only five minutes away from the restaurant
, so he was probably safer going there and staying in the office for the night. There was plenty of food in the kitchen, hot coffee always ready, and he could sleep in the bridal suite if he needed to, though it wouldn’t be any fun to lie on that comfy couch alone.

He slammed on the
brakes without thinking about it as a pair of headlights drifted into his lane from the other side of the road. His momentary lapse into thoughts about Harper had taken his attention away from the treacherous conditions for a split second during which another driver had hit a slippery patch and slid across the double yellow line.

Grant’s car spun halfway around, fishtailing into a
snow bank with a dull thud. At least he’d avoided hitting the other car which halted in the middle of the road.

After a deep breath, he flung his door open and stepped out into the storm to see if the other driver was all right.

Bundled in his jacket with the hood up, yet still shivering, he crossed the street and tapped on the frosty driver’s side window of the other car. The icy pane rolled down a few inches and a red nose and a familiar pair of sky blue eyes appeared.

“Harper? Oh my god, are you all right?”

“Grant? What are you doing out here in this weather?”

He laughed, thrilled to see her, thrilled she was all right
, and desperate to climb into the warmth of her car with her. “Looking for you. What are you doing out?”

She ducked her head and made a sound that could have been a laugh or a sob. “I was trying to find you to apologize for being such a ninny the other night.”

Grant leaned on the frame of the car as she rolled the window down the rest of the way. “You don’t have to apologize for being a ninny. I happen to love ninnies.”

She squinted at him. “Are you saying I’m a ninny or that you love me?”

He flung open her car door and pulled her to her feet so he could wrap her in his arms. “Yes.”

“Good, so do I.” She snuggled into his arms, though through all the layers of coat between them he could barely feel her. It didn’t matter.
He had her, and he wasn’t going to let her go. He kissed her chilly lips until they warmed under his, and when he pulled back, all he saw was sunshine.

“It’s supposed to be a terrible storm,” she said, eyeing the barely visible road. “Why don’t we take one car and go back to my place?”

“I would love to, but Elaine is still at TF, and I want to see she gets home safely. How about…we spend the night in the bridal suite?”

She met his gaze
, and this time, despite all the fluffy down and wool between them, he felt her shiver. “Ooh, could we?”

“I know the manager. He won’t say a word.”

While the snow continued to pile up outside, Grant led Harper up the curving marble staircase to the bridal suite.

They’d made sure Elaine got home safely to her family and locked up TF, then made a scrumptious dinner of leftover hors d’oeuvres and piping hot cappuccino. Afterward they’d danced in the ballroom, all by themselves, to music only they could hear, and now, as darkness fell outside and the last storm of January raged, they headed upstairs to make use of the pink velvet couch.

“Oh, I never got to tell you the other reason I was coming over here,” Harper said as they waltzed over the threshold into the ornately decorated room.

Grant turned on the electric fireplace, bathing the room in a flickering amber glow. “You mean you had an ulterior motive, besides wanting to seduce me again?”

“Yes, actually I did.” She lowered herself to the couch
, and he sat next to her and pulled her into his arms. “They’re in my car. I was going to leave them here even if I didn’t get to see you.”

“What is?”

She met his gaze. In the faux firelight his eyes had dilated with desire. Harper wanted to dive into those blue depths and never surface, but she needed to tell him she still felt responsible for any business TF lost because of Mrs. Moriarty and Mrs. Dawson. “I had a thousand flyers made up advertising Taverna Fiora. My boss said I could put some up in our building, and I looked into getting a town permit to pass them out in the shopping district—when it’s a little less snowy, of course. I figured that might help drum up some business.”

Grant stared at her, his mouth slightly open.

“Say something.”

“I can’t. I’m speechless. You didn’t have to do that. I’m sure it wasn’t cheap.”

“I used the money I made from the Auxiliary Club centerpieces. I figured that was fitting. If Mrs. Moriarty wants her friends not to come here, then maybe some of her money should go toward getting other people to book TF.”

Grant shook his head. “You’re amazing.”

“You should see me calculate interest.” She laughed, but Grant took her face in his hands and stared into her eyes.

“Really. You’re amazing. I thought it the first moment I saw you
, and I never doubted it for a second after that. I want you to know something. I brought you up here to make love to you tonight, but I know you were worried about this being some kind of rebound relationship that would fall apart when you got over what Brad did to you.”

“No, I
—”

“It doesn’t matter. If you’re the least bit worried about whether or not this is real, or whether or not we can make it work, that’s okay. I’m willing to give you all the time you need. We can go as slow
—” He paused to kiss her quickly on the lips. “Or as fast as you want, but whatever the pace, I want you to know I’m going to stick around for as long as it takes. I’m not going to run out on you.”

Harper’s throat constricted
, and she had to look away in order to get her next words out. “You can’t promise you’ll never leave me, but you can promise me one thing.”

He lifted her chin so she had to look at him. “Anything.”