“Mrs. Taylor said you were working up here.”
Jesus...even Harper’s voice seemed trapped in the barn, sweet, seductive, taunting him. He dropped his head into his hands.
“Will.”
Wait.
Wait.
That voice—the beautifully husky voice he knew would always haunt his dreams, especially the way she’d said I love you to him just one perfect time—wasn’t in his head. Was it?
He lowered his hands and turned, half afraid he’d gone round the bend.
But she was there—thank God—backlit by sunlight. The sun shone through the fine fabric of her dress. He recognized it as the outfit she’d worn the first night he’d seduced her. Or she’d seduced him. He wasn’t sure of anything anymore.
Only that he’d never stop loving her.
His heart was an unsteady thump in his chest. “How’s Jeremy?”
“He’s fine.”
“You took him to school?”
She shook her head, moving closer, narrowing the distance between them so that he could clearly see her beautiful face, her blue eyes, her red lips.
“He’s at home.” There was a softness to her tone, laced with meaning.
“By himself?” She must be a figment of his imagination. He couldn’t imagine Harper daring to leave her brother home alone after what had happened.
She shocked him again by nodding. “All by himself.”
Her lips turned up a little bit at the corners as she said it, but it wasn’t a full smile. So he didn’t dare hope, didn’t dare reach out for her.
But another step brought her closer still, until she had to tilt up her face to look into his eyes. “I have a story to tell you, one I’ve told you parts of. But I need to tell you everything this time.”
The need to touch her was an ache inside him, but he’d never forget the way she’d recoiled from his touch on the plane. He tried to ease the desperate ache by digging his fingers into his palms. “Okay.”
“I was seventeen when Jeremy was hit by the car. I was old enough to understand exactly who hit him, old enough to understand about the bills and why my parents accepted the money. I was also old enough to understand that I needed to help take care of my brother. And when my parents died when I was twenty-two, I wasn’t just helping anymore. I was in charge.”
His gut roiled for that seventeen-year-old girl who’d had to grow up the instant some joy-riding punk lost control of his car, and then for the twenty-two-year-old who’d been all alone, with no one to help.
“I watched out for him. I made sure no one hurt him. I told myself that if I didn’t let anyone get too close, they couldn’t hurt him. But the truth is that my brother is happy and loving and resilient.” Emotion brimmed in her eyes. “The real reason I didn’t want to let anyone close was to make sure no one got close enough to hurt me.”
He moved then, three steps, close enough to touch, to hold. And it was the greatest moment of his life when she didn’t shrink from his touch, didn’t push his hands away as he gently cupped her shoulders.
But she didn’t let him interrupt. “You were the first person, the only person, to show me that I was holding him back. And when he started to fly free, I was so scared that he might not always need me. Because then what was I supposed to do with my own life?”
“Harper, I never meant to make you doubt yourself. You’ve only ever been good to him.”
She shook her head. “I have been good to him, but I’ve messed up, too. I know it’s not going to be easy to start letting him go, but he’s not a little boy anymore. And I want to show him that I trust him.” She inhaled a shaky breath as her eyes held his. “And I want to show you that I trust you, too. Because I do, Will. I swear I do. He’s blossomed in these last couple of months with you. Your love has made him stronger. So much stronger.”
He wanted so badly to take everything she was giving him, to believe that it was real. Just as much as he’d wanted to believe it when she’d whispered I love you to him in the dark. But he couldn’t deny the truth of who he was.
“I screwed up so badly. I should have known I would. I should never have gotten in your way, should never have forced myself into your life, and into Jeremy’s.”
“Listen to me.” She held his face in her hands. “My brother has learned how to do more for himself in the last few weeks than in the six years since my parents died. I did the best I could, but Jeremy needed you to see him as limitless. He got all the way to the museum on his own by following a handwritten map. And he had a great time. He never could have done that without you. Without everything you taught him.”
“Harper, it was all you. I was the one who didn’t prepare my employees properly. And he got lost.”
“Yes, he got lost. And I’m not going to lie and pretend I wasn’t terrified when we both know I was. But that’s also because I didn’t have faith that he’d know what to do. He did, though, Will. He found a cop. He got help. He helped himself. You gave him the strength to do that by believing in him.
“I love you, Will Franconi. I love you for seeing my brother’s worth when even I don’t always. I love you for loving me, too. And I love you for all you’ve done for your friends, for Susan and Bob...and for yourself. You were once a little boy who didn’t have anyone to take care of him, and now you’re a man who always takes care of everyone around you. You make us all better people just by being in our lives.”
She kissed him then. And he felt loved right down to his bones. This beautiful, intelligent, wonderful woman believed in him.
Could he dare—finally—to believe in himself?
“I never thought I could change my story,” she said, her voice thick with emotion, “so when you came into our lives I thought all I would get to have with you were a few stolen moments of wildness. But now I see that you, Jeremy, and I have already rewritten our stories. And we’ve done it together. You’re a good man, Will. The best I’ve ever known.”
“Harper—”
She put two fingers to his lips. “Tell me one thing. On the plane, before we found Jeremy, you wanted to fire them all, didn’t you? Benny, Ronnie, even your PI friend. You wanted to knock them all down.”
How could she know? But he already knew how. Because she knew everything right through to the heart of him. She always had, even before he’d confessed his past sins.
When he nodded, she smiled, and everything inside him stilled a moment as he basked in the headiness of that smile on her lips. It warmed every part of him, heart to soul.
“But you didn’t fire them,” she said softly.
“No.” He breathed deeply, drawing in the beauty of her essence, wondering how he could have lived so long without her. And praying that he’d never have to live without her again.
“You probably sent them a memo with a new plan on how to help Jeremy without limiting him.”
“I haven’t sent it yet.” But he’d worked out the details. Despite the crushing certainty ripping him into bite-size pieces that he would never see Harper—or Jeremy—again. “But I will. I’ll make sure he’s safe, Harper.”
She bumped his nose with hers. “I know you will. And don’t you see?”
He saw only her, the sweet center of her, so full of heart and goodness.
“Your Road Warrior of old would have smashed them all so that he didn’t have to feel guilty anymore. But you took responsibility. Then you figured out a way to fix it.” She dropped her voice to a note that vibrated inside him. “That’s what you’ve been doing for years without even giving yourself credit. You made the right choice. You always make the right choice.”
She truly believed in him. And Will suddenly felt lighter than he had…ever.
That’s what Harper did for him. This gorgeous, generous woman made him recognize that he had control over who he was. He didn’t have to be a Road Warrior. He didn’t even have to be his father’s son.
Once upon a time, he’d done a hell of a lot to change his life for the better. But he’d never taken the final step toward real happiness. Never believed he was worthy. Never thought he could write himself a happily ever after.
Not until Harper made him realize that he could believe in himself—and true love that would last forever—because she already did.
She was right. Together, the three of them already had all the makings of real love. And the family he’d been longing for his whole life. They just needed to have enough faith in themselves, and in each other, to grab hold of it...and never let it go.
“I love you.” He hauled her against him as he kissed her passionately, lovingly.
His heart kicked into overdrive when she wrapped her legs around his waist and held on tight. Taking a couple of steps, he set her down on the workbench and she quickly unbuttoned his shirt, shoving it down his arms. Then she kissed the tattoo he’d always kept hidden.
From everyone but her.
“I love my sexy road warrior.” She smiled up at him, sweet emotion shining in her eyes. “Always.”
* * *
They were sated, at least for now. But Will knew he would never get enough of Harper.