King of Wall Street(80)

Harper was coming here. I would get a chance to explain, tell her she was important to me. More than important. I wouldn’t let her go until she’d heard my arguments, understood I was sorry. I wouldn’t let her push me away. I was used to getting what I wanted and Harper Jayne would be no exception.

* * * * *

“Just because she’s agreed to come and help Amanda doesn’t mean she wants anything to do with me,” I reminded my sister a little after three thirty in the afternoon. “You don’t think this is a little bit much?” I looked around at the dining room, the table set with the china and glassware my mother had forced me to buy when I hit thirty and she decided I was finally an adult, despite having been a father for over a decade at that point.

“No, it’s not too much,” Scarlett said. “And anyway, what have you got to lose? Worst case scenario you’re no worse off than you were before she walked in.”

I had to keep reminding myself I knew how to go after what I wanted. I did it for a living. Winning Harper back had to be a possibility, didn’t it?

“I polished all the silverware, just how Grandma King showed me,” Amanda said, joining Scarlett and I at the table. She patted me on the back. “It looks good. She won’t be able to resist your lasagna, Dad. It’s the best.”

I didn’t have the heart to tell her I had no idea whether Harper would even hear me out.

I had to admit, the table looked nice, but something was missing. “We forgot the flowers,” I said.

Amanda had helped me pick some from the garden that we could use as a centerpiece. I couldn’t find a vase, so we’d improvised and used a water glass. Amanda disappeared to retrieve them

“So what, you guys are going to take Amanda and then I just turn around and ask Harper if she’s hungry?” I asked Scarlett.

“Jesus, did you lose your balls somewhere along the line?” Scarlett asked. “You ask her if you can talk for a few minutes. Then you apologize and admit you’re an idiot. See how she reacts—if you need to apologize again, do it and then tell her how you feel. Jesus, man, you run a multimillion-dollar company; it’s not that hard.”

This was much harder than anything I’d ever done, but she was right; I needed to find my balls. I’d tell Harper how I felt. Tell her we shouldn’t let business get in the way.

It was going to be easy, right?

“You’re not wearing that, are you?” Violet asked as she wandered in.

“Good point,” Scarlett said. “Go put on your best jeans and a blue button down. The slogan T-shirt isn’t working for you.”

“Hey, this is vintage,” I said.

“Go change,” Violet said.

Did I have time for a shower? I looked at my watch and my stomach churned. Only twenty minutes until she’d be here. In my house. In the place I’d fantasied about fucking her. Harper was the only woman I’d ever wanted to bring here, into my home, into my life.

I bounded upstairs, taking the steps two at a time. I needed to run through what I wanted to say and I didn’t want anyone disturbing me.

It was the most important pitch of my life and I hadn’t rehearsed.





Chapter Seventeen



Harper

“What did you make me do?” I yelled into the speaker of my phone as I pulled off the I-95. The GPS told me I was six minutes away. I hated driving, especially on routes I didn’t know, and this was my first time in Connecticut. “This is a terrible idea.”

“It’s a great idea,” Grace said. “And anyway, whatever happens, you’ve done the right thing by Amanda.”

I’d promised Amanda I’d help her get ready for her dance and I wasn’t about to let a fourteen-year-old girl down. I knew what it felt like to be disappointed by an adult, and I’d never knowingly inflict that feeling on someone else.

“What did you end up wearing?” Grace said. “Please tell me you put a skirt on. Men like skirts.”

“I’m wearing shorts.”

“That hot combination you do with the buttoned-up blouse and the casual, bordering on slutty shorts?”

I grinned, secretly pleased with the endorsement. “They’re not slutty. Just short.” Okay, they were a little bit slutty.

Amanda was only part of the reason I’d borrowed Grace’s new car to drive to Connecticut. I wanted to see Max. To figure out whether the ache in my bones would ease when I saw him. To work out whether it was love or just regret that tugged at my heart.

Men before Max had always been a stop on the way to something else. I’d always seen the way out, never had both feet in. With Max I wasn’t constantly seeking the exit. I’d been happy to be in the moment with him, share things, talk, enjoy just being together. My feelings for him had snuck up from behind me and only screamed boo when Max had already gone.