Pretend You're Mine(121)
He hadn’t seen her in three days.
She had responded to him. After he threatened her, of course, but at least she responded. She was alive and safe. And that was enough. Wasn’t it?
He looked around the deserted parking lot. Why was he here? He ended it because he couldn’t stand to see Harper throw her life away on a relationship that would never be what she deserved.
And yet here he was, hoping for just a glimpse of her through the window.
He just wanted to make sure she was all right, he decided. Maybe then he could sleep.
He scrubbed his hands over his face. The woman was out of his life and still driving him crazy.
It was time to regain some semblance of control. He started up the truck and headed home.
***
Harper woke with a start just a few hours after tumbling into bed. She hadn’t left the office until after midnight. She was surprised at how much work she could get done without being interrupted by phone calls and visitors.
And Luke’s presence.
It was a dim, gray morning. The clouds looked like they held the promise of snow.
There was no use lying in bed thinking or pretending that she could go back to sleep. Harper got up and pulled on running tights and a fleece. She laced up her sneakers and quietly left the house. She grabbed a fuzzy headband and gloves in Day-Glo yellow from her car and hit the pavement.
Benevolence was still asleep at this pre-dawn hour. There was something peaceful about being utterly alone.
She hit her stride and changed her course to head into the park where streetlights dimly lit the path around the lake in the frosty dawn.
Aldo had called a few times to see if she wanted to go running, but she knew it would just complicate things between him and Luke. Luke needed his life back and that included his friends, too.
She shook her head. Focus on the breath. Forget thinking. Forget him.
Her breath puffed out in white clouds in a rhythm that matched her footfalls.
It was just her and the cold morning air. Nothing else.
CHAPTER FORTY-EIGHT
He spotted her as if his thoughts had conjured her in front of him. A flash of blonde hair and cherry red sweatshirt as she crossed the path a hundred yards in front of him.
Luke stumbled in his stride and stopped. Maybe his sleep-deprived mind was playing tricks on him. Harper would never willingly be out of bed at this hour. Especially not after leaving the office so late.
Maybe he wasn’t the only one who couldn’t sleep.
He thought about turning around, running home. And then of catching up to her and just running next to her. She shouldn’t be out alone at this hour. Why didn’t she worry about these things?
He didn’t bother asking himself why he did. He just returned to his run and turned right where he planned to go straight.
He caught sight of her at the lake and tried not to notice that it was the same spot where he came home to her just a few weeks earlier. She stood with her shoulders hunched against the cold watching the slow rise of the sun. It was just beginning to crest the trees, turning the grayed-out clouds a rosy pink.
He stopped just within the tree line. She didn’t want to see him. And he was half afraid if he talked to her he’d end up asking her to come home.
So he stayed where he was. Even from this distance he could tell she was crying. Her shoulders shook and she kept swiping her sleeves over her face.
He knew he was an asshole for putting her through this. He couldn’t help it, but he could feel good and guilty about it.
The sun broke through the trees, warming the lake’s icy waters with its pink glow. Luke watched her straighten her shoulders and take a deep breath and then another before she returned to the path and resumed her run. Her blonde ponytail swinging rhythmically behind her.
He watched until she was out of view before turning around and running home.
***
His mood did not improve when he arrived at the office and found newly drafted ad copy for an office manager job listing on his desk and instructions on how to use Craigslist.
Luke slammed down his coffee mug and barely resisted the urge to crumble the paper and throw it in the trash.
She was just doing her job. A job that she clearly excelled at, judging by the updated bookkeeping entries and the completed payroll awaiting his approval.
He shuffled the help wanted ad to the bottom of the pile and picked up a folder labeled Bonuses/Raises. Inside, he found a neat spreadsheet detailing the projected profit for the year and two breakdowns of potential bonus amounts and hourly rate raises.
She had remembered when he said in passing he wanted to look at the year-end books and see what he could give the crew. He stared out the bank of windows behind him, watching as the first flakes of snow began to fall.
God damn it. What was he going to do without her?
***
That night when Harper arrived at work, a familiar woof greeted her. Lola jogged to her with Max skittering behind her. She dropped to her knees and let the dogs wiggle and lick their greetings. Lola had a note on her collar.