She nodded slowly, not trusting her voice. His touch sent a heat spreading through her.
With his free hand, he reached up and gently brushed her hair back from her face. “I’m sorry I scared you.”
“Christ Garrison, keep your hands to yourself,” Ty said stepping between them. He took the list from Harper and handed it over. “Peggy Ann is bringing a broom and a mop. Harper, why don’t you go next door and get yourself a coffee. We’ll be done here in an hour.”
CHAPTER FORTY-NINE
“I was literally just trying to keep her warm in here, you know,” Linc said conversationally as he held the industrial-sized dustpan.
Luke glared at him as he swept and stayed silent.
“I’m just telling you that it wasn’t like we were making out or having sex. We were just talking and she was cold.”
“Yeah. Right. Just having a conversation in a walk-in refrigerator in December.”
“Don’t get me wrong,” Linc continued. “I’d be happy to get to know her better. I mean, look at her.”
Luke tightened his grip on the broom and pretended it was Linc’s neck. “You don’t owe me an explanation,” he growled.
Linc emptied the broken glass into the trashcan. “We were only in here because of you anyway. Harper doesn’t even want to see you. Don’t know how she’s still working with you.”
“She’s working nights so she doesn’t have to see me.”
“You let her do that?”
“Harper’s not the kind of woman you ‘let’ do anything.”
“She’s tough,” Linc chuckled. “And I was just reminding her of that when you stuck your head in the cooler and threw a hissy fit.”
“I didn’t throw a hissy fit.”
“I clearly remember you stomping your foot.”
“If I did it was because I was trying to break yours.” Luke went back to sweeping.
“It just seems to me that’s an overreaction from the man who let her go. What’s with you and always trying to set your women free? What do you expect them to do? Be alone forever?”
“For the love of God, can we please just finish this in silence. Ty’ll be pissed if I smash your face in with this broom.”
***
Harper took the hour and, following Ty’s advice, grabbed a latte at the café next door.
She clutched the mug in her hands and tried to think of the bright side. She hadn’t burst into tears, which was a plus. She hadn’t begged him to touch her one more time, huge plus. Unfortunately she had gone to the store sans makeup with her hair in a crappy knot. If she had her choice, Luke wouldn’t have spotted her looking so sad-sack-y. She would have been dressed to kill and he would have spotted her from a safe distance, not up close and personal in a beer cooler. She couldn’t even begin to understand Luke’s reaction to seeing her with Linc.
Harper snuck into the tiny bathroom with chalkboard walls to slick on lip gloss and take her hair down from its messy knot. She fashioned it into a braid that hung over one shoulder.
On her way back to the store, she thought about just getting in her car and driving away. She’d make an excuse to Joni about the groceries and lay down in the fetal position for like ten hours.
But she was too proud. Don’t let him see you break, she reminded herself.
Harper found them arguing about how to bag her groceries at the self-scan checkout. She cringed when she saw Luke hand Linc a box of tampons.
She should have just gone for the fetal position.
***
Luke spotted her first in the midst of his argument with Linc on how to bag chicken breasts.
“Hey, sunshine. We got you reusable bags,” Linc announced, grinning at Harper. Luke wanted to punch him again. He settled for elbowing him in the gut instead and then shoved his hands on his pockets. It was the only way he could be sure he wouldn’t reach out and grab her ... or break Linc’s nose.
Looking at her was still a punch in the gut. Those damn eyes — stormy now — were shadowed with dark circles. The light was missing from them. She was thinner, too, noticeable even with her wearing a fleece. He could see the hollows in her cheeks.
Tired. Empty. And all he wanted to do was fill her. But he had made his choice. His bed was empty, his house quiet. And that was the way it needed to be.
When he opened that cooler door to escape Georgia Rae’s small talk ... just seeing Harper in Reed’s arms, smiling up at him ... His gut still churned.
The reaction, that blind, burning fury, took him by surprise. He lost control as quickly as if a leash had snapped inside. Luke didn’t like that that was coiled within him, ready to strike.