Luke leaned back, resting his arm on the back of the booth. “I wonder what she’d do if we ever ordered something different.”
“Probably bring us the usual anyway.” He plucked the straw out of the glass and put it on the table before taking a deep drink. “So what’s the occasion?”
“For lunch?”
“It’s been awhile.”
Luke nodded, toying with his mug. “Yeah.” It had been. What years ago had been a standing weekly tradition had slowly morphed into a sporadic occasion.
Sandra mercifully arrived with their food. A tuna melt and fries for Charlie and a bacon cheeseburger for Luke.
“Can I get you boys anything else?”
Charlie shook his head and reached for the ketchup. “No, ma’am.”
“Thanks, Sandra,” Luke said, hefting the burger.
“All right, try not to cause too much trouble,” she said before bustling off to the next booth.
Luke took a big bite of burger and watched his father dig in to his sandwich. “How’s the basement reno coming?” While technically retired, his father still liked to oversee a handful of projects every year. His neighbors, the Nicklebees, had hired them to finish their walkout basement.
Charlie took a swig of Coke and reached for a fry. “It’s coming along. The wiring’s finished and the plumbing’s almost done.”
“I saw your note about them adding a wet bar,” Luke said between bites.
“Yeah, I gave a copy to Harper this morning so she could update the work order and the estimate.”
Luke nodded. He had wondered how long it would take his dad to bring up Harper.
“So what do you think?”
“A wet bar is always a good idea.”
“Very funny. I mean of Harper.” His father followed the old-school businessman’s creed of keeping your opinions under lock and key so as not to offend customers. But he was a fair man and Luke valued his opinion.
Luke snatched a fry off of Charlie’s plate.
“Nice kid.”
“Yes, she is. Don’t you think I moved her in awfully quick?”
“Son, you could have moved in Angry Frank and I’d be happy. You have good timing. Your mom was getting ready to start calling cousins to set you up with.”
Luke felt himself go pale. “Isn’t that illegal?”
“They were mostly seconds and thirds,” Charlie quipped. He grinned, showing a dimple the just like Luke’s.
“Christ.” Luke grabbed for his coffee and leaned back.
“A mother’s love is a blessing and a curse,” Charlie said philosophically. “She was just worried.”
Luke scrubbed a hand over his head. “I know and I appreciate it. But there’s nothing to worry about. I’m fine. Everything is fine.”
“I’ll relay that to your mother. She likes Harper. Thinks she’s just what you need.”
“What? Barely controlled chaos?” Luke’s lips quirked.
“‘A breath of fresh air,’ I believe she said.”
“She’s more like a hurricane.”
“She’s definitely not Karen.”
Luke felt the familiar stab at the mention of her name. It had dulled over the years, but the wound was still there. It would never be gone. “No, she’s not.”
“That’s not a bad thing. Karen would never have taken on Glenn.”
Luke smiled in spite of himself, remembering the surprise in those big gray eyes when they opened to find him over her. “No, she wouldn’t have.”
“Did you get the numbers together on the Broad Street reno proposal?”
Luke knew his dad was changing the subject on purpose and was grateful. “I put some preliminary figures together, but nothing solid yet.”
“Well, we have until Monday to turn in the bid. Maybe Harper can help you over the weekend.”
It was weird to think that he now shared his weekends with someone, at least temporarily. He had grown to value his solitude, but there was something appealing about waking up to her in the mornings. It still gave him a little jolt to find her in the kitchen digging through the fridge or hunched over his laptop in the front room. She brought life to the house. He just wasn’t sure if he was ready for that.
“She’s got her hands full at the office. Have to see if she’s ready for me to dump another project on her.”
CHAPTER EIGHT
Harper shoved her hands through her hair, hastily pulling it up in a messy knot. Luke’s files were a disaster. Nothing had been updated in the system for the past eight weeks. There were piles of disorganized paperwork everywhere. And the database was a joke. But she loved a project.
The office was on the second floor of one of the brick buildings in downtown Benevolence. It had high ceilings and huge half-circle windows that filtered sunlight onto the scarred, wide-plank hardwood floors.