“We’ll see,” he said, stepping back. “I’m going to get some paperwork done and head out again. Need anything?”
“Nope. I’m good.” And she meant it. She watched Luke head into his office and smiled. This was her life now, at least for the next month. A good job in a great office with a boss and roommate so good looking she couldn’t stop staring at him.
She tried to focus on her work, but felt her attention pulled to the office in the corner. She had a direct line of sight to Luke at his desk, frowning at his computer screen, kicking back in his chair to make a call. Every glance or two, she found him already looking at her. Maybe he was as disconcerted around her as she was around him? Every time one of them caught the other looking, Luke’s frown deepened.
After nearly half an hour of mutual sneaked peeks, Luke pushed back from his desk and grabbed a stack of paperwork and his tablet.
“I’m heading out to a meeting. I probably won’t be back in after it.”
“Okay, boss, have a good day,” Harper smiled. She tried to keep her eyes on her monitor instead of his ass as he walked out. It wasn’t easy.
Harper got in almost another hour of work before she was interrupted again.
A short, slim man in blue flannel sauntered in, suspenders holding up his carpenter pants. Weathered blue eyes stared at her above a frizzy beard that was going more gray than red.
“So, you’re the girl who’s got the whole town riled up,” he said crossing his arms.
Harper raised her eyebrows. “It’s a small town. I have a feeling it doesn’t take much to rile it.”
He squinted at her. “The way I heard it, you’re supposed to be six-foot-one. And a redhead.”
“Sorry to disappoint.”
“I do like redheads.” He shook his head, clearly disappointed.
Harper didn’t know how to respond to that.
“I can’t decide if you’re stupid or crazy,” he said, leaning against the cabinets on the wall.
“Is there an HR department here that I should complain to about you?”
He snorted. “Don’t be so sensitive.”
“Wait a minute. Do you even work here?”
He snorted again. “Do I work here? I’ve been with this company since Luke started it and before that, I worked for Charlie.”
“Got a name?”
“Frank.”
“Frank, I’m Harper.”
“The boss moved you in awful fast, don’t you think?”
“To his house or the office?” Crap. Three days with Luke and he already had her answering questions with questions.
“What I’m saying is the boss had his reasons for taking you in, giving you a job. I’m not here to question his judgment — questionable though it may be. I’m here to warn you that if you mess with this company or that family, you’ll answer to me. They’ve all been through enough these past years and don’t need some crazy hot head coming in and messing things up for them.”
“You think I’m a crazy hot head?”
“You tackled a man twice your size screaming like a banshee, didn’t you? You’ve got that fist-sized black eye. Rolled into town homeless.”
“Maybe I just had a bad day.”
“Yeah, well, maybe so. Just don’t go taking that bad day out on everyone else around here. This is a nice town, nice people. So if you’re not in it for the long haul, move along.”
“You must care about the Garrisons a lot to feel like you have to defend them from a potential threat like me.”
“They’re okay. Maybe you’re okay, too. But I don’t know you. I do know Luke and the rest of them. So if you’re good to them and stay out of my way on the job, we’ll be just fine.”
“Fair enough, Frank. I’ll keep that in mind. And just so you know, if you’re good at your job, not pissing off customers, or coming in here and yelling at me every day, we’ll be fine.”
He nodded briskly. “Fair enough. Be seeing you.” He threw a little salute and walked out the door.
This town was way too small.
CHAPTER NINE
As promised, Harper’s last paycheck arrived at the office. Whatever Luke said to Ted must have scared him bad enough to stop calling, too, because her phone was blissfully silent.
And as promised, she took Luke to dinner.
She researched restaurants beyond the borders of Benevolence before settling on a cozy steak place fifteen miles east. There would be no quiet dinner in town with the attention she and Luke stirred up.
It wasn’t a “real” date, she reminded herself, but that didn’t mean she couldn’t go to a little extra effort to be presentable.