Pretend You're Mine(57)

Harper opened the envelope with an efficient slash of the letter opener. Only Luke would let office mail go unopened for weeks. She had worked her way down to the bottom of the pile he had carelessly stashed on the shelf in his office. She found a handful of checks from clients buried in the pile. After a lecture from her on the importance of timely response, Luke agreed to let her handle all mail from now on.

As soon as she was done with this stack, she was going to run to the bank and make a deposit.

A check fluttered out of the opened envelope onto her desk. She picked it up and glanced at it. This was one made out directly to Luke in the amount of ...

A strangled gasp made its way past her lips. Harper’s knees buckled and she flopped down into her chair.

She had never seen an amount that high on a check before and there were three more envelopes just like this one. She opened them all and lined up the checks.

Pay to the order of Lucas Garrison.

She knew she was gaping at the surface of her desk, but couldn’t help it. There was just over half a million dollars sitting on it. What was it for? Was it legal?

Harper glanced into Luke’s office where he was on a conference call with a supplier. He was kicked back in his chair, work boots propped up on the desk. Not a care in the world. He wasn’t concerned that he had gone and forced her to fall hard for him, only to kick her in the teeth with the reminder that he couldn’t even be honest with her about anything.

That withholding, sexy bastard was a millionaire.

She thought of her guilt-laden reaction to his furniture shopping. He could have furnished a dozen houses with the checks in her hand. What the hell was his problem? Why did he expect her to open up about long buried secrets when he couldn’t even say, “by the way, I’m rich.”

Riding the wave of anger, she grabbed the checks and stormed over to his closed door. She smacked her palm holding the checks against the glass. “What the hell?” she mouthed.

Luke took his feet off his desk and had the good grace to look embarrassed. He shrugged and held up a finger signaling her to wait.

But she was done waiting. Harper dropped the checks on the counter outside his office and grabbed her purse. She would take an early, long lunch and he would just have to deal with it. She didn’t owe him an explanation.

***

Luke found her at the diner counter staring into the depths of her coffee mug. He took the stool next to her and swiveled to face her. He figured he could calm her down in a few minutes and maybe even grab a quick lunch. Time was becoming more precious as the days ticked down to deployment.

“Why are you so pissed off about a couple of checks?”

Harper turned to him and shot him a look. “Is that what you think this is about? Did you hit your head today?”

“It sounds like you’re questioning my intelligence,” he ventured, signaling the waitress for a coffee.

“It sounds like you’re trying to play dumb,” Harper snapped. “This isn’t about the checks. This is about what they represent.”

“Money?”

“I will knock your perfect ass off that stool.”

She might actually try it. “Me not telling you about money that you found going through my mail?”

“Really? That’s how you want to play this? Accusing me of snooping when I opened a stack of mail that you gave me to open? Try again.”

She had him there. He sighed. “Harper, there is nothing in our arrangement that says we have to tell each other everything.”

“Why are you like that? What is wrong with you? Why can’t you just share things? It’s not sexy-mysterious anymore. It’s hurtful.”

“Why is it hurtful? I didn’t purposely keep anything from you. The money is from a patent that Aldo and I hold on an engineered joist system. It’s not a big deal.”

“What’s a big deal to me is that I open up to you about all the sordid details of my past and you can’t even share good things with me. Why the hell is that?”

“I told you before, I’m not a hearts and flowers kind of guy.”

“We’re not talking about hearts and flowers. We’re talking about intimacy. And you can’t just expect me to share things with you when you have no intention of opening up to me.”

“That isn’t who I am, Harper.” Luke shrugged. “Look, I don’t know what to tell you. Those checks aren’t even on my radar. Not when I have less than two weeks before I leave my home and my family for six months.”

“That’s another thing you won’t talk about.”

“What? Deployment? What is there to talk about?” He let some of his frustration seep into his tone. “I’m leaving. End of story.”