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A tingle shot down his spine. “Oh yeah?”
He let Robin pull away from him, freeing a hand.
The room wasn’t what he’d call a mess. It looked lived in.
There was a large desk with floor to ceiling bookshelves flanking it. A laptop was half-buried under files. A TV was mounted over the fireplace in place of art. Another, smaller desk occupied the far corner between the window and another bookshelf, this one with a desktop computer. There were a pair of worn, scratched leather chairs and even a glass someone had left sitting on a coaster.
“Oh my goodness, Dad,” Robin muttered. She grabbed the glass. “Let me put this away before Saaina sees it. Be right back.”
This was a perfect opportunity.
Robin turned her back and hurried out of the room.
Harper crossed to the main desk and set the mug down. He quickly scanned the items he had to work with before zeroing in on a picture frame. He picked it up only to find Robin and a woman he didn’t recognize looking back at him.
Her mother?
He glanced over his shoulder then pulled out another bug. This one he affixed to the back of the frame where the support would hide it from view while giving it a wide range to pick up audio.
Robin returned too soon for him to plant another device. He didn’t ask about the photograph. Drawing attention to it wouldn’t work in his favor, so he let it be. They toured the rest of the downstairs. He got a bug in both the kitchen and dining rooms, as well as one in the hall where they paused to admire other pictures.
He didn’t see more of the mysterious woman.
“Are we touring the second floor?” he asked once they paused at the stairs.
Harper pulled her arm around behind him, forcing her to step closer to him. She bit her lip and stared at the graceful stairs leading up.
He still hadn’t seen anything like a comfy living room, somewhere they curled up to watch TV or movies. There also wasn’t a hint of Robin in any of these rooms apart from a few photographs. Mostly from when she was younger.
She ducked her head, not meeting his gaze. “If my Dad comes back…”
Damn.
He’d tried.
He bent his head to whisper in her ear. “Say no more. How about that snack?”
“Okay.”
It had to be difficult for her to dance around her family and still maintain a life of her own. Unless she’d given up on that.
He studied the top of her head as his suspicion sank in.
Yeah.
That actually made a lot of sense.
Robin had graduated with her masters at the end of summer. She’d been here, working for the family through the fall and winter. That wasn’t a lot of time to set up a social circle. Given that she’d probably only lived in this house during breaks and summers since she’d been sent to boarding school after her mother’s death, she probably didn’t have local friends. Her sorority sisters and classmates were her social world. And she’d left them behind.
And here she’d made room for him, of all people.
Harper set his empty mug on the counter.
He was going to have to live with this on his conscience. End of story. It was time to stop being himself and play the damn part, no matter how crummy he felt about it.
“Let’s see…” Robin stepped past him toward the refrigerator.
He grabbed her hand and reeled her back to him then wrapped his arms around her. “I think I’m hungry for something else.”
