Page 18 of The Truth of Us

Harper’s eyes widened slightly.

I smiled. “Ignore him.”

Theo spun Lucy away, and Harper’s attention followed for half a beat. “She looks overwhelmed.”

“Lucy?” I asked.

“Yes.”

“She’s with Julian. That seems inevitable,” I quipped, unsure of what to make of Lucy with Julian.

Harper looked back at me. “You all say things like that as if it excuses the damage.”

I didn’t have a clever response to that. Which was becoming a problem around her.

The song ended, but I didn’t let go right away, and neither did she. For a second, we just stood there in the middle of the dance floor, surrounded by people pretending not to watch us.

Her gaze dropped to my mouth again, and I leaned in slightly.

Her fingers pressed against my shoulder. A boundary.

“Elliot,” she said quietly.

“Yes?”

“We’re in public.”

I smiled. “I know.”

“And I’m working,” she added.

“I know that, too.” I laughed, but it was to hide the irritation I was feeling, and I wasn’t sure if it was with the woman in my arms or myself.

“You don’t seem to care,” she said, and something in her tone had me paying attention.

“I care very much.”

Her eyes narrowed, but there was heat in her cheeks now. “About my job?”

“Among other things.”

Before she could question me further, someone approached to speak with her, a donor’s wife who wanted to know if Harper’s PR firm worked with charities. Harper stepped away smoothly, slipping into professional mode so quickly I almost missed the loss of her.

The rest of the evening blurred around her. Every time I looked away, I found myself looking back. It felt impossible to pull my eyes away. Watching her speak with donors., or how I knew she was assessing Rowan’s date. How she monitored the tension between Julian and Lucy. Watching Richard North pull strings, and Julian react exactly the way Richard wanted him to.

At some point, Lucy disappeared, and Julian finally noticed. Then everything at our table sharpened. Theo looked furious, Caleb was actually riled up, and Rowan looked like, well, Rowan… which meant he probably knew ten things none of us did and would only share two of them under duress.

Julian asked where Lucy was, and Theo did not handle it gently. Even Caleb got involved.

And I don’t know exactly why, but I couldn’t keep quiet either. “Why?” I asked. “Why bother?” When Julian said he wanted to go after Lucy. Julian looked pissed, but he had no right, and ‌I felt protective of Lucy. “If this is how you treat her, she’s never going to agree to what you’re offering. And frankly? You should let Whitaker have her. He’s already halfway there.”

Graham Whitaker is a golden boy, a billionaire philanthropist, who has no problem showing his interest in our Lucy tonight.

The words left my mouth, and Harper looked at me as if she had heard something in my voice I hadn’t meant to reveal. Julian left not long after, moving like a man who had finally realized the game he was playing had a person standing in the middle of it.

The gala started thinning out near midnight. People lingered in clusters, exchanging air kisses, business cards, and lies about scheduling lunch. Harper was speaking with an older woman from one of the charity boards, nodding politely and asking thoughtful questions that made people instinctively lean in closer.

When she finally stepped back to my side, I handed her a fresh glass of water.