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I jogged across the road and took the stairs to her floor. I knocked. “Kids?” I called. “Are you in there?”
The door opened to reveal a woman I didn’t recognize. It was no surprise. I’d grown up in Fairhope, but all these twenty-somethings were just kids when I was living here. Thinking about it made me feel ancient, especially when I reminded myself how often I’d found my thoughts drifting to Harper. But I wasn’t in Fairhope for women. I was here for Gramps, and then it was back to D.C. for life-as-usual.
“Hi,” the woman said. She looked at me in that way I recognized. Undisguised attraction. She clumsily put her elbow in the doorframe and let her eyelids grow heavy as she flashed a goofy smile. “Name’s Lin. We should hang out some–”
“Lin,” Harper said through a tight smile. “I think I smell something burning.”
Lin half turned. “I don’t smell–”
“I do,” Harper hissed. She punctuated this by taking Lin forcibly by the shoulders and walking her a few steps away from the hallway.
“Have you seen–”
“Billy’s in the shower and Molly is…” Harper turned around. I spotted Molly digging in her couch cushions. She saw us looking and stopped just long enough to wave and smile.
“Looking for coins!” She yelled happily.
My eyes drifted from Molly to Harper. She had on a simple cream-colored dress with a modest neckline and fit, but it somehow only made her look more outrageously attractive. My mouth felt inexplicably dry, and my heartrate was rising. Fucking ridiculous. Get it together, Greyson. She’s barely out of college.
Harper turned back to face me. “Molly is looking for coins. In my couch.”
I sighed. “I’m sorry. I got distracted, but I should’ve realized they would come here. Our water isn’t working right now.”
Harper shrugged. “It’s no problem. They’re really cute. I used to always beg my parents to have kids so I could baby sit. I loved kids. Babies. All that stuff. They practically had to pry my baby dolls out of my hands when I was… well, way too old to be playing with that kind of stuff.” She’d been speaking quickly and easily. Her expression suddenly fell and her cheeks turned a shade of red. “And I talk too much when I’m nervous.”
A grin played across my lips. “Do I make you nervous?”
She bit her lip, smiling back at me. “A little,” she breathed.
Why did this feel so much like flirting? Because that’s exactly what it is, asshole. I composed myself, clearing my throat and gesturing inside. “I should get them out of your hair. You’re cooking for tonight, right?”
“Yeah,” she said, and I thought I sensed a momentary blip of disappointment when I changed the subject. She liked that we were flirting. But I didn’t need to care about that. The problem wasn’t whether or not she was interested in me, it was how bone-headed a decision it would be to get into something complicated while I was here. I had more than enough on my plate already. I also dreaded the thought of Katie arriving to find out I was fucking around while I was here. It had been hard enough to convince her to let me bring the kids as it was, and she’d only relented because she still loved my Gramps almost as much as I did.
Molly looked toward a door behind her. “Billy should be done soon.”
As if on cue, Billy popped out of her bathroom in an oversized robe. “Water pressure was great,” he said. “The selection of robes though?” he pursed his lips and spread his arms, showing how the pink fluffy robe dangled from his hands by several inches and pooled below his feet.
“Jesus Christ,” I muttered. I needed to give them both a serious talk about boundaries and scare them straight about wandering off like they had. Another one. “Go put your clothes on Billy. And take off Miss Halladay’s robe.”
“Dad,” Billy said seriously. “My clothes are filthy. What is the point of taking a shower and putting nasty clothes back on?”
“It’s okay, he can borrow the robe,” Harper said. I saw she was grinning at his antics. I noticed her friend, Lin, was lurking in the doorway to the kitchen as well. She wasn’t watching the kids though. She was leering at me. When she saw me looking, she winked and twinkled her fingers.
I smirked as I shook my head. “This won’t happen again.”
* * *
The Night of Lights was as advertised. It was night, and there were lights.
“Cheer up,” Zack said, elbowing me in the side.
“I’m perfectly cheered.”
He scoffed. “Liar. You get this crease between your eyes when you’re brooding.” As if I needed help imagining where that location would be, he jabbed his index finger at me.
I swatted it away. “Don’t be so observant about me. It’s creepy.”
