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“Adopted by the wealthy sister of a state senator. Freaking heck, it reads like a movie script.” She quickly raised her hand at his dry laugh. “Please, don’t get me wrong, this is your family. But you’ve got to admit, it’s a larger than life tale.” She lifted her wine to her lips.
“It is what it is.” He shrugged, the usual guardedness coming to the fore.
Harper’s eyes lit with her smile. “Aurora must be proud of you, especially with the news today.”
Sadness engulfed him, flushing out the joy from a minute ago and leaving him like a rock pool at low tide, bare and exposed. “She would have been.” His voice sounded hoarse even to his own ears. The concern flooding Harper’s gaze proved as much. “Aurora passed away six years ago. Breast cancer.” Two days after he’d graduated top of his class at Stanford. She’d insisted on attending the graduation ceremony. Her head wrapped in a pink scarf and wearing a yellow patterned blouse and black pants that had hung on her frame, she’d sat between Dillon and Heath, with Zach there, too. Her beaming smile had, for a tiny moment, hidden the veil of pain that shadowed her features. “You’re going to do wonderful things, Seth.” Aurora had lifted a too-thin arm and stroked his cheek with the back of her fingers. “I just know it.”
Sometimes, if he closed his eyes, he could feel her touch, that gentleness that he’d only ever felt from her.
“I’m so sorry.” Harper’s soft voice drew his attention back to her face. “From what you’ve shared, she sounded like a fabulous woman.”
Fuck. He shook his head. This wasn’t the night for getting lost in self-pity bullshit. Aurora would want him to seize the moment—and the girl. “She was.” He smiled on his next thought. “And she’d have liked you, Harper. A woman running her own business, being challenged and happy, fits in with Aurora’s ethos of doing what you loved.” His grin got bigger as pleasure brightened her gaze and added warmth to her cheeks.
“I bet I would have liked her, too.” The simple honesty in Harper’s voice lightened his chest. “And I’m guessing she’d be so proud of you after today’s news.”
He swallowed around the lump in his throat. “I hope so.”
“Were you a computer geek in high school? Is that how Shazad came about?
Christ, far from it. “No, I had to repeat a year of high school in the US just to catch up. That’s why I graduated at twenty-three from Stanford. I’d always been interested in technology, making it easier to use, and making it work for you. I shared my ideas with Dillon, and he jumped on board.”
“It must be awesome having him by your side.”
“It is. He’s a planner. Patient and steady, a master of the long game. Plus, he takes care of the dry business aspects and lets me get on with creating and marketing. We work well together. He understands my goals.” Had right from the start. Dillon had that edge, the insight that blood was spilled in business as much as on any battlefield, and winning meant being smart and showing no fear.
“I’m curious; was it always your intention to sell your company at some stage? Most people want to grow a business, or at least consolidate.”
“I knew Shazad’s app designs would draw interest from companies that buy you out. Digital conglomerates want to own the technology, not pay for a license to market the product.” He shrugged. “The buyout is the key to the money.”
“Is that what it was all about? Money?” Her tone held caution, maybe even a thread of disappointment.
“No, it’s about achieving a goal. Providing for my family. Making my mark and showing my worth. There’s no prize in business for trying hard.” And he’d made promises. To himself. To his brothers. To Aurora as they’d lowered her into her grave.
He cocked his head to the side. “Daughter of the CEO of a Fortune 500 company. Running a café in Seattle. Your life’s not exactly pedestrian. Tell me about yourself.”
Her expression warmed with a slow smile.
“I was born in Seattle. My hair goes frizzy when I get caught in the rain. And I covet office supplies.” At his raised eyebrows, she continued. “It’s true. There’s a small store near my apartment. They have the full range of Sharpie markers in all the shades you can imagine in a huge display. I call it the ‘Wall of Color’.” She sighed. “It’s my happy place.”
He smiled to himself. That explained her comment regarding an ‘extravaganza’ at the Staples store. “After that confession, you can’t stop there.”
She lifted her chin, giving him a glimpse of the long, sensuous line of her throat. “Oh, there’s much more to share, but it’s going to take you way longer than one meal to appreciate all that’s me, Seth.”
He was counting on it.
“How about the extended version? I’m listening.” It was no lie. He wanted to know everything about her. For the first time in ages, Seth was relaxed, laughing, and enjoying himself. And it had nothing to do with the fact he’d now entered formal negotiations with her father’s company.
This was more, deeper somehow. And it revolved around Harper.
Too bloody right he wanted to hear her extended version.
* * *
Harper had done it now. The pressure was on to make herself more Instagram-worthy than a hummer full of Kardashians on Emmy night.
“Well,” Great start. “In reference to your earlier comment about me being the daughter of a Fortune 500 CEO, I want to make it clear I’m not some poor little rich girl.” Okay, not strictly true. “I mean, I’m rich—well, my family is—but I’m not a sad case who has her shrink on speed-dial.”
“Duly noted.” Seth took a swig of his beer. All the time his gaze stayed locked with hers.
