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Chapter Twenty-Six
Latham
“You’re in a fine mood again. You’ve been acting like a bear with a thorn in his paw all week. What gives?” Dad asks as he sits down in the empty chair across from the desk. The desk that used to belong to him.
“Nothing,” I grumble.
I’ve been a bear, I know. I’ve been in the worst mood since everything with Harper came crashing down around me last Sunday afternoon. It about killed me to leave her there, to walk away without actually defending myself, but I tried. She wouldn’t hear me out, not when her mind was already made up about me sleeping with her just to get the building. It wasn’t true, but she wouldn’t let me get a word in edgewise, and I didn’t try hard enough.
Biggest mistake of my life.
The only reason I slept with her was because I was in love with her, not because of the building. I need to tell her that, but it hasn’t exactly worked out the way I had planned. I had hoped we’d be able to discuss this after cooler heads prevailed, but she won’t answer her phone or her door, even though I’m pretty sure she was home at the time. I’ve gone to the gym, but she’s not attending her stupid 90’s spin classes either. The only place I haven’t gone is next door – to her shop. The last thing I want to do is disrupt her there in the middle of a workday.
Apparently we haven’t gotten to the cooler heads part yet.
“Could have fooled me, Lath. So what gives?”
I rest my tired head in my hands and close my eyes. I haven’t slept for shit in the last few days, mostly because every time I try, I see her face. I see her tears. And it hurts too fucking much. “I fucked up, Dad.”
“With the building? We sign the papers in an hour.”
“No, not with the building. I mean, yes, with the building.” I let out a long, frustrated growl. “I don’t know.”
“Start at the beginning.”
So I do. I tell him about overhearing Harper and Free discussing their plans for the space, and how I didn’t tell her I was the other bidder. I end the tale with our explosive exchange (okay, she was the one exploding) on Sunday and how I tried to rebuff her claim on exactly why I was sleeping with her, but she wouldn’t hear it. Dad doesn’t say a word, not even after I finish spilling my guts.
“What should I do?” I ask him, kicking back and putting my feet on top of the desk.
“Do you love her?” he asks, not even commenting about my dirty boots in the middle of the desk calendar.
“Yes.” No question.
“Then you work it out,” he says, shrugging his shoulders.
“But how? She won’t speak to me.”
“Do you blame her?” he asks, the corner of his mouth tipping upward.
“No,” I state, running my hands over my several-day-old stubble. I haven’t shaved in more than a week, and I’m definitely beginning to look like the wooly mammoth.
“Do you think it’s a coincidence that she knew about that building being available and no one else did?”
His question catches me off guard. I glance up into his dark brown eyes and notice a certain sparkle that wasn’t there before. “What do you mean?”
“Well, Harper knew about the building, and you knew about the building. No one else knew it was for sale,” Dad says, crossing his arms over his chest and waiting for me to catch up.
“You told her,” I say aloud, finally understanding what he’s getting at.
“I did.”
“Why?” He knew we needed that space for our expansion. Why else would he tell someone else about it? We could have been the only bidder, securing us that space in no time. Instead, he told Harper. Why?
“Because you have always loved her.”
Okay. Wasn’t expecting that.
I clear my throat and try to think of something to say, but come up empty. He’s not wrong, not even close. I just hate he’s known all this time; hell, he knew before I even realized it. I mean, it’s a little embarrassing that your dad knows you fell in love in high school with the girl you lost your virginity to, ran off and joined the military, and returned fourteen years later in the same shape as when you left.
