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“That was a long time ago and I was an idiot.”
She stood up and swam to the edge of the pool closer to where I was lounging in the hot tub . Aiden and Nate had moved to the sauna, giving me a little one-on-one time with Harper if I didn’t count Kat, who seemed to be in her own little world and not at all interested in our conversation.
“Well it’s really geeky,” she said with a shy smile.
“I like geeky,” I said. At least when geeky looked like her. “I know I used to be an asshole about your love of reading, and I’m sorry. But I have to admit, going to college and taking a classic literature course really made me appreciate it a bit more. I realized there’s a lot I missed out on, and I now read pretty regularly, and not just for work, believe it or not.”
She raised an eyebrow. “I’m impressed.”
“So tell me, what are you studying?”
She sighed and swished her hands around in the water. “Who knows if I’ll ever finish it or add anything new to what has already been discovered, but I am looking into the work of Victor Hugo, specifically The Hunchback of Notre Dame—”
“You mean the Disney movie?” The look on her face made me crack up. “Sorry, sorry, I was just kidding, I know that it’s more than a Disney movie. Go on.”
She chuckled. “You had me there. You have no idea how many people think that” she said. “But the research I’m looking into involves a possible inspiration for Quasimodo. There was a hunchbacked sculptor that worked at the Cathedral around the time it was built, and I’m trying to find more about his life, and Hugo’s inspirations for the novel.”
“Very impressive. So tell me, you haven’t been to Paris before, right?”
“I have not, except for the brief stop on my way here, but I didn’t even leave the train station, sadly.”
“We might have to change that. You can’t be studying a work like that and not visit Notre Dame Cathedral.”
“I would love that, but I just haven’t had the money to be able to afford that kind of trip. I had hoped after the wedding, well, I had hoped that with our combined incomes, we could possibly make it work. I had applied for some grants before I left as well, hoping that maybe I could get some funding from my school, but considering what happened between Tony and I… he’s close with the board that makes such decisions, I’m afraid.”
“I’m sorry. It sounds like a lot of drama. Are you sure you want to go back to that?”
Harper averted her gaze and swam backward onto her back again. She stared up at the ceiling in silence for a long time. “As I said earlier, I don’t think I have much of a choice.”
“You have a lot of choices available to you, Harper. You just have to be willing to take the leap.”
“Jackson, my life is nothing like yours.”
I was just about to offer to help her with all her problems on one condition—if she was willing to transfer schools. I would pay for her to visit Notre Dame as often as she wanted. I would spoil her rotten and let her focus on her passions.
“Hey, is he bothering you?” Kat asked, swimming over to us.
“No, he’s not bothering me,” Harper replied.
“Good, but I’ve got my eye on you, Jackson.” Kat pointed to her eyes then over to me. She was laughing, but I knew she was at least partially serious. “Anyway, we should probably get cleaned up and get ready for dinner.”
“You’re right, I lost track of time,” Harper said.
The two of them left the pool, and my eyes never left Harper. I was prepared for Kat to scold me again, but she didn’t even notice. She ran over to her phone and picked it up. I noticed a smile on her lips as she stared at it, but she quickly slipped it back into her bag before asking Harper, “Ready to go?”
Harper smiled and waved as the two headed back up the stairs. My heart pounded in my chest.
I have to make her mine.
I wasn’t sure how, and I knew it sounded crazy, but I wanted her. I needed her. I regretted being such a dick to her when we were kids. We could really have something beautiful, and I imagined our future kids—a little girl with her curly red hair and a boy that looked like me. We’d make some pretty babies, and with our brains, there’s no way they wouldn’t accomplish anything they put their mind to.
Nate and Aiden stepped out of the sauna, and I knew we needed to head upstairs. Mom didn’t like us being late for dinner and we still needed to get cleaned up before we dared show up in the dining room.
My brothers and I walked up the stairs together, mostly in silence. Nobody made mention of what happened earlier with Harper, though it didn’t seem to make anything awkward, which was a blessing. As we walked past the dining room toward the stairs to our rooms, I heard Mom’s voice.
“Please set up one more place setting, Marie.”
I stopped. Aiden and Nate looked back at me. “What’s wrong?”
