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“And I knew I had to save you from such a fate.”
Harrison had known this would happen. Already, they were peas in a pod. He was doomed.
“You showed her, didn’t you?” he asked, already knowing the answer.
Hayley beamed. “It’s very cute, Harry. I didn’t know you could tap dance.”
Completely and utterly doomed.
“Where were you anyway?” Emilia asked. “Don’t you know your girl is sick? Your bedside manner needs work, brother.”
“My bedside manner is none of your business. And I was out getting supplies, thank you very much.” He placed the bags on the bed. As Hayley rifled through their contents, he took his phone off speaker to talk to Emilia directly. “What’s the emergency? Is everything okay at work?”
As a case manager for a youth social work program, Emilia often had her hands full, but Harrison couldn’t think of a person more suited for it. She’d been his protective big sister growing up — hell, she still fulfilled that role — and now she dedicated her days to helping as many kids as she could.
Whenever he worried that he lacked the capacity to love, he thought about Emilia, and he knew what it was to care for someone with your whole heart.
“No emergency. I wanted to find out how things were going. Imagine my surprise when Hayley mentioned you’d left your phone by the bed.”
Harrison groaned internally. He’d known this was coming but had hoped he wouldn’t have to deal with it until after he’d left Chance.
“I take it you didn’t quit yesterday.”
From his spot at the doorway, he spared a glance at the bed, where Hayley was throwing back some pills with juice. He moved into the living room. “No, I didn’t. And before you ask, yes, something happened. No, I can’t talk about it. And yes, I’ll tell you everything when I get home on Sunday.”
“She’s funny. I can see what you like about her.”
Something meaningful swooped within the confines of his chest, pleased. He should never have doubted it, but having Emilia’s approval loosened the tension in his shoulders. “It’s so much more than that. She’s…” He barely knew where to start.
“When do I get to meet her?” Emilia asked, putting into words something he had been afraid of wanting. What if this was an anomaly? There was no denying that he and Hayley had chemistry, but did that mean she’d want to have anything to do with him after this week?
She might be in the other room counting down the days until she was rid of him.
“You’d tell me if I was making a mistake,” he said, the question obvious. He found himself biting at his nails. “I should never have let Lee talk me into this,” he said, then remembered Hayley’s confession last night. That she had asked to work with him. Maybe it wasn’t ridiculous to think she might feel something for him.
It didn’t stop him from worrying, though.
“You’re not, I promise you. Please don’t stop yourself from going after this. I know you hate being vulnerable and all that, but I really think Hayley’s one of the good ones.”
“You talked to her for five minutes. You can’t possibly know that.”
“That’s all it took,” Emilia said.
Harrison couldn’t even argue with her. He was pretty certain it hadn’t even taken him that long.
* * *
Harrison laughed at the text from Emilia. “My sister just said that she’s keeping you if things don’t work out, FYI.”
“Good. I don’t plan on going anywhere.” Her smile morphed into a cough, and she grimaced. “Of course, it’s going to be hard when Olsen fires me after we miss the deadline.”
He placed a hand on her knee. “It’ll be fine. We’re so close to finishing, We’ve got what? Fifteen pages left? That’s nothing.”
“It’s just the big ending; no need to worry.” Only Hayley could master sarcasm while sick.
“We’ll figure it out. I’ll tell them it’s my fault. I dragged my feet for too long, and we ran out of time.”
“No, you can’t say that.”
