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“How did you end up working at the bank?” Maybe her father saw it as a way to relate to her, at least initially.
“Ignorance?” She bites her lip. “Defiance? I’d been waiting to turn sixteen, thinking once I was old enough to work, I’d be able to get a job there. The bank was so important to him, you know? It was everything. So I asked him about it, and he told me there wasn’t a position.”
Fuckingbastard.
“Ourbank. One of the largest in the United States. But nothing available. I was at the top of my class. You’d think I’d have understood. He didn’t want me. But then, I had sixteen years of practice ignoring the obvious.”
I think about the way Harlow smiles when my mom pulls her in for a hug or how hard she laughed when my dad tried to show her how to throw a football, and it kills me to think that she never had that. That she was following after this man, practically pleading for his affection. And from the looks of it, she’s never gotten it.
But I want to know the rest. I want to understand her. “So how’d you end up working there?”
Wrapping her arms around her legs, she rests her cheek on her knees to look at me. “I figured if there wasn’t anything available, I’d make sure my name was on the list. I went to my father’s building and gave my name at the front desk, asking if there was anyone in HR I could speak to about filling out an application.”
“They recognized your name.”
A nod. “Next thing I knew, one of David’s predecessors was skittering out of the elevator to escort me upstairs so I could fill out an application. They probably thought it was adorable. I’m sure they had no idea that finding me that first position might have put their own jobs at risk.”
All she needed was a way in. So smart and driven. There would have been no stopping her. “How’d he take it when you told him the good news?”
“He just stared at me for a minute. Annoyed. But then he said, ‘Fine. Don’t expect any special treatment. You won’t get it.’”
“Nice guy.” I shake my head. “Is he like that with your brother?”
“Oh, no way. Junior’s the family he always wanted. He loves him. Loved Sandy—that’s Junior’s mother.” Then raising a brow at me, I see a glint of humor in her eyes. “Shelefthim.”
Serves the guy right. “Yeah?”
“ForGordon LeMere.”
I choke, eyes bugging wide. “Thehockey player?” The guy was at the peak of his career in the early nineties, but he retired before I laced up my first pair of skates.
And then it clicks.
“Holy shit, Good Girl. You were really,reallypissed when he gave that job to your brother.”
This time the laugh she gives up is pure Harlow. I reach for her and, pulling her into my lap, kiss the shriek off her lips. “So you’ve been using me this whole time, huh? Revenge is best served on a hockey stick?”
And now I get why she’d been so sure her father wouldn’t like me. Why seats to my game weren’t going to get her anywhere.
“I wasn’t planning to serve it at all. Knowing how much he’d hate it was enough.” Her arms link around my neck. “It was supposed to be a quiet, understated rebellion.”
“And then you woke up with a hangover from hell.”
“And you fast-talked me into coming with you anyway.” Her fingers sift into my hair. “Thank you, Wade.”
With Harlow in my arms like this, peering up at me with those big soulful sweet eyes, I’m the one who’s thankful. But not to her douche father, even if he’s the reason she said yes.
“I gotta ask. What are you doing working for him? You’re so damn smart, driven. You could do anything you wanted. Anywhere.”
The way she deflates in my arms makes me wish I could take it back, but I don’t get it. Anyone else would want her. Value her.
“I guess I keep hoping that one of these days I’ll have the chance to prove myself. And maybe if he can see what I’m capable of, he’ll realize he’s been missing out. I know it doesn’t seem like much, but he and Junior, as much of a troll as he is, are the only family I have. My mother’s parents were dead before she left for school. There aren’t any relatives.” She takes a shaky breath. “The closest thing to a family I have is the bank. I’ve put everything I am into it… and I’m not ready to walk away.”
* * *
Harlow
We spendthe next two days running errands for the wedding, hopping from house to house and helping out wherever we can. I’ve made cookies with Grace and filled mesh bags of birdseed with Janie’s sisters while Wade worked with Walt and the guys, getting the space at the farm ready for the wedding and reception.
