Chapter 7

 

“Well, you look like a dog’s breakfast.”

I looked up from Harper’s engine to find Brett holding two coffees with a knowing grin on his face. As usual, his light hair was combed back and the scruff on his face neatly trimmed.

“It’s woman troubles, isn’t it?” Brett continued, offering one coffee to me. Reaching behind me I pulled the old rag from my back pocket and wiped my hands. Only after I’d taken a long swallow of the hot liquid did I speak.

“I’m just tired.” Not offering any more than that, I walked to the back of the workshop knowing my friend would be close behind. I grabbed one of the chairs, swung it around and straddled it. With my arms balancing on the back of the chair I stared at the cement floor while Brett pulled up a seat next to me.

“You forget, I know you better than anyone else does. Wanna talk about it?”

If there was anyone I could talk to, it was Brett. We’d met when both of us were at the lowest points in our lives and have been as close as brothers since. So the fact that I didn’t want to talk to Brett about Harper was perplexing.

Silence stretched between us, and I did not doubt that Brett was giving me space to work through what was bothering me. The thing was, no matter how I looked at it, I was screwed.

After leaving Harper’s the night before, I’d slept for shit. I couldn’t close my eyes without seeing her and her little boy. I’d spent just an evening with them, and already I wanted more.

“Look, man,” Brett’s voice sliced through my thoughts. “Maybe you need a good old-fashioned lay. It’d be a good way to get whatever’s bothering you out of your system.”

“I had dinner with Harper last night,” I announced, downright ignoring Brett’s suggestion.

“Uh…okay. I didn’t know things were progressing.”

I aimed my frown at the floor. “They’re not.”

“That’s good.” Brett let out an audible sigh of relief.

Lightning-fast my head snapped up, and I glared at my friend. “Good? How’s that good?”

“She seems like a nice enough person, but man, she’s got a kid. That’s some serious baggage right there. You don’t wanna be messing around with a single mom. She’s probably on the lookout for someone to play daddy to her boy.”

Anger started to bubble in my veins. “Harper isn’t like that.”

“Yeah? How do you know, Logan?”

The truth was, I didn’t know. But something in my gut told me that she wasn’t. Besides, if that was what she was after she’d have acted on what we’d both felt last night.

“You need to mind your damn business.” Done with the conversation, I pushed to my feet and stomped up the stairs against the wall that led to my little office. Irritation and anger had me shutting the door with a loud slam before I dropped my body onto my leather sofa.

My reaction to what Brett had said was alarming, to say the least. I knew nothing about this woman, and yet I was prepared to defend her. The funny thing was I’d do it again. There was just something about Harper that spoke to some broken part of my soul.

Two sharp knocks against my door, had me squeezing my lids tightly together. Whatever else Brett had to say, I didn’t want to hear it. “Piss off.”

Whoever was at the door totally ignored me and entered the office anyway. “What’s crawled up your ass?”

A loud groan escaped my lips before I swung my legs off the couch and settled into a seated position. By that time Chase had already made himself comfortable by parking his ass on my desk.

“What are you doing here?”

Chase ran a palm over his jaw while he scanned the cluttered office. As usual, he was dressed in dark blue jeans with a khaki button down. With my brother’s scrutinizing gaze sweeping over my space the familiar ache of feeling less than human settled in my chest. Growing up I’d always felt like the outsider even though nobody had treated me as such. As a young boy, I couldn’t understand why I didn’t want the same things out of life as my brothers did.

I still didn’t understand.

“What’s up with you?” Chase’s voice forced me back to the moment.

“Nothing. Did you need something?”

My short answer was met with a frown. “Okay,” Chase said as he crossed one leg over the other and folded his arms in front of him. “Straight to the point then. If Harper is the only reason you want to adopt a dog, I can tell you now that I’m not going to approve it. Taking care of a pet is a huge responsibility.”

Biting down on my teeth, I inhaled deeply. “What? You think I’m incapable of taking care of anyone or anything but myself?” My voice came out louder and harsher than I’d intended, but I was sick of being judged by the mistakes I’d made in the past.

I was a thirty-three-year-old man still being held accountable for the actions of a seventeen-year-old boy. It was bullshit.

I saw the shift in Chase’s body, and I knew what was coming. The same thing everyone always threw at me when I was in a bad mood. “Do I need to check?”

Both hurt and furious, I jumped up and stormed toward Chase. Pulling up the sleeves of my coveralls, I exposed the insides of my arms to my brother. “No, you don’t need to bloody ask. I haven’t used in over thirteen years. I’m just in a piss poor mood, and you’re making it worse. So…”

What I needed was for everyone to just stay out of my business. Wordlessly I stalked to my door and opened it. With my eyes fixed on the dark wood instead of Chase, I said, “We’ll talk later.”

For a long, tense moment Chase didn’t move. I didn’t want to throw my little brother out of my office. But, with the mood that I was in, I just might’ve. Luckily Chase slowly pushed off the desk and moved toward the door, stopping in front of me, he said, “You know where to find me if you need to talk.”

As soon as I was able to, I shut the door and locked it this time. Bracing both my hands against the door, I let my head hang.

If I’d known that this was how my day was going to go, I’d have stayed in bed.