Harper woke up with a shiver. Slowly taking in her surroundings, she realized she was in a hospital bed. Parker was talking to Eric Bold and a police officer through a glass door. Damn, everything hurt. She moaned.
“You’re awake.”
Harper turned her head toward the sound of her mother’s voice. She was sitting in a plastic chair next to Harper’s bed, still wearing her black evening gown from the charity event.
“Mom…”
Her mom reached out, stroking the side of her face like she used to when Harper was a child. “I’m so glad you’re okay, sweetie.”
“Oh, god. Did they catch her?”
Her mom nodded. “Yeah, baby. They’ve got the woman who did this in custody. Eric and Parker are talking to the police now, but I’m sure they’re going to want to take your statement, too.”
Harper winced, feeling like she’d been run over by a fucking freight train. And her mouth was like a desert. “I could use some water, so much for brunch.”
Her mom laughed one of those teary-eyed half-laughs you do to keep from crying as she poured some water into a Styrofoam cup with a straw and handed it to Harper. She’d cracked the joke for her mother’s benefit. Judging from the dark rims around her eyes, she’d obviously spent a long, sleepless night at the hospital.
“Is there anything else I can get you?” her mom asked.
“Yeah, some pain killers,” Harper said.
“I’m so glad that psychotic woman didn’t nick anything major when she attacked you.” Her mom hit the call button. “The doctor was already in to check on you. You’re going to be okay,” she murmured as if she were trying to reassure herself.
Harper wasn’t about to argue, but it certainly didn’t feel that way. “Thanks for staying with me.”
“I’m not the only one who stayed,” said her mother, a slight smile curving her mouth.
In fact, despite the dark circles around her mom’s eyes, she looked a helluva lot better than Harper felt at the moment. Come to think about it, her mom seemed different—her smile was brighter somehow. It almost seemed like an incredible weight had been lifted. Something changed since their shopping trip.
“Oh?”
“This is the first time Parker has left your side.” Her mom nodded toward the door, where he was talking with Eric Bold. The police officer had disappeared, which was just as well.
Harper wasn’t sure she was up to talking to them yet. Of course, it was unavoidable, but she was wrung out and weak. And incredibly hungry… Once she got some food in her, she’d feel like a human being.
Parker still wore the black tux that he filled to capacity with his broad football-player physique, and he looked good enough to lick, slowly from head to toe, regardless of his somewhat disheveled appearance. She didn’t want to read too much into the fact that he’d stayed by her side, but she couldn’t help it.
“He really cares about you,” her mom said.
“I know he does.”
“I left your father right before the charity event. Turning the Pages offered me a job as their event director. I’m done, and I’ll never go back.”
Harper carefully sat up in the bed. “Really? That’s fantastic, Mom!”
She was so proud of her mom for finally doing what she should’ve done years ago. Honestly, her mom shouldn’t have felt trapped in a marriage and stayed regardless of how old she and her siblings were. Then maybe she wouldn’t have wasted so many years on someone who wasn’t worth it. Harper knew it was her dad, but that never mattered to her. They were never close. She’d hated watching her stay in a loveless, soulless marriage. Over the years, she’d watched her mom’s fire extinguish. Harper had her own issues with committing to a relationship, afraid it might suck the life out of her. That’s what she’d witnessed growing up, and she’d spent so much time running from it that she’d let every opportunity slip away.
But then she’d met Parker…
Her mom was studying her. “Good. I know you’ve never wanted to get married like your brother and sister, but I don’t want you to lose someone who cares about you because you push them away,” she said quietly. “You put up all these walls and push people away.”
“I’m not going to do that to Parker.”
The hospital door nudged open as Parker stepped into her room with impeccable timing. Her face flushed. “Hi.”
“Hi, gorgeous. Glad to see you’re finally awake.”
“I’m going to grab some coffee. Would you like some, Parker?” her mom asked as she left her bedside.
“That would be wonderful, ma’am.”
“I told you to call me Monica,” she said on her way out the door.
He stood over her bed, his presence filling the tiny hospital room.
It wasn’t that she had a new lease on life—although, she should—but she was so used to being hurt and disappointed that when a man finally showed her she something else, she’d made it almost impossible for him to get close to her.
Watching how other women responded to him, she’d let her own stupid baggage get the best of her. Pushing someone away before they had a chance to hurt her wasn’t what she wanted. She’d made so many excuses, and found reasons to ignore how the sound of his voice or the look in his eyes turned her into putty. She was at his mercy. Anyone who has ever loved is at risk of being broken. That was finally something she was willing to gamble on with him.
Love makes you trip over yourself, exposing everything you’d rather keep hidden. It’s tangled, messy, and uncontrollable. It doesn’t make sense, but she was okay with that, because it was worth it. He was worth it.
“What did the police say?” she asked.
Parker ran a hand through his hair. “They were waiting for you to wake up to take your statement.”
She nodded. “So what now?”
He raised an eyebrow. “With what?”
“Us?” she asked, twisting the sheet in her hand.
Parker grinned. “Well, I imagine once you’re sprung from this place, your mom is going to insist we reschedule brunch.”
She couldn’t help laughing, but man, did it hurt. “I don’t doubt it.”
He bent and gave her a slow, gentle kiss. The delicious scrap of his stubble and his calloused fingers tilting her chin toward his mouth made it the best kiss of all time. One for the record books.
“As for us…we’ve got something good, gorgeous. And we’re going to keep it going,” he murmured against her mouth.
“I’d love that.”
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