Total pages in book: 90
Estimated words: 86826 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 434(@200wpm)___ 347(@250wpm)___ 289(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 86826 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 434(@200wpm)___ 347(@250wpm)___ 289(@300wpm)
“I hate you.”
“You love me. Now tell me.”
I take another sip of my martini. “It was nice. He had an incredible spread set up outside overlooking the ocean.”
Abby groans dramatically. “I’d expect nothing less.”
“And I gave him the scarf.”
Her eyes light up. “YES. How did he react?”
I can’t stop smiling now thinking about it. “He loved it.”
“Like fake polite loved it or real loved it?”
“Real loved it,” I say. “He kept touching it while we talked.”
Abby slaps the table once. “I knew it.”
“And he looked…” I shake my head a little. “I don’t know. Like he was emotional about it.”
“That’s because men secretly lose their minds when women make them things,” Abby says knowingly.
“I almost lost my mind making it.”
“That’s because you insisted on learning to knit in three hours.”
“That woman at the knitting store hated me.”
“She hated your technique.”
“She hated my spirit.”
Abby snorts into her drink.
“But honestly,” I continue, “it was sweet. He really loved it.”
Abby watches me for a second, then narrows her eyes. “Okay. Then what.”
My stomach flips. “Then he gave me a gift.”
“Ohhhh,” she says and takes another sip, absolutely giddy.
I sort of shake my head. “Yeah, it was a nice one.”
“That reaction means it was expensive.”
“It was just—”
“Harper.”
I exhale. “Diamond earrings.”
Abby freezes.
“Excusez-moi?” she says slowly.
“Diamond earrings.”
“How diamond are we talking?”
I stare into my drink. “Five carats.”
Her jaw drops. Like in a cartoon. Literally, to the floor.
“Five?”
“Please stop screaming numbers at me.”
“Harper Hawthorne!” she whisper-yells. “That man bought you FIVE-CARAT DIAMOND EARRINGS?”
“He said it was because I lost one at the hockey game.”
“The fake one?” she asks incredulously.
“Yes. The fake one.”
Abby stares at me for a full three seconds. Then four… then five.
“What do they look like?” she finally asks.
I lean back slowly against the booth cushions. “Champagne diamonds. They are…” I shake my head. “Honestly, they are breathtaking.”
“And you accepted them?”
“I tried not to.”
“But?”
“But he ignored me and handed me champagne-colored financial ruin.”
Abby collapses against the booth dramatically. “I cannot believe this is your life now.”
“Trust me, neither can I.”
“No, Harper,” she says, sitting upright again. “Listen to me carefully. That is not a gift men buy women they casually like.”
I look down because the second she says it out loud, my brain starts spiraling again, back to the way he looked at me across that dinner table. I could tell there wasn’t another person on earth he wanted to be there with.
Abby studies my face carefully. “You’re really in this.”
I laugh weakly. “I don’t know what I’m doing.”
“Yes, you do.”
“I really don’t.”
Abby leans toward me. “Harper. You went to the Bahamas with a man who buys you five-carat diamonds and looks at you like you hung the moon. I think it’s safe to say this has moved beyond casual and into the serious zone. And I’m so happy for you.”
I stare out the lounge windows through to the SoHo streetlights.
And every thought in my head keeps circling back to the exact same thing: Julian. To the way it felt falling asleep in his arms with the ocean outside the windows. To how comfortable I was there.
“I’ve never felt this way, Abby. I mean, it’s exciting, but what if things go wrong? I’m out of my depth… I think I’m in trouble,” I admit.
Abby smiles knowingly and lifts her martini glass. “Oh, honey. You are absolutely screwed.”
Chapter 21
Julian
Iwake before Harper does, although the truth is I don’t think I slept deeply enough last night to qualify as sleeping at all.
For several seconds, I remain exactly where I am, flat on my back, staring up at the ceiling of her apartment. Then I turn slightly and my attention is squarely on the woman asleep beside me.
Harper is curled beneath the duvet, one hand tucked beneath her cheek, her hair spread across the pillow in soft, tangled waves. There’s a disarming feeling about seeing her here like this, at ease and folded so naturally into the early hours of the morning.
It should be scary to be this close to a woman again.
Instead, I’m serene… downright peaceful.
Her breathing hitches as she begins to wake, eyelashes fluttering before those blue eyes slowly find me. For one sleepy second, there’s confusion, the kind that comes from forgetting where you are.
Then recognition overtakes her smiling face.
“Well,” she murmurs, her voice still sleepy. “That’s a nice sight to wake up to.”
I smile before I can stop myself. “Good morning to you too.”
She stretches slowly beneath the blankets, and I immediately regret every item of clothing currently separating us because the movement arches her body enough to remind me exactly how she felt against mine last night.
Harper catches the direction of my thoughts instantly.
“I know what that look means,” she says.
I smile. A laugh escapes her, soft and sleepy and unguarded. It’s a sound I’ve really started to get used to… and yearn for.