Saving Us (The Billionaire Brothers of NY Duology #1)

22. Harper

CHAPTER 22

Harper

M aking it into the shop Saturday morning was no easy feat. The rest of the evening at the club last night was…sad. That’s probably the best word to describe it. Gage stayed for another hour after our fight in the hallway, but we didn’t speak the rest of the night. It was best many things were left unsaid. I could sense his mood simply by looking at him. He went from still being mad that I stormed away, to looks of concern as he watched guys talking and flirting, to exasperation at the fact that I ignored him.

Asking Vic to take over their table was for the best. If I had to continue to be near him, I know I would have caved in to a conversation. And he didn’t deserve one after what he pulled. He didn’t get to tell me what to do. Once our shift was over, Vic wanted details about what happened, but I didn’t have it in me to give them to her. I was mentally exhausted from getting through the night as it was.

And now having to put an entire day in at the shop when we weren’t on speaking terms was going to be hard. But the pace here, coupled with how I could lose myself when working with the flowers, was my only consolation.

“What’s with the long face, Harper?” Fiona asked.

As much as I loved working for and with Fiona, it was sometimes hard having two mother figures in my life. There were times, like now, that I just wanted a friend. And most friends would know that at that moment, I would talk only when I was ready to.

“Just tired. Long night at the club last night.”

Thankfully, Fiona didn’t push and moved along to the back room, leaving me to my designs and the front room. But the buzzing in my back pocket was a constant reminder of what my brain was trying to avoid.

His text messages started around midnight. I was still at work and didn’t read them until I’d gotten to the locker room. About twenty of them had backed up by then. They continued on and off through the night. They ranged between apologies to him getting mad at me for not responding to his apologies.

Gage - Harper I’m sorry about tonight

-I know you’re still working please call me when you get home

- I was a dick I’m sorry

- Call me

- Why won’t you pick up your phone

- Answer your phone Harper

- You’re making me think something is wrong

Me - I’m home and fine

Once I let him know I was safe, he stopped for the night, but the calls and texts resumed this morning. Finally, I ripped my phone out of my pocket and shut it down. There was no way I’d be able to concentrate with it vibrating every thirty seconds.

But as I walked to the refrigerator case, the door to the shop opened, and my heart sank. I couldn’t bring myself to see if Gage was the one standing at the door. Slowly, I turned my head, and my eyes found a young woman looking at the premade arrangements.

Then I felt a gentle hand grip my shoulder.

“Head to the back, Harper, I’ll take this one,” Fiona said.

With tears in my eyes, I nodded as I rushed through the doorway and ran straight to the bathroom, locking myself inside. The cries instantly turned to sobs as my body curled in on itself and shook. Sitting on the closed toilet, I used some of the scratchy toilet tissue to blow my nose and wipe my eyes. Looking up, my reflection in the mirror stunned me. Red-rimmed eyes puffy from crying, mottled and blotchy cheeks from rubbing the tears away.

Pulling my phone from my pocket, I turned it on.

Fifty-two missed messages. Five missed calls. All from him.

I opened my phone and hit call.

“Mom?” My voice cracked the moment I said her name. I hadn’t planned on calling, but I needed her; I needed to hear her voice.

“Baby, what’s wrong?” she asked. “What did he do?”

We shared no words for a few minutes, her just listening to me cry as quietly as I could through the phone.

“Mom,” I said again, not quite sure what I wanted to tell her yet.

“Harper, ya know, the beach has been calling your name down here. Why don’t you hop on a plane, baby? Come see your mama. She could use a hug from you.”

Holding the phone to my ear as the tears streamed down my face, I nodded to myself in agreement. It would take so much arranging with both jobs. But I had time off. This was as good a reason to use it as any.

“Okay, Mom, yeah,” I said, taking a deep breath. “I think that’s a good idea.”

The sigh that came through the line was one of relief. She didn’t speak, but there was rustling in the background. I could only guess she was already hauling ass to start cleaning, making a perfect house more perfect.

“Okay honey, let me know what flight you can get on. What day do you think you’ll try to head down?” she asked.

Thinking about it, I knew there was no other option.

“I’ll be there today.”

And I hung up.

The humidity hits like a wall the moment you step out of the airport. It’s a phenomenon I won’t ever get used to, no matter how many times I visit her in the warmer months. The air was so heavy with moisture that it’s hard to breathe in, getting caught in your windpipe before it makes it to your lungs.

Looking around for my mom’s blonde hair, I found her waving emphatically by her car. Dragging my bag behind me, I made my way over. The Fort Myers airport lacked the bustle and chaos of the NYC area airports. There weren’t transit officers constantly blowing their whistles at the waiting cars here like up north.

But that was because there really weren’t any cars waiting.

“Harper!” my mom screamed as she raced around her car to grab me into her arms. “Look at you, you look so beautiful.”

She held me at arm’s length after releasing me from her hug, studying me from top to bottom. Her hands went to my face, cradling my cheeks. “But you’re sad, my angel.”

Then she took my bag by the handle and rolled it behind her car. “C’mon, get in, let’s get going. We’ve got lots to do.”

Once I got out of the bathroom that morning at the shop, and Fiona got one look at me, she sat me down. I didn’t tell her exactly what was going on but let her know I needed some time to visit my mom and get out of town. She gave me Tuesday and Wednesday off. My next call was to the club. It didn’t go as smoothly with them calling out for that night, but I had the time off available, so I got it. I paid more for the flight than I wanted since it was the day of, but I would be with my mom from Saturday evening until Wednesday night.

“What do you have planned, Mom?” As I settled into the passenger seat, I fiddled with the vents, making sure the air blasted me in the face. And I was hoping she didn’t plan a bunch of visits with friends or anything similar. She was known to crowd our social calendar when I visited.

“Well, we have to get to the beach, then there’s this really cool beach bar that I’ve been meaning to try, but my friends are lame, so now I’ve got you to try it with. Then there’s the pool in my complex, and then, well, back to the beach, I guess.”

Her smile was infectious. She knew exactly what I was here for and what I needed. As she started the fifteen-minute drive to her condo, I realized I’d made the perfect decision abandoning my entire life up north for a quick escape to paradise.

And Fiona was the only one who knew where I was. Not even Vic got the call. I figured the fewer people who knew, the better.

“Thanks, Mom.”

She smiled at me as she drove along, humming to the alt rock music she always had on in the background. She passed her love of that music onto me. Going to college in the early nineties, she had so many grunge and alternative bands that were just starting out to listen to that were still around.

The gate opened to her complex, and we drove around the winding road to her building. Pulling into her spot under the car canopy, I started to open my door, but she stopped me, her hand on my leg.

“Listen,” she said. “I know you, and I’m not going to push. But you came all this way, so all I ask is that before you go home, you tell me what happened.”

My head fell against the headrest as she spoke, and I worked hard not to let the moisture building up in my eyes spill over. As my head bobbed up and down, she smiled warmly and nodded back at me.

“Well, then let’s go get ready for dinner,” she said. “That beach bar has been calling my name for months.”

My mom’s place was on the mainland of Fort Myers, about a ten-minute drive to Fort Myers Beach. And this time of year, day parking was at a premium for going to the beach, so the next morning we decided to head out early. Besides, it got so hot in the afternoon, we’d want to head home by then, anyway.

We were sitting on the beach long before nine in the morning and were far from the first ones there. The sun was beastly hot already, apparently some freak heat wave for May. It forced us under the umbrella to be comfortable enough to read our books.

“I’m going in for a dip, want to come, Mom?”

“I’m good, sweetie. You go ahead,” she said, not even looking up from her book.

The water of the Gulf of Mexico, especially when heading into the summer months, was more like a bath than anything else. Being it was only May, it was still a bit refreshing when I first went in, but within minutes, it felt as warm as the air. And it probably was.

As I stood waist-deep in the calm water, my mind wandered to a certain person up north. Unlike the waters off the coast of New Jersey, there were no waves in the Gulf to distract me. The slow lapping water lulled me into a trance as my thoughts settled on him. I hated that I allowed him to hurt me, to interrupt my plan. He didn’t seem the type to do anything like what he did.

But they never do.

“How was it?” my mom asked as I returned to our chairs.

“Like usual, I’ll never get used to being able to walk right into the ocean. So unlike NJ water.”

Plopping back into my chair, I looked at the horizon, thinking about who else I left back up north. I dug around in my bag for my phone, thinking I’d reach out to Vic and maybe clue her in to where I was. My home screen was filled with over two hundred missed texts and calls from him. And a few from Victoria.

I opened hers.

Vic - Where are u

-Ur bf is at the club rn looking for u I have no idea what to tell him didn’t know u weren’t working wtf is going on

-WTF he’s going crazy girl he’s like a lost puppy

“Everything okay, honey?” my mom asked.

Looking over at her, she was staring at me, book on her lap. I must have looked horrified reading about Gage being at the club last night.

“Not really.”

She put her book down and sat quietly, waiting for me to be ready.

“So, it’s about Gage,” I started.

Looking her way, she nodded and pushed her sunglasses atop her head, her eyes sharp and focused.

“So, things were going great. He’s this executive with a big company, a family company. That’s how we met. We have their corporate account at Fiona’s. I think I told you that.” I paused as the memory of our meeting that ended on the table flooded my thoughts. My cheeks flushed, but thankfully it was camouflaged by the heat. “We’ve been spending a lot of time together. We even have this kind of routine already with our work schedules. It’s been nice.”

“Okay, but now you’ve hit a speed bump, I’m assuming. Tell me about it,” she said.

“Well, it’s more than a little bump, Mom. He wants me to quit my job at the club. He basically ordered me to. He came there the other night, and things seemed fine at first. But then all of a sudden, he was like , I don’t want you working here anymore .” My voice elevated, almost yelling while we sat on the beach, my hands flailing. “I flipped out on him, told him off. Absolutely not, you don’t get to tell me what to do , yadda yadda.”

She studied me for a long moment before saying anything.

“That’s not right he did that, of course, Harper. I mean, no one wants a controlling person in their life. Has he apologized? If he hasn’t, then I’m with you, I think this probably needs to end.”

I simply stared at her.

“What?” she asked. “Has he apologized?”

“Well, that’s beside the point. He wants me to quit, and he said he would hand over the cash I need for the shop.”

Her smile was small. But she smiled.

“Mom!” I yelled, completely frustrated with her. “He wanted me to just take his money for my shop. Can you believe him? Like, why would I take his money to start my business?”

She sat up more in her chair, looking a bit more interested in what I was saying.

“So let me get this straight. You want to start your own business and work two jobs to try to earn the money you need to do that. But he’s telling you to quit one of those jobs and offering you the money you need to start that business. Do I have that right?”

Fucking Christ, she wasn’t on my side.

I flung myself against the back of my chair.

“Mom, we’ve been together like six weeks. Are you really telling me I should be okay with taking tens of thousands of dollars from him to start my shop? Plus, I’ve skirted my responsibilities now with both my jobs because of him by coming down here. Because of a guy. Something I said I would never do again.”

I was shocked at her insinuation. She couldn’t possibly be telling me to give in and let him just…take care of me.

Jacob, and our years together, came screaming to the forefront of my memories. The way he wanted me to fit some kind of mold he created in his head to be his trophy girlfriend, and I knew eventually, wife. He was only concerned about appearances, as I eventually figured that out. But it took me years. All the money he spent on me, on us, was a ruse to get me to move with him wherever his life took him. He wanted me to be a stay-at-home wife, to create the perfect image for him and the firm. But that was not my plan for my life. And it took me longer than it should have to realize he didn’t care one bit about my dreams and desires and what I wanted to do with my life.

I would not fall into the same trap again.

“Honey, I’m sorry, listen, let me clarify. You are a woman who wants to do things for herself—I get it. And I also think it’s wrong of him to be making demands of you. I don’t disagree with that. But if he wants to help you achieve your dream, especially if you see him as someone you could be with, maybe you should at least be open to that conversation. Possibly discuss him loaning you the money as an investor. And you would pay him back.” She paused. “What I’m thinking you’re not doing is talking about it. He isn’t Jacob. Don’t ruin every possible good thing in your future because you’re afraid of what that one mistake did to you. Have you even told him why you don’t want to take the money? Told him about Jacob? Has that conversation been had?”

She paused again, and I knew her tactics. She wanted me to give in to her reason, but I refused. I remained stoic, looking out at the water.

“And if he has apologized, or tried, you owe it to him to listen. If there is any chance this guy is the one…” She sat back in her chair and picked up her book again. I knew she felt triumphant with her words. “And I don’t think you’d be here, with me, running away from him, if you weren’t scared to death that he is the one.”

The stubborn side of me would not give in to her. I sat there, watching the minuscule waves roll in, not speaking, for a good twenty minutes. But she wore me out.

“So that’s it?” I whined. “That’s all you’ve got for me. I flew all the way from New York for you to tell me I should listen to his apology?” My toes dug deep in the sand as I flung some in frustration.

“So, he has apologized?” she asked.

“Ughhh!” I screeched. “I guess so, he hasn’t stopped texting or calling me since he left the club the other night. But he left and didn’t look back.” My arms were folded tightly against my chest as I stewed in my anger. “But I’ve only read a few of them.”

She turned the page of her book, not very concerned with our conversation. And that seemed to anger me more.

“Maybe you should take the time to read some of them, sweetie. It might give you some insight into what was going on in his head, and it might be completely different from what you were thinking.”

Uugghh!