Pretend You're Mine: A Small Town Love Story (24 page)

Finally, Sophie took pity on her and offered up a weekly shift at Remo’s to get Harper out of the house on Friday nights. Sophie bartended while Harper called on her college experience and waited tables. The tips were good, and it was the perfect way to get to know the residents of Benevolence. Sooner or later, everyone showed up at Remo’s for dinner, for drinks, for conversation.

Of course, most of the customers knew her name before they even met her.

Small towns.

Luke was not thrilled when she told him in their first video chat.

“No, Harper. Absolutely not,” he said, his tone clipped.

“Are you using your captain voice on me right now?” she asked him in disbelief.

The look he leveled at her through the computer had her grinning. He took a deep breath and tried another tack. “What I meant to say is I really don’t like the idea of you closing on a Friday night by yourself. It’s too late, and what if there’s trouble? Who’s going to help you?” She could see the frustration on his face.

“Luke, you don’t need to worry about this.”

“I hate not being around to protect you.”

“It’s not your job to protect me.”

“Yes. It is. And I take it very seriously. So if something happens to you I’m going to be fucking pissed.”

“I love you. That’s the reason I’m doing this. I miss you so much it hurts to breathe. Sometimes I can’t fall asleep because all I can do is feel this hole in my heart. This shift will help me keep my mind off of missing you.”

He sighed. “Baby, I miss you, too. Every time I wake up and you’re not in my arms it’s like a knife in the gut. But I need you to be safe. Promise me, Harper, that you’ll take every precaution.”

She crossed her heart. “I promise. Ty got Sophie and I pepper spray, and we carpool to our shift. Besides, Luke, everyone knows who we belong to.”

Harper dropped off the beers and a diet soda and raced back to the server station to order for Reece and Dana at the pool table.

She made another lap before circling back to the bar and spotting a familiar face.

Gloria was perched on a barstool sipping a glass of wine.

“Hey, Gloria,” Harper waved to her friend. “It’s nice to see you out and about!”

A delicate blush tinged her cheeks. “I’m celebrating my first paycheck from Blooms.”

Free from the abuse of her ex-boyfriend Glenn Diller, Gloria landed a job at the local florist and was saving for her own apartment.

“Good for you! Claire says you’re doing a great job,” Harper told her, reloading her tray. Luke’s mom, a plant lover for life, worked at Blooms part-time and had been singing Gloria’s praises.

“Thanks. I really like it there.” Gloria’s blush deepened. “Um, have you heard from Luke?”

Harper couldn’t stop the smile that took over her face if she tried. Just the mention of his name gave her a little rush. A fast, electric tingle.

She nodded. “I had an email from him Wednesday and I talked to him last week.”

Gloria turned her gaze to her glass as she twirled the stem between her fingers. “Did he say how Aldo’s doing?”

“Oooooooooh,” Sophie cooed behind the bar. “Someone has a crush!”

Gloria turned an even brighter shade of pink.

“Stop picking on her!” Harper rolled her eyes. “Don’t mind Sophie,” she told Gloria. “She thinks she’s Cupid.”

“By the way, you’re welcome,” Sophie winked at Harper.

Harper definitely owed Soph a debt of gratitude for putting her in Luke’s bed that first night. Not that she intended to inflate Luke’s sister’s head any more than it already was.

“
Anyway
,” Harper looked pointedly at Sophie. “Luke did mention that Aldo’s organizing some crazy boot camp workout competition with a bunch of the people from their unit. Tire flipping, rope climbing. He promised to email pictures.”

Gloria nodded, but remained silent.

“I could give you his email address, you know.”

That had Gloria lifting her gaze. “Don’t you think it would be ... weird?”

Harper shook her head and hefted her tray. “I think you guys waited long enough. Don’t you?” She started for the crowd and called over her shoulder. “I’ll send you his email address.”

***

T
hat night, Harper collapsed into bed exhausted and alone. On Fridays, James, Luke’s younger brother, took Lola and Max overnight so she didn’t have to worry about them being alone all day and into the night.

She smiled, imagining the dogs cramming themselves between him and whatever attractive, single girl he had talked into his bed. Just like his brother, he wasn’t into commitment. However, in James’ case, the girls didn’t have to be nearly as persuasive as Harper had been.

Was this Luke settling down? Asking her to stay seemed like a big step. But there were so many things unsaid between the two of them. What was he keeping from her? There were walls between them and not just the ones he had built in the basement.

Harper couldn’t help but wonder how things would be when he came home. Would it be the same old cycle of getting too close only to be pushed away? She rolled over and hugged a pillow. Doubts and concerns found their way into her mind in the quiet hours of the night, especially when she hadn’t heard from him.

They managed a phone call or a video chat almost every week and in those precious minutes everything was better. Just hearing his voice from half a world away made her body come alive.

Hanging up was hell.

Harper instituted a rule for herself. She wasn’t allowed to cry on the phone. She wanted to leave him with a warm feeling in his chest that would lift him up, not a sinking guilt or loneliness that would plague him. 

After every call, she allowed herself five minutes to cry those unshed tears and embrace the hollow of her heart. And then she carried on.

She curled around his pillow. Tonight she was wearing a Garrison Construction t-shirt that she found in his office. Wrapped in his familiar scent, she fell into a deep, dreamless sleep.

T
he next morning, Harper set aside some time to work in her new garden. Charlie helped her till the soil and Claire had gone on a plant-buying rampage with her. She was determined to make this hobby stick and not just because she liked zucchini and fresh tomatoes. Damn it if she didn’t want to add something to this house that was just hers. She wanted to belong here, feel at home. She wanted to provide something tangible to their home together.

Harper brought her gloved hands to her lower back and lifted her face to the sky. The morning sunshine held a hint of humidity. A sure sign that summer was on its way.

Her phone signaled an incoming call from the railing of the porch. It was Luke’s ringtone. She sprinted across the back yard like an Olympian and pounced on the phone.

“Harper?” Luke’s voice crackled through the connection.

“Luke!”

“Harper, can you call me back?”

“Yes. I have the phone card here. Give me ten seconds, okay?”

“Hurry. Please.” He disconnected.

Something was wrong. Harper’s heart pounded in her chest as she dashed inside to grab the phone card out of her purse. She misdialed twice before she was able to calm her fingers enough to get through.

“Luke! Are you okay? Are you hurt?”

“Baby, I’m fine. But Aldo —” Luke’s voice cracked on his friend’s name.

Harper felt her heart clutch.

“Aldo’s hurt pretty bad. It was an IED. They medevacked him to Bagram. I don’t know his status.”

She heard him take a breath. Heard the catch in his throat.

“Oh my God, Luke. Honey, I’m so sorry.”

He cleared his throat and she knew he was pulling it in, tamping it down.

“Are you okay?” he asked.

“I’m fine.” A tear trickled down her cheek at the pain in his voice. “Everything here is fine.”

“Please keep talking, Harp. I just want to hear your voice.”

“The dogs miss you. I keep coming home and finding your running shoes at the door. Max and Lola go into the closet every morning and carry them down there.”

She knew she sounded like she was being strangled, but she pressed on. She told him about Ty’s new police cruiser and how they got the bid on the Greek restaurant.

“That’s great, Harp. Thanks.”

“I love you, Luke.”

She heard his sigh, knew he needed the words.

“Can you do me a favor, baby?”

“Anything.”

“Go sit with Mrs. Moretta. She’ll be getting a call soon. Maybe take my mom?”

“Absolutely. If I hear anything I’ll email you and you do the same. Okay?”

“Thanks, Harper. I ... don’t know what I’d do without you.”

“Anything for you, Luke. I love you so much.”

“I ... miss you.”

“Miss you, too. Call as soon as you can.”

“Will do.”

***

L
uke hung up the phone and dropped it on the pillow next to him. The cot creaked with the motion.

He stared listlessly out the dusty window at the gray mountains looming just beyond base.

He needed that glimpse of home that only Harper could give him. Needed the reminder that there was a life waiting for him beyond the dusty, dry heat of the desert — that right now painted red with his friend’s blood.

He reached for his laptop and opened his email.

Luke thought that fixing Harper’s car had been a good going away gift. Harper had him beat. When he opened his email for the first time in Afghanistan, he saw she had sent him close to thirty pictures. Many of them ones he hadn’t known she took. There were shots of the two of them, of the dogs, pictures of his family, and his home. She even included a few of his employees. He opened the files almost every day.

Tonight, he took his time clicking through each one. His favorite was one that the newspaper had uploaded online. The paper had run the picture of Harper and Linc coming out of the water on the front page, but in the photographer’s album of the event, Harper had found a shot of the two of them at the bar. Luke’s arms were wrapped around her from behind, pulling her into his chest. His hand was splayed across her stomach and she was looking over her shoulder at him. They were both laughing.

He loved the expression on her face. Harper’s eyes were bright and her cheeks flushed. Her hair hung in damp waves that framed her face. He could see the excitement between the two of them and felt the corner of his mouth turn up at the fortunate fact that the photographer had failed to capture the raging hard-on he had pressed against her at that exact moment.

It was the night of their first time together. The night he stopped fighting and let go.

He kept the picture open and clicked the next one.

Aldo’s cocky grin filled the screen. Harper must have taken it with her phone. It was the night Aldo and Gloria came for dinner. Aldo was manning the grill and arguing with Luke about something. They were both grinning. Brothers without the blood.

Luke shut the lid of the laptop.

He braced his hands against his knees, fingers digging into the dried blood and mud caked to his fatigues.

He closed his eyes and let the plywood walls of his eight by eight room close in on him.

M
rs. Moretta lived in a tidy two-story cottage three blocks over from Luke’s parents. The front porch was partially obscured by colorful pots overflowing with petunias.

A hummingbird feeder hung from a rafter.

Harper blew out the breath she had been holding. Claire reached across the console and patted her hand on the steering wheel.

“You’re a good girl, Harper. Let’s go help a friend.”

They were only halfway up the walk when Mrs. Moretta burst out of the front door. She was wearing a flopping sunhat and one garden glove. Harper could see tears.

Claire hurried up the steps to her friend. “Oh, Ina.”

The two women embraced on the porch. “Thank you so much for being here, Claire. They just called. He’s alive.”

“Thank God for that,” Claire said, holding her tight.

“Harper.” Mrs. Moretta released Claire and nodded in her direction. “Let’s go inside and get a drink.”

They let her lead the way back to a cozy kitchen with a greenhouse window over the sink. Mrs. Moretta paused, staring off into the yard. “He’s in surgery. They think he’s going to lose a leg. But he’s going to live.”

Harper covered her mouth with a hand and closed her eyes. Aldo was alive and that was what mattered. She excused herself for a moment and fired off an email to Luke from her phone.

To: [email protected]

From: [email protected]

Subject: Alive!

Alive and in surgery. May lose leg, but he’s expected to survive. We’re with Mrs. M now. She’s holding up. I’ll let you know if I learn anything else. I love you.

H

When she returned to the kitchen, Mrs. Moretta and Claire were talking quietly at the dining room table.

“The base said they’ll be sending me to Dover when Aldo gets there, and then I’ll go with him to Walter Reed. I’ll know more once he’s been moved to Germany.” She sighed and removed her glove. “What would we ever do without our boys, Claire?”

“We’re not going to have to find out, Ina.” Claire squeezed her friend’s hand. “Aldo’s going to come home and be just as big a pain in your ass as he ever was.”

“Remember when they were just boys and playing in the creek the entire summer?”

“Remember when they camped out in the back yard in a tent and I found them curled up side by side on the couch the next morning?”

“When did our little boys turn into men?”

“They’d tell you it was a lot earlier than I would.”

Mrs. Moretta sniffled.

“Can I get you a drink, Mrs. Moretta?” Harper offered. “Some tea or water?”

“Harper, there is a box of cheap Chardonnay in the fridge. How about you grab us three of the biggest glasses you can find and we’ll drink to our boys?”

It was on the third refill trip from the kitchen that Harper returned to Claire whispering to Mrs. Moretta.

“She’s just what he needs —”

“Harper, Claire is distracting me with gossip about you and your Luke. She seems to think that you’re doing him a world of good.”