Spring River Valley: The Winter Collection (Boxed Set) (10 page)

“Let’s go. I’m finished here.”

“What happened with Grant? Was he mad at you? That woman said some things—”

“Let’s just go.” Harper grabbed Audrey’s arm and yanked her toward the door. They passed Mrs. Moriarty without a word, though Audrey glare
d at her evilly before they headed out to collect their coats in the lobby. Fortunately, Harper managed to hold back her tears until they got into her car.

Grant didn’t call. Not that she expected him too, but the more time passed, the more Harper hated herself for walking out on him, and the harder it became to think up a way to apologize.

He’d looked so hurt when she’d carelessly told him she should have given more thought to their liaison. Making love with him was not a mistake, and she didn’t regret it, but she couldn’t get over the
specter of the trouble she’d caused for Taverna Fiora.

By Saturday morning she’d cried all the self-pitying tears she was ever going to cry
, and she’d worked through all the really bad words she wanted to say to Brad and his mother. She’d reached a point where she thought she could make it through her speech to them both without breaking down.

So she stood now on Mrs. Dawson’s front porch, ready to knock. Her knees
wobbled, and she shivered a bit, this time not from the biting cold. The last day of January had dawned even colder and meaner than the first, but she was determined to start a new month with a new attitude, and, if she could make it through this day, a new man in her life.

She lifted the brass knocker and tapped it a couple of times as hard as she could. It took a full two minutes for someone to answer. Brad’s father swung the door open and offered the glare she knew was reserved for the people who disturbed his breakfast. Harper wanted to crumble into dust and blow away. The man was that imposing, but she had to stand up to him as well as his wife and say her piece.

“Good morning, Mr. Dawson. Is Georgia at home?”

For a second the man looked stunned. Bushy eyebrows crashed together in the middle of his broad forehead before he stepped back to allow Harper into the foyer. “Come in, Harper. I’m very glad you’re here.”

She gulped and crossed the threshold. She hadn’t seen Brad’s car around, so at least she wouldn’t have to deal with him too. She had a special rant reserved for her ex if she ever found herself face-to-face with him again.

Mr. Harper yelled for his wife, a bellow that shook the large house. A moment later, Mrs. Dawson came down the stairs into the foyer. Her expression froze, cold as the January wind, when she saw Harper.

“I think you have something to say to Harper, don’t you?” Mr. Dawson scowled at his wife who scowled back.

Harper had no desire to get in between the older couple. She only wanted to tell Mrs. Dawson she wouldn’t be intimidated by gossip, no matter how small this town was. “Mrs. Dawson, I’m sure you don’t want to speak to me, so I’ll make this short
—”

“Georgia? Don’t you make this girl apologize to you.”

Harper shifted her determined gaze to Mr. Dawson. “Excuse me?”

“She told me about what happened at the Club Dinner,” Mr. Dawson said. “I was
not happy about it.”

“Well, Mr. Dawson, I really don’t
—”

“Let me finish. Harper, you’re a nice girl
, and you were good for Bradley. He screwed things up with you, and you have every right to kick him to the curb. What you do from here on in is your own business, and as much as it pains me to think you will never be our daughter-in-law, I think the two of you made the right decision to break up, if that’s what you did. Georgia?”

Mrs. Dawson took a deep breath and clamped her lips shut, obviously not about to agree with her husband. He continued
, “There are a lot of hurt feelings all the way around, and if my wife can influence the Auxiliary Club not to do business with you, well, I can’t change that. I’m not a member, so that choice is up to them. I don’t have to like it, but I can’t stop it. On the other hand, I told my wife, I won’t stand for her talking about you in public, or saying things about the restaurant where that other young man works. If you’re seeing him, well, I’m disappointed, not in you, but for Bradley because he shouldn’t have been such a fool.”

Harper stared. All the wind had been taken out of her sails. She couldn’t very well yell at Mrs. Dawson now. The woman looked on the verge of an implosion, as if she’d fold up on herself any minute. Clearly she was embarrassed by her husband’s confession that he wasn’t supporting her actions on the night of the Club Dinner.
“Uh…well, thank you, Mr. Dawson. I appreciate that.”

“Georgia?”

Mrs. Dawson let out a slow breath. Harper had the feeling if she ignored yet another request from Mr. Dawson to actually say something, there would be hell to pay. “Harper, I’m disappointed too. It’s hurtful that you would go out and find someone to replace Bradley so quickly without even giving him the proper chance to—”

“Georgia!”

“Quiet, Ben. Let me say my piece now, and I’ll never speak about it again. Harper, you’re young and you’re not yet a mother, so you don’t understand how much it hurts a woman to see her child in pain. Bradley felt terrible about his actions, and all he wanted was to make it right again. Whether or not you should have…found another boyfriend so quickly, is neither here nor there, but the whole thing broke my heart. I was only trying to help fix things so the two of you would be happy, and when I realized that there would be nothing I could do, well, I got angry and I did some things…I said some things I should not have said. I apologize for telling as many people as I did about you and Mr. Addison. I’ve told Mrs. Moriarty I was wrong to have suggested she not work with you. I understand she had quite the go-around with that man…with Mr. Addison, so I’m not sure she will ever go back to his establishment. I’m sorry for that, but I never did suggest she not do business with him.”

Harper raised a brow and glanced at Mr. Dawson. As far as apologies went, this wasn’t much of one, but on the other hand, she hadn’t expected any admission of guilt from Georgia at all. “Well, I guess we’ll just have to see if Taverna Fiora can weather the storm. The main reason I came here today was to tell you that I didn’t care what you said about me, but that I wouldn’t put
up with you or anyone trying to hurt the business Grant is working so hard at. I plan to do anything I can to make sure no one listens to Mrs. Moriarty and that Taverna Fiora doesn’t lose any clients because of her. I know I don’t have the right to expect it, but I do hope the two of you will support me on this. Mr. and Mrs. Dawson, I am sorry that this all happened the way it did, not for my actions, but because so many people were hurt and disappointed, and none of it was necessary. I don’t hate Brad, and I hope he doesn’t hate me. Good-bye.”

“Good
-bye, dear.” Mr. Dawson held the door for her, and Harper headed down the icy front steps. She thought she heard Mrs. Dawson say good-bye as well, but when she turned around to look they’d already closed the door.

The frigid air felt so good on her heated skin she toyed with the idea of taking off her coat. She would have, but she didn’t want to catch pneumonia and end up having to apologize to Grant from behind a paper mask to keep her germs off him.

“Two down. One to go,” she told herself as she climbed into her car and started the engine with still shaking fingers. Somehow she didn’t think her next speech would be as easy to deliver.

* * * *

Grant stood at his office window watching the snow fall. January had been a particularly brutal month and judging by the weather forecast, February would be even worse. Profits would suffer over the next month, and he’d have only March, the most unpredictable month, to get TF back in the black or he’d be shipped back to the head office, or to the unemployment line.

He should have been thinking about strategies for drumming
up business, and in this small town it wasn’t going to be easy to ride out even the most insignificant scandal. Honestly, who really cared whom he slept with? He hadn’t stolen Harper from anyone, but Elaine had dutifully informed him she’d heard talk at the supermarket that her boss was the local Lothario responsible for breaking up a wedding—one he hadn’t even known about until it was already cancelled.

It didn’t matter.

Nothing really mattered except Harper.

Tired of watching the aimlessly drifting snow flakes, he grabbed his coat and headed down the hall to the lobby. “Elaine, I’
m taking lunch.”

“It’s
ten thirty,” she shot back, deadpan.

“Fine, I’m taking brunch. I’ll be back later. Maybe.”

He didn’t wait for another snappy comeback, just headed out into the cold, determined to find himself some sunshine.

* * * *

“He went to brunch at ten thirty,” Elaine informed Harper when she arrived at TF at eleven. Her heart sank. She could wait for him, but with her heart fluttering uncontrollably, she wondered if she wouldn’t pass out by the time he showed up. She needed to see him, to talk to him now. She thought of just calling him, but what if he didn’t answer? Or what if he was in the middle of talking to a client? She didn’t want to ruin another contract for him.

“Do you want me to leave him a message,
hon?” Elaine asked, her pen poised over a pink message pad.

“No. I’ll come back. Will he be in this afternoon?”

Elaine eyed the heavily falling snow which was starting to drift up against the glass lobby doors. “He said he might be back, but I don’t know. I’m only here until two, and we don’t have an event scheduled tonight, so the place will be closed by five.”

“Oh. Okay. Well, please tell him I was here, then
, and that he can…” She considered her instructions. How would it sound if she said he was welcome to drop by her house any time? What would Elaine think if she…

Stop!
Audrey’s voice cut through all the crap in her head. Who cared what anyone thought? “Yes. Please tell him Harper was here, and I’ll be waiting dinner for him at my place, and if he doesn’t show up, I’ll be back first thing tomorrow morning and every single morning after that until I get to see him in person.”

“
Uhh…okay.” Elaine seemed a bit dumbstruck by her suddenly forceful tone. “What’s your address?”

Harper smirked. “He knows it.”

She turned on her heel and strode out of the lobby feeling confident for the first time all day. She’d fix things with Grant. Whatever she had to do, she’d do it because she might not have been able to tell Bradley wasn’t the right person for her, but she sure as hell knew Grant was.

* * * *

For the second time since he’d started back to Taverna Fiora from Harper’s house, Grant considered pulling over. The snow swirled relentlessly in front of him, almost obliterating the roads which hadn’t yet been plowed. He’d already seen one car careen through an intersection, and he had no desire to end up in a snow bank, so he slowed down to a crawl. He worried about where she might be in this weather and hoped she’d gone to her friend’s house. He’d just have to call her as soon as he got off the road, but he hadn’t yet decided what to say to her other than just to beg her to see him again, regardless of what anyone in Spring River Valley or anywhere else thought about them being together.

He considered stopping just to call Elaine and tell her to lock up the lobby and go home, but technically he was only five minutes away from the restaurant
, so he was probably safer going there and staying in the office for the night. There was plenty of food in the kitchen, hot coffee always ready, and he could sleep in the bridal suite if he needed to, though it wouldn’t be any fun to lie on that comfy couch alone.

He slammed on the
brakes without thinking about it as a pair of headlights drifted into his lane from the other side of the road. His momentary lapse into thoughts about Harper had taken his attention away from the treacherous conditions for a split second during which another driver had hit a slippery patch and slid across the double yellow line.

Grant’s car spun halfway around, fishtailing into a
snow bank with a dull thud. At least he’d avoided hitting the other car which halted in the middle of the road.

After a deep breath, he flung his door open and stepped out into the storm to see if the other driver was all right.

Bundled in his jacket with the hood up, yet still shivering, he crossed the street and tapped on the frosty driver’s side window of the other car. The icy pane rolled down a few inches and a red nose and a familiar pair of sky blue eyes appeared.

“Harper? Oh my god, are you all right?”

“Grant? What are you doing out here in this weather?”

He laughed, thrilled to see her, thrilled she was all right
, and desperate to climb into the warmth of her car with her. “Looking for you. What are you doing out?”

She ducked her head and made a sound that could have been a laugh or a sob. “I was trying to find you to apologize for being such a ninny the other night.”