Total pages in book: 99
Estimated words: 94639 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 473(@200wpm)___ 379(@250wpm)___ 315(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 94639 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 473(@200wpm)___ 379(@250wpm)___ 315(@300wpm)
Harper nods.
“Do you still have the first-aid kit here?” he asks softly, a side of him I’ve never seen. I only knew him for a short time in high school, but he was never soft-spoken. He was a dick. Plain and simple. But watching how quickly he went from calling Harper an irresponsible mom to caring for her, I can see how they lasted as long as they did. He knows how to play the game.
“It’s under the kitchen sink,” Harper says. “On the right side.”
I grab it from where she said it was and hand it to Richie. He opens it and pulls several things out. For the next few minutes, he works quietly, bandaging her up. When he’s done, he gives her a soft smile—as if he wasn’t earlier calling her names—and tells her he’ll check it when he sees her later in the week.
“Speaking of which…” she says, her lips pursed together. “What are you doing here?”
“I came by to see the kids,” Richie says, standing. “I had the afternoon off and Ella texted me asking to come over and see her balance beam.”
“Next time, you need to call,” Harper says, standing as well. “We already talked about this the other day and I told you no.”
“And then Ella asked me to come over and I couldn’t say no.”
Harper snorts. “Whatever… Are you taking the kids Monday night?”
“That should be fine,” Richie says.
“I have an appointment. I can’t deal with that should be fine. Either you can or I need to ask someone to pick them up from camp.”
“I thought camp was over,” he says, and Harper rolls her eyes.
“Baseball and gymnastics camp is. Next week is sports and dance camp.” I love how involved Harper keeps her kids. They never have any time to be bored and get into trouble.
“If you need someone to get them, I can,” I tell her.
She glances over at me and smiles at the same time Richie glares.
“Their parents have it covered,” he says.
“Don’t be a dick,” Harper says. “Thank you, Landon.”
We step outside and Ella spots her dad right away.
“You can go see her balance beam, but then you need to go,” Harper says quietly.
“Everything okay?” Bridget asks, as we sit back down at the table.
“Oh no!” Heather says. “What happened to your forehead?”
Harper’s face and neck turn a bright shade of red as if it’s just hit her what happened inside. “I’ll tell you guys later,” she mumbles.
My phone rings, and when I look and see it’s a number I don’t recognize, I excuse myself to take the call.
“Hello, is this Landon Maxwell?”
“Yes, how can I help you?”
“My name is Tricia Bartlett. I’m sorry to be calling on such short notice and on a Saturday, but Mr. Emerson, the hiring director of ESPN Providence, has asked me to call you in for an interview on Monday. We were told you turned down the position in Boston.”
“I did,” I admit. “I was planning to go back to Boston after this summer, but my situation has changed. Getting a job in Providence would be perfect as I’m planning to put down roots here.”
“Great,” she says. “We’ll see you Monday. Is two o’clock okay?”
“Sounds good. Thank you.”
We hang up, and when I turn around, I find Richie standing behind me with a murderous expression on his face. “You should take the job in Boston,” he says.
“Oh? And why is that?” I place my phone back into my front pocket.
“It’s where you played.” He shrugs, taking a step forward. “Besides, once I have my family back, there’ll be no reason for you to be here.”
I almost laugh at how crazy he sounds, but something tells me he isn’t joking. He fully intends on getting his family back. Harper told me he and his fiancée have called it quits.
“You have your family,” I say, refusing to let him get to me. “Those two kids out there love the hell out of you.”
“You know damn well what I mean,” he hisses. “Harper.”
“Harper isn’t yours. I don’t know what happened all those years ago, but by some miracle you got the girl...” Harper and I haven’t talked about it—at my request—but now I’m wondering if maybe we should. I wanted so badly to just look toward the future, but maybe I need to know what happened, so the battlefield is a little more even. I can’t fight if I don’t know what I’m up against. “You should’ve worked harder at keeping her. Now she’s given me a second chance, and there’s no way in hell I’m letting her go.” I step around him without waiting for him to respond, done with this conversation.
Twenty-Five
Harper
“Good afternoon, Mrs. Bennett, this is Annabelle calling from Dr. Bennett’s office.”
I cringe at the use of my ex-husband’s last name. When I filed for divorce I had my last name reverted back to my maiden name, Peters, but every time he has one of his nurses call me he always tells them to call me by his name. I always correct them, but it’s as if they don’t even hear me.