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Close enough to kiss.
Her chest froze. Where the hell had that thought come from? She did not want to kiss him. This feeling tumbling through her had to be wrong. Seth was her husband’s best friend.
She started to turn away, but his eyes held hers. When she’d met him, she’d thought he had the eyes of a bad boy. Dark. Forbidding. But she once again saw the spark of wisdom or experience that she’d seen when he’d opened his condo door to her a few days before.
It was as if something had happened in the past five years. Something that had changed him. She knew what his dad had been like. She knew his mom had been oblivious—
She blinked to break eye contact. She wasn’t supposed to be curious about him.
“I, um, thought maybe we could just admit that I got married five years ago and hadn’t worked since.”
He pulled back. “I think you have to. The worst thing a person can do is lie on a résumé.”
Surprised, she laughed. “You think that’s the worst thing a person can do?”
He turned away. “There are definitely worse things a person can do in general. But we’re talking in terms of getting a job.”
“Oh. Right.” She faced her laptop again, moved the cursor to the spot she needed to change and started typing. But she couldn’t stop thinking about his eyes. They were not the eyes of a serial seducer. They weren’t the eyes of a poet, either. They were the eyes of a cautious man.
Probably because of what had happened in his family.
Sure, he was working for them...but he’d already mentioned not being close to his mom. Whatever had caused him to run from his family must not have been resolved. Or had they swept it under the rug like a good high-society family?
Curiosity rose and knocked and knocked and knocked on her brain, begging for attention.
She ignored it.
Her wanting to know about him could be nothing more than the curiosities of a lonely woman.
They fussed with her résumé for another hour before they got it right. Then she raced off to her room and Seth was left with the scent of her shampoo lingering in his nostrils, making him crazy.
But the fact that she’d run off proved to him that he wasn’t the only one feeling things. He’d seen it when she’d sat staring into his eyes. She’d covered that by being strictly professional as they tidied her résumé, but her racing off brought back all his instincts that she was every bit as attracted to him as he was to her.
Clark’s widow.
That made it doubly important that he help her with her job search, so she could leave.
The baby woke him again that night and instead of pulling the pillow over his head, curiosity had him sitting up in bed. He wondered what a mother and baby did in the middle of the night. Did Harper sing to Crystal? Read to her?
He plopped back down again and pulled the pillow over his head. This was nuts. He did not like babies. They scared him. He shouldn’t care about Crystal and Harper. Or even just Harper. He knew better. It was why he’d stepped aside and let Clark ask her out. Clark had been the nice guy. The guy who loved kids and wanted a family. The guy who’d found one perfect woman and would have been faithful forever.
Seth was a womanizer.
But living with Harper seemed to be making him forget the wise move he’d made when he was twenty-two. Step back. Let her be with someone who would love her correctly.
He had to get her a job and an apartment, and move out of his house...his life. Before he did something stupid.
He went to work Friday morning and called Arthur Jenkins, whose assistant was at least seven months pregnant and should be going on maternity leave. His company was small. His needs were probably few.
He talked up Harper, honestly telling Art that she didn’t have office experience, but she was dedicated and a hard worker. When he mentioned that she was also funny and nice to have around, he clamped his mouth shut. Luckily, Art took everything he said in the context of an assistant and gave him a time to tell her to come for an interview Monday morning.
When Seth told her about the interview her eyes lit with joy, making him glad he hadn’t canceled his date that evening. Or the one for Saturday night. Not wanting to take any chances being around her, he also left Sunday morning and didn’t come back until late Sunday night.
Monday morning, he didn’t knock on her door before he left for work. He texted her from his office to wish her luck on her interview and make himself seem appropriately distanced from the woman whose blue eyes could inspire poetry.
He didn’t expect to hear back from her until after lunch, and relief got him through a morning of meetings. At noon, the sky was clear, the weather still warm. Feeling very good about helping Harper, he decided to accept his brother’s invitation to join him for lunch at a nearby restaurant.
But as they strode toward the lobby door, Harper walked in.
He caught Jake’s arm. “That’s Harper.”
“Harper?” His dark-haired, blue-eyed brother frowned. “Clark’s wife?”
“Widow. She needed help finding a job.” He craned his neck to see past the gaggle of people. “I got her an interview this morning.”
Obviously surprised, Jake peered at him. “You did?”
He batted a hand. “It’s nothing. But she could be here looking for me. Better go on without me.”
Jake left. Seth caught up to Harper, who was standing in front of the directory. “Harper?”
She turned to him with tears in her eyes. “I didn’t get it.”
His heart sank, but he said, “It’s your first interview. It’s fine.”
A tear rolled onto her cheek. “No. It’s not fine. I need a job. I have a baby to support.”
Her crying went through him like hot ice. He led her to the door and out onto the sidewalk, so she wouldn’t stand in one place long enough for anyone to really see or hear her. Her words would blend into the noise of the city around them.
As they started up the street, she said, “Seth, it was like a whole different world. I was even dressed wrong.”
She spoke stronger now. Her tears had scared him, but the fact that she gathered herself together humbled him. He thought he was helping her, but this was really her battle. She was a good woman, a good person, in a bad situation. And she was right. In her purple skirt and simple white blouse, she wasn’t dressed to impress. It was like she was hiding her light under a basket.
He glanced around and saw a small boutique up ahead. He’d frequented the store to get gifts for his mom, his sister and girlfriends. The clerks were quiet, discrete. If he took Harper inside and told the saleswomen they needed to look around, they would smile and give them some space. And he could give her some pointers on dressing for an office. Somehow in those years of being self-employed, she’d gotten the idea that office workers needed to be dowdy.
He took her arm and led her into the store.
“What are we doing?”
“You said you felt you were dressed wrong.”
She looked down at her white blouse and eggplant-colored skirt. “I was dressed wrong. I haven’t bought clothes in two years, unless you count maternity jeans.”
He pointed to the left at a long rack of tops beside a rack of skirts and trousers beside a rack of sweaters beside three rows of dresses.
“See the colors?”
“Pretty.” Her head tilted. “And not a dark purple skirt or blouse among them.”
“Go look.”
She faced him. “I can’t afford to spend a bunch of cash on clothes when I’m not sure if I’ll need the money for a down payment on a house.”
“Maybe. But because you’ve never worked in an office, I think you got the wrong idea about what to wear. Just look around.”
She frowned, glanced back at the racks. He could see from the way her eyes shifted that she didn’t just want to fit in. She almost seemed to long to run her fingers along the fabrics, try things on, get some clothes that would ease her into her next life phase.
“I can get you an account here.”
She bit her lower lip. “If I have to use my profit from selling my condo as a down payment for another condo, God knows when I’ll be able to pay it off.”
“Why don’t you let me worry about that?”
She closed her eyes. “I can’t do that.”
His heart melted. He could afford to buy the whole damn store and she wouldn’t let him buy her a few dresses.
“What if we get the account, but you make the payments. Probably won’t be too much if you spread it out over a few months. And new clothes will give you the confidence you need on your next interview.”
She licked her lips. His libido sent blood straight to the wrong part of him, as his emotions zigzagged in four different directions. He’d always had a thing for Harper. But he’d also known her as his best friend’s wife. He wanted to help her. Almost needed to help her. But he loved her strength, her pride, her longing to make her own way and be herself.
Hell, hadn’t he fought to be allowed to be himself?
“Please.”
She glanced at him. “I know you’re doing all this to pay back a debt to Clark. But he never felt you owed him.”
“I owe him everything I am today. Which is why I understand why you don’t want to take the help.”
She chuckled, then shook her head as if amazed by him. “You will let me pay the bill?”
“I’ll consider forwarding that bill a sacred obligation.”
“I do like that black dress back there.”
He motioned for a salesgirl. “Then you should try it on.”
They shopped long past Seth’s lunch hour. She tried on dresses, pants, blouses, skirts, sweaters. Though Seth would have had her take it all, he let her sift through and find eight pieces she could mix and match, and three simple dresses.
The salesclerk happily tallied the price and boxed the first dress neatly. Expensively. From his days of living hand-to-mouth while at university and in his two years of working as a lowly broker for a big investment firm, he knew that little touches like a box with tissue paper made a person feel a bit better about themselves, about who they were.
He watched as the clerks tucked away the other two dresses, then the trousers, and started on the tops.
“Harper?”
The woman’s voice came from behind Seth. He turned and saw a tall, black-haired woman with big blue eyes very much like Harper’s.
“Mom?”
His gut almost exploded. Harper’s mom wore an expensive suit, shoes that probably set her back thousands and a purse that had probably cost more. The diamond on her left hand could have blinded him. All of Harper’s fears came into sharp focus for him. This was a woman who liked being rich, who thought more of money than people.
She reached out and caught Harper by the shoulders, hugged her, then kissed her cheek. “It’s so lovely to see you here.”
He thought the comment odd until he realized this boutique existed purely for wealthy clientele. Harper’s mom didn’t know her daughter was broke. She believed her daughter belonged there.
“And buying things!”
Her mother sounded thrilled, but also proud. Knowing appearances meant everything to her, he understood why she was over-the-top happy.
Harper, however, looked like a deer trapped in the headlights of an oncoming car. She opened her mouth as if trying to speak but couldn’t get any words out. Her eyes drifted to the stack of clothes, almost all packed into bags and boxes now.
Unconcerned about Harper’s silence, Harper’s mom faced Seth. “And who is this?”
He decided to pick up the dropped ball and held his hand out to shake Harper’s mom’s. “I’m Seth McCallan, Mrs. Sloan.”
She took his hand with a gasp. “Seth McCallan. Of course. I’ve seen you at a few charity functions. I’m sorry I didn’t recognize you. I’m Amelia Sloan. My husband is Peter. Please call me Amelia.”
He smiled. “It’s nice to meet you, Amelia.”
Pleasure lit Amelia Sloan’s face. “What are you doing here with my Harper?”
“Just a little shopping.”
The salesclerk finished boxing Harper’s new clothes and casually handed the receipt to Seth.
Amelia’s eyes narrowed, then widened slightly as she figured out Seth was paying for Harper’s purchases.
“It’s not what you think, Mom.”
Amelia clucked. “And how would you know what I think?”
While the women seemed to be on the same page, Seth needed a minute to process why Harper was struggling. Drowning really. Here was the very person Harper wanted to keep her situation from, standing in front of them, seeing someone buying clothes for her daughter. She didn’t know Harper was broke or that she intended to pay Seth for the purchases. And he realized explaining that might make things worse. Amelia would ask why Harper had to have someone else pay for her clothes, everything Harper was trying to hide would come tumbling out and the thing he’d spent a week of torture to avoid would happen.
Amelia Sloan would blame Clark.
There was only one way to fix this...
“We’re dating.”
The words came out of Seth’s mouth in a rush, as if the quicker he said it, the quicker Amelia would stop going down a road that Harper didn’t want her traveling.
But where Amelia’s face glowed with happy surprise, Harper’s mouth fell open.
Her reaction would have ruined everything if Seth hadn’t thought to step closer and put his arm around her waist.
Amelia all but melted with joy. “You didn’t want me to know you were dating one of the most eligible men in Manhattan? Harper! That’s ridiculous.”
“No, it’s not. Because we’re not—”
Seth squeezed her waist. “We’re not serious. Just started seeing each other,” he said, trying to mitigate the lie.
Amelia’s eyes narrowed. “And you thought my Harper didn’t dress well enough for your rarefied world?”
“No!” Seth assured her, scrambling for what to say. “She said she liked something in the window.” Oh, crap. Another lie. “And I wanted to buy it for her.” He had wanted to buy her clothes. “Because it pleases me to give her things.” That, too, was the truth. Remembering the joyful expression on Harper’s face when the clothes she loved had looked so good on her, he’d give away half his trust fund to see that look on her face again.
“Well, that’s sweet.” Amelia hugged her daughter. “I’d love to get coffee and chat, but I have something this afternoon. Why don’t you and Seth bring the baby over some night.”
“I’m sorry. We probably can’t. We’re kind of busy, too,” Seth explained before Harper could answer. This might not be the perfect lie, but it would hold long enough to get Harper settled in a job and a house. Once they left the store and were away from her mom, he could tell her that. “But I’ll have my assistant call yours tomorrow and they can set something up like dinner.”
“That would be lovely,” Amelia said, her eyes glowing.
Seth quickly grabbed the packages and herded Harper toward the door. “We’ll see you then.”
Amelia waved.
Harper reminded stonily quiet.
When they stepped out onto the street, he wasn’t surprised that she pivoted on him. “You have no idea what you’ve done.”
“I got you out of the store without having to admit anything to your mom.”
“Yeah, but now she’ll start snooping.”
“Into what?” He laughed. “She can call the tabloids, if she wants, looking for times we went out, places we’ve gone. But she’s not going to find anything.”
“And she’ll get suspicious.”
“So what?”
“You are such a babe in the woods. I’m either going to have to come clean with her, and soon, or we’re going to have to keep up this charade.”
“Would it be such a big deal to keep it up?”
She cast him a long look. “You can’t date anyone while you’re pretending to be dating me.”
“I feel uncomfortable leaving you alone at night, anyway.” He sighed. He hated lying. His father had been the consummate liar. He’d used lies to control, manipulate, humiliate, belittle and bully everyone from his employees to his own children. If there was one thing Seth had vowed never to do, it was lie.
But this was a worthy cause, an unusual situation. Harper, a widow with a baby, needed time to get herself settled before she told her mom she was broke and it was Clark’s fault.
Plus, her mom hadn’t appeared on the radar of Seth’s life before this. He didn’t think she’d start now. Unlike his father’s master manipulation lies, this little charade wouldn’t hurt anyone.
“Needing to get out of this mess will step up your job search a bit and we might have to start looking for houses before you have a job...but I think I did what I had to do.”
“You’re willing to pretend to be my boyfriend for at least the next four weeks?”
The ramifications of that rained down on him. No breakfasts, lunches or dinners with any women except colleagues...and no sex.
She shook her head. “That’s a long time.”
Yeah, that was sinking in and not pleasantly.
“And my mother is relentless. You’re a catch. She’s going to want me to keep you.”
That, thank God, made him laugh. “My reputation will save us. When we break up no one will be surprised.”
“Oh, really?”
“Yes. You’re taking this all too seriously. It’s a few weeks. What can she possibly do in a few weeks?”
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