Page 233 of It Happened on the Lake

“Not if we get married,” she’d argued and eyed the gleaming crystal glassware she’d set out, the bottles of liquor in the cabinet. She was alone. Even Gram had gone out with friends who’d picked her up for an overnight hotel party in Portland. A rarity. And an opportunity. She and Chase could have spent the night in her bedroom here in the manor, starting the new year off right. It would have been perfect. “You wouldn’t have to go if we had a baby.”

“I know, but that’s got to happen really fast, now, doesn’t it? You have to get pregnant. Immediately. I don’t know why you haven’t yet.”

Like it was all her fault?

“Anyway, I’ve really got to go. I’ve got to figure this out,” he’d said before hanging up.

She had whispered, “I love you,” to the dial tone ringing in her ears and known that he’d lied. She’d heard noise in the background, music and voices, laughter and the clinking of glasses that he hadn’t been able to muffle with his hand over the receiver. He wasn’t studying. He was celebrating. Without her. Her heart had cracked more than a little, but she’d looked out the window and looked across the misty lake to see Levi outside, walking from the boathouse to the back door of the Hunts’ house. Alone on New Year’s Eve.

“Not for long,” she’d whispered to Diablo, Gram’s long-tailed gray cat. She picked up the receiver again, then dialed the number that she knew by heart. The Hunts’ number. She’d have her own private party.

“You invited me over here,” Levi said, abruptly bringing her back to the here and now. “And you got pregnant.”

She nodded.

“And you didn’t think to tell me?”

“Of course I thought about it, but by the time I knew the truth, that you were Dawn’s father, I was already married.”

“To a guy who thought Dawn was Chase’s daughter!” he charged, his anger palpable. “He didn’t think Chase was coming back and he assumed the role, right? And all the time you were living a lie.”

“That’s right, Levi,” she said, her own temper sparking. He wanted the truth and now he was going to insult her with it? No way.

“So, do you want to know my story or would you rather just sit back and hurl insults at me and act as if you had no part of what happened? Because we can do it that way. But you were there, Levi. And as I remember it, an active participant. It didn’t take a whole lot of persuading to get you into bed.”

He looked about to argue but somehow stopped himself. “Point taken,” he said, more calmly. “Just tell me what happened.”

She took another bracing gulp from her glass, then explained everything she could. Harper told him that she was going to tell Chase she was pregnant the night he disappeared. She said that she had assumed he was the father and hadn’t even questioned it until it was evident, several weeks after Dawn’s birth, that her daughter’s eyes were brown. By then, she explained, she thought there was no point to blurting out the truth and changing the course of their lives. “You were at school, Oregon State, right? And I was trying to get my life together, get accustomed to being a wife and mother. I had to get my GED and put off college until we could swing it. At that point, Dawn’s paternity didn’t seem important.”

“Not important to you,” he said sharply and climbed to his feet. He sighed and rammed stiff fingers through his still-damp hair. “Well, it sure was important to me. Still is.” He looked at her and she read the shock in his expression. “Hell, Harper, I just found out I have a kid! And I didn’t know about it for almost twenty damned years? And you expect me to keep calm, let it go? Is that it?” He stared at her as if she were some kind of monster.

“So what would you have had me do, Levi?”

“Tell the truth, damn it! Tell her! Tell me. For the love of God, Harper,” he said, advancing on her. “Didn’t you think for one second I would want to know?”

“Okay, fine. Let’s play that out,” she said angrily. “So, when I figured out that Dawn was your kid, I should have blown up my marriage and tracked you down at Oregon State? I think that’s where you went to college, right?”

He didn’t respond, but she plowed on. “So let’s say I find you and I tell you the happy news and you—what? Drop everything because now you’re a daddy at eighteen? Is that what you think should have happened? Chase was still missing and your parents were grief-stricken, still searching frantically for him. But they did know that you, their remaining son, was safe and off to college. Now keep in mind that they hated me and that your mom blamed me for her firstborn son vanishing.”

He seemed about to argue, but she cut him off. “That’s what she thought. She told Alaina Leonetti, and Beth told me.” Harper’s voice was rising, her pulse ticking rapidly as she nailed him with the truth. “So—let’s go back to our little pretend fantasy scenario—let’s say I did show up—still married to Joel, mind you—and I informed you that you were the father of my baby. How do you think that would have gone down?”

Before he could say a word, she added, “I’ll tell you what would have happened. It probably would have started with a paternity test. Right? No one, including you,” she said, jabbing a finger in his direction, “would have believed me to start with, and just because Dawn’s eyes are brown, no one would be convinced. God knows your mother thought I slept around anyway, that I was a slut. She would have come to the quick conclusion that I was trying to trap you, her precious baby boy.”

“You don’t know—”

“Oh, but I do.” She arched an eyebrow, daring him to defy her. “I do know. And I did then. So don’t come on all holier-than-thou, Levi. Just don’t. You have no idea what I went through. That’s whatyoudon’t know.” She moved even nearer to him, angling her face upward, pushing her nose so close it nearly touched his. “And how would you have felt? Huh, Levi? Would you have felt good about it? Knowing that I’d been sleeping with your brother all along? Or would you have felt bad? Or maybe even trapped?” She was livid now, replaying the scene in her mind, remembering all of her own doubts at the time, all the guilt, all the fear. “Is that what I should have done?” she demanded. “Is that what you would have expected?”

“I didn’t expect any of it!”

“But you were there, too, weren’t you? That night when we got together?” she pointed out, though she didn’t admit that when they got together that New Year’s Eve a lifetime ago, she’d wondered if she might get pregnant. A little part of her had hoped so. Though she was loath to believe she was that manipulative, she surely hadn’t done anything to stop making love with Levi from happening.

Nor had he.

Her motives had been different, of course, but she didn’t want to examine them too deeply. That night, they’d both had too much to drink and thrown caution to the wind. He carelessly. She, though, with some degree of calculation. What had started out as a tentative kiss on his part had ignited fast. Hard. Soon he was kissing her feverishly and she kissing him back, feeling his hands on her body. She’d felt as if she were floating as he carried her up the stairs to her bedroom on the second floor, and there they’d made love. Not once. Not twice. But three times that she could remember.

Hot.

Wild.