Page 86 of It Happened on the Lake

“Because I want to be with you. All the time. Not just in bits and pieces. Not under your parents’ thumb. Not with some stupid curfew dictating when we can see each other.” He brushed a strand of hair from her cheek.

Her throat closed at his tenderness.

“I’m serious,” he said quietly. “And face it, Harper, you’re miserable.”

“But the baby.”

He reversed, then put the car into drive. “What about the baby?”

“You . . . would want to—?”

“I want you, okay?” he cut in. “You and the baby, you’re a package deal. Don’t you get it?”

She leaned against the door and watched his profile as he drove. As often as she’d fantasized about being Mrs. Chase Hunt, she hadn’t gone there with Joel.

Joel had never once said that he loved her, nor had she uttered those fateful, fanciful words. And yet here he was driving into the night, seemingly dead serious. “Your baby needs a father,” he said as they turned onto the main road.

“Chase is—”

“Never coming back,” he said finally as the beams of an oncoming car washed over his face. A handsome face even in the harsh, moving light.

“You don’t know that,” she said, watching him as a worrisome thought came to mind. “Or do you?”

“Know what happened to him? Shit, no. Of course not. How would I?”

“You said you knew him.”

“A little. It’s not like we were all that tight,” he said as he drove onto the main road. “And it’s obvious, isn’t it? If he was coming back, he would have shown up by now. Right? He left, Harper. Whether he intended to or not. I mean, maybe something happened to him.”

“Like he’s dead,” she whispered.

“Whatever, the end result is he left you and the baby.”

“He didn’t know about the baby. I was going to tell him that night.

The night he disappeared.” She swallowed hard and looked out the passenger side window to the darkness beyond.

“I just never got the chance.” Then she turned to face Joel again.

“And he didn’t leave me. Something happened to him.

Something in the middle of the lake.” She eyed him closely, looking for any tiny sign that he might lie. “Do you know what it is?”

“No!” He was emphatic. “Geez, Harper, get real. I wasn’t even there when it happened.”

She’d heard all the theories that Chase had left the boat running and then hitchhiked away, that the boat had been a decoy to give him time to reach the border.

Or that he had a friend pick him up in another boat and left Tom Hunt’s Triton to idle.

Or that he’d swum to shore and found a ride or hopped a bus.

Or whatever. But in her heart of hearts she couldn’t believe that he would just leave her.

He’d said they would be married . . .

But that was before Uncle Sam had come calling.

Then everything had changed.

Joel swung wide for a corner, and the car skidded a bit, then settled back into the lane. There was more traffic now as they were heading back to the city, flashes of bright illumination as cars passed them. “Do you really want to live with your dad and stepmom?” he asked.

“No!”

“If you think it’s bad now, how do you think it will be once the baby arrives?”

She didn’t have to guess. “Marcia isn’t happy about it.

You know that. I don’t think she’s gonna be one of those hands-on grandmas.

” Not like Gram was. Warm and loving and always hoping to spend time with Harper and Evan.

Her heart twisted. Oh, how she missed Gram, the woman who knew the answer to anything, it seemed, and who had loved her with all her heart.

Clearing her throat, Harper ignored the pain and said, “I can’t really see Marcia heating bottles and changing diapers. ”

“Me, neither.”

“But you can see yourself doing that?” she asked. She didn’t think he was being as up front with her as he’d like her to believe.

“Sure. How tough can it be?” He threw her a cocky grin.

She thought about it. Not buying it. Sensing there was something more going on here. “And what’s in this marriage for you?” she finally asked.

“You.”

“Got to be more,” she said, drawing away so that she was leaning on the passenger door.

“My future,” he said, elaborating. “Maybe it’s time for me to settle down. A wife and kid. It could be cool.”

“And if it’s not?” she asked, hardly daring to believe that Joel Prescott was the answer to her prayers.

“If it’s not?” He slid her a glance. “Let’s just make sure it is.” He smiled then and again, that hard, ice-cold part of her heart, the space where distrust dwelled, started to melt.

“I don’t know,” she said. “We barely know each other.” And that was the truth. They’d been dating less than three weeks.

“So, we’ll get to know each other after we tie the knot. Come on, Harper, what’ve you got to lose?”

She bit her lip. “If Chase comes back—”

“He isn’t coming back, Harper.”

“But if he did.”

“We would figure it out,” Joel insisted, and that’s what she liked about him, his self-confidence.

Something she could use a little of herself.

“If he loves you as much as you think he does, then he’d fight for you, right?” Joel reasoned. “He wouldn’t rest until you were back in his arms.”

That stung.

Because, deep down, she wasn’t sure.

She bit her lip. She was tempted. Why not throw caution to the wind?

“Look, Harper, I want to take care of you.”

They came to a stop sign. Literally a crossroads. One way was to the security and tension of the apartment with her father and stepmother. The opposite direction led to the bright, shimmering lights of Las Vegas. Sin City. The unknown. Her heart thumped at the thrill, the daring of it all.

Was she going to be a scared, coddled little girl, hiding her pregnancy? Living with parents who didn’t want her, didn’t want her child?

Or was she going to step forward, live her own life, become a mother on her own terms?

And a wife.

Remember that, Harper. You’ll be Joel Prescott’s wife.

“What’s it gonna be?” he asked, the car idling. “Do we go to Las Vegas and get married? Or do you want to go home?”

She thought again of the apartment.

Of her angry, irritable stepmother.

Of her despondent, miserable father.

They didn’t need to be tied to her and her unborn child. She was an albatross around the neck of their marriage.

The seconds ticked off and headlights appeared in the rearview.

“Harper?” Joel prodded.

Her heart pounded in her head. She swallowed hard. “Vegas,” she whispered.

He took the corner. “You’re sure?” he asked, crooking an eyebrow.

She hardly dared to breathe. “Yes!” she finally said. Nodding, she felt more and more certain. “Yes. Yes.” She bit her lip, caught up in the thrill of it all now that she’d agreed. “Let’s go!”

“You got it!” He stepped on the gas. The Rambler took off, and he laughed. “On our way,” he said as they drove toward the freeway. “Vegas, here we come! By this time tomorrow, you’ll be Mrs. Joel Prescott and you can kiss your parents and all their rules good-bye!”