Page 20 of Take the Blame (Seaside Mergers #3)

Chapter Twelve

ALTA

If divine intervention was a real thing, I had to wonder what the heck I did to the gods for them to skip me in bestowing luck. Or grace. Or really anything good.

I guess I won enough of a lottery being born into the family I was. Rich, tight knit, seemingly perfect. Maybe the gods didn’t think I had a need for any other gifts like say, I don’t know, how not to look like a blubbering idiot in front of the guy I just kissed .

The ship had long sailed on that one I guess, as the only actual conversation I’d been able to have with Harper today was concerning business.

Anything else and I was as frozen as an iceberg in front of the Titanic, my mouth doing this fish gaping thing where the only options were between blowing out silent air or saying the most ridiculous things imaginable.

Thankfully, everything other than my interactions with Gus Harper had been a success for the day.

Festival Day!

After a morning full of set up, there was only a ten minute lull where we needed to calm my nervous sister down, assuring her that people would show up.

All of us, Fergusons and Fernandez’s included, stood around her as she paced the entrance in a panic. And admittedly, her stress had quickly become our stress. All of ours. We wanted this to be good for Ceci. After working so hard to find her passions this summer, she deserved it.

She didn’t end up waiting long.

What started as a few stragglers, turned into a few families, and then before we knew it people were pouring in the gates ready to shop and eat and be entertained all in the name of the Seaside Waterways Women's Shelter.

I was so happy for her. And after checking in with all my participating vendors, I would also be happy to finally take a seat. I just had to go grab that report I told Harper to hold for me.

The first face I saw when I walked up to the mostly black booth was Jules’.

Her blonde hair was down over her shoulders and shining in the sun.

Her tattoos on display as she sported a little sundress for this sunny day.

As I neared, I couldn’t help but run my eyes up the expanse of her pale arms and over the various black ink designs that she had painted there.

Absently, I wondered if it hurt. Could I ever get one?—

“Hey, Ally!” Jules said, ducking slightly to catch my eyes from spanning her body. “Doing okay?”

My eyes speared up to her, realizing how rude I was being. I smiled hoping to mask my weirdness. “Yeah, sorry. How’s it going over here? ”

“Pretty damn good,” she said, leaning down on a palm. “Ahead of our goal for the day. Gus says if I sell more than ten, he’ll split his tips with me for the rest. So I’m putting in the extra mile, if you feel me.”

I blinked, frowning. And why was she looking at me like that?

“C’mon, Ally. I saw you looking.” She waggled her eyebrows. I cocked my head in confusion and she blinked too. “Oh God, you really don’t know what I’m saying?”

I shook my head, eyebrows pinching.

Suddenly, Lana’s hands came down on the surface of the table right beside Jules, braids spilling all over the table as she did. “She’s flaunting the goods, Ally, c’mon keep up.”

“ What! ” My mouth dropped open. “Did Harper tell you to do that?”

Laughter erupted instantly from the two girls. Apparently, something was very funny. “No! He would never, at least not seriously.”

“Oh,” I straightened up, closing my mouth. “Okay, good.”

They stopped laughing, Lana’s eyes squinting slightly. “Why? Did he ask you to do something like that?”

“No!” I said quickly. Too quickly. They both gasped. “Guys, no! No. He wouldn’t do that. You know that.”

“So what happened when you guys were in his office, then?” Lana pressed.

“Nothing,” I said. Looking around myself, I leaned in. “why, did he say something happened?”

“Ally, you bad girl!” They chimed with devilish grins.

I covered my face. “Nothing happened! I promise. He’s just going to help me with something.”

“Something like what?” Jules asked.

“Something embarrassing,” I said, remembering the two propositions he’d made me. Not to mention the whole reason I’d been so weird around him today. “But nothing like that! I wasn’t even looking at your ‘goods’ anyway. I was looking at your tattoos. ”

They looked at me, then looked at each other and then they burst out laughing again. “Okay, Ally, calm down. Don’t burst a pipe.”

“Yeah.” Lana smirked. “Save that for Gus.”

“Oh my God!” My entire face suddenly went hot, my hands going slick and dropping my phone from between them. It clattered to the table in a jumble, messing up the flyers they set up so neatly. “I have to go!”

Laughter continued to ring out, and I was already turning away but the sensation of warm fingers wrapping around my arm stopped my escape.

“Leave her alone,” Harper reprimanded in a voice that was meant to be authoritative but was more so inviting to my ears.

His voice was the least of my issues, though.

Not when his large hand felt soft and gentle circling my wrist. Looking down at the connection of our skin, I felt the rest of my body start to burn.

My heartbeat picked up speed from that touch alone.

Swallowing, I looked up and found that he was already watching me, brown bear eyes captivating me in their entrancing embrace. “What’s up, Boss?”

“Nothing!” I straightened like a rod, sounding caught somehow. “I was just leaving.”

“Woah, woah,” he said, hand slipping down to mine as he again stopped me from retreating. “Didn’t you need me?”

“ Yeah she did ,” Lana said. My face burned on reflex.

Cutting his eyes sideways, Harper ordered, “Out. Both of you.”

“Where are we supposed to go?” Jules asked in an incredulous laugh.

“Take some cash and get everyone lunch,” he instructed. “Get whatever you want, the guys and I aren’t picky. Just bring my change and get receipts.”

“Sweet!” they said, asking no questions as they dipped their hands into the cash box and scampered off into the throng of the festival.

He shook his head as he pulled me around the table and into the booth. “You can’t be such an easy target. They’ll chew you up if you let them.”

“What about you?” I asked. “You egged them on by saying I ‘needed’ you.”

Using his grip on me, he pulled me deep into the booth until I was under the tall black tent in the shade.

A quick gasp pressed out of me as he suddenly spun me around to face him.

I had to hold my breath, because he was right there .

Closer than normal as he stared down at me.

“Always so quick to judge, Alta. I might start thinking you have something against me.”

“I’m not judging, I’m repeating what you said,” I protested.

He raised an eyebrow, “So you don’t need me?”

I did the fish thing. The one where my mouth gaped open and closed with no words coming out. The brilliant thing I was finally able to come up with was a sputtered, “No!”

“Shame,” he tsked.

“W-what do you mean?” I asked, my heart taking on the role of a bass drum. I lowered my voice to a whisper and leaned toward him. “Just because it happened once does not mean that I suddenly need you.”

The smirk he let run across his mouth was infuriating. But it was hard to focus on as he let go of my hand and instead replaced that palm on my shoulder. I suppressed a shiver of anticipation as I wondered if he would touch my neck again. My face?

But he did neither, only leaning in slightly as he said in a mock whisper. “Shame you didn’t need that report after all, Boss. After I went through the trouble of saving it for you, too.”

The fish thing was back. This time it was out of complete embarrassment rather than lack of a response. Harper didn’t comment, only using his hand on my shoulder to push me gently into the seat he had apparently backed me up against and turning away with a darn satisfied smirk on his face.

He was so mean, toying with me like that! Teasing me .

I crossed my arms over my chest as I watched him mess around with the cash box and POS tablet they kept on the front table.

This is why it was hard to take him seriously.

He was always kidding around with me. How was I to know if and when he really meant what he said?

Had he even meant what he said in his office the other day?

It seemed like he did, but then again, he hadn’t brought it up again since.

“Staring at my ass isn’t going to butter me up, sweetheart. If you want me to kiss you again, you’re going to have to ask,” Harper said out of absolutely nowhere.

Well, I guess not nowhere since I was looking in that vicinity. That’s probably what I got for wanting to know if he was serious. There’s that sick sense of divine intervention coming for me yet again.

“I was not looking at your— that !” I said. “And don’t bring it up here!”

He tipped a look over his shoulder, his eyes looking accusing, his face looking pouty . “C’mon, Alta. I’m not some slab of meat.”

“Harper!”

He laughed, his face brightening and allowing one of his full smiles to overtake his expression. Moving in front of me, he dropped to a crouch at my knees and handed over my report, mischievous eyes glowing. I shoved him with it, which only made him laugh more.

“ See ,” he said. “Easy to mess with.”

“Well, excuse me for actually trusting the words that leave your mouth. I’ll be sure not to do that in the future.”

“Now don’t say that,” he said softly. “I joke around, but there are times that I mean what I say.”

I rolled my lips into my mouth, running my eyes along his face. Easy going, but also serious. Our eyes connected and my courage spiked out of nowhere. “Like when?”

“I think you know when. ”

“Harper, about that?—”

“Which reminds me, I need your answer boss,” he said, eyes zeroing in on me.

“ Now ?” I asked, suddenly nervous.

“Yeah,” he said slowly. “I haven’t been able to tattoo right without it.”