Page 65 of Take the Blame (Seaside Mergers #3)

Chapter Thirty-Three

ALTA

A. Harper:

Morning, beautiful.

I was still blushing a week after Thanksgiving when Harper walked me out of the downstairs kitchen, past my eavesdropping family and straight upstairs to my mother to say goodbye in the politest way possible, before he drove me back to his shop and did so many impolite things to show me how well we fit .

I would never look at the room the same.

Now, on top of blushing every five seconds, he had me giggling at mundane text messages too. I was stupid for this guy .

I shouldn’t be so easy, but the fact that he sent morning messages every day in the week following our big talk—the one that I’m pretty sure… maybe… probably made me his girlfriend—never seemed to get old.

The fact that it was almost always followed up by something that was so totally Harper that it made my head shake made it even better.

Today, the message that followed was a link to a listing at the local animal shelter. A litter of kittens had just been found outside of Providence and the cutest ones were going fast.

A. Harper:

How allergic are we talking? Think I can swing it?

Me:

Harp, no! You’ll never have any peace again!

A. Harper:

I’ve been out of my peace for a year now. Who’s going to take responsibility for that?

I giggled, even though my chest did something weird. A year again? He’d been talking about the last year like it had been the last two months lately. Like we were like this the whole time. It was really starting to make me wonder.

Me:

Hmm, responsibility sounds like a thing for the elderly. Seems like a you thing.

A. Harper:

You little smartass. Just wait ‘til I get my hands on you. You’re going to pay for that one.

Me:

And when will that be exactly?

A. Harper:

Lunch?

Me:

I’m actually planning on going with my family. Trying to make up for being such an A-hole lately.

A. Harper:

Then after. My place. I’ll cook you something?

Me:

It’s a date.

Me:

I like saying that.

Me:

Sorry, I’m such a nerd.

A. Harper:

You’re perfect. I’ll see you later, good luck with your family.

Pocketing my phone, I let out a long, satisfied breath as I entered my brother’s office suite. It was the morning of a big meeting, so I was pretty sure Melissa would be somewhere around here prepping alongside him.

I needed to talk to them.

It wasn’t easy, realizing when you’ve been acting like a complete butthole, but I was finally coming to terms with it.

Yes, in the past months I’d been finding myself and finding my voice, but no part of that had been any of my siblings’ fault.

It was more about what I accepted and allowed for myself.

And now, as I finally allowed myself to take the opportunities I created rather than waiting on permission from others, I still never wanted to allow myself to go unchecked.

The truth was, I wasn’t being a good sister lately and I wanted to change that.

“Hey, Urse,” I said, as I strode through the doors of my brother’s floor .

Deja vu swallowed me up as I looked around the clean office.

I’d been in this suite only a few months ago, headed to my brother’s office just as I was now to speak with him.

Then, I’d been shaking in my boots. Worried half to death that he was going to call me stupid and crap all over my dreams. Now I was the master of my own future and frankly, I didn’t need my big brother to make my dreams come true. I could do it myself.

“Hey, honey,” Ursula said as she clicked-clacked away on her keyboard. “What can I do for you this morning?”

“Oh, I came up to see Ox and Lis before their meeting. I want to take them out to lunch afterward to celebrate.” On the other side of the room I noticed that Ox’s door was already closed. They were probably prepping before the other meeting participants got here. In that case I’d just pop in quick.

“Well, aren’t you the sweetest thing,” Urse said, looking up from her keyboard with beaming eyes.

It almost made me laugh. It was only lunch, but I guess to some, small gestures meant a lot.

I’d have to remember that when trying to make up for my behavior towards my sister.

Despite her gushing, Urse clicked her tongue as she looked back down.

“But you’ll probably want to come back a little later. They’ve already started the meeting.”

“Hmm?” Most meetings, especially ones that took place in my brother’s private office, were conducted during the mid-morning or early afternoon, giving all parties at Fernandez adequate time to prepare and plan.

If they were already underway, this one must have started some time ago.

“How much longer do you think they’ll be? ”

“Oh, it probably won’t be long now, they’ve been in there for a while,” Urse said. “You’re always welcome to wait for them here honey, but I know you must have lots to do.”

I bit my lip. I did. I had set a meeting with some of the marketing associates Mark assigned to my official “team”— Ah ! And I wanted to go over our game plan as we began this new project. Maybe I’d go down and check everyone’s calendar and see if they could start an hour early.

Turning toward the door I said, “Urse, could you call me when they’re done? I actually do have a few things I can square up while I’m waiting.”

“Of course, honey—Oh! You know I’m so proud of you for getting that marketing project you’ve been gunning for. Mr. Fernandez can’t stop gushing about how well you’re doing lately. Congratulations, sweetheart.”

I stopped. “He what?”

She smiled. “He’s a proud brother, Alta.

He asks me every morning about your movement and progression on the revitalization effort.

He watches your work closely, just like your sister’s.

That boy does too much if you ask me. But he’d rather run himself ragged than to see you girls fail. Good family, you bunch.”

“Oh,” I blinked and I don’t know why but all of a sudden I felt like crying.

Because he’d been doing what ? Keeping up with my progress?

Bragging about me to his assistant? Why hadn’t anyone told me about this?

Someone needed to be warning people of things like this so they aren’t taken so off guard and choked up when nice assistants repeated it!

I cleared my throat. “Thanks, Urse. I really appreciate that.”

“Anytime, honey, I’ll call you when they’re avail?—”

“Excuse me? Where’s the restroom?” A mild voice asked from the direction of my brother’s office. Both Urse and I looked up.

I looked again, another sense of overwhelming deja vu hitting me.

The woman was taller, probably helped along by the sensible heels she wore under her slacks.

Her button up blouse rose high on her chest and her simple silver chain of a necklace hung over it, a familiar cross dangling in the center of the line.

Had I seen that design in a tattoo? Her skin was a dark sepia, and when she looked from Ursula to me, there was something about the brown of her eyes that curled my gut .

“Out this door and straight down the hall ma’am. It’ll be on your left,” Ursula said, pointing to demonstrate.

The woman smiled softly, another motion that hit me right in the gut, before ducking her head and floating gracefully out the room.

She wasn't even fully down the hall before I turned to Ursula. “Who is that?”

I felt like I knew her somehow. In fact, I was almost sure I’d seen her at the tattoo shop not too long ago.

Ursula squinted at her screen as if she was reading it. “That is Alexandra Harper from Sharper, Inc.”

Alexandra Harper.

Sharper…

Sharper spelled legally as “SHarper”

SHarper as in Harper.

Crap.

My entire stomach fell to my feet, my eyes following the ghost trail of the woman who’d just passed. I had definitely seen her at the tattoo shop. She was the woman crying as she barreled out the door that day Harper was so upset. She was something to him. His mother maybe? Which meant…

Gripping the side of Ursula’s tall desk my voice shook as I asked, “The SHarper deal… I-it’s an acquisition?”

“You betcha. Your brother’s been working on getting his hands on some mechanical parts they have ownership of, but they want to get rid of the whole thing.”

“They want to get rid of the whole business?” I asked. “Why?”

“Yep, selling it all outright.” She swiped her hands together as if motioning the finality of it.

“The company is doing just fine. Better than fine—they have sole ownership and copyright over the part Mr. Fernandez is interested in. Its use has been contracted out in a variety of different new tech and no one has been able to replicate it because of the airtight patent the Harper’s have on it.

And it’s not just that, SHarper has a monopoly over several other machinery and tech parts brought into production over the years. They even?—”

Ursula broke off abruptly. A moment later, the door to the office suite swung open and the woman re-emerged looking fresh and relieved.

She smiled again at Urse and I, who had straightened up and plastered on looks that hopefully didn’t scream we were gossiping about her.

All while I tried to act like I wasn’t watching her every move as she reentered my brother's office.

I was. Because that woman was indeed Harper’s mother. Seeing her again brought everything into full view. Catching her eye just briefly, sealed the deal. Big and full and expressive and so deep brown.

Harper’s mom .

My head spun, my brain having no idea where to focus, but as my brother’s door closed, Urse leaned in again.

“One of their highest grossing products of the last two decades was actually created by their son and daughter when they were very young. I’m talking elementary and middle school young. The two of them still hold the patent to this day. That’s why the sale has been so difficult.”

We built things.

Things like computer pieces and heavy machinery mechanics? Leave it to Harper to downplay that part.