Drive safe. We can’t wait to see you both. Love you.
Love you, too.
She tucked her phone back into her pocket, only to see that Mason had left to give her privacy. Which was very polite and just like him.
She knocked on the half-open French door to his bedroom.
“Everything all right?” He stepped outside, his expression concerned.
“Cord, my ex, was being a jerk. He does that sometimes. Austin and Harlow are driving here. Guess you’re going to meet my kids. It’s all good.” She hoped. She had no idea why Austin had quit, and it wasn’t like Harlow to simply take off.
Something big must have happened. Only she and Harlow hadn’t progressed beyond “hey, how are you” in their texting.
“The cats will be much easier than kids,” she said.
He smiled. “One or two maybe. Fifteen will be a problem. Plus however many more she accumulates.”
“You’re right.” She drew in a breath. “Okay, I’m feeling marginally better. I’m going to apologize to Lillian.”
“After that, can I buy you a drink?”
She met his dark gaze. “Is that a literal, we leave the house, you buy me a drink, or a euphemism for having a cocktail with Lillian?”
“Your choice.”
“Let’s have drinks with her. I’m still feeling fragile, and I’d like to spend as much time with her as I can. Plus I want to let her know the kids are coming. She’ll love to hear that.”
“Done.”
She put her hand flat on his chest. “You’re a very good man, Mason Bishop. I’m glad you’re here.”
“Me, too.”
* * *
Harlow rested her bare feet on the dash of her brother’s 4x4 Toyota pickup. It was the vehicle he’d wanted when he graduated from high school, big enough for friends, surfboards, camping or scuba gear. She wasn’t sure how a big pickup would fit in in California, but Austin always made it work.
She glanced at him. She’d driven that morning, and he’d taken over the afternoon shift. Getting from one coast to the other was surprisingly easy. He’d gone north to Interstate 10, then west. Except for the brief detour to the New Orleans airport, they would literally stay on this road until they reached Santa Monica.
“Ready to talk?” Austin asked, never taking his gaze from the road.
She leaned back against the headrest. “There’s not much to say.”
“You walked out on the job you’ve been working for since you were a kid, you didn’t bring your fiancé and from what I can tell, you’re still not talking to Mom. It sure seems like something happened.”
When he put it like that, she thought, looking out the side window. “I thought I had everything figured out,” she admitted. “I was wrong.”
“That’s pretty much the case for everyone. Not just you.”
She managed a faint smile. “You saying I’m not special?”
“You’re special to me. Is this still about Kip being married before?”
“Some. There’s other stuff.” She thought about the incident with the beets, but didn’t know how to explain that without sounding like a crazy person. “Mom kept telling me I didn’t know him that well. What if she wasn’t wrong? Everything happened pretty fast, and I was at college last year, so maybe we didn’t have enough time to get to know each other. Tracey’s huge, and the credit card debt.”
She held up her hand. “Not that he has it, but that he didn’t tell me. I know it’s hard to talk about, but he should have been honest with me before he proposed.”
“Would it have changed your mind about marrying him?”
“No.” At least she didn’t think it would have. “I might not have talked about a wedding at the club.” She looked at her brother. “Am I entitled?”
“No more so than most. Harlow, you’re a product of how you were raised. We never wanted for anything, so are we entitled? Probably. You’re not a bad person.”
“Just selfish?” she asked, her tone bitter. “Look at Enid. She’s going to medical school. Because I was sick when I was a kid, she wants to be a pediatric oncologist.”
“Isn’t that a good thing?”
“Yes. She’ll be amazing, but she can’t afford medical school without huge loans. Is that fair? Why do I get a new car after college when Enid gets stuck with over a hundred thousand dollars’ worth of debt?”
“It’s not fair. She has a different family, and they don’t have a lot of money. It’s just life.”
“I don’t like it.”
He smiled.
She glared at him. “You think I’m naive.”
“A little, but it makes you likeable. Kip can’t have been happy you left.”
“He wasn’t. He thinks I’m leaving him.”
“Are you?”
“No. I love him. I need to think, and not just about him.” She glanced at her brother, then back out the side window. “Dad never intended to buy the kayak business. He told me he wasn’t going to spend that kind of money so I could learn on the job.”
Austin glanced at her. “But he helped you come up with a plan.”
“I guess he wanted me to feel good about my senior project. I’m not sure he was thinking.” She still couldn’t reconcile all the time and energy he’d put into their discussions only to tell her it was all a lie.
“He said I was spoiled, and while he was happy to overpay me and give me a title I didn’t deserve, the rest of it wasn’t happening.”
Austin reached across the console and squeezed her hand. “I’m sorry. Dad can be an asshole. Look at his cheating.”
“And sleeping with my fiancé’s sister.” She blinked away tears. “I don’t know what’s real anymore. I believed him. I trusted him. I thought we were a team, but we weren’t. Imagine what he was saying to Zafina about it all.”
She sat upright and swung to face her brother. “What if Zafina told Kip? Did he know Dad was just stringing me along?”
“Kip wouldn’t do that.”
“Are you sure? He was married before and didn’t tell me. Compared to that, this is nothing. He could know.”
“Don’t go looking for trouble.”
“I don’t have to. It’s right there in front of me.” She covered her face. “He’s probably talked to his parents about it. They’re all thinking I’m some little princess who expects to get married at a country club where the deposit for the ballroom is fifty thousand dollars.”