“He looks harmless. He’s dressed nice, clean-cut, seems attentive toward her.”
“Don’t let looks deceive you, man. Assholes come in all shapes and sizes. Some just clean up better than others.”
“Then go talk to him and feel him out,” he said, catching sight of Harper standing with his mother at the top of the path that led to the dock. Moonlight spilled over her bare shoulders as she hugged his mother. His mother walked away, and Harper gazed out at the water.
Justin didn’t move.
“Excuse me, buddy. There’s a gorgeous blonde in a wraparound dress waiting to be kissed that I have to attend to.” Gavin crossed the yard to Harper and wrapped his arms around her waist from behind. He kissed her neck and said, “Do you know how much I love you?”
“More than fishing?” She leaned back, her soft hands moving over his arms.
“Hm. I don’t know. That’s a tough call.” He kissed her cheek and she sighed. “What are you doing over here all by yourself?”
“Remembering our first night in the rowboat and thinking about how much I like your family. Your parents are so warm and loving. They adore you, Gavin. Your mom told me stories of when you were younger and how you and Beckett used to sneak out. She said as teenagers you’d ride horses with your friends before dawn and that your father used to follow you guys there without you knowing just in case there was an emergency.”
He was quiet for a moment, processing what she’d said. “I never knew that.”
She tipped her face up toward his and kissed his chin. “I want to be that type of parent. The kind that lets their kids do a few rebellious things but makes sure they’re safe. I wasn’t ever rebellious, and maybe I missed out.”
“I’ll be rebellious with you. We’ll sneak out after my parents go to sleep and go skinny-dipping.”
She laughed, and the sweet sound warmed him all over.
He turned her in her arms, and his insides turned to liquid heat at the love in her eyes. “God, you’re gorgeous, Harper. How did I get lucky enough that you chose me to share your heart with?”
“You gave good lollipops,” she said with a sexy smile.
“Oh, baby, I love when you talk dirty.” He lowered his lips to hers, pouring all of himself into their connection, leaving them both breathless. “Thank you for the most amazing birthday of my life.” As he brushed his lips over her cheek, a phone rang in his pocket. “Who isn’t here?”
He pulled their phones from his pockets and realized it was Harper’s that was ringing. Trey’s name flashed on the screen as he handed it to her.
“Oh my gosh,” she said nervously. “I wonder what he wants. I haven’t had time to rewrite the whole script.”
“Take your time, babe. I’ll go make sure Justin doesn’t kill Chloe’s date.” He gave her a quick peck on the cheek and left her alone to take the call.
Justin was with Zander and Dwayne, and thankfully he was no longer looking at Chloe’s date like he wanted to tear him apart. Gavin grabbed one of his mother’s buttery biscuits from the table, watching Harper pace as she spoke to Trey.
His mother came to his side and said, “Everything okay?”
“We’ll see. She’s talking to Trey Ryder, the guy who asked her to rewrite her script into a movie.”
“Oh? She told us all about him. She’s darling, Gavin. And she seems to really understand life.”
Yeah, she does.
“Is that a blush I see on my boy’s cheeks?” She brushed her fingers down his face. “Love is a funny thing, isn’t it? When we’re young, we’re like birds and the world holds all sorts of promises of growing up and becoming more than we are. We spread our wings, and we see love like the sky, full of unreachable stars, but we can’t keep ourselves from trying to reach them. We have wings after all. But as we get older, life takes nibbles out of us. Some people bleed out from those little nips. But for the lucky ones, for every nibble it takes, it gives us a lesson that makes us smarter, allows us to see clearer. And one day all those beautiful stars shower down on us, and instead of occluding our vision, we realize we never needed our wings at all, because when love is right, it finds us no matter where we are.”
“Yeah,” he said, too choked up to form a more coherent response.
Harper ended her call and lifted a radiant smile in their direction. She ran toward them, looking like she was going to burst.
“I think we have good news.” His mother took the uneaten biscuit from his hand and said, “I’ll just take care of this for you.”
“GAVIN!” HARPER’S HEART was beating so fast she thought she might pass out. She grabbed Gavin’s arm and hung on tight. “I can’t believe it! Trey’s interested! He wants in!”
“On the movie?” Gavin asked. “But you haven’t finished the rewrites.”
“No! On my idea! The live episodes!” She hadn’t meant to yell, but she was too excited to calm down. She was still trying to wrap her head around the phone call.
Gavin hugged her. “That’s fantastic!”
“Marvelous,” his mother said. “Although I’m not really sure what it all means, you look happy.”
Serena and Emery were heading their way.
“What’s going on?” Serena called out.
“Trey wants to be part of my project!” Harper hollered, holding tightly to Gavin’s hand. “Let’s tell everyone at once!” They went to the patio with their friends and family, and she said, “Trey just called. He did a bunch of research, and he thinks my idea is a winner. He wants to live stream the performances on their Movietime channel. He said another channel just started doing it, and he thinks it’s the next big thing!”
Everyone talked at once, congratulating her and asking questions so fast, she had a hard time keeping up.
“What does that mean for you?” Gavin’s father asked.
“I don’t know. He talked about partnership percentages, and they’d handle the capital, and a bunch of other things. I couldn’t process it all at once.”
“I’m so happy! You could be in business with Ethan!” Emery squealed.
“You need an entertainment attorney,” Beckett added.
“Does that mean TV crews would be at the shows?” Tegan asked.
“I guess so,” Harper said, slowing down enough to think about the offer more carefully. “He’s thinking big, and you’re right, there’d have to be film crew. I didn’t think about that. I’m not sure that’s what we want. That would be distracting, don’t you think? Maybe they don’t have to do it at every performance.” She needed to slow down and center her thoughts.
“Babe, who would hold the majority ownership percentage?” Gavin asked.
“You might not retain the rights to make those types of decisions, Harper,” Beckett said.
She knew Beckett was an investor, and he had a good point. “That would be awful. I’d be right where I was before all of this.”
“No,” Serena corrected her. “You’d be much richer.”
“Rich and unhappy is no way to go through life,” Harper said. “I need to think this through. Oh no, you guys, what if it turns out not to be the best idea, and I turn him down, and then he says no to a movie option? Oh God, I feel a little dizzy.”