I looked up from the stats I was reading. We had just run the car full-out, and I was checking to make sure the numbers were looking good. “Who?” I asked.
Harlyn closed my office door and sat down in the chair in front of my desk. “You know damn well who. Mave. Did you send her flowers?”
“Why? Did she get a delivery or something?” I looked back down at the sheets in front of me.
“You’re not going to play coy with me, Dad. Tell me right now you sent her flowers.”
“Might have.” I scribbled a note on one of the pages and set it on top of the stack in front of me.
Harlyn busted out laughing. “Might have? You also might have sent her the biggest bouquet the hospital has ever seen too. Delaney said the whole hospital was buzzing about who could have sent Mave flowers.”
“Didn’t send ‘em to get people buzzing.”
Though, part of me wondered if word of the flowers had gotten to Mave’s ex. That asshole needed to know that he had fucked up a good thing and I fully intended on picking up where he left off.
“Then why did you send them?”
I looked up at her. “Is this really the only reason you came in here? I’ll have to let Brooks know that he’s paying you to bug me and get no work done.”
She snatched the papers out from under me and held them over her head. “I’ve gotten all of my work done. I did payroll and got the guys lunch. Nothing else for me to do. Now tell me why you sent Mave flowers when four weeks ago, you made her leave.”
“Don’t mess with those papers, Harlyn. I need to go over those with Frankie to make sure what I’m seeing is right.”
“Tell me what happened with Mave and I’ll give them back.”
“Harlyn,” I thundered. I was not going to have this conversation with her.
“Roc,” she shouted back.
“I don’t know what the hell I did, Harlyn. I told you that. After you and Delaney left, she acted weird. She didn’t want to be around me or even talk. I told her to leave because it didn’t seem like she wanted to be there.”
“What? That’s crazy. She totally likes you.”
“What?”
How in the hell did Harlyn know that?
“She liked you. Anyone could see it. I told her you didn’t really date much.” Harlyn’s face paled. “Oh crap.”
“Oh crap, what?” I demanded.
“Uh, well, I might have mentioned that you were talking to some chick though a dating app before the race.”
“Harlyn,” I growled.
“And uh, well, looking back on it now, I might have made it sound like you were still talking to the chick.”
I buried my face in my hands and groaned. “Jesus Christ, Harlyn. That is why she didn’t want to fucking be around me. She thought I was hitting on her when I had another woman I was talking to.”
Harlyn cringed. “I didn’t think she would get so bent out of shape about it. I mean, it wasn’t like you two were official or anything. I was thinking it would prod her to take the next step with you, not run.”
“Her husband cheated on her from day fucking one, Harlyn. You really think she would want to start a relationship with a guy who dating another woman?”
Holy hell. Now this was all coming together.
“Double shit,” Harlyn whispered. “I thought you were seeing a chick in one of your apps though.”
“I wasn’t seeing her, Harlyn. We were fucking talking,” I hissed. “But that was before the accident, and it was nothing. After the accident and Mave moved in, I never even opened the damn app. I forgot about the woman until I opened the app last week, messaged her I had met someone else, and then promptly deleted the app.”
“Triple shit.”
Everything made sense now. Mave acted like she didn’t want to be near me because she thought I was just like her ex-husband.
“How the hell am I supposed to fix this?”
“Well, the flowers were a good start.”
“She doesn’t even know they are from me, Harlyn. I didn’t put a name on the card.” Why in the hell had I thought that was a good idea?
“What? Why not?” Harlyn gasped. “I just thought Delaney was pulling my leg when she said they didn’t have a card.”
“Because I had a fucking plan, but now that shit isn’t going to work because I somehow have to convince Mave I wasn’t dating someone else when I was trying to be with her.”
Harlyn tapped her nails on the armchair of the chair. She jumped up and cupped her hand to her ear. “Remy?”
“You are so full of shit,” I muttered.
“Yeah, I think Remy just hollered for me. I gotta go, Dad.” She bustled out of the office and said over shoulder, “You’ll figure out the whole Mave mess.”
“Don’t you go sticking your neck into this mess any more than you already have, Harlyn,” I shouted. “I will handle this.”
She had already made a mess of everything that I didn’t want her trying to get involved anymore.
“My lips are sealed,” she hollered. She ducked out of the office and darted out the front door.
The Mave Mess.
You mean, the Mave Mess that was all Harlyn’s fault?
Jesus.
I leaned back in my chair and stretched my legs out under the desk. I could keep going with my plan of sending her things every day, but I knew I was going to have to talk to her sooner rather than later. Right now, she thought I was a cheater who was trying to wiggle my way back into her life.
That wasn’t what I wanted her to think at all.
I just needed to figure out what to do now.
I loved Harlyn more than anything, but damn if she didn’t make a mess of everything.
*
Chapter Twenty-Four
Mave
“A dolphin, sea otter, and a whale.”
I looked up from the chart I was looking at. “Are you telling a joke? A dolphin, sea otter, and whale walk into a bar?” I laughed.
Delaney shook her head and walked into my office. She shut the door behind her and sat on the chair in front of me. “That’s what’s waiting for you down in reception.”
My jaw dropped, and I wondered if Delaney had knocked her head on the way here. “Uh, what?”
She held up one finger. “A dolphin.” She added another finger. “A sea otter.” Then added another finger. “A whale. Great white, to be exact. All at registration for you.”
“Do you realize how crazy you sound right now? You’re telling me there are three wild animals waiting for me at registration.” I reached across the desk and laid a hand against her forehead. “No fever, but that doesn't mean much. You could have a concussion and don’t know it.”
She knocked her hand away and shook her head. “No. I don’t have a fever and I haven’t hit my head. You need to get down to registration right now.”
“Well, yeah,” I laughed. “A whale and dolphin can't be out of water for that long.”
Delaney shook her head and grabbed my hand. She hauled me around the desk and out of the office. “They’re of the stuffed variety, but that’s what not makes them impressive.”