Page 51 of Bittersweet

Harper surveyed the damage—water puddled across the surface of the desk, her computer keyboard soaked, shards of broken glass and long stem roses scattered across the floor. She covered her face with her hands and sank to the floor at the familiar jingle of the door. Did that just happen? She broke down in sobs as the sound of Savannah’s footsteps quickly neared.

“Harper?” She came through the open door and spotted the mess. “Whoa!” As soon as she saw her friend sitting on the floor, she dropped to her knees and wrapped Harper up in a hug. “Are you all right?”

In shock was what she was. Maybe the breakup had come out of nowhere, but the man who had walked out of that office was not the man she had dated for eight months.

“What happened?” Savannah asked.

Harper related the conversation and Brett’s bad reaction, and Savannah looked as surprised as she’d been.

She shook her head in disbelief. “He’s a good actor. He had me fooled.”

“You and me both.” Harper started to get up, and Savannah helped her to her feet. She stared over at the disaster. “I need to clean that up.”

“I’ll do it.” Savannah laid a comforting hand on her back. “You go make a new batch of cupcakes.”

She had nearly forgotten about the disastrous burned batch and the embarrassment she’d felt over the whole thing. That all seemed tame in comparison to Brett’s reaction.

Her hands shook as she put the ingredients in the bowl. All she wanted at the moment was Logan. His arms around her, holding her close, telling her she was safe.

20

If he lays a hand on you again, I’ll kill him.” Fury raced through his body at the sight of finger-shaped bruises on Harper’s arm. “You need to report this.”

“What, no. I don’t want to make things worse. I just want to put it behind me and move on.” She looked out her bedroom window.

Logan gently turned her toward him and wrapped her up in a hug. He was surprised by how tightly she squeezed him, and he could sense how afraid she still was by the way her fingertips dug into his back.

“I’ve got you, Harper. He won’t touch you again.”

Her shoulders began to shake, and Logan’s heart broke at the soft sobs that escaped her throat. “He never let me see that side of him before.”

“Guys like him usually don’t … until they do.”

When he felt her relax, he leaned back and kissed her forehead. “Let me fix you something to eat. Do you have all the stuff for spaghetti?”

Harper nodded, and they walked out of her bedroom, hand in hand, toward the kitchen.

“Kay, do you want some spaghetti?” he asked.

“Mmm, sghetti,” she replied. “My favert.”

“Spa-ghetti is your fav-o-rite, you mean?” He grinned at her.

“That’s what I said, Daddy. You’re so silly.” She went back to playing a game on Harper’s iPad.

Logan went to work boiling water for the noodles and heating up a jar of sauce and some meatballs Harper had in the freezer. He glanced over and found Harper watching him with a little smile on her face.

“You really are a gourmet chef,” she told him.

“Hey, if I had all the ingredients to make the sauce from scratch, I would.”

“Ragu will have to do.”

He smiled and went back to work as Harper wandered into the living room.

“Watch me put makeup on this girl, Harper,” Kayla declared. Harper had loaded a makeover game onto the device for Kayla, so she could pick a character, apply makeup, cut their hair, curl it, change hair color—all without touching a hair on her own head.

“That’s beautiful, Kayla.”

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