Page 63 of Wilde Secrets

He could get used to this. The trust she showed him was not something he would take for granted. Ever.

“My family are a little different, I know that,” she said. She tucked a lock of hair behind her ear and sighed. “I didn’t think I’d end up where I am, but I’m happy—well, until a few days ago I was.”

She frowned. Is being happy just something she told herself because the alternative was too difficult to face? If she admitted that her only parent didn’t want the best for her—that he was actively manipulating her—what would she have left?

His heart ached for her.

Logan had lost a parent. Had lost a brother. But he’d always known they’d loved him. Could Harper say the same about her father?

He frowned. He didn’t want to bet on it, that’s for sure.

Logan twisted a lock of her silky hair around his finger. The breeze stirred the air, bringing the smell of the salty ocean mixed with earth still damp from the storm. “What did you want when you were a child?”

“Hmm? What do you mean?”

He smiled against her hair and kissed the top of her head. “When you were little, a kid, you know? What did you want to do?”

She took her time to reply, but when she did, he could hear the smile in her voice. “I just wanted to make music. We used to sing along to songs on the radio while mom cooked. Isla and I were meant to be doing our homework but—” she broke off laughing. “I remember this one time we were having so much fun mom forgot about the pasta and it turned to mush.”

Logan smiled. He could just see little Harper singing along with her mom and her sister. The warmth in her voice when she spoke was clear.

“I miss her.” Harper’s voice was quiet.

“Tell me about her.”

So she did. She told him about the notes her mom would put in her school bag when she was worried about going to school. About the time when she’d really wanted a dog and her mom had tried to convince her dad to get one, ending up in an argument where neither of her parents spoke to each other for a week when her dad had point blank refused.

And she told him about the shock of losing her mom to cancer.

“It was so quick. She didn’t even know she was sick until it was too late.” Harper looked up at him with a sad smile. “Everything was different after she died.”

“Losing someone close to you turns your world upside down, doesn’t it?”

Harper nodded. “Yeah. Dad wasn’t the same after that. He hardly smiled and it was like he was trying to preserve her memory in a glass box. Everything he’s done since then has been built around some idea of what he thinks she would have wanted.”

“Has he dated at all?”

She shook her head. “Isla and I tried to suggest that to him once.” She grimaced. “He didn’t take it well.”

“Ah, yeah. We suggested that to mom once too. She wasn’t a fan.”

They shared a sympathetic smile.

“What happened to your dad?” Harper asked, turning in his arms to sit on the couch cushion next to him cross-legged. She leaned her elbow on the back of the couch and propped her chin on her hand.

Logan sighed and rubbed a hand over his face. “It’s a bit of a long story.”

“I’m not going anywhere.” She gave him an encouraging smile.

If only that were true.

“When I came back from college for summer I used to go with my dad to his construction sites. I did it because I wanted to spend time with him. So I helped out.” He shrugged. It had been fun, learning from his dad. They’d talk like they never got the chance to when he’d been a kid—raising six children didn’t leave a lot of spare time to bond with the quietest one. And Logan acknowledged that he did spend a lot of time at football training or reading.

“It all changed after Dan died.” Logan looked down at his hands. “It was the middle of summer and dad had a few days left on a job. He couldn’t just take time off work, so he pushed through. We both did. And he just didn’t stop. He took work that he wouldn’t have taken before.”

He glanced up at Harper.

“It was like he was trying to avoid confronting the fact that his son had died.”

---