Page 73 of Wilde Secrets

Logan brushed his thumb over the back of her hand where she still gripped his fingers tightly.

“Yeah?”

“It was through school. And then I graduated.” She shrugged.

He imagined a young Harper; her sister hitting the big time, leaving her behind. It couldn’t have been easy.

“What if you tried to sing here. With me.”

She didn’t pretend to misunderstand him. “I can’t.” She pulled her hand from his, shaking her head. She wrapped her arms around herself as if she was trying to disappear. To make herself small and insignificant.

It made Logan mad. Not at Harper, but at all the people who had been so short-sighted that they’d overlooked her talent.

“Harper, I’ve been hearing you sing all week.”

Her eyes widened. “You said you couldn’t hear me.”

His lips twitched. “I lied.”

She opened her mouth as if she was going to say something, thought better of it, and snapped it shut. Logan pressed forward, for once wanting to fill the silence.

“The first time it was an accident. I’d left my tape measure inside and came back to get it. You were playing guitar and humming a tune that sounded so sad and full of soul.”

She bit her bottom lip, worrying it between her teeth as she watched him talk. Encouraged that she hadn’t run screaming form the truck, Logan kept going.

“Princess, your voice is amazing. I couldn’t move when you started singing. It was like my feet were nailed to the floor.”

A small smile lifted the corner of her mouth. “Really?”

Had nobody ever told her how good a singer she was? The fire inside him raged at the injustice of a father paying attention to one child and not the other.

Put it aside, she needs you calm, not angry.

He reached out to gently tuck a stray lock of hair behind her ear. “I’m not in the habit of lying to beautiful women, Harper.”

She snorted. “So, either I’m not beautiful and you are a liar, or I am and you’re not.”

He grinned, “Exactly.”

“I’m going to go with option two.”

“Smart girl. I knew there was more to you than a pretty face and a great ass.”

She snorted with laughter and lifted a hand to her mouth to stifle her giggles.

“What? You don’t think you have a great ass?”

She smirked. “Oh, I know I have a great ass.”

“There’s my girl.”

Her smile lit up her face and he grinned back. And then she closed her eyes and started humming the chorus to Taylor Swift’sCruel Summer. Logan smiled and hummed along, his deep baritone blending with her higher alto.

It was a miracle Logan remembered the tune, considering how transfixed he was by the beauty that was Harper as she sang.

Her head was thrown back, blonde waves shining in the fading evening light. Her newly painted pink nails tapped a rhythm on her denim-clad thigh, the silver bangles she wore jangling softly.

Logan wanted to shout to the world. Couldn’t they see how amazing she was? He wanted to find her dad and shake him for how much he’d ignored her. He was ready to have words with her sister for letting Harper give so much of herself without crediting her for the work.

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