Page 14 of Wild Ever After
“What? That you didn’t have to flirt with me?”
“Is that what you call it? Hmm… I watched boys flirt with you, delivering one liners and I watched you when they did.”
“And?”
He stopped walking and so did she. Inches separated them. They weren’t standing under streetlights, but she could see the way his eyes darkened. Or maybe it was simply from years of knowing and studying this man she adored.
That was an honest truth if ever there was one. She adored Harry Walker. Whatever happened, she would always adore him.
“They sought your attention. They played silly games to see if they could outdo one another.”
“Didn’t you want my attention?”
“I already had it. Don’t you remember?” He eased closer and she struggled to keep from leaning in.
“I…”
“Barry Brockman,” he said, jolting her memory. “On the steps of the Brockman Building. We were all coming from Chem. Lab. He was laughing and cutting up with one of his friends, then whistled when you and Francis sat down on the steps. Your skirts rope up your thighs. He sat next to you, kept talking, started touching you. A fingertip here, a brush of your hair there. And you? You kept looking —”
“Looking back at you,” she finished. “You always hung back like that.”
“I liked watching you. You giggled when guys like Barry flirted. You played along, but your attention all mine and mine was all yours.”
He was right. Barry was one of the big names on campus back then. His father donated millions to their small college. Barry thought he could have any girl he wanted for the most part, he could. Just not her.
And she was the second biggest name on campus. Her father was the dean.
Harry was well off, too. And notorious for his family’s public scandals, he was nothing like the previous walker generations. He wanted to do something good, something meaningful.
The scandal, their scandal, that was the ironic part.
That the public messes he’d sought to avoid all his life happened anyway…
“What’s the smile about?”
Bella hadn’t even realized she was smiling. She shook her head and turned away. She didn’t look back this time. She knew he’d be there. He’d meant his words.
If she led, he’d follow.
Harry Walker always meant what he said.
“I love the aesthetic of this building. Used to be warehouse space,” Harry remarked when they walked through the door of the place she’d booked a room.
“Yes. Some of it for legal storage. Some of it not. I’m glad they’ve been repurposing so much of the old abandoned warehouses here the way they’ve been doing in Charleston and other waterfront cities.”
“Prime real estate investments.”
“I would think so.”
“I should look into it.”
His statement was an odd one. Investments were things he hadn’t spent much time on as a state senator, unwilling to step into anything that hinted at impropriety, but he had kept up with his private architecture firm when the legislature wasn’t in session.
“And your senate seat?”
“Our life comes first, Bella.”
The polite conversation held until the elevator doors closed behind them.
