From billionaire bachelor

To doting daddy?

In this Manhattan Babies story, Seth McCallan is committed to being a bachelor until his best friend’s widow, Harper, crashes into his world. Discovering Harper has been left with nothing, Seth resolves to put things right. Even if that means Harper—and her baby daughter—moving in. Even if that means a pram in his penthouse. Even if that means awakening a dangerous longing to stand by her side, now and always...

SUSAN MEIER is the author of over fifty books for Mills & Boon. The Tycoon’s Secret Daughter was a Romance Writers of America RITA® Award finalist, and Nanny for the Millionaire’s Twins won the Book Buyers’ Best award and was a finalist in the National Readers’ Choice awards. She is married and has three children. One of eleven children herself, she loves to write about the complexity of families and totally believes in the power of love.

Also by Susan Meier

A Mistletoe Kiss with the Boss

The Boss’s Fake Fiancée

The Spanish Millionaire’s Runaway Bride

Manhattan Babies miniseries

Carrying the Billionaire’s Baby

A Diamond for the Single Mum

And look out for the next book Coming soon

Discover more at millsandboon.co.uk.

A Diamond for the Single Mum

Susan Meier

www.millsandboon.co.uk

ISBN: 978-1-474-09053-7

A DIAMOND FOR THE SINGLE MUM

© 2018 Linda Susan Meier

Published in Great Britain 2018

by Mills & Boon, an imprint of HarperCollins Publishers 1 London Bridge Street, London, SE1 9GF

All rights reserved including the right of reproduction in whole or in part in any form. This edition is published by arrangement with Harlequin Books S.A.

This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, locations and incidents are purely fictional and bear no relationship to any real life individuals, living or dead, or to any actual places, business establishments, locations, events or incidents. Any resemblance is entirely coincidental.

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Version: 2020-03-02

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For my son, Michael.

I’ll probably miss you forever.

Contents

Cover

Back Cover Text

About the Author

Booklist

Title Page

Copyright

Dedication

CHAPTER ONE

CHAPTER TWO

CHAPTER THREE

CHAPTER FOUR

CHAPTER FIVE

CHAPTER SIX

CHAPTER SEVEN

CHAPTER EIGHT

CHAPTER NINE

CHAPTER TEN

CHAPTER ELEVEN

CHAPTER TWELVE

CHAPTER THIRTEEN

EPILOGUE

Extract

About the Publisher

CHAPTER ONE

HARPER SLOAN HARGRAVES looked up at the condo building looming before her. Nestled in the heart of Manhattan, the tall structure gleamed in the early morning sun of a warm September day. Black trim enhanced the grey brick exterior. Leafy green trees decorated the courtyard, along with topiary roses in enormous ceramic pots.

Well-dressed men and women ambled out of the wide, tinted-glass door and bobbed along the street on their way to undoubtedly prestigious jobs. Taxis, town cars and limos rolled by—quietly, to match the clean, subdued area around her.

Fighting the urge to glance down at her torn jeans and simple T-shirt, Harper tightened her fingers on the handle of her daughter’s stroller and gave it a quick push toward the door. It opened automatically, revealing the kind of lobby typically reserved for luxury resorts but borrowed for the rarefied world of New York City’s upwardly mobile. The tinkling of the falling-rain fountain in the center of the room greeted her. Gray-and-white-print area rugs highlighted black slate floors. A stainless-steel banister on the ultramodern stairway, steel elevator doors and steel window frames sharpened gray walls. Green plants sat discreetly in corners, while vases of red and purple flowers added pops of color.

“Can I help you?”

A doorman. Of course. She hadn’t expected otherwise. At one time, Harper had belonged in a building like this one. She’d grown up in an area so lush she’d taken luxury for granted and had rejected it. Then she’d married Clark Hargraves and fallen into the lap of luxury again, only to lose it all when he’d died.

She’d been rich, then poor, then rich again. Now, she had no idea who or what she was.

She walked up to the shiny black desk where the doorman stood staring at her. “I’m here to see Seth McCallan.”

Wearing a red sweater with the gray building logo in the upper left-hand corner, the doorman straightened. “Mr. McCallan will be leaving for work in a few minutes. Is he expecting you?”

She’d known seeing Seth wouldn’t be easy. He was one of the McCallans. Owners of enough Manhattan real estate to be unofficial royalty, though he’d been a penniless student when he’d met Clark. He’d renounced his family and their money and had been forced to move into Clark’s run-down apartment with him. Two years after they’d graduated, Seth had persuaded him to start an investment firm together. Five successful years later, he’d gotten Clark accustomed to being somebody, then decided to help his brother with the family’s business and sold his share of the investment firm to Clark.

It all seemed so generous, except Clark had spent every cent he’d made keeping up the facade that he and Harper were as wealthy as Seth. He didn’t have the money to buy Seth’s share, so he’d leveraged the firm. And mortgaged their condo.

She’d had to sell both after he’d died to pay off the bank.

“He’s not expecting me, but I’m a personal friend.”

And he owes me, she thought, her chin raising. If he’d kept his share of their investment firm, not forced Clark to mortgage everything they owned, she wouldn’t be desperate right now.

Keeping his eyes on her, the doorman picked up his house phone.

“Mr. McCallan, you have a visitor. Harper Hargraves.” A pause. “Yes. I’ll be happy to send her up.”

The doorman motioned to the elevator. She headed to the shiny steel door, and he followed her. When the door opened, he directed her to go inside and walked in with her.

He was keeping tabs on her. Making sure the scraggly woman with the baby didn’t go anywhere else in the building.

Humiliation burned through her.

When the car stopped at the ninth floor, he didn’t accompany her out, but stood waiting in the elevator as she rolled her stroller to Seth’s door, then knocked.

The door opened, and Harper forgot all about the doorman watching her. Her husband’s former best friend stood before her in a pair of gray sweatpants that hung low on his hips, as he wrestled a T-shirt over his head. He yanked the thing down his torso, but it was too late. She’d seen the rippling muscles of his chest and stomach.

Shell-shocked, she stared at him. He was taller, sleeker, more muscular than he had been five years ago. But with his perpetual smile and tousled black hair, he was the same heart-stopping handsome he’d been when they lived in side-by-side apartments. And those eyes of his. As black as the soul of a condemned man, they nonetheless had a strange light. Almost a knowing. As if the years had taught him to be careful...wise. Though he’d been a nervous nerd when he’d lived with Clark, he seemed to have found his confidence as a man.

It was easy to see why the tabloids gossiped about him being with a different woman every few weeks. Confident. Rich. Handsome. Built. He had everything—

Which she shouldn’t be noticing. She’d had the love of her life. Their marriage had been fun, perfect. She missed Clark with every fiber of her being.

“Hey, Seth.”

His gaze ran from her short cap of black hair down her simple T-shirt, along her worn jeans and back up again.

“Harper?”

She tried to smile. “It’s me. I know I look a little different.”

“A little different” didn’t hit the tip of the iceberg. Since Clark’s funeral, she’d had a baby, cut her long black hair and lost weight. She was suddenly grateful for the supercilious doorman. If he hadn’t announced her, Seth might not have recognized her.

He gestured awkwardly. “I’ve never seen the baby.”

“Her name is Crystal.” Her words came out on a shaky breath, and she knew she had to get this over with before she lost her courage. “I need some help.”

“I guessed that from the fact that you’re here at eight o’clock on a Tuesday.” He stepped back so she could enter. “Come in.”

He held the door for the stroller. As Harper slipped by, her gaze flicked down his torso again. He looked so good in T-shirt and sweats. Fit. Agile.

Maybe a little intimidating.

That was probably why she kept noticing. Not interest. Fear. She’d never asked anyone for help. Never. She’d always made it on her own.

She pushed the stroller into the living room of the sophisticated open-floorplan condo. Motioning to the aqua sofa, Seth indicated she should sit, as he lowered himself to the matching trellis-print chair. She could see the white cabinets in the kitchen, along with a restored wood dining table surrounded by six tufted chairs the same color as the sofa, with a modern chandelier hanging overhead. Simple, but luxurious. Rich fabrics. Expensive wood. Even when a McCallan lived simply, he did it with understated elegance.

“I’m sorry to bother you, but I’m in a bit of a bind. I sold my condo yesterday, but the buyer wants it on Monday.”

“That’s great? Good? Awful?” He shook his head. “It’s been too long. I’m not sure what to say.”

She laughed, so nervous she couldn’t even react normally around him. “It would be great, except I don’t have another place to move into.”

“Oh.”

“The buyer paid cash and getting the place in a week was a condition of the sale and I really needed the sale...so I took the offer.”

“You need money?” He frowned. “You own an investment firm.”

And here was the tough part. Her wonderful, funny, smart husband had done what he’d had to do to buy Seth’s share. Had he lived, that loan would have been a footnote in his life story. As it was, it had all but destroyed his legacy. The last thing in the world she wanted to do was tell Clark’s best friend that he’d failed—

No, the last thing in the world she wanted to do was tell her parents Clark had failed. Seth, at least, would give Clark the benefit of the doubt. Her parents—her mother—would have a royal fit, then belittle Clark every time Harper mentioned his name.

“I had to sell the firm. Clark had leveraged it to get the money to buy your share and the market plummeted. It was like a perfect storm, Seth. I couldn’t pay the loan and I couldn’t sell the firm until I dropped the price to a few hundred thousand dollars over the amount we owed.” She shifted the focus of Seth’s disappointment from Clark to her. “And that money’s almost gone because I needed it for living expenses while I had the baby and waited to sell the condo.”

A hush fell over the room. Harper refused to say anything more. He might not belittle Clark the way her mom would when Harper finally told her parents she was broke, but Seth was an entitled rich kid. He’d dropped out of his family for a while, but when he and Clark had graduated university, Seth had used his connections to land them jobs in an investment firm. He’d gotten family friends to pony up the starting funds when he and Clark wanted to open their own company. When the business was more than on its feet, he’d found the money to buy out their investors. And when he needed to go to work for his family’s company, after his dad’s death, he’d easily handed over the firm’s reins to Clark, not caring that he was giving up what could have been a gold mine if he and Clark had stayed around to run it.

Seth might have lived poor for a few years while he finished school, but he had no concept of genuine, lifelong struggle. And Harper wouldn’t let him think less of Clark because he’d lost what he and Seth had built.

After a few seconds, Seth sighed. “And you sold your condo because that was mortgaged, too?”

“I didn’t realize until after Clark died that we’d spent every penny he’d earned.” She gave him time to digest that, then added, “He really liked you. He liked the life you brought him into. I know why he overextended us financially. And I’m not sorry he lived the way he wanted to while he had a chance. I’m not asking for anything except some help figuring my way out of this. Some advice.”

“Even if you rent, you’re going to need more than a week to find a place.”

“I know.”

Three-month-old Crystal stretched. Her head rose above the bundle of blankets she’d been snuggled into, revealing a tiny pixie face and a head full of short, shaggy black hair. Realizing the baby was waking from the stroller-induced nap, Harper slid the diaper bag out of the bin behind the seat. “I’m going to have to warm a bottle.”

Seth looked at Crystal. “Is she waking up?”

“Yes. She won’t fuss if I have a bottle ready.”

He rose, as if confused. “Okay.”

“Just let me warm the bottle and I’ll be all set.”

She took the diaper bag into the kitchen and removed a bottle. As she opened the cupboard door to get something to hold enough water to warm it, she watched Seth peer into the stroller from about six feet away.

“You can actually get close enough to look at her.”

Seth grimaced. “Not on your life. I have a niece a few months older than she is and I’ve never even held her.”

Harper clicked her tongue. “Seth! Babies are wonderful.”

“They look like they are. And my brother absolutely adores his. But they’re small and fragile and they frequently leak bodily fluids. I’m keeping my distance.”

She nodded, grateful for the small reprieve in talking about the mess she’d gotten herself into. She filled a mug with hot water and slid the bottle inside. Knowing it would take a few minutes to warm the formula that way, she walked back into the living room.

Seth said, “She’s pretty. Looks a lot like my niece. Dark hair. Pale eyes.”

“Sounds like your brother.”

He laughed. “He has a talent for getting his own way about things.” But Seth’s laughter quickly died. His solemn dark eyes met hers. “You do realize how much trouble you’re in.”

“And you’re about to tell me the only answer is to go back to my parents.” She shook her head. “That has to be my last resort. My mother was abysmal to Clark until he started that business with you. Then she was constantly on his back to be more, to push for more, to have more. If I go home now and tell her that I not only sold the investment firm, I sold the condo to get out from under loans, she’ll lose all respect for him.”

Seth silently studied Harper. Still beautiful. Still tempting. And in so much trouble financially he wasn’t even sure how to counsel her.

He spent his days haggling with contractors, hammering out contracts with some of the savviest businessmen in the world and fighting to make sure McCallan, Inc. stayed at the top of its industry. Yet he had absolutely no idea what to say to one little woman.

If she were anybody else, he’d easily tell her, “Suck it up, Buttercup. You’ve got no option but to move back in with your parents.”

Except, she wasn’t staying away from them for herself. She was holding back, probably waiting until she had herself on solid ground, before she had to tell her parents her husband had put her into debt. She was protecting Clark.

How could someone who’d fought his own condescending father most of his life not respect that?

The baby stirred again. Harper went to the kitchen and got the bottle.

Just as the little girl began to fuss, Harper was back, bottle in hand, lifting Crystal, settling her on her lap and feeding her.

It all seemed to simple, so easy. He’d seen his sister-in-law, Avery, do something similar. But Avery had tons of help. Not just Seth and Jake’s mom, but Avery’s mom, her dad and a nanny. He’d always thought Avery made being a mom look easy, but he’d apparently missed a lot about parenting in his years of avoiding babies.

“So, I’m kinda broke, but not really,” Harper said, feeding the hungry baby. “With the sale of the condo I have a hundred thousand dollars to play with. Either to use for a down payment on a new condo or to live on until I find a job.”

He sat back down, feeling oddly foolish for being so persnickety about kids as he watched Harper’s baby happily suckle her milk. “Honestly, if you weren’t out on the street in six days, I’d say your first order of business should be to get a job.”

“But I am out on the street in six days. In that time, I have to pack and arrange for a mover, as I find somewhere else to live. You wouldn’t happen to have an extra room?”

She’d said it as a joke, but he did have an extra room. She’d even have a private bathroom. There were only two problems with taking her in. First, he really wasn’t comfortable around babies. Very few single men were. But he was super edgy around them. Preoccupied with a million little details for his job, he worried he’d step on Crystal, trip over her, knock her down.

But he knew that was just a cover for the real reason he didn’t want Harper Sloan Hargraves to move in with him.

She was supposed to be his.

He’d adored her from the moment he’d laid eyes on her. But he wasn’t the settling-down kind. His parents’ farce of a marriage had ruined him on the fairy tale of happily-ever-after. The emotional abuse he’d suffered from his manipulative dad had made him far too cynical and too careful to want a relationship.

So, he’d let Clark ask her out.

And he’d become a playboy. He’d dated so many women he’d lost count. He traveled, was a regular in Las Vegas and couldn’t remember the last Saturday night he’d spent alone.

“I was kidding about the room, Seth. You can talk again.”

He shook his head. This wasn’t about him. It really wasn’t even about Harper. It was about Clark. He’d been Seth’s best friend in every sense of the word. When he left his family home and his emotionally abusive father, Clark had found him in the library. Alone. Broke. And rich-kid stupid. Seth didn’t even know he couldn’t hide in the library stacks, wait for the lights to go out and spend the night. He didn’t notice things like cameras and security guards.

Clark had asked a few pointed questions, gotten the real scoop and taken him to the run-down apartment he shared with Ziggy, next door to Harper. He’d told him he could stay until he got on his feet, but for three kids going to university, fighting for money for books and tuition, there was no getting on any feet. He’d found a job as a waiter, shared a room with twin beds with Ziggy and paid his part of the rent and food.

All his life, his dad had told him he didn’t understand the real world and tried to teach him by withholding money, embarrassing him, belittling him, and Clark had taught him everything his dad couldn’t in three years of paying for school and supporting himself.

Now here he was with an extra room, about to turn Clark’s widow out on the street because he’d at one time had a crush on her?

That was ridiculous. He was a grown man now. A wealthy man in his own right who’d built exactly the life he wanted. He had his pick of woman and absolutely no desire to settle down.

She was safe...and so was he.

“You can have the room.”

“What?”

He rose from the trellis-print chair. “You can have my spare room. Arrange to have your furniture put into storage. Have Crystal’s crib delivered here.” And just as Clark had said to him twelve years ago, he added, “You can stay as long as you need to.”

CHAPTER TWO

HARPER BLINKED. “WHAT?”

“I’m offering you a place to stay. Clark took me in when I was in trouble. I owe him.”

“Okay. But, Seth, as beautiful as your condo is, it’s small and Crystal can be very noisy.”

He walked toward the kitchen and the coffeemaker. “And I’m not home a lot. I work from nine to six. Most evenings I have dinner meetings or dates. You’re going to find you have the condo to yourself more than you think.”

She didn’t know why that gave her a funny feeling in the pit of her stomach.

He made his coffee, then glanced at his watch. “I have just enough time to get ready for work.” He motioned to the door. “You go home, get things settled and come back when you need to. I’ll have keys made for you.”

She slid Crystal into the stroller. “Are you sure?”

He smiled. Harper’s heart thumped. The grown-up version of Clark’s best friend was absolutely gorgeous.

“This is not a big deal.”

Harper totally disagreed. Ten minutes ago, Seth wouldn’t get within six feet of her baby. Now he thought he could live with her? Not to mention the way she kept noticing he was attractive, reacting when he smiled. She was lonely and vulnerable, missing Clark, and Seth wasn’t known for discretion when it came to women.

Moving in together did not seem like a good idea.

Seth headed back down the hall, probably toward his bedroom. “As soon as you’re settled, we’ll go over your résumé, find you a job and start house hunting.”

Because those were things Clark had helped him with.

He hadn’t said it, but she realized this was nothing but payback for Clark’s kindnesses and, honestly, she needed it. If her mother saw her, six days away from being homeless, she’d blame Clark and never forget.

Harper could not let that happen.

She said, “Okay,” but he was already opening the door of his room.

Harper blew her breath out on a long sigh. This was not going to be easy, but it was better than living in the street.

After spending an hour contacting movers, Harper finally found one who had a cancellation in his schedule the following day. She booked the appointment and spent the rest of the afternoon, evening and the next morning packing. Right on time, the movers arrived and picked up her furniture and boxes of household goods, clothes and baby things. They drove first to the storage unit and dropped off everything but Crystal’s crib and baby accessories, which were packed in the back of her SUV with a few suitcases of clothes.

She waved goodbye to the movers and headed for Seth’s condo.

Though it was close to five, Seth had told her he worked until six and she knew he wouldn’t be home. Which meant she could have everything set up in his condo before he returned.

But when she arrived at his building, the doorman wouldn’t let her into Seth’s apartment. Not that she blamed him. She’d thought Seth would have already made arrangements, but apparently he hadn’t.

The doorman punched a few numbers into his phone and within seconds was talking to Seth. Then he handed the phone across the desk.

“He wants to talk to you.”

Oh, boy. He probably wasn’t expecting her until Sunday. Plenty of time for him to get adjusted or change his mind. Instead here she was, a little over twenty-four hours later, her car loaded with baby things.

What did a playboy need with a baby and broke widow?

“Hello. Seth.” Not giving him a chance to back out, she said, “I got lucky and found a mover who’d had a cancellation today. I packed last night and this morning, and now everything I own, except Crystal’s things and a couple suitcases of clothes, is in a storage unit.”

She hadn’t meant to sound desperate, but oh, Lord, she had. She squeezed her eyes shut, but Seth easily said, “Okay.”

Her heart started beating again.

“I have one more meeting before I can leave, but I’ll call my next-door neighbor, Mrs. Petrillo. She has a key and will let you in. Just go ahead to the condo.”

“Should I knock on her door?”

He laughed. “No. She’s something of a snoop. It’s why I want her to let you in instead of George. She looks out the keyhole every time the elevator arrives on our floor. This way she’ll know I know you’re there.”

Harper laughed. Her first genuine laugh since she’d realized how much trouble she was in. She liked the idea of a nosy neighbor. It felt less like she and Seth were all alone.

Because they weren’t. They had Crystal, the nosy neighbor and probably a hundred other people who lived in the building.

They would not be alone.

“I also have an extra parking space in the basement. I told George to get you a pass.”

“Okay. Thanks.” When she disconnected the call, George handed her the card that would get her entry into the garage. “Is your car on the street?”

“Yes. I was lucky to get a spot right in front of the building.”

“Good. I’ll arrange to have your luggage and baby things brought upstairs. Then I’ll park your car in Mr. McCallan’s second space.”

Balancing Crystal on her hip, she wondered how much Seth had promised this guy to be so accommodating. She handed him her car keys. “Thanks. It’s the blue Explorer SUV.”

He nodded once. “We’ll have your things upstairs in a few minutes.”

She rode the elevator to Seth’s floor and just as Seth had predicted a short gray-haired woman stood by his door, waiting for her.

“Mrs. Petrillo?”

“Yes. And you must be Harper.”

“Yes.” She presented her baby. “This is Crystal.”

The older woman lightly pinched Crystal’s pink cheek. “She is adorable. Aren’t you, sweetie?”

Crystal grinned.

Mrs. Petrillo inserted the key into the lock and opened the door. “Sorry about your husband.”

“Thank you.”

“Death is a terrible thing. I buried three husbands.”

Harper gasped. Knowing the pain of losing Clark and the emptiness that followed, the loneliness that never seemed to go away, she said, “I’m so sorry.”

“It never gets easier.” She turned to Harper with a smile. “My soap is on right now. But I’m next door if you need anything.”

“Okay. Thanks.”

The petite woman waved goodbye and was gone within seconds, but her comment that it would never get easier haunted Harper as a new wave of missing Clark swept through her.

But she barely had time to catch her breath. The doorman arrived with her and Crystal’s suitcases.

He led her to the extra room in Seth’s condo. A queen-size bed and a dresser easily shared the space, leaving more than ample room for Crystal’s crib. An adjoining bathroom with a shower made of black, gray and white glass tiles that matched a backsplash behind the white sink was small but not uncomfortably so.

The doorman left her suitcases on the bed and left. When he returned with the crib and high chair, he had two maintenance men with him. He introduced them, telling her they would set up the crib.

When they were done, Harper put Crystal in her bed to play with her favorite blanket and stuffed bear, and set about to unpack. She hadn’t brought a lot, only enough clothes for her and Crystal for two weeks. Everything fit in the one dresser and the small closet. Another indicator of how much her life had changed since she lost Clark.

Not wanting to dwell on that, she carried Crystal to the living space. A quick glance at the clock told her it was only six. Her stomach rumbled. She hadn’t eaten lunch. The mover was on too tight of a schedule.

Just when she would have gone into the tidy kitchen to see if there was something she could make for supper, something nice that could serve as a thank-you-for-keeping-us gesture, the condo door opened.

“Seth?”

The day before, she’d left as he’d walked back to his room to dress for work. She expected to see him in a suit, not a black crew-neck sweater with a white shirt under it and jeans.

Jeans to work? At his family’s prestigious holding company, where he wasn’t just on the board of directors, but was also a vice president?

“I canceled my meeting.” He ambled into the room and tossed his keys and wallet on the counter, along with some envelopes she assumed were his mail. “How’d today go?”

She couldn’t stop staring at him. Clark had gone to work in a suit and tie every day. He didn’t cancel meetings. He never came home early. But Seth was a McCallan. From what she knew of the family, they did whatever they wanted. Especially Seth. Joining the family business obviously hadn’t ended his rebellious streak.

“Busy. Exhausting.”

He picked up the mail. Rifled through it. “Mine, too.”

The conversation ended, and a weird silence stretched between them.

She sucked in a breath for courage. “I was just thinking about looking in your cupboards to see if there was anything to make for dinner.”

He sniffed. “Don’t bother. I’m pretty sure the cupboards are bare. There are takeout menus from a few local places. Order something for both of us. I have a credit card on file at all of them. Just tell them it’s for me.” He turned and headed back down the hall.

She frowned. “I thought you’d said you always have dates or dinner meetings or something?”

He stopped, faced her. “I did. Just like I canceled my last meeting, I canceled my date.”

Harper blinked as he disappeared behind his bedroom door. Canceled his date?

An odd sensation rippled through her. Not happiness. Surely, she couldn’t be happy that he’d canceled a date. She didn’t “like” the guy. He was good-looking—well, gorgeous, really—but he wasn’t Clark, a man she had loved. The feeling oozing through her was more of a recognition of how glad she was that she didn’t have to be alone.

The door closed behind Seth and he leaned against it, blowing his breath out on a long sigh. When he’d invited Harper to live with him, he hadn’t anticipated how uncomfortable it would be to have her in his house, but he was damn glad he’d canceled his date, so they could talk. About Clark. After a nice dinner, where he’d direct the conversation so she would remind him that she’d loved and married his best friend, he’d get his perspective back.

He took a quick shower. When he left his room and entered the living space, he found Harper at the table surrounded by boxes of Chinese food.

“I like Chinese.”

“Good.”

He walked over to the table, saw she’d found plates and utensils and took a seat.

“Your area of the city has just about every type of restaurant imaginable.”

“It’s part of the appeal.”

He lifted a dish, filled it with General Tso’s chicken, some vegetables and an egg roll.

“Oh, and I paid for it myself. I’m not destitute. And I’m not a charity case. I just need some help transitioning.”

Point number one to be discussed. How she wanted to be treated. “I’m sorry if I made you feel that way.”

“You didn’t. I just wanted to fix some misinterpretations.”

“Okay.”

She turned her attention to dishing out some food for herself. Her short hair gave her an angelic look, enhanced by the curve of her full lips. Her casual, almost grungy clothes took him back to a decade ago, when he was a kid who listened to hip-hop and lived right next door to the girl he thought the most beautiful woman he’d ever met.

And that was point number two they had to discuss. Eight years had passed since he’d had a crush on her and she’d started dating Clark. They weren’t those people anymore. He didn’t have a mad crush on her. He’d had a mad crush on the girl she’d used to be. Since then, she’d gotten married, lost a husband, had a baby alone. They weren’t picking up where they’d left off.

He almost rolled his eyes at his own stupidity. He hadn’t even asked how she was.

“So... How are you doing?”

She shook her head. “You mean aside from being almost homeless?”

“Don’t make a joke. Clark was my best friend.” There. He’d said it. Point number three that he needed to get into this conversation. Clark had been his best friend. “You lost him. You were pregnant. You went through that alone. And now you’re facing raising a daughter alone. If we’re going to do this—live together—we’re going to do it right. Not pretend everything is fine. We used to be friends. We could be friends again.”

She set down her chopsticks. “Okay. If you really want to know, I spent most of the year scared to death. It took me a couple of weeks to wrap my head around the fact that he was really gone. But the more I adjusted, the quieter the house got. And the quieter the house got, the more I realized how alone I was.”

“And you couldn’t even talk to your parents?”

“My mom never had anything good to say about Clark, so after a visit or two when I was lonely, I quit going over.”

She stopped talking, but Seth waited, glad he’d decided to go this route. He needed to know what he was dealing with, and if she’d been alone for twelve long months she probably needed someone to talk to.

“I didn’t shut them out completely. My mom came with me to a doctor’s appointment or two and then we’d have lunch. But every time, the conversation would turn into a discussion of what I should do with my life now that Clark was gone.”

“I’m sorry.”

“Not your fault. My mother’s a bulldozer. She sees the way a thing should go and she pushes. Whether it’s the right thing or not.”

“Have they seen the baby?”

“Yes. If I’d completely broken off ties, my mom would have mounted a campaign to get me back. So, I kept them at a distance. I let her stay and help the week after Crystal was born. But she couldn’t stop talking about remodeling the condo to bring it up to standards, insinuating that with Clark gone I could do it right, and the whole time I knew I was broke and going to have to sell. Every time I’d try to tell her, she’d blast Clark.” She lifted her eyes to catch his gaze. “That’s how I knew I couldn’t move in with them.”

Seth leaned back in his chair. “I guess.”

The room got quiet. Her mother wasn’t the hellish dictator his father had been, but he wouldn’t have wanted to live with her mom, either.

“So, what’s up with you?”

He laughed, glad for her obvious change of subject to lighten the mood. “Not much. Jake’s a much better businessman than my father was, so working with him is good.”

“And your mom?”

He snorted. “My mom isn’t quite as bad as your mom, but we have our issues.”

She nodded sagely. “Sometimes the best you can do is avoid them for the sake of peace.”

He’d never say that the feelings he had around his mother were peaceful. He had a million questions he’d like to ask. Like, why she’d said nothing when his father embarrassed or humiliated him and Jake. Or better yet, why she’d stayed married to a man who was awful as a husband and father? She’d known he was cheating. She’d known he wasn’t a good father. Yet she’d stayed. Forcing them all to live a lie.

Deciding he didn’t want to burden Harper with any of that, he rose. “Do you like baseball?”

“Sort of.”

“Sort of?” He sniffed a laugh. “There’s a game on tonight that I’d love to see. If you want to watch, too, I can watch out here. If not, I can watch on the television in my bedroom.”

“I don’t want you to change your routines for me.”

“I won’t.”

The sound of the baby crying burst from her phone. She held it up. “Baby monitor is attached to this. And it looks like I’m going to be busy for a while. Go ahead and put your game on.”

Harper walked into her room sort of happy. It had been nice to talk about Clark, her mom and even being alone. She wasn’t trying to make a new best friend, but she had been lonely. Having someone to talk to, to share a meal with, had been more of a treat than she’d expected it would be.

With Crystal on her arm she walked out to the common area and found Seth was nowhere around. Thinking he must have decided to watch the game in his room, she warmed a bottle, fed Crystal, played with her, let her sit in her little seat that rocked her sideways, then finally put her into bed.

After a quick shower, and still wired from their talk, she put on a pair of pajamas and returned to the living room to watch TV.

A few minutes later, Seth returned to the main living area. He held up his phone. “Work call. I also took a shower while I was back there.” He set the phone on the center island and pulled a beer from the fridge. “Want one?”

She shook her head. “No. I might have to get up in the middle of the night.”

That piece of information seemed to horrify him. “Really?”

“Crystal is a fairly good sleeper, but I never know.”

He twisted the top off the bottle. “So, on the off chance that she’ll wake up, you don’t drink?”

“Yes.”

He sat beside her. She liked his hair all rumpled from his shower. Whatever his soap was it made him smell like heaven.

Strange things happened to her pulse. Her breathing shifted. Probably so she could inhale the wonderful scent of his soap or shampoo.

She eased a few more inches away from him. It didn’t help.

“What are you watching?”

She handed him the remote. “Nothing. Put the game on. I need to get to bed.”

He frowned.

“You know...in case Chrystal wakes up.”

“Right.”

She walked into her room and closed the door behind her with a deep sigh. Her weird reactions around him shouldn’t surprise her. Her husband had been gone a year and she’d all but locked herself in her house. Primarily to prepare for and then care for her baby. And she might be too needy to be around such a gorgeous guy. But she also couldn’t risk slipping it to her parents that Clark had failed. Or, worse, having her mom or dad read her body language, realize something was wrong and grill her until she crumbled. That had kept her home, alone, more than she wanted to admit.

These feelings she was having around Seth were nothing but her reaction to being around a man again. A young, handsome, sexy-smelling guy who should not tempt her.

But he did.

Not because she was attracted to him. Though, she was. What woman wouldn’t be? The real bottom line was a combination of things. Her having been sheltered for months combined with his good looks and their close proximity was making her supersensitive.

But it was Clark she loved. Clark she still missed.

She crawled into bed and closed her eyes, thinking about his silly laugh, how he’d loved to cook, how much he’d wanted their baby.

And all thoughts of Seth vanished.

In the middle of the night, Seth awakened to the sound of crying. Recognizing it was Crystal and he was repaying a debt, he rolled over to go back to sleep, but sleep didn’t come. He put the pillow over his head. No help.

Finally, the little girl quieted, and he realized Harper must have given her a bottle or something. He fell back to sleep, woke when the alarm sounded and sneaked up the hall to the kitchen to make a cup of coffee. Their conversation the night before had been good, but they were still uncomfortable with each other. And he was still fighting that attraction. So better not to wake her.

“Good morning.”

Damn. She was already up.

She wore the pale blue pajamas he’d seen the night before. They were much less revealing than things he’d seen in Vegas or Barcelona and his face should not have reddened. But it had.

She looked soft-and-cuddly sexy. Her sleepy blue eyes should have reminded him that she’d gotten up with a baby the night before. Instead they reminded him of warm, fuzzy feelings after sex.

“I just, uh, wanted a cup of coffee.”

“Okay.”

He neared the counter, where she sat holding the baby. The little girl looked at him.

“Hey.”

Harper shot him a confused expression.

“Just, you know, saying, hey, to the kid...the baby... Crystal.”

The little girl grinned.

“I think she likes you.”

“Well, she terrifies me. In a good way,” he quickly added. “I don’t want to hurt her.”

“You won’t.”

“Sure,” he said, knowing he wouldn’t ever hurt her because he wouldn’t ever touch her.

He got his coffee and went back to his room, where he dressed in his typical work clothes of jeans and a halfway decent shirt. When he returned to the kitchen for his keys and wallet, Harper and the baby were gone.

Wincing, he walked back the hall and knocked on her door.

“Yes?”

“Just wanted to let you know I’m on my way to work.”

“Okay.”

He squeezed his eyes shut. The melodious sound of her voice drifted through him like a blast of sweet summer air. She sounded so happy and content that pride surged through him, tightening his chest. This time two days ago, she’d been facing homelessness and he’d fixed that for her.

He started up the hall and picked up his keys and wallet. What the hell was wrong with him? Helping her should feel good, but he wasn’t doing this for her. He was doing it for Clark. To pay back Clark for taking him in when he needed help.

The very fact that he kept forgetting that meant it was time to get things moving along before his emotions got any more involved.

CHAPTER THREE

THAT EVENING, SETH returned a little later than he had the night before, looking like a sex god in a T-shirt that showed off his chest and shoulders and a pair of sunglasses he’d probably bought in Europe.

Harper’s breathing shivered. Her muscles froze. For the next ten seconds, she was sure her heart stopped beating.

“We’re going to do your résumé tonight.”

“That’s great.” She thought of Clark, realizing how happy he’d be once she was settled, and all the feelings she’d had about Seth lessened. “But I made dinner.” A thought occurred. “You haven’t eaten, have you?”

“No. But the résumé probably should come first.”

“Or maybe we can talk about it while we eat?” That way they wouldn’t have to discuss other things. Not that she hadn’t appreciated the conversation the night before. She had. It was more that it had warmed her a little too much.

“Okay.”

He set the table as she brought Crystal’s baby seat over and strapped it to a chair. She’d already put the pot roast and potatoes and carrots into a huge serving dish and he carried it to the table.

“Smells good.” His voice sounded funny, like he had caught the scent of the food and shivered around it.

“Thanks. I learned to cook after Clark and I got married. Mrs. Petrillo watched Crystal while I checked out the little grocery store a few blocks down.”

They both sat. Each of them dished up a plateful of food.

Seth took a bite and squeezed his eyes shut in ecstasy. “This is fantastic.”

It had been so long since anyone had complimented her that even a simple expression of pleasure went through her like warm honey. Luckily, they had work to do.

She bounced from her chair. “I’ll go get my laptop.”

She raced into her bedroom and found her computer. She turned it on, pulled up her résumé and headed to the dining area again.

When she got there, Seth was standing in front of Crystal’s seat.

He glanced up at Harper. “I wasn’t sure what to do. I knew you were probably okay with her sitting there. But I’m new to all this and when you were gone so long, I figured I’d better be safe rather than sorry.”

Crystal grinned and he laughed. “She’s really cute.”

The sight of him by her little girl warmed her heart, but more than that, he was getting accustomed to her baby. Maybe growing to like her baby—

He wasn’t supposed to like Crystal. Or her. She was here temporarily. They’d probably never see each other again after her short stay here. She needed to remember that.

“She’s fine as long as the she’s strapped in.” She slid the laptop on the table. “Here’s my résumé.”

Seth returned to his seat. He angled the screen toward him and started reading.

After only a minute, he glanced over at her. “What kind of a job are you trying for?”

“I’d like to be somebody’s assistant.”

“Okay. Good. I think your qualifications should line up. But you do realize there’ll be some other things like typing involved? Maybe writing reports.”

“That would be fantastic. I like to work. I think I’d like a job that would challenge me.”

He finished reading what she had in her résumé as he ate his roast and potatoes. After they’d cleaned the kitchen and dining area, she put the baby to bed.

When she returned to the living area, he pointed to the laptop, still on the dining room table. “Okay. We need to punch it up a bit, but we’ll figure it out together. If I’m going to recommend you, I want to know what’s in your résumé.”

Her spirits brightened. “You’re going to recommend me?”

“I saw how you worked when you lived beside me and Clark. I know you were dedicated to your clients. I know you put in long hours.” He shrugged. “I’m the perfect person to recommend you.”

She sat at the table in front of the laptop. He stood behind her.

Leaning in, he said, “Our first problem is that you haven’t worked in five years. We have to downplay that.”

The woodsy scent of his cologne floated to her. Her shoulder tingled because he had his hand on the back of her chair and every time she moved, she brushed it. Her mind tried to go blank, to enjoy the sensations, but she wouldn’t let it. They had a job to do.

She turned to make a suggestion about how to get around the gap between her work experience and the current date, but when she turned, the way he leaned in put them face-to-face. So close, they could have rubbed noses.

Close enough to kiss.

Her chest froze. Where the hell had that thought come from? She did not want to kiss him. This feeling tumbling through her had to be wrong. Seth was her husband’s best friend.

She started to turn away, but his eyes held hers. When she’d met him, she’d thought he had the eyes of a bad boy. Dark. Forbidding. But she once again saw the spark of wisdom or experience that she’d seen when he’d opened his condo door to her a few days before.

It was as if something had happened in the past five years. Something that had changed him. She knew what his dad had been like. She knew his mom had been oblivious—

She blinked to break eye contact. She wasn’t supposed to be curious about him.

“I, um, thought maybe we could just admit that I got married five years ago and hadn’t worked since.”

He pulled back. “I think you have to. The worst thing a person can do is lie on a résumé.”

Surprised, she laughed. “You think that’s the worst thing a person can do?”

He turned away. “There are definitely worse things a person can do in general. But we’re talking in terms of getting a job.”

“Oh. Right.” She faced her laptop again, moved the cursor to the spot she needed to change and started typing. But she couldn’t stop thinking about his eyes. They were not the eyes of a serial seducer. They weren’t the eyes of a poet, either. They were the eyes of a cautious man.

Probably because of what had happened in his family.

Sure, he was working for them...but he’d already mentioned not being close to his mom. Whatever had caused him to run from his family must not have been resolved. Or had they swept it under the rug like a good high-society family?

Curiosity rose and knocked and knocked and knocked on her brain, begging for attention.

She ignored it.

Her wanting to know about him could be nothing more than the curiosities of a lonely woman.

They fussed with her résumé for another hour before they got it right. Then she raced off to her room and Seth was left with the scent of her shampoo lingering in his nostrils, making him crazy.

But the fact that she’d run off proved to him that he wasn’t the only one feeling things. He’d seen it when she’d sat staring into his eyes. She’d covered that by being strictly professional as they tidied her résumé, but her racing off brought back all his instincts that she was every bit as attracted to him as he was to her.

Clark’s widow.

That made it doubly important that he help her with her job search, so she could leave.

The baby woke him again that night and instead of pulling the pillow over his head, curiosity had him sitting up in bed. He wondered what a mother and baby did in the middle of the night. Did Harper sing to Crystal? Read to her?

He plopped back down again and pulled the pillow over his head. This was nuts. He did not like babies. They scared him. He shouldn’t care about Crystal and Harper. Or even just Harper. He knew better. It was why he’d stepped aside and let Clark ask her out. Clark had been the nice guy. The guy who loved kids and wanted a family. The guy who’d found one perfect woman and would have been faithful forever.

Seth was a womanizer.

But living with Harper seemed to be making him forget the wise move he’d made when he was twenty-two. Step back. Let her be with someone who would love her correctly.

He had to get her a job and an apartment, and move out of his house...his life. Before he did something stupid.

He went to work Friday morning and called Arthur Jenkins, whose assistant was at least seven months pregnant and should be going on maternity leave. His company was small. His needs were probably few.

He talked up Harper, honestly telling Art that she didn’t have office experience, but she was dedicated and a hard worker. When he mentioned that she was also funny and nice to have around, he clamped his mouth shut. Luckily, Art took everything he said in the context of an assistant and gave him a time to tell her to come for an interview Monday morning.

When Seth told her about the interview her eyes lit with joy, making him glad he hadn’t canceled his date that evening. Or the one for Saturday night. Not wanting to take any chances being around her, he also left Sunday morning and didn’t come back until late Sunday night.

Monday morning, he didn’t knock on her door before he left for work. He texted her from his office to wish her luck on her interview and make himself seem appropriately distanced from the woman whose blue eyes could inspire poetry.

He didn’t expect to hear back from her until after lunch, and relief got him through a morning of meetings. At noon, the sky was clear, the weather still warm. Feeling very good about helping Harper, he decided to accept his brother’s invitation to join him for lunch at a nearby restaurant.

But as they strode toward the lobby door, Harper walked in.

He caught Jake’s arm. “That’s Harper.”

“Harper?” His dark-haired, blue-eyed brother frowned. “Clark’s wife?”

“Widow. She needed help finding a job.” He craned his neck to see past the gaggle of people. “I got her an interview this morning.”

Obviously surprised, Jake peered at him. “You did?”

He batted a hand. “It’s nothing. But she could be here looking for me. Better go on without me.”

Jake left. Seth caught up to Harper, who was standing in front of the directory. “Harper?”

She turned to him with tears in her eyes. “I didn’t get it.”

His heart sank, but he said, “It’s your first interview. It’s fine.”

A tear rolled onto her cheek. “No. It’s not fine. I need a job. I have a baby to support.”

Her crying went through him like hot ice. He led her to the door and out onto the sidewalk, so she wouldn’t stand in one place long enough for anyone to really see or hear her. Her words would blend into the noise of the city around them.

As they started up the street, she said, “Seth, it was like a whole different world. I was even dressed wrong.”

She spoke stronger now. Her tears had scared him, but the fact that she gathered herself together humbled him. He thought he was helping her, but this was really her battle. She was a good woman, a good person, in a bad situation. And she was right. In her purple skirt and simple white blouse, she wasn’t dressed to impress. It was like she was hiding her light under a basket.

He glanced around and saw a small boutique up ahead. He’d frequented the store to get gifts for his mom, his sister and girlfriends. The clerks were quiet, discrete. If he took Harper inside and told the saleswomen they needed to look around, they would smile and give them some space. And he could give her some pointers on dressing for an office. Somehow in those years of being self-employed, she’d gotten the idea that office workers needed to be dowdy.

He took her arm and led her into the store.

“What are we doing?”

“You said you felt you were dressed wrong.”

She looked down at her white blouse and eggplant-colored skirt. “I was dressed wrong. I haven’t bought clothes in two years, unless you count maternity jeans.”

He pointed to the left at a long rack of tops beside a rack of skirts and trousers beside a rack of sweaters beside three rows of dresses.

“See the colors?”

“Pretty.” Her head tilted. “And not a dark purple skirt or blouse among them.”

“Go look.”

She faced him. “I can’t afford to spend a bunch of cash on clothes when I’m not sure if I’ll need the money for a down payment on a house.”

“Maybe. But because you’ve never worked in an office, I think you got the wrong idea about what to wear. Just look around.”

She frowned, glanced back at the racks. He could see from the way her eyes shifted that she didn’t just want to fit in. She almost seemed to long to run her fingers along the fabrics, try things on, get some clothes that would ease her into her next life phase.

“I can get you an account here.”

She bit her lower lip. “If I have to use my profit from selling my condo as a down payment for another condo, God knows when I’ll be able to pay it off.”

“Why don’t you let me worry about that?”

She closed her eyes. “I can’t do that.”

His heart melted. He could afford to buy the whole damn store and she wouldn’t let him buy her a few dresses.

“What if we get the account, but you make the payments. Probably won’t be too much if you spread it out over a few months. And new clothes will give you the confidence you need on your next interview.”

She licked her lips. His libido sent blood straight to the wrong part of him, as his emotions zigzagged in four different directions. He’d always had a thing for Harper. But he’d also known her as his best friend’s wife. He wanted to help her. Almost needed to help her. But he loved her strength, her pride, her longing to make her own way and be herself.

Hell, hadn’t he fought to be allowed to be himself?

“Please.”

She glanced at him. “I know you’re doing all this to pay back a debt to Clark. But he never felt you owed him.”

“I owe him everything I am today. Which is why I understand why you don’t want to take the help.”

She chuckled, then shook her head as if amazed by him. “You will let me pay the bill?”

“I’ll consider forwarding that bill a sacred obligation.”

“I do like that black dress back there.”

He motioned for a salesgirl. “Then you should try it on.”

They shopped long past Seth’s lunch hour. She tried on dresses, pants, blouses, skirts, sweaters. Though Seth would have had her take it all, he let her sift through and find eight pieces she could mix and match, and three simple dresses.

The salesclerk happily tallied the price and boxed the first dress neatly. Expensively. From his days of living hand-to-mouth while at university and in his two years of working as a lowly broker for a big investment firm, he knew that little touches like a box with tissue paper made a person feel a bit better about themselves, about who they were.

He watched as the clerks tucked away the other two dresses, then the trousers, and started on the tops.

“Harper?”

The woman’s voice came from behind Seth. He turned and saw a tall, black-haired woman with big blue eyes very much like Harper’s.

“Mom?”

His gut almost exploded. Harper’s mom wore an expensive suit, shoes that probably set her back thousands and a purse that had probably cost more. The diamond on her left hand could have blinded him. All of Harper’s fears came into sharp focus for him. This was a woman who liked being rich, who thought more of money than people.

She reached out and caught Harper by the shoulders, hugged her, then kissed her cheek. “It’s so lovely to see you here.”

He thought the comment odd until he realized this boutique existed purely for wealthy clientele. Harper’s mom didn’t know her daughter was broke. She believed her daughter belonged there.

“And buying things!”

Her mother sounded thrilled, but also proud. Knowing appearances meant everything to her, he understood why she was over-the-top happy.

Harper, however, looked like a deer trapped in the headlights of an oncoming car. She opened her mouth as if trying to speak but couldn’t get any words out. Her eyes drifted to the stack of clothes, almost all packed into bags and boxes now.

Unconcerned about Harper’s silence, Harper’s mom faced Seth. “And who is this?”

He decided to pick up the dropped ball and held his hand out to shake Harper’s mom’s. “I’m Seth McCallan, Mrs. Sloan.”

She took his hand with a gasp. “Seth McCallan. Of course. I’ve seen you at a few charity functions. I’m sorry I didn’t recognize you. I’m Amelia Sloan. My husband is Peter. Please call me Amelia.”

He smiled. “It’s nice to meet you, Amelia.”

Pleasure lit Amelia Sloan’s face. “What are you doing here with my Harper?”

“Just a little shopping.”

The salesclerk finished boxing Harper’s new clothes and casually handed the receipt to Seth.

Amelia’s eyes narrowed, then widened slightly as she figured out Seth was paying for Harper’s purchases.

“It’s not what you think, Mom.”

Amelia clucked. “And how would you know what I think?”

While the women seemed to be on the same page, Seth needed a minute to process why Harper was struggling. Drowning really. Here was the very person Harper wanted to keep her situation from, standing in front of them, seeing someone buying clothes for her daughter. She didn’t know Harper was broke or that she intended to pay Seth for the purchases. And he realized explaining that might make things worse. Amelia would ask why Harper had to have someone else pay for her clothes, everything Harper was trying to hide would come tumbling out and the thing he’d spent a week of torture to avoid would happen.

Amelia Sloan would blame Clark.

There was only one way to fix this...

“We’re dating.”

The words came out of Seth’s mouth in a rush, as if the quicker he said it, the quicker Amelia would stop going down a road that Harper didn’t want her traveling.

But where Amelia’s face glowed with happy surprise, Harper’s mouth fell open.

Her reaction would have ruined everything if Seth hadn’t thought to step closer and put his arm around her waist.

Amelia all but melted with joy. “You didn’t want me to know you were dating one of the most eligible men in Manhattan? Harper! That’s ridiculous.”

“No, it’s not. Because we’re not—”

Seth squeezed her waist. “We’re not serious. Just started seeing each other,” he said, trying to mitigate the lie.

Amelia’s eyes narrowed. “And you thought my Harper didn’t dress well enough for your rarefied world?”

“No!” Seth assured her, scrambling for what to say. “She said she liked something in the window.” Oh, crap. Another lie. “And I wanted to buy it for her.” He had wanted to buy her clothes. “Because it pleases me to give her things.” That, too, was the truth. Remembering the joyful expression on Harper’s face when the clothes she loved had looked so good on her, he’d give away half his trust fund to see that look on her face again.

“Well, that’s sweet.” Amelia hugged her daughter. “I’d love to get coffee and chat, but I have something this afternoon. Why don’t you and Seth bring the baby over some night.”

“I’m sorry. We probably can’t. We’re kind of busy, too,” Seth explained before Harper could answer. This might not be the perfect lie, but it would hold long enough to get Harper settled in a job and a house. Once they left the store and were away from her mom, he could tell her that. “But I’ll have my assistant call yours tomorrow and they can set something up like dinner.”

“That would be lovely,” Amelia said, her eyes glowing.

Seth quickly grabbed the packages and herded Harper toward the door. “We’ll see you then.”

Amelia waved.

Harper reminded stonily quiet.

When they stepped out onto the street, he wasn’t surprised that she pivoted on him. “You have no idea what you’ve done.”

“I got you out of the store without having to admit anything to your mom.”

“Yeah, but now she’ll start snooping.”

“Into what?” He laughed. “She can call the tabloids, if she wants, looking for times we went out, places we’ve gone. But she’s not going to find anything.”

“And she’ll get suspicious.”

“So what?”

“You are such a babe in the woods. I’m either going to have to come clean with her, and soon, or we’re going to have to keep up this charade.”

“Would it be such a big deal to keep it up?”

She cast him a long look. “You can’t date anyone while you’re pretending to be dating me.”

“I feel uncomfortable leaving you alone at night, anyway.” He sighed. He hated lying. His father had been the consummate liar. He’d used lies to control, manipulate, humiliate, belittle and bully everyone from his employees to his own children. If there was one thing Seth had vowed never to do, it was lie.

But this was a worthy cause, an unusual situation. Harper, a widow with a baby, needed time to get herself settled before she told her mom she was broke and it was Clark’s fault.

Plus, her mom hadn’t appeared on the radar of Seth’s life before this. He didn’t think she’d start now. Unlike his father’s master manipulation lies, this little charade wouldn’t hurt anyone.

“Needing to get out of this mess will step up your job search a bit and we might have to start looking for houses before you have a job...but I think I did what I had to do.”

“You’re willing to pretend to be my boyfriend for at least the next four weeks?”

The ramifications of that rained down on him. No breakfasts, lunches or dinners with any women except colleagues...and no sex.

She shook her head. “That’s a long time.”

Yeah, that was sinking in and not pleasantly.

“And my mother is relentless. You’re a catch. She’s going to want me to keep you.”

That, thank God, made him laugh. “My reputation will save us. When we break up no one will be surprised.”

“Oh, really?”

“Yes. You’re taking this all too seriously. It’s a few weeks. What can she possibly do in a few weeks?”

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