The Boyfriend Arrangement

“I told you about my brother.”

She nodded. “Only as it pertained to your work and your inspiration. You never share anything about your past, your feelings. You just won’t let me in.”

That was the crux of it: how could he possibly care about her—really, truly care about her—if he was shutting her out like this?

It was then she realized that maybe this was a problem of her own making. This wasn’t supposed to be a real relationship, despite how far they’d gone off the rails. They weren’t supposed to confide in each other, get physical and fall in love. She was the one who’d broken the rules and fallen for him. She’d poured her heart and soul out to him and gotten nothing in return. So this was really a mess she’d made. She couldn’t be mad at him for sticking to their agreement. He didn’t love her. And she had to be okay with that.

But she didn’t need to stay around and witness the evidence of her foolishness any longer. If she stayed, she would say something she would regret and she didn’t want to agitate him any more than she already had when he was in this fragile state.

“Where are you going?” he asked as she stood and scooped her purse up from the floor.

“I’m going home.”

“Why?”

Harper stopped and looked at him one last time. “Because the wedding is over,” she said. “Thanks for pretending to be my date this week. I couldn’t have gotten through it all without you.”

He sat up in the bed and reached for her. “Wait. Are you coming back?”

She moved toward the door, finally shaking her head. “Why would I? Now I know you’re going to be okay. You’re in good hands. Goodbye, Sebastian.” She slipped out the door before he could respond.

Dashing down the hallway, she rushed into the nearest elevator to keep from changing her mind.

* * *

“Mr. West, you have a visitor,” Ingrid called from the living room.

Sebastian had heard the phone ring a few minutes earlier and assumed it was the front desk. They were the only ones who called the house line. That meant he either had a delivery coming up or a visitor. He’d already received some flowers from his parents and a plant from work, so he’d figured there might be a guest coming upstairs. He had gotten out of bed, put on some real clothes and straightened his disheveled appearance in anticipation of company.

Looking in the mirror was rough. His goatee was getting long and the rest of his beard was starting to fill in with coarse, almost black hair since he hadn’t shaved since in Ireland. He needed a haircut, too, as the dark waves were getting wild and fighting his comb to stay standing straight. His eyes were bloodshot and he was bruised and scabby from the elbows down from the hospital using him as a human pin cushion.

It really was a lost cause. A brush through his hair and a swig of mouthwash was the best he could do on short notice. He wanted to look somewhat put together just in case it was Harper.

He’d had a couple visitors since he’d gotten home from the hospital—his family had even driven down from Maine to see him—but the only person he really wanted to see was Harper. So far, she had eluded him.

He made his way down the hallway to where his home health aide, Ingrid, was waiting on him. She smiled and gestured to the couch where someone was sitting. It was Finn.

Damn.

“Don’t get too excited to see me,” Finn said in a dry tone. “I wouldn’t want to put too much strain on your heart.”

Sebastian made his way over to his recliner next to the couch and settled into it.

Ingrid brought them both bottles of sparkling water and then disappeared into the kitchen to give them some privacy.

“Sorry,” Sebastian said. “I was hoping you were someone else.”

“Harper, perhaps?”

“Yes.” There was no sense in trying to deny it.

“Has she been by to see you since you left the hospital?”

“No.” It had been several long, lonely days without her smiling face and sassy attitude.

Finn frowned at his partner. “That seems odd. Are you sure that she’s okay? She wouldn’t leave your side for a moment at the hospital.”

Sebastian didn’t remember most of his time at the hospital, but knowing she’d been there, so dedicated to making sure he was okay, made him feel better. He’d never had someone like that in his life before. And yet he’d managed to ruin it the moment he’d woken up. “Yes, well, once she determined I was okay, she left and said she wasn’t coming back. I was just being optimistic that she’d changed her mind.”