The Boyfriend Arrangement

“Perfect. It feels like everything is falling into place. I just have one more little thing to do first.”

“What’s that?” Finn asked.

“I have to figure out where Harper lives.”

Twelve

“Come in.”

Harper took a deep breath and turned the knob that led to her grandfather’s study. She had been fearing—dreading—this moment since she was twenty-two years old. Now here she was, a woman of almost thirty years, and she felt as nervous as ever.

It was easy to be brave in Ireland when she’d been thousands of miles away from the consequences of her poor choices. With Josie having disappeared and the blackmail behind her, Harper knew she had to face her grandfather and the reality she’d avoided all this time. She had to tell him she was broke. Odds were that he’d probably already heard the news by now, but she’d wanted to tell him in person as soon as she had the chance.

“Afternoon, Grandpa.”

The elderly man looked up from his desk and smiled at the sight of his only granddaughter.

“Harper! What a surprise! You’re looking lovely, as always. For a moment I thought it was your mother standing there. You certainly have come to look so much like her as you’ve gotten older.”

Harper gave him a hug, ignoring the tears in his eyes as they both thought about the woman who’d been taken from them too soon. As she sat, Harper realized that she was older now than her mother had been when she died. It was hard to believe. Life could be so unfair sometimes. It made Harper feel foolish for wasting all her emotional energy on such silly things when her mother had been facing her own death and leaving her children behind at the same age.

“To what do I owe this visit?” his asked. “I didn’t expect to see you before your birthday. The big one is coming, isn’t it?”

Harper smiled and nodded. “Yes, I’ll be thirty.”

“I suppose you’ll have a big party to celebrate with your friends. Blow some of that inheritance on expensive champagne?”

She winced and shook her head. Considering everything that had happened over the last week, she hadn’t planned anything. Turning thirty was depressing enough. Add that she was now going to be single and broke going into her thirties and she couldn’t gather up much reason to celebrate. “Not exactly. That’s why I came by to see you today. I needed to talk to you about my trust fund.”

“Can’t wait until the end of the week for the money?” he asked with curious gray eyes. “I suppose I could loan you a few dollars until then.”

“No, Grandpa,” she said, reaching out to stop him from pulling out his wallet. “I’m not here to borrow money. I’m actually here because I needed to tell you something.”

His brows went up in surprise and he eased back into his leather chair. “Okay. What is it, Pumpkin?”

She took a deep breath, trying to figure out how she was going to tell him the truth. Pumpkin had screwed up. She’d thought that losing out on the money would be the hardest part, but she was wrong. Telling her grandfather what she’d done was far worse. The sun had risen and set on Harper as a child as far as he was concerned. He would be so disappointed.

“I’m broke, Grandpa.”

He narrowed his gaze at her, visibly trying to piece together what she meant by that. “Broke, you say?”

“Yes. I’ve been keeping it a secret all these years because I was embarrassed and I didn’t want to lose the rest of my trust fund. But I’m coming clean. I blew all the money when I was in college and I’ve been faking it ever since.”

“So all these years...you never once asked for money. Your father didn’t have any. How did you get by?”

Harper shrugged. “Like everyone else. I worked hard. I saved every dime I could instead of blowing it like I would’ve in the past.”

“But no one knew the truth? Not even your brother?”

“No, I didn’t tell anyone. Not Oliver, not Daddy. I didn’t want anyone to know, especially you.”

“If that’s the case, why are you telling me this now, Pumpkin?”

Now it was her turn to frown. “Because I should be honest. You added the provision that said if I mismanaged the first payment, I wouldn’t get the second. And I blew it. I wanted—no, needed—to tell you the truth, so you can have your financial manager do something else with the money. I’ve forfeited my share.”

Her grandfather reached for the candy bowl on the edge of his desk. He grabbed a soft caramel and handed a second one to her. For as long as she could remember, he’d always had caramels in his study. He unwrapped the candy and chewed it thoughtfully. Harper could only hold on to hers. She was waiting for his response. The rebuke. The disappointment. For him to announce that he was donating her inheritance to a charity.

But he didn’t. He just chewed his caramel and watched her. Finally he said, “Something else is wrong. What is it?”