The baby of the family, she’d grown up pampered and spoiled by her father and siblings. Anything she wanted, she wheedled and pouted until she got her way. Her father’s stroke just after her eighteenth birthday changed everything. With Trent Wingate incapacitated, their mother became the dominant parent and Harley’s world became a whole lot less fun.
Jaymes put her arm around Harley’s shoulders in a comforting hug. “You’ve only been in town a short while. Give yourself a little time to catch your breath before you start beating yourself up.”
“You’re right.” She straightened her spine and pushed away her melancholy.
“So, if it wasn’t your mother, who showed up that you didn’t expect?”
For a second, Harley considered downplaying her reaction, but she’d never kept things from her best friend. Why start now?
“I saw Grant.”
“Really?” Jaymes blurted, eyes widening “Are you sure?”
“Very.” The other woman’s acute surprise caused Harley’s heart to bang vigorously in her chest. “Is that unusual?”
“Very,” echoed Jaymes, growing reflective. “You know, he doesn’t show up at events like these. I bet he came because he knew you’d be here.”
“I can’t imagine how.” Harley tried to deny her escalating excitement, but the notion that Grant might have come tonight in order to see her made her giddy. “It’s not like he’d know Zest was my nonprofit.”
“I’ll bet he does.”
The disparaging sound Harley made didn’t change her friend’s optimistic expression. “I’m sure he hasn’t thought of me once in the last five years.”
“You don’t know that.”
Jaymes had been there with sympathy and advice when Harley returned from her weekend with Grant, humiliated and incensed after he’d freaked out upon learning her age. Confident that Jaymes would always have her back, Harley had spilled everything to her best friend about the encounter. The two girls were very different in how they approached life. Jaymes was a rock who led with her head; Harley a swiftly moving current, mercurial and prone to impulsive actions. Like disappearing overseas when she realized she was pregnant by a man she desired and who’d made it clear he wouldn’t ever consider a relationship with her.
Harley shook her head. “I’m sure I was barely a blip on his radar.” Something that couldn’t be said by her. Their encounter had left a lasting impression on her life. Especially in one very critical area.
“I’ll admit that I don’t know him all that well,” Jaymes said, “but everything I’ve heard about him indicates that he’s always been a workaholic and hasn’t been romantically linked to anyone except his ex-wife. I’m quite sure that what happened between you two was an anomaly for him.”
“Meaning?” Harley hated the way her heart jumped for joy at her friend’s comment.
“That the weekend probably stands out in his mind.”
“As something he’d never do again,” she insisted, her buoyant mood dipping as she recalled how he’d started dating Paisley Barnes a few short weeks after the Texas Cattleman’s Club ball.
No doubt he’d deemed the stunning blonde far more suitable in both age and experience than Harley had been at the time. He’d been so utterly appalled to learn at the end of their weekend together that she’d recently graduated from high school and railed at her in outrage that she’d intentionally misled him about everything. She’d been humiliated at being chastised like a naughty child, and refused to acknowledge the flaw in portraying herself as something she wasn’t.
Harley sighed at the unpleasant memory and cringed at the way she’d stormed off like the overindulged brat she’d once been. When she’d made the decision to put Royal, Texas, in her rearview mirror, she hadn’t intended to be gone for so long. However, she’d discovered that being out from beneath her siblings’ shadows gave her a newfound sense of her strengths and a better understanding of her weaknesses. Worried that coming back to Royal would cause her to regress, she’d stayed away.
Eventually, however, she’d decided the best way to demonstrate that she’d matured was to face her fears. Even so, seeing Grant tonight filled her with dread. Despite how motherhood had forced her to grow up fast in the half decade since their last encounter, it hadn’t changed the thirteen-year age gap between them. Was it foolish to hope that he’d give her credit for what she’d gleaned while living abroad? After all, she’d started a successful nonprofit and learned to not only take care of herself and her son, but also hundreds of women who relied on Zest to lift them out of the ravages of extreme poverty.
Pride flared, momentarily banishing her angst. When she’d originally conceived her nonprofit, she hadn’t given much thought to how it might flourish and grow. She’d just recognized that people didn’t want a handout. They wanted a han
d up. Teaching a marketable skill and creating a pipeline for selling the goods created pathways that enabled these women to improve their lives. Harley’s spark of an idea blew up into a giant blaze. But the issue of poverty was so enormous. The vast numbers of marginalized women in need of help so extensive. Thus, Zest was poised to grow beyond her ability to fund it. Especially now that her family’s present business woes had reduced the Wingate corporate donations she used to keep Zest afloat from a wide river to a dry creek bed.
“Harley?” Jaymes had to prod Harley back to the present.
“Sorry.” She grimaced at her friend’s obvious concern. “I was thinking about Zest.”
“We were talking about Grant.”
“I know, but of all the problems I have at the moment, Zest’s are the least likely to freak me out.” Harley leaned into Jaymes and wrapped her arm around the other woman’s waist. “You’ve been so remarkable all these years. I don’t know what I would’ve done without you. If not for your emotional support and all your amazing connections for Zest, I would be lost.”
“I don’t think that’s true,” Jaymes said with a fond chuckle. “But you’re welcome.”
“And for letting me stay with you until I can find a place to rent for the next few months.”