Ever since London had spied Linc Thurston, Harrison had noticed a nagging disquiet. No, that wasn’t quite true. He’d been troubled since the first night he and London had slept together after she admitted her mother didn’t believe Harrison was the sort of man Lon
don should date.
Normally he didn’t care about anyone’s opinions, but the closer he and London grew, the more he wondered when her mother would put pressure on her to find someone more suitable. Harrison had no idea if she’d fight for them or cave to her mother’s will and that bothered him a lot.
Harrison had assumed he’d come to know London quite well during the last couple of weeks. And he believed he’d seen a change in her. Where she’d been reserved and even a bit prickly toward him at first, once he’d gotten to know the woman beneath the impeccable designer suits, he’d found complicated layers of ambition, passion and vulnerability that intrigued him but also made him leery of moving too fast.
Her walls went up and came down in ever-fluctuating responses to ways he behaved and how deeply he plumbed her emotions. Yet now as he wondered about London’s views on the future of their relationship, Harrison accepted he couldn’t walk away from what they’d begun. He wasn’t a quitter. And she was a woman worth fighting for.
“There you are.” London’s overly bright smile couldn’t hide the shadows darkening her gold-flecked blue eyes. “I’ve been looking all over for you.”
“I’m glad you found me.”
Harrison put out his hand and smiled as London slipped hers into it. Ten days earlier she would’ve resisted doing something this simple and profoundly intimate. Her level of comfort with him had come a long way in a short period of time. Yet he couldn’t shake the feeling that things were ever on the verge of swinging back.
“Did you have fun?” he asked.
“I did. Makes me want to take up polo.”
“Really?” He’d like to see her barreling down the field, mallet swinging. “Do you ride?”
“I used to when I was younger. My dad taught me. He loves to hunt.” A girlish smile curved her lips. “You know, ride to the hounds.”
“They still do that?”
“Tuesdays, Thursdays and Sundays during season.”
Harrison shook his head in bemusement. “Who knew?”
“Can we get out of here?” she asked, catching him by surprise. “I want to be alone with you.”
“Nothing would make me happier.”
But a nagging thought in the back of his mind left him questioning whether she was eager to be with him or just looking to escape an event where her ex was with someone else.
It didn’t help that she seemed unusually preoccupied during the return trip to Charleston.
“Anything in particular you want to do?” he asked, breaking the silence as the car rolled along King Street. “It’s not too early to grab a drink.”
“Sure. Where do you want to go?”
“The Gin Joint or Proof?”
“The Gin Joint, I think.”
Fifteen minutes later they’d settled into one of the booths in the cozy bar and ordered two quintessential Gin Joint drinks. The bar prided itself on its craft cocktails, seasonally updated, with clever names like Gutter Sparrow, Whiplash, Whirly Bird and Lucky Luciano.
“Delicious,” London commented after taking a sip of her Continental Army cocktail, featuring apple brandy, caraway orgeat, lime, Seville orange, falernum, sugar and muddled apple. “The perfect fall drink.”
Silence fell between them as they sipped their cocktails and contemplated the snack menu. Harrison debated whether to bring up the topic of her ex and the issues bothering him.
“I’m just going to come out and ask,” he said abruptly, causing London to look up from the menu in surprise. “Today after you saw Linc, you seemed distracted and upset.”
Her eyes widened. “I wasn’t.”
She was a terrible liar, but he decided against pressing her. Instead, he turned to another burning question.
“Have you spoken with your mother about us?” Harrison winced at his blunt delivery. “I’m asking because I see a future for us.” And he wanted to know what stood in the way.