“You guys look like you’re doing great,” she said in an overly bright voice. “You don’t mind if I head out for a bit and let you work, do you?”
“I’m good with Will,” Jeremy said, turning back to the car, clearly having already forgotten her.
But Will didn’t look at all happy about it. “Are you sure you can’t stay?”
“No, I really can’t.” Because if she actually went forward with her plan to seduce him, she was going to do it right. “I’ll be back as soon as I can.”
His dark eyes held hers for a long moment, somehow seeming to pull her straight to him. “We’ll miss you.”
She almost reached for him then, almost blurted out that she’d made up her mind to give his intentions a whirl. But she still felt like a butterfly wrapped in its safe little cocoon.
By the time she returned to him this afternoon, she planned to have her brightly colored wings unfurled.
*
Harper was on the run, damn it!
Will had driven himself nuts thinking about her all week, planning the ways he’d tease her today. Fool that he was, he’d thought giving her some space to relive their crazy chemistry over and over would make her wild and crazy for him, too, when she finally saw him again.
Instead, she’d taken a business call, then rushed off.
Will was used to people wanting something from him, especially women. But Harper didn’t seem to want anything. Not even the things he was dying to give her. Just the opposite—he had to cajole and seduce her every step of the way, whether it was about the Maserati or a date...or to get his hands on her.
So today it was just Jeremy and him. Not that working with Jeremy didn’t have its own rewards. The kid was intelligent, he just had trouble with bigger concepts. But he followed instructions well. They worked companionably all day, continuing to number the shipment of sheet metal panels that had arrived on Friday.
“Great teamwork,” he said when they broke for the roast beef sandwiches Mrs. Taylor brought. She’d included milk and cookies as if they were kids.
“Thanks, Mrs. Taylor.” Jeremy’s voice was loud in the barn. He used a big voice when he was excited. Or when he met new people. Just as he had last weekend with Evan.
“You’re very welcome.” A short, rotund widow with white hair, Mrs. Taylor had been Will’s housekeeper for five years, moving with him from his previous house in San Mateo. She fixed meals when he was at home, did the cleaning, the shopping, laundry, household errands. Once a month, Will had a service come in to do all the heavy work, saving Mrs. Taylor’s back.
“I like her,” Jeremy confided after Mrs. Taylor had returned to the house in a golf cart. “She makes really good sandwiches.”
“She does.” There wasn’t much not to like about Mrs. Taylor.
Jeremy talked with his mouth full. “When are you going to take Harper out again?”
Will, in the middle of swallowing, almost lost his roast beef. “Do you want me to take your sister out again?”
Jeremy nodded vigorously. “I like you.” He chomped off a bite of cookie even though he hadn’t finished his sandwich yet. “You’re a lot nicer than the other guys she goes out with.”
Jealousy hit Will like he was a crash test dummy, straight in the chest, at the thought of Harper with another man. But he wouldn’t use Jeremy to get information about Harper, so he didn’t ask any questions. He merely said, “I like you, too, Jeremy. And I like Harper.”
Jeremy beamed, his eyes aglow. “Then it’s a deal. You take her out.”
“I have to ask Harper first.”
“She’ll say yes. She likes you. She always comes into the room to listen when we use Skype.”
“Maybe she’s just checking up on me.”
Jeremy shook his head, turning all the way to the right, then the left in an exaggerated movement. “Nuh-uh. She likes you. I know. Whenever I talk about you, she gets this funny look in her eyes. Like she’s dreaming even though she’s awake.”
Again, though Will loved getting this inside scoop on the woman he couldn’t stop thinking about, he wouldn’t allow himself to pry any more information out of Jeremy. “Let’s just wait until she gets here, okay?”
Which meant, unfortunately, that he’d have to dig deeper into his reserves of patience. Reserves that were running really thin where Harper was concerned.
But it wasn’t only patience Will was nearly out of by the time Harper finally returned—it was also self-control.