“I told you not to worry about anything tonight, Harper. And I meant it.” He held up the bottle of Riesling he’d picked up. “I’ll pour a glass of wine and fix you a plate.”
“You don’t have to.” She clearly wasn’t used to having anyone take care of her.
He pointed to the couch and put on his best boss voice. “Sit.”
She shook her head at his tone, but he caught the way her lips were curving up as she relaxed into one end of the sofa. Slipping off her high heels, she leaned back with a sigh, obviously admiring the newly tidied room.
They’d also cleaned up in there, sorting Jeremy’s crayons by color into the huge box. Will had learned that coloring was homework, likely a hand-eye coordination exercise.
“Can I watch Animal Planet?” Jeremy dashed across the room and picked up the remote, but stood motionless, his finger on the button, until Harper nodded. Then he plopped down on the carpet in front of the TV and started flipping channels.
“Not so close, please,” Harper chided.
As Jeremy spider-walked backward, Will poured her wine. Between them, he and Jeremy had unloaded the dishwasher, found where everything went, and stacked all the dirty dishes in the machine. Which meant that Will not only knew where her wineglasses were, he also knew that she had too many cans of baked beans and an empty peanut butter jar, as if she always forgot to make a grocery list and couldn’t remember what she needed when she got to the store. He’d also found the bag of white chocolate truffles in the cupboard next to the fridge, probably the only treat she let herself indulge in.
But most of all, he loved that her house was clearly a home, full of warmth and messes and laughter and love. His own spectacular compound seemed cold by comparison.
“This should ease the day’s tension.” He handed her the glass of wine.
She sipped gratefully, closing her eyes to savor either the flavor or the relaxing effects. “This is just what I needed. Thank you.” She glanced up. “This is the same wine I had at Cannelli’s.”
“I remembered you liked it.”
“You’re too good to be true,” she said softly, and something tightened in his gut. The same tightening that occurred when she’d called him sweet over the phone. Because if she knew the truth about the things he’d done...
Forcing the thought aside, just as he had so many times before with her, he plated a portion for her from each carton and finished off with a spring roll covered in sweet-and-sour sauce.
“Aren’t you eating?” she asked when he sat on the couch empty handed.
“Jeremy wouldn’t eat unless I did, too. And since I wasn’t sure when you’d make it back—”
“I’m really sorry.”
“Stop apologizing. In fact, as I recall, I promised that if you did it again—”
Will took her mouth in a second kiss that was a heck of a lot less sweet and soft than the first of the night had been. Jeremy might still be in the same room with them, but he was glued to the TV and wasn’t paying any attention to them at all.
Forcing himself to draw back before he got completely carried away, Will said, “I enjoyed your brother’s company. I always do.”
“Am I allowed to say thank you for getting dinner and picking Jeremy up?” She gave him a cheeky smile. “Or do I say thank you too much, as well?”
“I love it when you’re polite,” he said as he curled a lock of her hair around his finger. Then he lowered his voice and added, “So polite one moment, and then so wild the next.” He was close enough to appreciate the sound of her breath hitching in her throat at his suggestive words.
He drank from her glass of wine, then stole a cashew off her plate. It was another intimacy he enjoyed, just like playing with her hair. From the first day they’d met, he’d had a need to touch her in small ways as well as big. It didn’t always have to be about sex—in fact, these little touches seemed to heighten their intimacy in a way simple sexual contact didn’t. He’d never been like this with another woman, never so much as thought about becoming intimate with one of them beyond a few hours in the bedroom.
But Harper was different. She was important to him.
So important that he hoped the wine had mellowed her. She’d already had a harried day, and he didn’t want to make things worse. But he didn’t feel right trying to seduce her before he’d talked with her about what had happened at the grocery store.
“There was an issue at the store when I arrived.”
She glanced at Jeremy, a deep line forming immediately between her brows. “What happened?” she asked in a low voice.
Will looked at Jeremy, too. Thankfully, the leopard cubs reigned over his attention. “He didn’t do anything. It was busy. Like it always is at the end of the work day,” Will added to bring home his point. “He wasn’t bagging fast enough for the checker or the customer, and he didn’t pack the groceries correctly. A cantaloupe on top of eggs.”
She waited, an expectant and on her pursed lips.
“And,” he said in a voice low enough that only she could hear, “the checker called him an idiot in front of the customers. Among other insults.”
Her gaze shot to Jeremy again, her eyes darkened with worry. And a deep sorrow that Will wished he could erase permanently. “Is he okay?”
“He’s fine. Your brother is resilient. Compassionate, too. He actually asked me not to have the woman fired, because she’s got a sick mother.”