Amusing You - Claire Cullen Page 0,52

wait right here for you.”

Tessa gave him an inquisitive look when he returned behind the counter.

“Don’t ask,” he murmured. “I wouldn’t even know where to start.”

Come the end of his shift, Tessa sent him off, and Harper reluctantly got into the passenger seat of Samuel’s car. They didn’t talk much, and Harper was happy to let Samuel’s GPS do the navigating to William’s office. They parked a street away, and Samuel sat there texting on his phone for a few minutes before they got out.

Samuel looked up and down the street with distaste. “Such a dreary place. I’ve never understood what William sees in the city. It’ll be such a nice change when he finally moves home.”

Harper had never heard William express anything but happiness at living in the city, except the occasional grumble over parking. And he’d never once mentioned leaving.

“When is he relocating?”

Samuel turned piercing eyes back toward him. “Oh, after the wedding, of course.”

“Of course,” Harper said woodenly, steeling himself for what was going to be the strangest conversation of his life. He could see now what Samuel was aiming for; he just didn’t understand how the omega thought he was going to pull it off.

They reached the entrance to William’s office.

“It’s open.”

Samuel pushed the door in and moved back to let Harper through. Harper stepped into the small corridor and turned left into William’s office. And there, in the midst of a kiss, were William and another omega. Dante, of course.

William stumbled back a step, his hands coming up as if to ward Dante off. His eyes flew up, widening when he caught sight of Harper.

“Harper, this isn’t…”

Dante spun around, his eyes flashing with emotion. Samuel stepped up beside Harper, his arms folded.

“Dad?” William’s eyes flickered wildly around the room, taking in each of them. His hands were clenched into fists, his body a knot of tension. “I don’t understand.”

“Oh, William.” Samuel sighed loudly. “I shouldn’t still be cleaning up your messes, not at your age. But the truth had to come out somehow.”

Chapter Twenty-Four

William kept checking his phone, hoping that Harper would call. They had so much to talk about. The mistake at Inspire Inc., which explained a lot of what had gone wrong—and right—between them, the pregnancy, and where they stood with each other. The more he thought about it, the more he realized that he owed Harper more of an explanation for his behavior than what he’d told him so far. What Dante had done had been far more than a mere pregnancy scare and had damaged William more than he’d been willing to admit. He’d spent years closed off, cold to others, afraid to trust… and then Harper had tumbled into his life. The omega was warm and pushy and got under his skin. It had driven him to distraction at first, irritated him beyond belief, until he realized the omega saw him more clearly than anyone had in a very long time. Harper had drawn him out, had given back some of what had been taken from him. He deserved to know that.

When he asked Beckett to talk to Zac about intervening on his behalf, his friend had been oddly reluctant.

“Harper’s working through some things too. Give it some time, you owe each other that much.”

So William was letting things lie and striving to be patient. His work was a welcome distraction instead of a taxing ordeal, and he had Harper to thank for that. Everywhere he looked in his life, there were signs of Harper’s influence. Every visit to the gym, every meal he cooked in his kitchen, every time he sat down to sketch out a new idea. The omega’s touch was visible in every facet of his life. How had he been so slow to see what now looked obvious in hindsight? They were meant for each other. He only hoped his stubbornness and difficult attitude when he’d been blindsided by Harper’s news hadn’t damaged things beyond repair.

He gave himself an hour of free drawing that evening, just letting his pencil sketch anything that came to mind. Over and over, he returned to the same idea. A house, and a nursery. No guesses as to why that was on his mind.

The sound of the buzzer to the office startled him, disrupting his flow, and pulling him from his reverie. It was well after office hours. Who could be dropping by? Unless… Harper.

He got up, straightened his clothes, and ran his fingers through his unruly hair as he hurried