That warning had curtailed my compulsion for all of five minutes before my gaze automatically went back to Harlow.
Fuck! My obsession kind of reminded me of one of those idiots who gets so mesmerized by a natural disaster that they forget to move the hell out of the way. They know that shit is coming to kill them, but they’re still totally absorbed with watching it.
Yeah, as a matter of fact, it was just like that, except I was that idiot this time.
Harlow squeezed my hand, and it jolted me out of my thoughts.
She was looking at me expectantly, obviously ready to go.
I hugged my sister again, and Harlow and I were out the door.
“You have such a great family,” she said as we walked toward the SUV.
“Yeah, what about Cooper?”
“He’s a little…intense,” Harlow replied. “But he was really nice to me. I can tell he’s incredibly smart, just like the rest of you.”
“He’s smarter,” I confessed. “He’s always registered a higher IQ score than Riley, Hudson, or me.”
“Is that painful?” she teased.
“Only when I try to beat him at chess,” I quipped. “I gave up.”
She was quiet for a few seconds before she said, “Taylor asked me to be her maid of honor.”
“I hope you agreed. I told Hudson I’d be his best man. Not that anyone would know it, but I think Cooper was touched when Taylor asked him to walk her down the aisle.”
“Of course I agreed,” she said. “Nobody deserves a happily-ever-after more than Taylor.”
“What about you?” I asked curiously.
After putting her purse and her jacket on the hood, she turned toward me and leaned against the SUV like she was in no hurry to get in. “I think you were right when you said that I should give myself some short-term rewards. I’d like to do that once in a while, and live a little more in the moment. I’m way too regimented, and too much of a planner. I’ll never change that, and I’m not sure if I want to, but I think I can relax a little. I nearly died, and it’s kind of sad that I can’t think of one fun, indulgent, or impulsive thing I’ve done for well over a year.”
“Sounds like a plan. Anything I can do to help?”
“Maybe,” she said in a slightly flirty voice I’d never heard before.
“Whatever you want, Harlow. Name it and it’s yours,” I told her as I moved a little closer. Hell, there was nothing I wouldn’t do to keep her smiling and happy just like this.
She laughed. “I don’t want things. Maybe just a few favors. You know I’m not going to really need an advisor much longer, right?”
“Yeah,” I said in a husky voice. “I’ve been thinking about that, too, but I’m not planning on going anywhere.”
“That’s good. I don’t want you to go anywhere.”
I let out a relieved breath. I’d been preparing myself for her to tell me she was good without an advisor, and that it wasn’t really necessary for us to get together all that often anymore.
“Okay, so I’d love it if you’d let me drive your Bugatti,” she said hesitantly. “We could go someplace where there’s no traffic—outside of the city. You could help me so I don’t scratch it or something, but I think I’d like to see what it’s like to pilot that rocket just once.”
Okay, so that was definitely not something I’d expected to hear.
I grinned like an idiot as I saw the hopeful look in her eyes. “Sweetheart, you can drive any one of my vehicles any time you want. They’re just cars. Although I guarantee that once you feel that kind of power, you’ll want to do it again. I have property outside of the city where I run my cars on tracks or straightaways.”
“I just want to do it once,” she insisted. “I want to try things I’ve never done before, and have experiences that are new to me. Who knows? I might even drop the cash for one of your must-try, pricier restaurants.”
“I was planning on taking you to all of them, Harlow. I just needed to know you were comfortable enough to go,” I informed her.
I didn’t want Harlow dropping any of her own cash when I could easily take her to every single one of those restaurants.
“No. I’ll take you,” she insisted. “I have plenty of money in my bank account. It wouldn’t be the same if I wasn’t laying out