and found my driver leaning against the hood of the SUV and talking to another driver. When he saw me, he jumped up and rushed to open the back door for me.
“Where to?” he asked.
“Home,” I answered.
He closed the door and moved around to get in the driver’s seat. I stared out the window, in disbelief she was right here in Boulder. I hadn’t bothered to look her up in all the years we’d been apart. I figured it was better to leave things alone. I didn’t realize she was right under my nose this whole time.
The SUV pulled to a stop in front of the family home, the place I had grown up. It wasn’t all that flashy. It was big and was certainly luxurious on the outside but not so much on the inside. It was all about keeping up appearances. We had refurbished the house, bringing it back to the splendor it had once had.
“I’ll see you tomorrow morning,” I told the driver and headed for the front door of the chalet-style house.
I walked inside, the dark hardwood floors giving it a warm, inviting feeling. My mother had taken a lot of time to pick the furnishings when we finally had enough money in the family coffers to fix the home up once again. That had been satisfying. I knew my father was thrilled to see the house be transformed into the greatness it had once been.
Things had been pretty rocky there for a while. My father was a proud man and refused to let anyone know how dire the situation was. The yard was immaculate, and the curb appeal gave the impression that we were well off. Beyond the walls, we were just like an average family. My mom clipped coupons and we bought most of our clothes off the clearance rack.
We told people we were too busy to go to the Hamptons in the summer or jet off to Hawaii with our old friends. It was all part of the cover. My father was embarrassed to admit the chain of resorts had been bleeding money for years. Not anymore.
I walked up the stairs to my bedroom suite. I took off the suit jacket and laid it on the bed before loosening the tie. I took it off, tossing it on the bed as well before moving to look out the window. The backyard was covered in snow. Everything was covered in snow, but I remembered when we were younger, the backyard rarely looked quite so serene when we lived in the house. We built snowmen, snow forts, and just made a mess of it in general.
I pulled myself away from the window and headed back downstairs. I went into the study and poured myself a scotch before sitting down in one of the leather wingback chairs. It was my father’s domain, but when he wasn’t in the house, I took it as my own.
I leaned my head back, letting the chair cradle my head as I took a stroll down Memory Lane. I thought about Harper and the many memories we had made in this house. She had been Cori’s best friend, which made it a little cliché for me to be attracted to her, but I had been into her from the start.
My dad wasn’t pleased with my grades in school. He demanded I find a tutor to help me pull my grades up. Failing grades meant the partial scholarship we had gotten for the private school would be yanked. Cori suggested Harper tutor me, so I called her, and we immediately hit it off.
She was crazy smart, but it didn’t just naturally come to her. She worked her ass off. She made me feel like a chump for taking the easy way for so long. She was ambitious and a true go-getter. She was a scholarship kid as well. Unlike me, she didn’t take it for granted. She didn’t want to risk losing her place at the private school.
She changed me. She made me want to try harder. I credited her for giving me that drive I needed to push myself to save the family business. I remembered when I first told my dad I was ready to help him. He’d been hesitant at first, but I convinced him. Together, we turned things around and managed to bring the chain back to its previous glory. Hell, I liked to think it was better than what it had been.