I placed my phone and its flashlight on the nightstand, which provided plenty of light for now. Then I kicked off my shoes and climbed under the blanket with Harper, and we wrapped ourselves around each other.
After a while, I asked, “Why didn’t you put up a fight when I broke up with you? It was depressing when you just let me go like I meant nothing to you.”
“I thought I was being clever. I insisted on this trip to Hawaii because I figured it’d give me a week to change your mind. I didn’t know what I’d done to make you dump me, but I figured whatever it was must have been bad, so I’d need plenty of time to fix it.” He grinned and added, “I also knew this house was tiny, so I was hoping all that forced proximity would remind you there are some things you actually like about me. My God are you stubborn, though! I really thought you might spend the entire week camped out on the porch.”
“I was absolutely going to. I was so mad when I thought you’d replaced me in two seconds.”
“I wasn’t too thrilled when I thought you’d decided to hit on most of my household, either,” he said.
“You were so jealous!”
“Of course I was. You’re mine, Phee.”
“Say that again.”
“Why?”
“Because I love hearing it.”
He kissed me, and then he said, “You’re mine, and I’m yours. I know this is still new, but we’re meant to be. I really believe that.”
“How can you be so sure?”
He picked up my hand and pressed it to his chest. “I feel it in here.”
I grinned and said, “You’re sweet and sappy and a hopeless romantic.”
That made him grin, too. “But you like that about me, right?”
“As a matter of fact, I do.”
We ended up talking for hours, curled up together in that warm, comfortable bed. As the first light of dawn seeped into the room, he whispered, “I want to be good enough for you, Phee.”
“What do you mean?”
“I know I’m kind of a doofus who can barely even feed himself, but I’m really going to try to do better. I don’t want you to feel like you’re spending your life babysitting an immature man-child.”
“You don’t have to change a thing about you,” I said, “because I think you’re wonderful.”
“You do?”
“Absolutely.”
Coming face to face with the insecure boy at the heart of the man made me feel protective of Harper. It also made me realize something. I’d always thought he and I couldn’t be more different, but he’d just shown me that deep down, we were exactly the same.
Chapter 9
The first thing I saw when I opened my eyes the next morning was a chicken in a sweater vest. Loco was nesting in the center of Harper’s pillow, and I mumbled, “Where’d your daddy go?” As always, that was met with a vacant stare.
I rolled out of bed and staggered to the bathroom, where I discovered Harper had thoughtfully left my toiletry case on the counter. Once I showered, I took a hard look at myself in the mirror. I’d been pretty thoroughly failing to give a shit about my appearance lately, and it showed. To make up for that, I spent some time trimming my beard, and then I actually used some gel in my hair and tried to give it a bit of style.
That totally failed, so I gave up and returned to the bedroom, where I found my clothes neatly unpacked in the closet. Harper had been busy, and I’d slept through all of it.
I found out just how busy after I got dressed and joined him in the kitchen. Every inch of counter space was covered with pots and pans, food, dishes, and miscellaneous items. He was trying his damnedest to make breakfast, so I didn’t comment on the mess. Instead, I kissed his cheek and said, “It smells good in here.”
“The coffee smells good. The rest smells like it caught fire, which it did. More than once. I’m not giving up, though.”
As he poured me a cup of coffee, I said, “I appreciate all this effort.”
He guided me to a seat at the little round table at one end of the kitchen and put the coffee and a bowl of fruit salad in front of me. “Proceed with caution,” he said. “I know it looks like I chopped it with a lawnmower, and I’m not sure everything in there is edible.”
It wasn’t, but I tried to be positive as