to help me.”
“You’re not dense, Harper. Far from it. And I’ll definitely tell you when I need something.”
“Do you hate the artwork? Is that why you asked? We can switch it out.”
It was surprising to see just how eager he was to please me. “It’s fine,” I told him. “I just wondered if it was really your style, because it doesn’t look like you.”
He grinned at me. “Doesn’t it? I’m basically a hot mess, and so are those paintings.” I laughed at that, and he asked, “Are you hungry? We can see what Tristan left us in the kitchen, and if it doesn’t appeal to you, I can make something else. Fair warning, that something else will probably be pancakes, since it’s the only dish I feel I’ve mastered at this point.”
I kissed him and said, “Pancakes are perfect.”
The next morning, I woke up alone in Harper’s very big, very white bed. That had almost always been the case in Hawaii too, because he tended to get up close to dawn, no matter what time he went to bed the night before. There was a mug and a silver carafe on the nightstand with a sticky note that said ‘drink me.’ I sat up and grinned, then poured myself a cup of coffee.
Once I finally got up, I showered and dressed, then opened the balcony doors to let in some fresh air. Down below me, the pool sparkled in the sunlight. A cute guy in shorts and a tank top was skimming the water with a net on a long handle, while another guy trimmed the hedges at the edge of the pristine lawn. Off to the left, Kel was feeding the chickens, and the housekeeper had collected some eggs and was bringing them inside.
It took a lot of people to run Harper’s little kingdom. Everyone seemed to know exactly how they fit into the big picture…except me.
The newness of this situation felt odd and more than a little disorienting, but maybe that was to be expected. Being both Harper’s assistant and his boyfriend was obviously going to take some getting used to. So was the fact that I was (sort of) living here. I could see why we’d both hesitated to make it official, given how fast everything had happened. But it left me in a weird kind of limbo. I lived here, but not really. But I did. No wonder I felt like I was adrift.
Chapter 11
The next several days were utterly exhausting. I accompanied Harper to countless interviews, appearances on TV and radio shows, fan events—it went on and on. There was a lot of buzz about his upcoming sci-fi action film, which was good, but this never-ending cycle of answering the same questions and posing for photos and smiling for the cameras was taking its toll on Harper. He fell into bed soon after we got home every night, then got up the next morning and did it all again.
On the day before his birthday and the U.S. premiere of his film, we arrived on the set of the Allison Show. Allison Hall had been the undisputed queen of daytime talk shows for the last decade, after a successful career as a stand-up comedian. She and Harper got along great, and she always introduced him as one of her favorite guests.
She dropped by his dressing room before taping began, and after she gave him a hug, she turned to me and stuck her hand out as she said, “You must be Phoenix. It’s a pleasure to meet you.”
That completely threw me off. I’d been to this show with Harper and other clients on at least four occasions, and she’d never acknowledged my existence. I shook her hand and murmured, “It’s nice to meet you, too.”
I didn’t know what had changed until she said, “I watched a couple of the videos you and Harper posted online, and they’re just wonderful. The chemistry between you two is off the charts! Since Harper brought you along today, I think we should call you up onstage in the middle of his interview. We’ll pretend it’s spontaneous, and that I’m ambushing you. The audience loves it when I do that. What do you say?”
My mouth fell open. I was so surprised that Harper ended up answering for me. “He’d love that. Right, Phee?”
“Yeah, but you’re here to promote your new movie,” I told him. “I don’t want to get in the way of that.”
Allison waved her hand dismissively, “We can do