her marriage, and with some not-so-gentle prompting from everyone in her family had made inroads to reconciling with Dev.
“The counseling is going well.” A blush stained Pia’s cheeks. “We’re dating again.”
“Good for you,” Harper said, as Samira wolf whistled. “Are we talking ‘dating,’ cuz, or the horizontal bhangra?”
“Shut up.” Pia elbowed Samira but laughed. “We’re taking it slow.”
“I’m so happy for you both.” Samira gave Pia a quick hug. “Perhaps I should throw an informal dinner party or a barbecue, something to get us all together?” She slid a sideways glance at Harper. “Maybe I could invite Manny and make sure to secure the whipped cream under lock and key?”
“Don’t remind me.” Harper’s cheeks burned again at the memory of what she’d done. She was never reckless or impulsive, so she had no clue what had prompted her to choose such a childish payback. “What I did was incredibly immature, definitely not my finest moment.”
“He’s a good sport,” Samira said, eyeing her with open speculation. “But something tells me you wouldn’t be this wound up unless there’s more to this?”
Harper had no intention of telling the cousins about that toe-curling kiss and the all-too-brief follow up. The less time spent remembering the way her knees wobbled, her head spun, and everywhere in between zinged, the better.
“He rubbed me the wrong way, that’s all,” she said, glad her voice didn’t give her away, because after that first kiss she knew exactly how the dashing doctor could rub her and where.
“He’s too bloody charming for his own good,” Pia muttered, but there was no malice in it. “The guy must have five nipples or an extra ass cheek, because how could someone like him be single at forty?”
Samira burst out laughing and Harper joined in, as Pia grinned. “Seriously. There has to be something wrong with him.”
Apart from being opinionated and not afraid to express those opinions, Harper couldn’t see any faults. Then again, she knew better than anybody that a perfect facade could hide a multitude of sins.
As if thoughts of her parents could conjure them up, her cell buzzed with an incoming call, and a glance at the screen had her heart sinking.
She loved her dad, she really did, but Alec Ryland, once the life of every party, never failed to bring her down these days. She contemplated letting the call go to voice mail so he could leave a message, but with dad emblazoned on the screen and Samira and Pia casting her surprised glances as she hesitated, she felt obliged to take it.
“I’ll be back,” she mouthed, as she grabbed her cell and slipped out of the hall into a quiet corridor leading to the kitchen.
Taking a deep breath, she stabbed at the “answer” button and injected enthusiasm into her greeting. “Hey, Dad, everything okay?”
Rookie mistake and something she’d learned not to ask him since the shock separation from her mom fourteen months ago, because the question never failed to elicit a long-winded diatribe along the lines of, How could she do this to me? Thirty-five years of marriage means something to me. Is there someone else?
Harper had her own hurt to deal with after her parents’ separation; she didn’t have a lot left over to give.
“Not bad,” he said, his morose tone belying the casual response. “Just thought I’d check in with my best girl.”
Her dad never called after nine on a Saturday night, so Harper knew there was more to this.
“I’m actually at a wedding, Dad, so can’t really talk—”
“Is your mother out on a date tonight?”
Harper’s heart sank. She’d fielded various versions of this question for the last year, and thankfully, she could answer honestly because she had no idea about her mother’s love life and didn’t want to know.
“I’ve been busy, Dad, so haven’t spoken to Mom since last week.”
Another truth that hurt, because since her diagnosis Harper had withdrawn from her mother. Not because she didn’t love her gorgeous, immaculately presented mom, but because spending time with her mom reinforced how flawed Harper felt.
Glamorous Lydia Ryland had always valued appearances and had taught her daughter the same. Ironic, that the professional makeup course they’d done together for fun ten years ago now came in mighty handy for Harper to hide the ugly white patches on her skin.
There was another reason, a more potent one, why Harper didn’t hang out with her mom anymore. Deep down, where she didn’t want to acknowledge the truth, she blamed her mom for causing her dad so much