her hands and bringing his lips back to hers. He used his tongue to probe slowly inside her mouth, mimicking the same movement he was making with his hips, driving her crazy, driving her over—
“Ahem.”
Harper let out a surprised gasp, sitting straight up, Jak jolting in front of her. She scooted quickly off the table, turning, straightening her shirt, and quickly smoothing her hair.
Jak’s grandfather was standing in the doorway, staring at them with thin-lipped disapproval. “Sir,” she said too quickly, too breathlessly. “Uh, hello, Mr. Fairbanks, sir, good to see you.”
He gave her a precursory glance, his eyes doing a quick once-over of them both. She refused to look down at Jak, though she grimaced internally, knowing exactly what Jak looked like at the front of his previously pressed khakis.
Embarrassing didn’t begin to cover it.
“Dinner’s almost ready,” his grandfather said. “The whole family’s here. I wanted to make sure you joined us, Jak.”
Harper didn’t miss the way he pointedly said Jak’s name, but left her out. “Oh, well, I should go—”
“Harper will stay,” he said, not breaking eye contact with his grandfather. Jak took her hand. For a tense moment they stared at each other. Was she missing something? She realized this was an awkward situation, but Jak’s grandfather was only making it ten times worse. Jak leaned forward, sniffing the air, his brow wrinkling. “What is that?” he asked, a strange tone to his voice.
Jak’s grandfather brushed at the front of his shirt, looking suddenly chastised for some reason. “Er, cigar smoke. Bad habit. I promised Loni I’d quit.” He looked at Harper, giving her a slight smile. “Forgive my rudeness. I was surprised to find Jak had company. Of course, you may join us for dinner.”
“Oh. Um—” Jak squeezed her hand and she gave him a quick glance, understanding that he was telling her he wanted her there, not to decline dinner. Please, his eyes seemed to say. “Thank you for the dinner invitation. I’d love to join you.”
He gave her a smile that looked halfway genuine. “Good. I’ll see you both in the dining room in five minutes.” With that, he turned, exiting the room, and Harper sunk back to the table, putting her face in her hands. “Ugh,” she said, lifting her gaze to Jak. “I just made an awful impression, didn’t I?”
His face did that thoughtful thing it did for a moment as he worked out a word. Impression, she imagined and then he shook his head slowly. “The . . . my grandfather . . .” He looked behind her, seeming to be choosing the right words. “I think he was a different person before . . . my father died. A better person.”
“What makes you think that?”
“His smile in the pictures here . . . the ones before and the ones . . . after. It’s different.”
She studied him. Trusted his judgment. He was perceptive. It made her feel a form of . . . honor that he wanted her in his life. He’d chosen her. Then again, it wasn’t as though he had an assortment of choices. Stop it, Harper. She had this habit of convincing herself people only chose her out of default. Maybe that particular hurt had come from very real circumstances, but at some point, she had to find her own value and believe in it. Might as well be now.
She took his hand. “Come on. Introduce me to your new family.”
As they drew nearer to the dining room, she heard voices, glasses clinking, and a woman’s laugh. There was a powder room to the right, and Harper, feeling a burst of nerves, stopped. “I’m just going to freshen up and I’ll meet you in there. Go on without me.” She nodded to the room beyond.
“Okay,” Jak said, bending forward and kissing her quickly on the lips. “Hurry,” he mouthed, giving her a wide-eyed stare and tilting his head toward the room where the others waited. She put her hand over her mouth so as not to laugh out loud, and his lip twitched too before he turned and headed into the dining room.
She took a minute to freshen up and take a few deep breaths, and then walked quietly in the direction of the dining room. As she approached, she heard Mr. Fairbanks’s voice saying her name and came to a halt. He was directly on the other side of the doorway and was saying something about her as she noticed clinking ice dropping into a glass.