Page 122 of Seeing Harper

“Harper, I got more than I ever thought possible.”

The sound of a car racing up the drive caught their attention, followed by the sound of it coming to a sudden stop, the door opening and slamming, and footsteps crunching through the gravel toward the barn. “Harper?! You in there?” Clay called out.

Harper blew all the air out of her lungs and let her head fall forward tiredly. “I don’t need this right now,” she whispered to herself.

“Harper,” Mr. Bigsby said quietly.

She raised her head and looked at him.

“Hear him out, girlie. He’s one of the good ones.”

“You don’t understand…”

“No, I don’t. But I don’t think you fully understand whatever it is that has you all tied up like you are either.”

“Harper!” Clay exclaimed when he finally made it to the entrance and saw her and Mr. Bigsby standing there talking. “I was so worried about you! Do you know I searched the property out behind my place over and over again looking for you? Finally Summer texted me and said Riley wanted me, now, right now, so I had to stop. Then they told me what happened and I…”

Harper held up her hand to indicate that he should stop.

“You need to know that…”

“Stop, Clay! Just stop. You don’t owe me any explanation at all. It’s okay. You told me weeks ago that you thought you’d found your mate and I let myself think we might have had a moment and got hopeful about it. I’m happy for you. It’s okay. Just go and be happy. I’m visiting with my horses for a while. They’ve been sold and I don’t know how long I’ll be able to. So, it’s okay, with you and me. I’ll get over it. Just go.”

Clay and Mr. Bigsby shared a slight smile that told her there was something going on that she wasn’t aware of. They had a secret and wasn’t that strange, since they’d only met once that she was aware of.

“What’s going on here?” she asked.

“I’m going to leave y’all to it,” Mr. Bigsby said. He reached out and very awkwardly patted Harper’s shoulder. “It’s going to be fine, girlie. Just give him a chance to talk.”

She opened her mouth to ask more questions, but Mr. Bigsby held up a finger. “Unh unh! Let the man speak.”

Harper snapped her mouth closed and simply watched Mr. Bigsby as he walked past Clay, patted him on the shoulder, and relaxedly strolled out of the stable whistling happily to himself. When she focused on Clay again, he was wearing a soft smile.

“What’s going on?”

“First things first… Erica isn’t my girlfriend. She’s my attorney.”

“Your attorney?” Harper asked. That was not even an option in her mind. “Why do you need an attorney?”

“After we finished everything I needed handled, I offered to buy her lunch in celebration of the deal we’d just completed. Then you arrived at the restaurant, and everything blew up. It’s nothing like you thought it was. It’s a completely professional situation.”

She just barely shook her head, lifting an arm just a few inches as she started to speak, only to let it fall to her side again. “I’m sorry I jumped to conclusions. No matter what she is or isn’t to you, it’s none of my business.”

“Oh, but it is your business.”

She simply watched him, not sure what the hell was going on.

Clay stepped closer to her, stopping just a couple of feet from her. “You look confused.”

“So confused,” she said quietly.

“Okay, let me explain. I know that you love this place and these animals, and the Bigsbys more than anything else in your life except maybe your immediate family.”

“My mom, yes. My dad’s kind of an up and down thing at the moment.”

Clay grinned. He actually grinned widely at her. “I have more to tell you about that, too. I talked to both of them earlier today. Just give me a chance to get it all out. If you’ll promise not to interrupt, I’ll tell you all of it.”

“Can’t promise that.”