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That sobered the mood slightly. I grabbed Harper's hand and intertwined our fingers. "Sure, Babe. Whatever you need. We'll work it out." I brought our joined hands to my lips and kissed the back of her hand.
Asher pulled out his phone and asked, "How big of a truck do we need? I'll reserve it now."
"Not big. It will be boxes of my kitchen stuff and clothes. All the furniture is Theo's."
I hated that she got rid of everything when she moved in with that douchebag. Luckily, I kept her bedroom set when she tried to get rid of it. I told her I could use it for props for my studio. And while it was accurate at the time, I think a part of me hoped she would always return to me.
That thought had me thinking about the bedroom set thrown haphazardly in our guest bedroom. My girl needs something good to happen to her today.
Her phone started to ring, and when I glanced down I saw Ellie's name flash across the screen. Ellie was one of Harp's employees over at the bakery. "Hold on, I've got to take this." She jumped off the bar stool and walked toward Asher's office so she could take the call without the music in the background.
Once she was out of earshot, my gaze met Asher’s and I said, "I need you to entertain Harper for the next couple of hours."
He gave me a quizzical look. "What? Why?"
"Dude, she's had a shit day. She needs something that's going to make her smile. I'm going to go upstairs and rearrange her bedroom furniture and then I'm going to go to the store and get shit for her bed and the bathroom."
Asher nodded in agreement and continued, "Once we get the rest of her shit out of Theo's apartment tomorrow, we can take her shopping for all the stuff she wants to decorate her space."
I reached over and clapped my hand on his shoulder. "Exactly. She's ours now, man."
I didn't allow him to respond to my statement before I went to the back office.
Harper was nodding along to whatever Ellie was telling her. I knocked on the opened door and grabbed Harper's attention. "Hey, sweetheart, something came up. Asher will hang out with you for a couple of hours while I do a thing. Then we'll all meet up for dinner."
I rushed in, gave her a quick kiss on the cheek and then got the hell out of there, I didn't want her asking questions. This was a top-secret mission; operation make my girl smile was officially underway.
Chapter Three
Asher
I locked the bar door behind Micah as he left to rearrange Harpers new room and shop for our girl. Shit, his girl. I knew he commented on her being ours, but that wasn’t in the cards for me. Not because I didn't want her. Fuck I wanted her so bad it hurt sometimes. But Harper was pure, sweet, one of a kind. I couldn't darken her light.
That was why I called her Firefly. She was the small light in my life that reminded me I was home, safe. I had been given a second chance to continue living my life for myself and my fallen comrades.
When I first came home, I had survivor's guilt. I was the only one in my unit that survived when our Humvee blew up from a landmine on enemy soil. I was part of an extraction team, we were enroute to rescue a hostage. My unit had done hundreds of missions like that one. It was supposed to be an easy in-and-out mission.
Our enemies caught wind of our extraction plans and planted landmines along our route. It turned out we had a mole in our operation.
Almost every night since I had been home, I flashback to that nightmare. It started the same every time, the debate we were all in the middle of, whether pineapple belonged on pizza or not. Martinez was putting up a solid argument for why he was pro-pineapple. It all happened so fast. Jackson was about to give his rebuttal when the loud click rang through the vehicle seconds before we were blown into the sky.
We were a four-team unit, Tony Martinez, James Jackson, Tyler Williams and me. Williams was our driver; Jackson was in the passenger seat and Martinez was in the back seat on the driver's side. I was sitting the furthest away from the blast, in the trunk. I sat there so when we exited the Humvee, I could cover the rear and ensure we didn't get sniped from behind.
My guys in the front died immediately on impact. When the vehicle was airborne, it flipped, landing upside down. Martinez was a tall mother fucker, his head almost touched the top of the convoy when he sat in it, so when it flipped and landed upside down, his neck snapped. He would have died anyways; half of his body was burned to the point where he was almost unrecognizable.
I was knocked unconscious. I woke up about three days later, laying in the infirmary bandaged up. My face badly bruised, and I had broken ribs, a sprained wrist and a fractured ankle; that was it. I hardly got injured, while the rest of my unit, my friends…my brother, didn't even survive. Another Humvee was following behind us, their vehicle camera caught everything. They made it to me and ripped me from the Humvee before it exploded again.
After being released from the infirmary, I was medically discharged and awarded a purple heart. I didn't feel I deserved it. Sure, my unit was one of the best, which was why we got specifically requested for missions, but it didn't feel right accepting it when I knew my whole team deserved one.
I told my commanding officer I couldn't accept it unless the families of my fallen comrades also received the same award. They did. When we all flew home, the families of my three brothers in arms were waiting on the tarmac. I had been with these guys since boot camp, so their families were like mine.
I shook my head, bringing myself back to the present. I was on a new mission to cheer up my Firefly. Fuck, I wish she was mine.
Harper came rushing out of my back office, looking like she was almost on the verge of tears. "Ugh, I need to go to the bakery. A pipe burst in the bathroom and it’s flooding the place." Running her fingers through her hair, "And there isn't a plumber that can come until next week. Is Mercury out of retrograde or something? Why the fuck can't I catch a break?"
She seemed to be two seconds away from having a panic attack. I did the only thing I could think of. I wrapped my arms around her. I didn't usually hug her like this, I mean I hugged her, but she was always the one to initiate. She was usually more affectionate with Micah. They were always touching in some way, not ever intimate either.
I knew something was off whenever Theo came around and she wasn't all over him. She was a very affectionate person. If I were her boyfriend, I'd be all over her, so it made sense now that he was gay.
