He winced, but his hand moved, slowly going to pick up my own. Lacing our fingers up and holding onto mine like he was holding me there. “Not too hot, Boss.”
His voice sounded like pure pain, and I felt that pain tenfold hearing him like this. I hated seeing him like this, hated when he was mad but especially hated when he was sad. I’d almost combusted when I hurt his feelings before. Now somebody else had done it and I was ready to explode on whoever had hurt my Harper.
I wanted to ask who’d brought this on. Who in the world had brought my favorite smile down, but none of that would help him now. It wouldn’t return the brightness to his face.
But maybe I could try.
“What can I do?” I asked, tugging on his fingers a little. “Want to switch up our deal? You could… use me to feel better this time.”
His tortured eyes caught mine, holding them for a long beat of silence, studying me like he wasn’t sure if I was being serious. Slowly, still apprehensive, he nodded.
I almost jumped at the chance to do something for him. And since I was already down here, I began lowering to my knees.
Harper’s eyes recognized my movements instantly, and he caught me by the arm and stopped my descent.
He cleared his throat. “No, Boss. Not like that.”
I blinked at him confused, and he moved further. Bending so that his hands were on my waist, he guided me up into his lap. With my legs slung across his and my eyes holding onto him, I waited for his explanation.
He was slow to give it. Opting to pick up each of my fingers and put them back down as he gathered himself. It was a motion I recognized he did when he was nervous about something.
The sensation of his stubbly beard tickled my palm as I ran it up his cheek. “What is it, Harper? Whatever you want, I’ll give.”
He looked up at me. “I just want to hang out, do stuff, spend time with you.”
My eyebrows pulled together. “That’ll make you feel better? Spending time with me?”
I know it was an obvious question, but my brain couldn’t compute that I could make Harper feel good outside of the bedroom. The man somehow made me feel invincible, yet I was struggling to see what I did for him.
His easy answer put that all to rest.
“Always, Alta. You standing in the same room as me could make me feel better.” His hands went to my fingers again, hesitation present, and my heart almost broke. “I know you probably have a lot to do but… Can you… will you spare a day for me?”
Yep, broken. Shattered. Gone into a million little pieces only so that he could use his soul to write his name onto all of them before putting it back together. Harper was tattooing himself all over my heart, permanently etching himself on it and there was absolutely nothing I could do about it.
Except guide his eyes back up to mine and give him my answer.
“Always, Harper.”
“Do you always drive this slow?”
“I think what you mean is, do I always drive thissafe? And the answer is yes.”
“Uh-huh,” he hummed skeptically, his shoulder pressing suspiciously close to mine as he leaned over to snoop at the speedometer. “Should’ve told me we needed to add driving lessons to the docket, Boss. I would’ve moved it up to priority number one.”
I laughed. “It’s snowing, Harper. I’m not going to go ninety on the highway.”
“That’s fine. But you could go at least sixty.” His voice was disguised as helpful, but really what he was being was annoying. And it lifted my heart. It was a far cry from the sad and mopey he’d been for the first couple hours after we left the shop. “Or even fifty.”
“Shush, you. We’re almost there anyway,” I said.
“Which begs the question. Where the hell are you taking me, Ms. Fernandez?” he asked.
“Just sit tight and stop making a fuss.” I felt his eyes on me and I peeked over at him. He was so calm now, I could tell he was deep in his thoughts. My hand over his knee served as an anchor to keep him from floating too far away. And like I’d been doing periodically through the drive, I gave it a squeeze. “No te preocupes.”
“No te—” he trailed off, tongue tied. And when we sounded it out together, something we started practicing with the many words he was gaining interest in, his face moved in that soft smile he often got when I told him he’d said something right. “That means don’t something.”
“Don’t worry,” I said, providing the meaning. And even though he nodded his understanding, I still felt the slide of his gaze landing on me again. I passed him a quick glance before returning my focus to the road. “What?”
