“Good. My sister was there with her new baby, so the picture taking and ‘goo-goo ga-ga’ stuff was a bit over the top. But my Uncle Eddie kept his pants on during the football games, so all in all I’d say it was a success. Still wish you would have come with me.”
“The last thing your mom needed was my mopey face at her table,” she said, only half joking. While Allie had appreciated Harper’s offer to spend the holidays with her family in St. Louis, she didn’t think she could have handled being around an extended happy family. Not only because she’d never spend another holiday with her own family, but because she knew with all certainty that being with Harper’s family would cause her to mourn the loss of the holidays she never had. Growing up Allie’s mom had made sure each and every celebration was picture-perfect, but not in the Norman Rockwell kind of way. More in the “stand still, you’ll wrinkle your dress” kind of way. A firsthand look at a normal holiday, even one with an uncle watching football in his underwear, would have been just too hard to take. “Besides, it all worked out for the best. I had a very productive weekend.”
“Productive? That’s not how people usually describe our nation’s day of gluttony.” Harper closed the menu and set it down on the table. “Please don’t tell me you spent the entire weekend working in your office alone?”
“Okay, I won’t tell you.”
Harper raised a brow but said nothing. It was unnerving.
“Fine. Yes, I worked all weekend.” Allie held up her hand in an attempt to stop the inevitable lecture. “But not always at the office and not always alone. Colin came in on Saturday and Sunday.”
Harper rolled her eyes. “Oh, I bet he loved that.”
“He was well paid and well fed, so I don’t think he had too many complaints.”
“So when do I get to meet the Sexy Secretary?”
Again with the nicknames. It was bad enough when Harper came up with creative monikers for the men in Allie’s life, but it was hardly appropriate for her employees. “First of all, he’s my executive assistant. Second, how do you know he’s sexy? And third, that’s sexual harassment.”
“First, semantics. Second, Facebook. And third, its only harassment if he works for me, which he does not. He would, however, be lots of fun to go drinking with. Oh, and dancing. I bet young Colin has some moves.”
The waitress arrived to take their orders and promised to return with a basket of bread, which Harper politely declined.
“Wow, you weren’t kidding about the stress jeans, were you?”
“It’s a DEFCON Five situation.” Harper leaned forward and rested her elbows on the table. “So what do you say?”
“About what?”
“You, me, and the Sexy . . .” She stopped herself. “You, me, and Colin. Drinks and dancing on Saturday?”
“This Saturday? As in two days from now?”
“Yep.”
Allie shook her head. “Won’t work. He’s going out of town this weekend. Sort of the trade-off for working over Thanksgiving.”
Harper shot a hopeful look across the table. “So maybe just the two of us can hang out, then?”
“I’m not sure. I have a lot of work to wrap up before everyone scatters for the holidays. And with Colin gone all weekend, it’s going to be tough.”
“Oh c’mon, I heard on the radio this morning that they’re doing the Nutcracker at the Joffrey Ballet, even have the Chicago Philharmonic playing.”
“Stop.”
“What?”
The waitress set the lettuce wraps on the table between them, along with two glasses of Pinot Grigio. Allie waited until they were alone before busting Harper’s plan wide open. “I know what you’re doing.”
“I’m simply trying to make plans to go to the ballet,” Harper said, stuffing a roll of the leafy greens in her mouth.
“You have zero interest in the ballet. Or classical music, for that matter.”
Harper washed the wrap down with what was left of her martini. “Men in tights, what’s not to love?”
“And if it were a midnight showing of a Cary Elwes movie at the Music Box, I might believe you.”
“Maybe I just want to broaden my horizons.”
“Harper, I know what Saturday is.” Allie helped herself to one of the cool leaves and filled it with spicy chicken. “And while I appreciate what you’re trying to do, I don’t need a babysitter this weekend.”
“It would have been your wedding day.”
“Honestly, I’m not losing sleep over the fact that I won’t be Marquise Laurent come Saturday.”
“Well, I know that much,” she said with a roll of her eyes. “And thank God, because if I think the current sitch is bad, I would have never seen you after Julian whisked you off to his castle in France.” Her shoulders sagged. “But so much is different than you expected it to be this weekend, I just thought maybe . . .”
Allie set her lettuce wrap back on the plate and looked her friend in the eye. “There’s a lot about my life I wish I could change, but ending my engagement to Julian isn’t one of them.”
A quiet moment passed between them before Harper spoke. “I saw him.”
She didn’t have to say anything else, because Allie knew without asking exactly who she was referring to. And as much as she wanted to grill Harper for every little detail from what he said to the tie he wore, she resisted. Instead she turned her attention back to the appetizers, taking a bite while attempting to maintain an air of complete indifference. “These are pretty good,” she said, dabbing her mouth with a napkin, “for low carb.”
“I stopped at Rosebud to get takeout one night and he was there. Alone.”
“I’m sure he was meeting someone for dinner.” The lettuce wrap suddenly felt like a rock in the pit of her stomach as the image of Sophia’s perfect face popped into her mind.
“Nope. He already had his food, although he hadn’t eaten very much. Looked to me like he was just sipping a glass of Cab and reminiscing.”
Clearly Harper had no intention of letting the subject drop. And against her better judgment, Allie took the bait. “Reminiscing? You got that from a man drinking wine in an Italian restaurant?”
“Oh, didn’t I mention he was sitting at the same table where you two had your never-ending ‘just talking about the foundation’ coffee?”
“No, you didn’t.”
“Well he was. And he looked like shit,” she added matter-of-factly.
“The additional hours are probably taking their toll.” Allie had no idea how Hudson was managing the demands of a conglomerate like Chase Industries while at the same time maintaining a near-constant presence at Ingram. No wonder Harper thought he looked like shit—the man had to be operating on very little sleep.
“I don’t mean he looked like he could use a nap,” she said as if reading Allie’s mind. “I mean he looked like a guy whose heart was broken.”
Allie let out a harsh laugh. “Now I know you’re full of shit.”
“Why?”
“You make it sound like he was the male equivalent of being curled up in sweatpants nursing a pint of ice cream. There is no way Hudson Chase was anything but composed. I’d bet my life on it.”
“Oh he was, at least on the surface. Christ, even on his worst day that man looks perfect. I mean seriously, how in the world are his eyes that blue? And that hair, I swear, one of these days I’m going to run my fingers through it and I don’t care who’s watching. But when he asked about you—”
“You spoke to him?”
Harper nodded. “Just the usual small talk. When we’ll get the first snow, how was your Thanksgiving, that sort of thing. Oh, and PS: he worked through the holiday, too, so a fine pair you make.”
“Harper,” Allie said, trying to redirect her focus. “What did he say about me?”
“He asked how you were doing.”