Really, why in the world should she give a flying flip to that stupid Bethelda article when there was a sexy, scruffy, gorgeous man waiting for her to get home?
Yup, perspective. That was what she was learning. See, being rational was possible even while pregnant.
“Tacos for dinner, and Oreos for dessert.” She sidestepped the man in the Jimmy Buffett T-shirt who’d been blocking her path pretty much the entire time she’d been shopping. He had no regard for anyone else in the aisles shopping around him.
“With milk?” Liam asked, his voice magically pulling her away from her annoyance at Mr. Cheeseburger in Paradise. Asshole in the Piggly Wiggly was more like it.
Again, it was all about perspective.
“Is there any other way to eat them?” She grabbed the hard-shells and put them in the cart.
“You dunk them right away or lick the center first?” The grin in his voice was obvious.
“Liam, could you have made that sound any more inappropriate?”
“I could try.”
“Oh, I’m sure you could.” Harper propped the phone between her ear and her shoulder as she grabbed the cart again and started pushing, heading for the produce section.
“Do we have the ingredients to make fresh salsa?”
“Let me check.” He shifted in bed and the sheets ruffled through the phone.
While he went to the kitchen, she hunted for ripe avocados, because guacamole sounded like the greatest thing ever.
“That’s a negative, rubber duck. You’re going to need to get onions, tomatoes, cilantro, and lemon juice. Geez, woman, did you go grocery shopping at all while I was gone? You’ve got nothing here unless we’re going to eat peanut butter and jelly.”
“And this is why I’m at the grocery store. So shut it.”
“Did you just tell me to shut it?”
“Yeah I did.” She headed to the tomatoes and threw a couple into a plastic bag. “What are you going to do about it?”
“As soon as you get home I’ll show you. And it will be a very similar experience to how I eat my Oreos.”
A shiver ran down Harper’s back as a blush crept up into her cheeks. “Is that a promise?”
“You bet your sweet ass it is.”
“Language, Mr. James.”
“Oh, you like my mouth. And feel free to call me mister when you get home and I use it on you.”
Home. Home to him. God, how she wished all days were like this.
“Deal. I’m getting off the phone now. You’re distracting me from shopping.”
“Translation: you’re getting all hot and bothered as you look at the eggplant.”
“Hanging up now.” She snatched a bag of cilantro as she rounded past the herbs.
“Love you.”
“Love you, too.” She grinned hugely as she hung up, sticking her phone in her purse before she went to grab an onion to add to the cart.
Five minutes later she had everything she needed and was heading to the front of the store. There was a line at each of the open registers, so she went to number ten at the very end because it seemed a tad bit shorter. Her prime number tendencies weren’t all that important in the moment. All she wanted was to get out of there and get to the man who was waiting for her.
Waiting to do wicked things to her with his mouth. Yes, that was a good thing to focus on. A much, much better thing to focus on.
The line shifted and she moved forward, loading the groceries onto the belt while the woman in front of her paid. When the last item was up on the belt she stepped back and glanced over to the stand next to her, her eyes catching on the tabloids. There were the usual articles discussing the supposed demise of another A-List couple, or if so-and-so was coming out of the closet, or how aliens had abducted what’s-his-name.
But none of those were what caught Harper’s eye. No, it was the tabloid with a massive picture of Kiki Jean Carlow front and center. She was batting her baby blues at the camera and grinning. Right next to it was a separate—and smaller—headshot of Liam.
Has Kiki Jean Carlow Found Love with Musician Liam James? Is She the Girl from His New Hit Song “Forever”?
Seeing his name connected to Kiki’s almost had Harper losing it right there in the middle of the Piggly Wiggly. As it was, her heart was pounding out of her chest, her palms had gone sweaty, and her ears were ringing.
It was automatic, her flipping through the pages to get to the article. She stopped breathing when she found it.
More pictures were here, these with Liam and Kiki actually together. One was of them sitting in a club, the photo slightly blurry but clear enough to see him leaning closer to presumably hear her speak. Another of her leaving what looked to be a room backstage; he was shirtless and she was running her fingers down his chest. The last was from the video shoot, the two of them walking side by side, his hand on her hip as he looked down at her.
Yup, just like that, perspective was gone. She was going to be sick.
Chapter Nineteen I’ll Be Your Man
Liam was starting another load of laundry when Harper walked in the front door. Luna bolted from her comfortable position all snuggled on the bed and ran through the living room to get to her owner.
He shut the lid of the washer and closed the accordion doors before heading down the hallway.
“Groceries in the car?” he asked as he rounded the corner. He’d told her to call him when she was close and he’d get them out. But as her arms were laden with four reusable bags she hadn’t listened.
“There wasn’t that much.” She shook her head, barely sparing him a glance as she headed for the kitchen.
He made a move to grab the bags but she didn’t let go. “Wasn’t that much? You’re carrying your weight in groceries.” Okay, maybe a slight over-exaggeration. But still, he’d told her he would get them.
“I’ve got it.” She pulled away and stepped around him.
He followed automatically, an uneasiness settling over him. What the hell was going on? They’d just been on the phone not twenty minutes ago and everything had been fine. Now she wouldn’t look at him.
“Harper, what’s wrong?”
“Nothing,” she said as she pulled the milk, cheese, and sour cream from the bag and walked over to the refrigerator.
Bullshit.
“You lying to me now?”
Her back snapped in tension as she straightened, shutting the door a little harder than normal as she spun around. There was a fire in her eyes, passion in her cheeks, and fury on her mouth. “Did you just call me a liar?”
“No, I asked if you were lying. Not the same thing.”
Her eyes narrowed and she took a deep breath, letting it out through her nose. She walked back over to the bags, pulling out a magazine and tossing it on the counter. “That’s what’s going on,” she said, pointing.
His eyes dropped to the magazine, scanning the front and seeing his picture next to Kiki’s with a headline that immediately had his own temper flaring. He didn’t need to read what was inside to know it was all a bunch of lies.
Apparently it didn’t matter that he’d been one hundred percent honest with her from the get-go, she thought he was cheating.
He looked back up to her, doing everything in his power not to lose his damn mind. “Tell me you don’t believe that.”
“You don’t even know what it says.”
“I don’t need to, Harper. Anything connecting me to Kiki is horseshit.”
“I know that!” she shouted.
“Really? Do you? Then why the fuck did you buy it?” he shouted right back. He didn’t mean to, but good God, she was killing him. “Because if you believe a word of that garbage for a single second, then you don’t know me at all!”
The instant her eyes filled with tears he knew he’d missed the mark. Had gone too far and let his temper take control. This didn’t have to do with trusting him. Whatever was in there had scared her and she didn’t know how to deal with it.