Leah’s pert, glossy, red-painted lips turned upward into a smirk as she narrowed her gaze at Harper.
“At least I’ve had a man,” Leah snapped.
“And I’ve got a college degree and own a business, while you’re serving coffee at your aunt’s coffee shop. You want to continue keeping score of who’s doing what, go right ahead, but I’ve got work to do.”
Harper dropped the money for her daily large coffee and plain bagel on the counter and turned to leave.
“That’s my girl,” Smitty Hallern said as Harper passed the table near the front window where he always sat.
“Hi, Mr. Hallern,” Harper said after mustering a smile.
Smitty played poker with Harper’s grandfather on Saturday nights. He had enlisted in the army the same time as her grandfather but had received a medical discharge when he’d suffered a severe asthma attack.
“Don’t let ’em get to you today,” Smitty said with a nod toward the front counter, where Leah and the other customers stood. “They always need something or somebody to talk about. Tomorrow they’ll be on to a different story.”
Harper shrugged. “It’s their life. They can live it how they please.”
It was an awful life, Harper thought—sitting around a café all day talking about people and what they did or didn’t like about them. Pitiful, really.
“That’s true,” Smitty continued. “But it ain’t good for you or people like you to hear all that negative talk. That’s what happened to Teddy and Olivia’s marriage. People kept talking about them and what they were doing with those TV folks. It got right messy around here with the rumors flying around. People got hurt, and then Olivia packed her kids up and left.”
Smitty went off on tangents often. Normally, it was something about the “good ol’ days,” as he and her grandfather called them. To which Harper would simply listen and smile. It was nice to hear their memories, and sometimes she even managed to learn a little about how the world was sixty years ago.
This morning, however, she had a headache. She’d been up for hours already, after waking from the disturbing dream. She was tired and cranky, and Leah hadn’t helped the situation at all.
“Right, I’ll keep that in mind, Mr. Hallern,” she said and pressed her back to the front door of the shop.
“Yeah, gossip can cause lots of pain,” he continued with a nod. There was a newspaper spread out on the table in front of him, a half-full cup of coffee and crumbs from what looked like a muffin he’d already eaten on the small plate to his left. “But it looks like the kids are coming around,” he said, rubbing a hand over the tight black-and-gray curls at his chin. “First the oldest boy came on home, and now I hear you ran into one of the other sons last night.”
That caught Harper’s full attention.
“Last night?” she asked. “Who did I run into last night?”
“Garrek Taylor. He’s the one who placed the winning bid on you. At least that’s the news going around this morning. Connie was in here about an hour ago whining about the check he wrote to the Veterans Fund instead of to her group of cackling hens.”
He shook his head then, and Harper swallowed. Her throat was suddenly dry.
“That was Garrek Taylor?”
“Yep,” Smitty said. “The navy pilot. Millie came in right behind Connie, and those two got to talking. Millie thinks she knows all there is to know about the Taylors. Probably ’cause she used to be spitting jealous of Olivia for marrying Teddy. Crazy, that’s what womenfolk can be sometimes.”
Harper was still trying to wrap her mind around what he’d just told her. Garrek Taylor, one of the infamous Taylor sextuplets, was back in Temptation. The story was that his mother had packed up her six children who were seven years old at the time, and moved to Florida. She’d left behind their family reality show and her cheating husband. Now, not only was Garrek the second of the Taylor sextuplets to return to town, but he’d bid on a date with her. He’d also invaded her dreams, bringing her to a fevered point she’d never been to before—in real life or a fantasy.
Could this week possibly get any worse?
* * *
“Welcome home!” Gray said the minute Garrek opened the door.
His older brother didn’t wait for a return greeting or an invitation to come in, but instead pushed past Garrek until he was completely inside the little room Garrek had rented at the Sunnydale Bed-and-Breakfast.
It had been eight years since Garrek had seen Gray in person. The last time he’d actually laid eyes on his brother was via a Skype call, at the reading of their father’s will, nine months ago.
“Hello, Gray,” Garrek said as he closed the door and walked to where his brother stood next to a dark green sofa that faced the oak television stand.
He’d been up for the last hour reading and hadn’t yet decided when he was going to pay his brother and his new family a visit. It seemed he no longer needed to contemplate that act.
“It’s good to see you, man,” Gray said and then stepped closer to pull Garrek into a hug.
Garrek and Gray were the same height, six feet even, but Gray had a broader frame and a penchant for expensive clothes, while Garrek was much more understated in his dark blue Levi’s and black Maryland Terps T-shirt.
“It’s good seeing you,” Garrek admitted as they pulled apart. “Congratulations are in order.”
Gray took a seat on the couch, and Garrek noted his brother wasn’t wearing the tailored suits an international businessman, like him, would. Today he wore khaki pants, a white button-down Polo shirt and brown leather shoes that Garrek was certain had cost a small fortune. As the CEO of his own electronics company, Gray was a wealthy man. In fact, all of the Taylor sextuplets were wealthy, after Gray discovered the money their father had left them a few months ago.
“Marriage, new house and a baby on the way,” Garrek continued. “Just like old times—Grayson Taylor does it big or he doesn’t do it at all.”
Gray smiled and Garrek chuckled as he sat on the other end of the couch. That was one of the things he admired most about his brother—his ability to get whatever it was he wanted done, and in grand fashion. Garrek was much too introverted to be the type of go-getter Gray was.
“Two babies on the way,” Gray added. “You didn’t get my last letter that said Morgan is carrying twins?”
Garrek shook his head. The letter was probably in the huge stack of mail he’d dumped into the bottom of his suitcase when he began packing for this trip. He’d taken some things out to read this morning, but it was information that Gray had sent him a while ago.
“Wow, twins!” Garrek stated and extended a hand to Gray. “Like I said, you always go big.”
Gray accepted his brother’s handshake and shrugged. “But I don’t know that this was all on me. You know she already has a set of six-year-old twins.”
“Right, Gemma told me about them. Jack and Lily, right?”
Gray nodded. “Yeah, they’re the best things that have ever happened to me. All of them, and coming back here. I can’t imagine my life without them now.”
Garrek didn’t know how those words made him feel. Gray had always been about his business and traveling the country. He’d never planned to settle down beyond his penthouse in Miami and his always-fueled personal jet. Hearing him talk about this woman and these children who had somehow changed him amazed Garrek.
“So tell me what brings you here. And why didn’t you call me to let me know you were coming? Morgan and I would have gotten a room ready for you at the house.”
“Nah,”