Fortune for a Week, page 12
Harris stood, pulling her up from her chair and into his arms. “I think we owe it to ourselves to see where this goes. To be happy.”
Before she could respond, he bent down and kissed her deeply, his hands holding her close. Her arms slid around his neck, and for a moment, the rest of the world disappeared. All he knew was that it was even better than last night. This time, it felt like all the weirdness was gone. All that was left was the heat between them, the feel of her lips against his, and the undeniable connection that had been there from the start.
When they finally pulled apart, Sofia rested her forehead against his chest.
“That was exactly what I needed,” she murmured, her voice slightly breathless. “We just can’t do that in front of the kids. That’s one rule that won’t change.”
He chuckled softly, brushing a strand of hair from her face. “I think I can live with that.”
She answered by leaning in and planting a sweet kiss on his bottom lip. “Good, because I have to get back to work. I have a client coming in.”
“I’ll walk you out.” He grabbed his keys and laced his fingers through hers as they walked toward the door. “Good news. The deck is an easy fix. All I need to do is pick up some things from the hardware store, and I should have it done by the time you and the kids get home.”
“Save your receipts,” Sofia said as he pulled the door shut. “I’ll reimburse you.”
He waved away her words. “It’s the least I can do.” Then he pulled her to him again and kissed her slowly, savoring the moment.
Her lips were soft and warm, and there was a new urgency in the way she clung to him. It wasn’t like the kiss last night—hesitant and cautious…forbidden. This was the real deal, and for a moment, everything else disappeared. His heart thudded in his chest as he held her close, her body melting into his. As he deepened the kiss, he became vaguely aware of the fact that they were standing in her backyard, though the privacy fence would keep nosey neighbors from seeing them.
Because she didn’t seem worried about it, neither was he. It was just the two of them in this moment.
No distractions.
No worries.
No hesitation.
When they finally broke apart, Sofia gazed up at him. “I’m glad I broke the rules,” she confessed, her voice low and soft. “All my life, I’ve been such a rule follower.”
“Yeah?” He chuckled. “That’s kind of sexy.”
“Yeah?” she asked, her dark eyes glistening.
The tension that had been building between them since the morning they’d woken up married was gone. Now, all that was left was a slow-burning flame that promised something more…much more.
If it didn’t consume them first.
Harris wanted to pick her up and take her back inside and show her exactly how sexy he found her, but he knew she needed to get back to work. Instead, he found her lips again, claiming one last kiss. Greedily testing the theory, lost in this all-consuming need for her…
Until a voice from behind them shattered the stillness.
“Oh! Oh my gosh!” The voice was familiar.
They jumped apart like guilty teenagers.
Harris turned to see Jacinta Fortune, his cousin Micah’s wife, standing just inside the gate, her eyes wide, her mouth agape.
There was no other way to say it. Their secret was out.
* * *
Sofia blinked and put more space between herself and Harris.
“Jacinta! I didn’t hear you come in. What are you doing here?”
Jacinta’s eyes darted between Sofia and Harris, as though she had caught them doing something illicit.
“I didn’t know you two were…seeing each other,” her cousin said, her brows arched.
Sofia reminded herself that she and Harris were married. They weren’t doing anything wrong. Still, Jacinta’s accusatory tone made her feel like a teenager caught skipping school.
Sofia stepped forward, signaling to Harris that she would handle the situation. Instead of answering Jacinta, she said, “Harris, I know you have errands to run, and I need to talk to my cousin before I get back to the salon because I have a client in—” She glanced at her smartwatch. “In thirty minutes.”
“You sure?” he asked.
Sofia nodded, praying he wouldn’t try to kiss her, but also hoping, somehow, that he would. When he did, it was a relief. The kiss wasn’t as intense as the one before Jacinta had interrupted, but it was more than a simple peck on the lips. It was a statement. It seemed to say that he wasn’t upset their secret was out—and that realization fortified Sofia more than she expected.
“I’ll see you tonight,” Harris said, letting his hand linger on her shoulder. “I’ll pick up something for dinner.”
As he walked toward the gate, he glanced back at Sofia with a small, amused smile. The gate clicked shut, and she turned to face her cousin.
Jacinta gaped at her.
“Why are you looking at me like that?” Sofia demanded, crossing her arms.
“I’m not looking at you like that,” Jacinta said, mimicking her stance. “This is just how my face is.” She had one brow arched higher than the other, her lips pursed in a mix of surprise and judgment. It was a look Sofia knew all too well.
“What’s going on, Sofia?” Jacinta crossed her arms over her chest, too, clearly waiting for an explanation.
“What do you mean?” Sofia asked, careful not to let Jacinta dictate the direction of the conversation—whether it would be about Abuela or Harris.
“You know exactly what I mean. I just caught you and Harris making out in the backyard.”
“We weren’t making out,” Sofia said, though the heat rising in her cheeks suggested otherwise.
“Don’t gaslight me. I know what I saw.”
Sofia rolled her eyes. “It’s none of your business.”
“You were kissing my husband’s cousin. I think that does make it my business.”
Sofia clicked her tongue in annoyance. “Harris is a grown man. How does marrying his cousin entitle you to any insight into his love life?”
Jacinta pursed her lips in a way that made Sofia realize she had just dropped a significant chunk of information. Had she done that subconsciously? She wasn’t sure.
A smile turned up the corners of Jacinta’s mouth. “Love life, huh?”
Sofia’s face flamed as she rubbed her arms nervously. “Look, it’s…complicated.”
“It didn’t look very complicated to me,” Jacinta quipped.
After a long, awkward pause, her cousin blew out a breath and softened her tone. “Look, you don’t have to pretend around me. I’ve been your biggest advocate when it comes to getting back into dating after your divorce. Just be careful. Harris is family now. If things don’t work out between the two of you, you’ll still have to see him at family gatherings. So don’t hurt him, okay?”
If Jacinta only knew the full story… Sofia made an exasperated sound. “I don’t intend to hurt him. Again, this is none of your business.”
“Fine,” Jacinta conceded, though her eyes still sparkled with a greedy curiosity. “That’s not why I came over anyway. Why won’t you let Connie stay in the casita? You’ve upset Abuela. She’s an old woman, Sofia. Don’t be mean to her.”
Sofia flinched.
“How is telling her I’d talk to her later being mean?”
It was hard to hear the criticism because Sofia adored Abuela. But she couldn’t tell Jacinta the truth—not all of it…not the part about the marriage. So, she’d just have to deliver a partial truth.
“Harris is staying in the casita. He’s fixing the deck and building a tree house for Jackson and a balance beam for Kaitlyn.”
Jacinta eyed her skeptically. “He lives five miles away. Why does he have to stay here? He can’t commute?”
Sofia bit her lip. She couldn’t exactly tell her cousin that she and Harris had drunkenly gotten hitched in Las Vegas and were now trying to figure out if they wanted to stay married or go their separate ways. But then there were those kisses… And what they had agreed to a little while ago—things were changing fast.
“Jacinta,” Sofia said, choosing her words carefully, “if you must know—and, as I’ve already said multiple times, it’s really none of your business—Harris and I are trying things out, relationship-wise. Please respect that I don’t owe you any more of an explanation than that. So, if you could help me out and keep this between us…the three of us…that would be great.”
Jacinta’s lips curved into a Cheshire cat grin. “I’ll make a deal with you. Let Connie stay in the casita, and I’ll keep my lips zipped.”
Sofia’s patience was wearing thin. “Since this is so important to you, why can’t Connie stay at your house? I don’t remember anyone else helping to pay for the casita. So I don’t understand why the family feels entitled to treat it as their personal guesthouse.”
“Well, if that’s the way it has to be, I’ll gladly welcome Connie for the night. Abuela is important to me—and she should be to you, too,” Jacinta said, conveniently glossing over the entitlement part of the conversation. “But go ahead and keep on playing tiny house with your boyfriend, who lives five miles away.”
Sofia’s temper flared. “Don’t even go there. You know I love Abuela. She is extremely important to me, but I think our family needs to respect that this is my house. If I say no, I don’t owe you an explanation.”
Jacinta leveled her with a glare.
Sofia sighed, trying to rein in her frustration. “Look, there are reasons I can’t and won’t go into, but Harris has to keep staying in the casita. Jackson and Kaitlyn have been through a lot since the divorce, and I’m still being cautious. We’ve told the kids we’re just friends, and that’s how it has to be.”
Jacinta pursed her lips. “That’s an even better reason he should stay in the guest room.” She paused, her eyes narrowing as she added, “Wait a minute, next week is their fall break, right? Aren’t they spending the week with Dan?”
Sofia’s heart sank. “That’s right. Why?”
Jacinta slapped her hands together triumphantly. “The kids are gone. Harris can move into your house. Connie moves into the casita. Problem solved. You can thank me later.”
Sofia stared at her cousin, speechless. How had this conversation spiraled so far out of her control? The truth was, everything had changed after her and Harris’s conversation at lunch. Maybe they would give their relationship a real shot. But that didn’t mean she was ready to uproot her life—or invite Connie to stay in the casita. Not yet.
She crossed her arms over her chest, her jaw tightening as she met Jacinta’s smug gaze. “I’ll think about it and let Abuela know when I call her tonight as promised.”
Jacinta smiled as if she had won some sort of battle. For now, Sofia would let her think she had and the situation was resolved.
But deep down, Sofia knew that nothing about this situation was settled.
Not even close.
CHAPTER NINE
Harris leaned back into the soft cushions of the sofa, relishing the warmth of Sofia’s body against his. The room was dimly lit, the flickering light from the fireplace casting gentle shadows across her face.
Her presence, so close and intimate, felt natural. The quiet was only interrupted by the faint creaks of the house settling and the quiet hum of the refrigerator. A quiet peace, the likes of which Harris hadn’t felt in a long time, settled over him.
Sofia’s soft voice broke the comfortable silence. “I’m taking the kids to the Emerald Ridge Fall Festival this Saturday. I was wondering if you’d like to come with us?” She turned to him, her eyes searching his face. “If you want to experience family life, this will give you a good taste of it.”
Harris grinned. “I can’t even tell you how long it’s been since I’ve gone to the fall festival. I went a couple of times as a kid. I remember how much I loved it.”
“If you loved it so much, why haven’t you been in so long?”
He shrugged, vague memories of carefree childhood days coming back to him. “Over the past decade, I’ve mostly been out of town when it happens. But I’d love to go with you.”
Pausing, a thought crept into his mind. “But you know what that means, right? People will see us together, and they’re bound to ask questions. Are you ready for that?”
Sofia took a deep breath and looked away for a moment as if weighing the consequences. When she turned back to him, she shrugged. “Well, given the fact that Jacinta can’t keep a secret, it’s bound to get out sometime. At least this way, we can let the cat out of the bag on our terms.” She smiled faintly. “Besides, it’s not as if walking around the fall festival together means we’re engaged. Or even serious, for that matter.”
Her words, though said casually, tugged at Harris’s heart. She was right. They were just testing the waters, but the more they were together, he found himself thinking about more—about the possibility of them as something real, something lasting. He was being careful not to rush her, even though the thought of a future with Sofia lingered in his mind like a tantalizing dream from which he didn’t want to wake.
But what if he did wake up only to realize this bubble they were living in had burst and they couldn’t make it work in the real world?
That scared the hell out of him.
“Speaking of Jacinta,” he said, trying to shift the conversation to ease the weight in his chest, “how did things go with your cousin after I left?”
“Not bad,” Sofia said, her voice lighter now. “Of course, Jacinta was surprised to see us together, but by the time I left to go back to work, she was all for us…” She shrugged, smiling. “Now that she’s happily married to your cousin Micah, suddenly, it’s her life’s mission that I should find wedded bliss, too. Even though I’ve only been divorced for three months.”
Harris raised an eyebrow, letting her words sink in.
Wedded bliss.
Could it really be possible for them? He wasn’t sure, but he knew he was willing to explore whatever this was between them.
“Is that what you want?” he asked softly.
Sofia laughed, a small, nervous laugh that made him smile. “Let’s not get ahead of ourselves,” she said, her tone teasing.
He chuckled, but there was a part of him that couldn’t stop wondering what it would be like to be married to her, to build a life together—one that wasn’t rooted in what she called a drunken Las Vegas mistake, but in something real.
“Sounds like it could’ve gone worse,” Harris mused. “But maybe next time, we should be a little more careful where we kiss.”
Sofia’s eyes twinkled. “Maybe. But I hope there won’t be more surprises to complicate things. At least not like that.”
He pulled her closer, resting his chin on the top of her head. “I think I can handle a few more surprises as long as they’re with you.”
Harris brushed his lips across her head, his heart feeling lighter in that moment. But before he could revel in the warmth of the night and the comfort of her presence, Sofia stirred slightly and spoke again, her tone a bit more serious this time.
“I’m glad you brought up Jacinta,” she said. “I need to tell you something because, of course, nothing can be easy.”
Harris frowned, his mind instantly alert. “What’s going on?”
Sofia shifted so she could look at him directly, her expression conflicted. “Right before I left the salon to meet you for lunch today, I got a call from my abuela Rosa. It seems her best friend, Connie, is able to make a spur-of-the-moment visit. She’ll be in town on Monday.”
Harris nodded slowly, waiting for the rest of the story.
“Abuela asked if Connie could stay in the casita,” Sofia continued, her voice tightening. “She caught me so off guard that I didn’t know what to say.”
“This Monday?” Harris asked, already feeling tension creep into his muscles. “Do you want me to leave?”
“No.” Sofia snuggled in closer, her hand resting on his chest. “I don’t want you to go.”
Harris was torn. On the one hand, he should offer to vacate the casita for Connie. It was only fair. But on the other hand, things between him and Sofia were just starting to progress, and being close to her—and the kids—made everything easier. If he moved out, it might change the dynamic.
“What did you tell her?” he asked, still thinking through the logistics.
“I didn’t give her a definitive answer,” Sofia admitted, her brows furrowing slightly. “I just said it wasn’t a good time to host a guest. She assured me Connie wouldn’t be any trouble, that she just needed a place to sleep since Abuela’s apartment is too small. I told her I was busy and I’d get back with her later.”
Harris smiled sympathetically. “Does your family have the same problem with boundaries that mine does?”
Sofia rolled her eyes. “You have no idea. Case in point, Jacinta showing up unannounced.”
“How did you leave things with her?” Harris asked.
Sofia sighed again. “She reminded me that the kids are going to Dan’s house on Sunday for fall break. She suggested you move into the guest room in the house. Then Connie could stay in the casita. It would solve everything. But I don’t know how you feel about that.”
Harris blinked. He hadn’t considered moving into the main house. He thought back to his earlier conversations with Sofia. The casita had been his buffer, a way to be close to her without crossing the lines she’d drawn. When the kids were at home, it wasn’t an option. But with the kids going to their dad’s, things were shifting. Was moving into the guest room in the house the next logical step?
She bit her lip and looked at him, her eyes uncertain. “I hate to ask you to move out because we agreed that you would have ten days in the casita. I feel like I’m changing the rules again.”
Harris stared at her for a moment, his heart thudding in his chest. She wasn’t pushing him away; if anything, she was bringing him closer. His mind raced with thoughts of what it would be like to be in the same house as Sofia, even for just a few days. To wake up and see her in the morning, to share the little moments of the day… It was tempting. Too tempting.
