If I Loved You (Harper Falls Book 1) (2 page)

“Honey,” Frank snorted in disbelief. “He’s
everybody’s type. Women, men. We all either lust after him or want
to be him. In some cases, both.”

Rose didn’t need to ask Frank which category
he fell into. She’d never known him to envy anyone, professionally
or otherwise. And since Frank was unapologetically gay—it had to be
lust.

“I didn’t know you had a thing for Sam. What
does Len think about that?”

“Believe me, Len has nothing to be jealous
of,” Frank assured her. Len was the love of Frank’s life and had
been even before he and Rose had met. Rose thought of them as one
of the few exceptions that proved the rule when it came to happy
romantic relationships. “But we can both look and admire from time
to time. And in Sam Laughton’s case there is plenty to admire. I
think yummy says it all.”

“Again,” she reiterated, “not my type.”

“So, branch out, love. You may think you
like middle of the road, cookie-cutter bland. I say a trip to the
wild side is just what the doctor ordered.”

“Nope.” She liked mild-mannered, easy to
figure out men. She had seen what high drama relationships did to a
person. She enjoyed the company of men, but she would never make
one the focus of her life. “The men I date are perfect for me. I
don’t see any reason to change.

“I read once that change is good for the
soul.”

“I think that’s chicken soup.”

“Oh, very clever,” Frank said sarcastically.
“Though, those books are pretty good. Len got into them a few years
ago, and I was surprised by how much they moved me. You know,
Rose—”

“And speaking of change,” Rose said,
bringing the conversation back to where it started. Frank was
easily distracted, and she wasn’t in the mood for any of his
rambling philosophies. “I have a date tonight and I need to start
getting ready.”

“Let me guess. Average height, average
build, average everything. Where do you find this string of
unremarkable men?

“There’s a website. Only the mediocre need
apply.” Rose said with a straight face. “Goodbye, Frank.”

“Fine,” Frank finally conceded. “Since we've
almost finished the song; we can wrap it up next week. Oh, and call
me with the details on your date. I’ve been having trouble sleeping
lately, and that should work better than a couple of Ambien.”

“
Goodbye
,
Frank.”

Rose closed the laptop with a decisive snap.
It didn’t help that Frank was right. Her dates were routine, even
boring. The men she went out with were nice. So why was that a bad
thing? Since when was nice a crime? And who was to say her dates
were the problem. Maybe she was the boring one. Maybe the next day
they regaled their friends with stories about how they could barely
stay awake through the appetizer.

Rose scrubbed a hand over her face. Not for
the first time she thought about taking a break from dating. The
only reason she hadn’t done so before now was because it seemed
like admitting defeat. People needed other people. Human contact
was necessary, right? Going out with friends was great, but now and
then she needed at least to make an effort with the opposite sex.
Unfortunately, sex rarely had anything to do with it. It
had
been a while. Longer than she
wanted to think about. And damn it, Rose liked sex. And she liked
sex with men. That meant now and then she was required to have some
social interaction with one. Too bad the sex was usually as
forgettable as the men. Again, maybe it wasn't all the guys
fault.

As Rose put away her guitar, she gave a
quick look around her office/music room. Located in the basement of
her home it was professionally soundproofed, partly for the benefit
of her neighbors, but mainly because she considered her music to be
intensely personal. What she created here was a part her. Even
though most of it would one day be shared with the world while she
was working, and creating, and sweating through every note, she
wanted it kept private. Strictly for her ears only.

She closed the door and made her way up the
narrow staircase that led to the kitchen. Rose took a glass from
the cupboard and opened the nearby refrigerator. Her friends kidded
her about using the state of the art stainless steel appliance for
storing nothing but bottled water, orange juice, and yogurt. But
she liked knowing the room was a gourmet’s delight. She could cook
if she put her mind to it. When, on the rare occasions she felt
like entertaining, everything she could need was right at her
fingertips. When it was just herself, she was content to eat out or
buy fresh vegetables for a salad.

Rose took a drink of juice and looked around
the room with a sigh of satisfaction. She loved the renovations she
had had done right after she’d purchased the four-bedroom
fixer-upper. It was a small house located on the corner Magnolia
and Dewey. Harper Falls, Washington wasn’t a large town, but it had
very distinct neighborhoods. When the town had been founded just
after the turn of the twentieth century, there had been two kinds
of residents. Those who had money and those who worked for them.
Over the years that had changed, for the most part. Though some of
the people who lived in the big mansions on the north side of town
disagreed, the change had been a good thing. New businesses were
opening all the time, and the jobless rate was one of the lowest in
the state. Unlike so many small towns that lost their youth because
of lack of opportunities, people who grew up in Harper Falls tended
to stay. Or move back.

Rose had come here at the age of nine, left
for college at eighteen and returned seven years later. She had
promptly bought the dilapidated house that she used to walk by
every day on her way to school. As a girl, she had secretly dreamed
of owning the yellow and white cottage. She’d dreamed of having a
home of her own. At the time it had seemed impossible. Her mother
was dead. Her aunt and her new husband had sent her away to school,
and she was living with a family that desperately needed the small
amount of money that they were being paid to board her. Even though
Rose had secretly started writing songs, it had never occurred to
her that there would come a day when anyone would pay to hear them.
But now, at twenty-seven, she had the home of her dreams, fully
renovated to her taste. And she had done it all on her own. If she
wanted a man in her life, it was for his company or his body, not
his bank account.

Which brought her back to the man she was
going out with in a few hours.

Tonight she was going to make a real effort.
She was going on this date without any negative expectations. There
was no reason it had to end like all the rest. She would make more
of an effort. Starting with what she wore. Why was she saving those
brand new, pale pink suede Prada pumps for a special occasion? She
would make
tonight
special by going
all out. She was going to sparkle, inside and out. And, crap, what
was his name? Calvin? That’s right, Calvin. Tomorrow, Calvin would
be telling his friends about the best date of his life. Okay, she
didn’t want to get carried away. Maybe she would shoot for above
average and hope for not terrible. Baby steps. Baby steps that
would be taken in her spectacular pale pink suede Prada pumps.

JACK WINSTON STRETCHED his arms over his
head, wincing when he heard a definite popping in his neck. A
glance at his watch told him he had been bent over his computer for
hours without a break. Nothing new there. When he was working on an
idea time tended to get away from him. But things were coming
together nicely on the new software program, and his body was
telling him it was past time for lunch.

He stood and walked to the wall of windows
that dominated one side of his office. It was a killer view. Built
on Crossfire Hill, the building that housed H&W Security looked
over the town of Harper Falls and the parallel running Columbia
River. The valley was long and winding, and Jack could understand
why founder Russell Harper had chosen this place to build his town.
The falls no longer existed, the building of Grand Coulee Dam had
eliminated them back in the nineteen-thirties. But it was a
beautiful valley flanked by pine covered mountains on one side and
long, flat mesa on the other. The towering bluff on the west side
of the river had made the perfect place to build Harper House.
Russell Harper had wanted his home to dominate, to make the
statement, “I own this town and everyone down below answers to me.”
And for a good part of the last century everyone had. When his time
finally came, at the grand old age of ninety-eight, he did not go
with quiet dignity. To this day, the story was still being told how
the old man cursed and railed to his final breath, a fighter to the
end. Jack liked that story though he had it on good authority that
it had been greatly embellished over the years. As far as Jack was
concerned, all the great stories were part fact, part bullshit.
Time blended the two until the truth was whatever remained.

Jack stretched again, this time moving all
the parts of his tall, athletic body. Sure hands and a gift for
running just a bit faster than the other guys had landed him a
full-ride scholarship to pretty much the college of his choice. A
keen, inquisitive mind had made him a fortune.

He could have turned pro, the experts had
him as a high second round pick, but Jack knew his heart wouldn’t
have been in it. Football was fun. It had given him a first-class
education and all the women even
his
overactive libido could handle. But computers were his real
passion. So, to everyone’s surprise, he had walked away from the
fame and fortune of professional football and started a security
company with his best friend.

He had met Drew Harper the first week on
campus. On paper they seemed like unlikely friends. Jack grew up
the youngest of seven children. His parents were flower children
who had no problem blending their nineteen sixties sensibilities
with twenty-first-century technology. When Jack was little, they
grew their food and bartered for the rest. Money was always tight,
but he couldn’t remember ever going without. Whether it was a new
pair of shoes or a radiator for the old tractor, his parents always
found a way. The household overflowed with laughter and
unconditional love. Jack knew his burning ambition for money and
success had always been a puzzlement to people who never craved
either. But they never said a word. They were proud of him, of all
their children. His mother saw no difference between his making his
first million or his oldest sister’s peach preserves winning first
place at the county fair. Jack grinned. They
were
pretty spectacular preserves.

Drew, on the other hand, was an only child.
His great grandfather founded Harper Falls, and his mother never
let anyone forget it. Love was not an emotion you showed in the
Harper household. Drew once joked, after more than a few beers,
that he had been five years old before he realized the nice
smelling lady who never smiled was actually his mother. Jack
thought it was a drunken exaggeration, until the day he met that
nice smelling
lady. Regina Harper
had cold down to a science.

But different backgrounds aside, they had
clicked immediately. Jack spent every moment not devoted to
football and girls in the computer lab. Drew was majoring in
computer science, so it was inevitable that their paths would
cross. Jack was laid back, Drew intense, even brooding, but both
were single-minded and unwavering. Four years later they
graduated—best friends with a dream and a solid plan to make it
come true.

To say money had been tight was putting it
mildly. Drew hadn’t taken a cent from his family from the day he
left Harper Falls. Jack had never had any to start with. But they
were young and arrogant, convinced they had the brains and
determination to conquer the world. So they moved to Los Angeles,
rented a rat trap apartment and lived on boxed macaroni and cheese
while developing the software that would make them a fortune.

But in the meantime they had rent to pay.
Luckily for them they were both tall and muscular, so they had no
problem getting jobs doing security around L.A. It didn’t hurt that
Jack had a bit of lingering celebrity cache from his football days.
Rich guys liked the idea of showing off their semi-famous
bodyguard. Soon they had reputations as reliable muscle. They
looked intimidating and if necessary, could kick ass. Luck and
social media, soon gave them unexpected success and the means to
start their own small but exclusive security firm. They hired a few
guys to handle the overflow, sold their first software program for
a mind-boggling amount of money and decided to move the whole
operation to Drew’s hometown.

Jack had been ready for the move. He liked
Los Angeles, but at heart he was a small town boy. Drew’s
suggestion of Harper Falls had come as a complete surprise. In all
the years they’d known each other Drew rarely talked about his
childhood or why he had no contact with his family. Sometimes he’d
make a few random but telling comments, none of which led Jack to
imagine Drew would ever visit, let alone move back for good. But
here they were, one year later, settling firmly into the community.
For Jack, it was a happy transition. He wasn’t quite sure
how
Drew felt about it.

“Let’s get some lunch.” Speak of the
devil.

“You read my mind.” He was more than ready
to get out of the office and leave work, and his musings, behind.
“I had an early workout and then came straight to the office. If I
don’t eat soon, my brain will turn to mush.”

“Pizza?” Drew held the door as they walked
out of building. There were only three cars in the parking lot,
Jack’s Explorer, Drew’s classic Thunderbird and their assistant
Pam’s Prius. At the moment everything was quiet around the
compound, but by the end of the week things would be jumping.