“I’m the man of your dreams? Hot damn!” I joked, trying to lighten the moment.
She slapped my chest. “You’re such an ass sometimes.”
For the life of me, I don’t know what came over me, but it seemed right, so I went with it. I captured her hands in mine and dropped to one knee. “Harper Jackson, you’re the woman of my dreams. Will you marry me?”
Her jaw dropped. “Are you serious right now?”
“I’m down on my fucking knee, and you’re asking if I’m serious. Fuck yes, I’m serious,” I growled.
“In that case, fuck yes, I’ll marry you!”
“Wait! Stay right there. I mean it. Don’t move, baby,” I said, getting to my feet and bolting from the room. I ran to my bag, found what I needed, and sprinted back to the living room. I resumed my position in front of her, down on bended knee and held up the diamond ring I purchased for her weeks ago. “Harper Jackson, you are the woman of my dreams. Will you marry me?”
She slapped a hand over her mouth as the tears started streaming down her face. She nodded her head several times, but that wouldn’t do. “I need the words, baby.”
“Yes,” she croaked, extending her left hand to me.
I slipped the ring on her finger and stood, capturing her in my arms and pulling her mouth to mine. I held her like the prized possession she was and made sweet, slow love to her right there in her living room. It was by far the happiest day of my life.
CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE
Harper
Chase and I spent the weekend working on my house. I cleaned out closets and started packing things I wouldn’t need before the move. Chase began working on a few minor house repairs that needed to be taken care of before putting my house up for sale. I was in a state of euphoria for the entire weekend, blissfully floating from task to task. Before I knew it, it was time to say goodbye to Chase yet again. However, knowing it was one of the last times made it a lot easier.
He rented a truck the day before to haul the boxes I had packed as well as some furniture and his motorcycle back to Croftridge. We both agreed it would be easier to make repairs and showcase the house if it was empty. For the time being, he was going to store my belongings at a building on Ember’s property to prevent me from having to rent a storage space. When I arrived in Croftridge to stay, we would sort through my things and figure out how to mesh our stuff to turn Chase’s condo into our home.
My giddiness was replaced by nerves when I pulled into the parking lot of the crisis center. Every part of me wanted to move to Croftridge and be with Chase, but I did not want to turn in my resignation. I knew, without a doubt, breaking the news to the kids I had come to love would be the hardest part. Titan must have picked up on my apprehension and tried to comfort me by nuzzling my hand with his nose. I took in a deep breath and willed myself to go inside and get it over with.
I didn’t have a chance to ease into my news or prepare myself to deliver it once I stepped foot through the door. Jackie noticed the ring on my finger immediately. “Harper Jackson! Is that an engagement ring I see on your finger?” she more or less announced rather than asked. By the time she finished, she was at my side with my hand held up to her face, as if she was a trained jeweler inspecting my ring. “Wow! That’s one hell of a rock. Congratulations girl! Who’s the lucky guy? Is it that biker that I’ve seen you with a few times?”
Holy crap. I didn’t know which question to answer first. “Uh, thanks,” I said, trying to gently pry my hand from hers. “Yes, it’s an engagement ring. His name is Carbon Walker, and he is a biker. He’s probably the one you are referring to. The other biker that has been around here is my cousin Judge.”
She smiled. “I know who Judge is. Well done, Harper. Your Carbon sure is one hottie. I bet he rocks in the sack, too.”
I covered my face with my hand and shook my head. “I’m not going there, Jackie.” When I looked up, I realized her overzealous interrogation had garnered the attention of most of the staff. “Good morning, everyone.” I held up my left hand and wiggled my fingers. “I guess you all heard the news.”
My co-workers instantly bombarded me with hugs and words of congratulations. The women fawned over my ring, and the men commented on what a lucky guy Carbon was. Everyone seemed genuinely happy for me. Everyone except Hilarie.
She was the last to approach me, and she did so with her arms crossed over her chest. “So, I guess this means you’re leaving us?”
“I was going to do this later, but I guess now is as good a time as any. Yes, I will be turning in my written resignation today. I’ve enjoyed my time working here, and I’ll miss all of you dearly, but I was presented with an opportunity that I couldn’t pass up. Over the next three weeks, I would like to work with the other counselors on smoothly transferring the care of my patients. I plan on breaking the news to the kids one by one as they come in for their sessions,” I announced, managing to keep my voice steady and my face free of tears.
Again, everyone in the office warmly received my announcement. Everyone except Hilarie. She huffed. “I guess I’ll get to work on finding your replacement. Best of luck to you, Harper.” Then, she stomped off to her office, leaving me standing in the reception area with my mouth hanging open.
Jackie patted my shoulder. “Don’t worry about her. She’s just upset about you leaving. She’ll come around.”
I headed to my office and got started with my day. I emailed my written resignation to Hilarie and as expected, did not receive a reply. When lunch rolled around, I wasn’t sure if Hilarie wanted to eat lunch with me. I didn’t have to wonder long. Jackie knocked on my door and told me that Hilarie had already left for lunch, saying that she wouldn’t be back until after 2:00 pm. Since I was not in the mood to socialize, Titan and I picked up lunch at a drive-thru, and I ate alone in my office.
The rest of my day was a constant repetition of me telling a patient I was leaving, them telling me how much they would miss me, and then we discussed transitioning their care. By the end of the workday, I was emotionally exhausted. How was I going to survive two more weeks of this?
Assuming Hilarie wasn’t interested in having dinner with me, I packed up my things and headed to my car, with Titan dutifully trotting along behind me. One glance around the parking lot confirmed my assumption. Her car was nowhere to be seen. Maybe she just needed some time to get used to the idea of me leaving. Crossing my fingers and hoping for the best, I went home to work on packing.
Hilarie successfully avoided me all week. She came in and left early, and she took her lunch breaks while I was in a session. I didn’t try to call or text her. If she wasn’t talking to me at work, there was no reason for me to think she would try to talk to me after work. She was going to have to get over it. I was moving to Croftridge, and there was nothing she could do about it. We could part ways on bad terms, or she could suck it up and be happy for me like a true friend would. It wasn’t like I would never see her again. We could still talk on the phone, and we could even double date if she was still seeing Shaker. Her immature behavior was really starting to piss me off.
The woman ignored me for the rest of my employment at the crisis center. I had gone from resigned to pissed off to hurt by her actions. The staff members had a going away party for me during lunch on my last day there, and she didn’t even show up to that. I smiled and did my best to pretend my feelings weren’t hurt, but I’m sure they were able to see through my act.
After the party, I went back to my office and started the process of packing up my personal belongings. I didn’t have any sessions scheduled that afternoon since all my patients had been transferred to the other therapists. I was still fuming about Hilarie’s behavior when someone knocked on my office door.