Would she ever?
A couple of days later, Harper was having breakfast with Jack before he left for the office, when one of Jack’s staff informed him via the intercom his mother was asking to come up.
Harper frowned and put down her cup of tea with a clatter against the saucer. ‘But it’s seven-thirty in the morning. Why can’t she come at a reasonable hour?’
Jack put his napkin on the table and pushed back his chair. ‘She hasn’t seen Marli since we first brought her home from hospital. She’s waited years to be a grandmother. Indulge her. Being a grandmother will make up for all the things she had to sacrifice for my father. It will give her a purpose again.’
Harper understood Jack wanted his mother involved in his daughter’s life. She knew the value of grandparents even though she hadn’t experienced it for herself. Ruby, for instance, had been reared by her grandmother and spoke lovingly of the memories of growing up at Rothwell Park, where her grandmother was the housekeeper to Lucas’s family. Aerin still had both sets of grandparents and also spoke positively about the joy of being indulged and thoroughly spoilt by the older generation. Harper glanced down at her nightgown and wrap. She had been up a lot during the night, feeding Marli and feeling like a zombie. Jack had got up each time with her, but despite the interrupted sleep he looked disgustingly fresh after a shower and a shave. ‘But I’m not dressed for visitors.’
‘Why don’t you make use of her while she’s here?’ He flicked his shirt sleeve back to check his designer watch. ‘I have to get to an early meeting in a few minutes. Mum can mind Marli while you have a shower or even go back to bed for a bit.’
Jack went to let his mother into the penthouse and Harper sat fuming. The last thing she wanted to do was entertain Jack’s mother, even if she was a devoted grandmother.
Liz came into the dining room with a newspaper tucked under her arm, her expression etched in lines of disapproval. ‘I suppose we have you to thank for this.’ She tossed the tabloid newspaper on the table in front of Harper.
Harper looked down at the photo of her holding Marli at the café with Aerin and Ruby the other day. Her heart came to a jerky standstill, a cold shiver crawling over her scalp like the march of ice-footed ants. The headline read:Wedding Photographer and Former Foster Child Harper Swan Has Secret Love-Child with Billionaire Hotelier Jack Livingstone. Her eyes ran over the rest of the article detailing snippets of information about Jack and herself, most of which were fabricated. Surely Clara Tenterbury hadn’t fed the press such sensationalist rubbish? Harper glanced up at Jack, whose expression was as frozen as a marble statue. ‘Jack, you can’t possibly thinkIwas behind this?’
His dark blue gaze was hard and cynical. ‘Can’t I?’
‘I warned you, Jack,’ Liz Livingstone said. ‘This is exactly what I was saying about—’
‘Mum, please leave this to me,’ Jack said in a clipped tone. ‘Go and check on Marli. She’s in the bedroom.’
His mother pursed her lips, pulled back her shoulders, turned on her heels and stalked out.
Harper pushed the paper away, nauseated by the thought of millions of people speculating about her. She stood from the table, wrapping her arms around her middle, her pulse thudding in panic and distress. ‘I didn’t do this, Jack. I would never speak to the press.’
‘Clearly someone did. One of your friends?’
‘No, Aerin and Ruby would never betray me like that.’ She moistened her dry-as-toast lips and continued, ‘When we had lunch the other day we ran into Clara Tenterbury. I know she and Hugh are your friends but she’s the only one who could have done this. She was fascinated to see me holding a baby. I couldn’t think of a thing to say. I didn’t know how to explain our situation. But Aerin told her Marli’s full name, which of course included your surname hyphenated with mine. Clara then jumped on that and, well, I guess that’s what led to this.’ She jerked her head towards the newspaper on the table as if it were a poisonous spider.
Jack snatched up the paper, screwed it up and then tossed it in the nearest bin. His expression was thunderous, stark lines of tension running either side of his mouth. ‘I wanted to control what was said about us in the press. I planned to make an announcement as soon as we agreed on a wedding date.’ He scraped a hand down his face, momentarily distorting his handsome features. He lowered his hand and let out a harsh-sounding breath. ‘God, what a freaking mess.’
‘Do you believe me?’ Harper tried not to sound too desperate for his trust but she needed him to believe her. She of all people knew what it was to be lied to or about, which was why she had a reputation for being honest to the point of bluntness. The only person she ever lied to was herself. But that was something she didn’t want to think about right now. Her feelings for Jack, the feelings she tried so hard to squash, were still throbbing away inside her, aching to find a way out of the prison she had locked them in.
Jack came over to her and took her left hand, running his thumb over the diamond he had put there the day she had met with her friends. His eyes meshed with hers, his mouth tilted in a grim smile. ‘If you say you didn’t do it, then of course I believe you. Anyone could have taken that photo or overheard you talking with Clara and your friends. I’ll release my own announcement today.’
Sudden moisture prickled at the backs of her eyes, two tears escaping in spite of her best efforts to hold them back. Jack reached up with his other hand and blotted them with his fingertip, his expression softened with concern. ‘Do you want me to send my mother away? I don’t like leaving you alone when you’re upset but I have an important meeting I can’t cancel at short notice. I’ll explain what’s happened to her. I’m sure she’ll understand.’
Harper stepped out of his embrace and painted a stiff smile on her face. ‘I’m fine. No, don’t send her away. She’s the only grandmother Marli has, and it’s only right she gets to spend time with her.’
Jack touched her gently on the back of her hand, a light grazing of his fingertips that sent a frisson through her body. ‘How does September 1st sound for a wedding day?’
Harper had never pictured herself as a bride. She wasn’t like her friends and clients who had dreamed since childhood of finding true love and riding off into the sunset with their soulmate. She was far too practical, too committed to her career to hanker after the happy-ever-after so many others longed to find. But she had a baby to consider now, a child who had the right to be involved with her father. A father who promised to love and provide for Marli. How could Harper deny her little girl the security she herself had longed for but never experienced growing up? ‘That’s only two months away,’ she said.
‘Will that be a problem?’
The only problem was the fact Jack would be marrying her without being in love with her. And didn’t most brides long for that more than anything else?
‘Lucas and Ruby’s wedding is in late October. I don’t want to disrupt their plans by squeezing in our wedding before theirs. A wedding takes weeks if not months to plan. I don’t want to take the attention off them and put it on us. Can’t we wait until I get back from Paris to decide on a date?’
Jack let out a sigh of resignation. ‘Okay, but I don’t believe in long engagements.’
He didn’t believe in love either and that was Harper’s biggest problem of all.
Jack left after speaking to his mother, and a few minutes later Harper went in to where Liz was seated in the bedroom, holding Marli in her arms. The baby was looking up at her grandmother and Liz was cooing to her in a sing-song voice that made Harper realise how much she had missed out on by not having had a grandmother herself. Liz Livingstone might not approve of her son’s choice of bride but no one could question her adoration of her infant granddaughter.
Liz looked up as Harper stood framed in the door. ‘I hope Jack isn’t making a big mistake in marrying you. I’ve always wanted him to marry for love.’