Page 20 of Capture The Moment

Harper glanced over at Julia, but she was staring fixedly out the window, so she decided not to push. “How about this? If neither of us have a date for Valentine’s Day, we’ll go out with each other.”

“Deal. We can watch cheesy romantic movies and eat popcorn in our pajamas.”

“And chocolate.”

“Of course.”

“Sounds like a perfect date!” Harper said, although, as much as she loved Julia, she’d have preferred to spend Valentine’s Day with her husband.

Always tuned in with her, Julia said, “But who knows, a lot could change by then. We could both have dates!”

Instead of imaging herself and Will on a date, an image of Finn came to mind, and Harper quickly pushed it away. What is wrong with me? I never should have bought that book. She’d been reading the romance novel she’d bought at A New Chapter, and it was messing with her mind. The story was sexy and intriguing, and the characters were relatable—a little too relatable—and she couldn’t put it down. Right then and there, she decided not to wait for Will to ask her out on another date. This was the year 2018, and she could call and ask him out just as easily. Maybe he was non-threatening, as Finn had claimed, but that was probably exactly what she needed. Someone nice and easy to be with, and someone who wasn’t…

“Finn.”

As she drove around the corner and her house came into sight, there he was, leaning against his white truck and scrolling through his phone, casual as could be. She noticed that he wore his jacket unzipped, minus a hat, gloves, or scarf, yet he looked perfectly at ease in the cold winter air. Glancing down at her car clock, she saw that it was only three thirty, and she shook her head exasperatedly.

“What’s wrong?” Julia asked.

Harper had been staring so hard at Finn that she’d almost forgotten Julia was still in the car with her. “He said four o’clock, and it’s only three thirty.”

Julia giggled. “You can hardly fault the man for being early.”

“But I wanted to change and freshen up.” Harper was wearing jeans and a sweater with thermal layers underneath. She also wore a bulky ski jacket (even though she didn’t ski) and a red knit hat with a big white ball on top.

“You look fine. Besides, it’s not a date,” Julia said.

Harper pulled in the driveway, alongside Finn’s truck, and he slipped his phone in his back pocket and came around to greet her.

“Good afternoon, ladies,” he said as he opened Harper’s door.

“You’re early.”

“Thank you for noticing. I like to keep my appointments,” he said pointedly.

His meaning wasn’t lost on her, but she was determined to keep her cool. “I need to change.”

“No problem. I can wait.”

“Hey, Finn,” Julia said, coming around from the passenger side.

“Is your boss always this crabby?” he asked.

Smiling wide, Julia replied, “Only when you’re around.”

“Touché.”

Harper rolled her eyes at him.

“I’ll see you tomorrow, boss,” Julia said with a wink, and then she glanced at Finn and added, “Play nice.” With that, she flounced off, got into her car, which was parked in the street, and drove away.

Finn followed Harper into the house, and after she’d bent down and scooped up Daisy, he asked, “Rough day?”

“No. What makes you think that?”

“Well, let’s see, maybe it was the kind greeting you gave me.”

Sighing, she set Daisy down and went into the kitchen, where she extracted two bottles of water from the fridge and handed one to Finn.