Page 136 of The Beekeeper

“Don’t worry, there are plenty of other things I’d like to convince you of.”

“Oh yeah?” I said as he drew my head down to his. “Like what?”

He kissed a path to my ear. “Like removing your IUD,” he murmured, and my small gasp of surprise was swallowed up by his mouth and then the movement of his hips again.

Chapter 33

Blaze

The next two weeks passed in a blink.

Harper hadn’t needed convincing to forgive me, but I kept her in bed the whole of the next day just to make sure she didn’t change her mind. After that, though, I did have to think about the details. How to tell Paisley. What I was going to do with the house. When we were going to move back.

Some of the answers were easier than others. My daughter knew I’d gone to Boston with one purpose—to apologize to Harper, and when I went to pick her up at my brother’s house with Harper by my side, she knew I’d succeeded. Pais almost knocked Harper over with the force of her hug, and with every moment after that, the dread I’d harbored in my bones since Pais had come to live with me began to slowly abate.

From there, there was only one question that needed answering: Do you want to move back to Harper’s house?

Paisley screamed yes so loud, the neighboring counties probably heard her answer. We went back to the new house, grabbed the essentials, and decided to figure out the rest later. I’d wasted enough time without Harper, I wasn’t going to waste any more.

Over the subsequent week, the house started to empty. Of our things. Of the furniture I’d borrowed to stage it. Of any sign that I’d ever thought it was the right option for us.

It was a good thing I wasn’t in a rush to put it back on the market because when Mom got back from her European tour and I broke the news that Pais and I were moving in with Harper, permanently, she decided she wanted to settle close then, too. Apparently, she’d been holding off on finding a place until she knew where Pais and I were going to put down roots, so she could get a house close by. As soon as she told me that, I thought about Harper and the interview she’d reminded me of—and the people in my life who wanted to help keep my head above water not because I asked or needed them to, but because they loved me.

The only comment Mom made when I showed her the house was that the only thing it needed was more grandkids to fill all the bedrooms.

“Dad!” Pais practically skidded into the dining room. “It’s time!”

Harper came in behind her, flushed and smiling, her ‘Queen Bee’ tee draped off one shoulder. I’d wondered if having us out in the open, especially with Pais, would change the way I wanted her, now that it wasn’t so forbidden. It hadn’t. It was…constant. Only now, I didn’t have to torture myself the entire day by not indulging.

“Time for what?” I asked and as soon as Harper reached us, I slid my arm around her waist and pulled her to my side.

“To harvest the honey!” She screeched and then bolted back out the door.

Harper and I shared a look, and then she laughed. “She is unstoppable.”

Pais’s anaphylactic reaction hadn’t deterred her from wanting to be around bees. Of course, we’d had several lengthy discussions about how she had to be more careful and how to use her EpiPen, which she was always required to wear around her neck when she went to the hives.

I was a nervous wreck the first time she went back out to the field with Harper, but the look on her face, the smile when she checked on all the bees, when she saw the hive that had lost its queen thriving with a new queen, it was worth it. The risk was worth it.

For happiness, for love, I was finding, the risk usually was.

“Come on, Harper! It’s time!” Pais called, and I drew a swift breath, afraid she was about to spill the beans on our surprise.

“I don’t know why she’s so excited about the honey today. We harvested yesterday, too, and she wasn’t like this,” Harper said with a small laugh, sliding out of my hold to grab a water bottle from the kitchen.

“She’s crazy,” I offered as a joke and a distraction. I knew the reason Pais was excited and in a few minutes she would, too.

“Are you coming?” she asked when I reached out and caught her before she could walk by me, pulling her into my arms.

“I wouldn’t miss it,” I said roughly, dipping my head close to the side of her neck and taking a deep breath; she always smelled like home.

“Enough kissing! I have to harvest the honey,” Pais interrupted with a stomp of her foot.

Harper and I both smiled into our kiss, separating just enough for my eyes to find her.

“So do I,” I rumbled next to Harper’s ear, letting my hand drift down to squeeze her ass and thinking about all the things I wanted to do to her right now if we didn’t have an audience. All the things I’d do to her later.

Harper’s mouth parted on a small gasp and with a groan, I tapped her ass and directed her to the door before I really disappointed my daughter by hauling my woman over my shoulder and carrying her upstairs.