Breeze of Life (12 page)

“Deal!” I held my hand forward to shake his. His smile fell a little. I don’t think he was expecting me to cave.

“Ahhhhh fuck,” he muttered. He stood and took my hand, pressing a quick kiss to the back. “I gotta go down some liquid courage, fast.” He pushed his way back to the bar while I waited patiently by the side of stage. A young girl with a clip board and pen held some sort of fractured control over the night’s open mic. Her expression lacked a shred of enthusiasm when I had asked if I could sing. She had no problem slotting me into the schedule; I was up next.  I couldn’t believe how nervous I was. I had always been prone to jitters before a gig but it was usually excitement that fluttered through my stomach. Tonight I was genuinely concerned that I might screw up. The guy singing at the moment fell out of tune for a split second and I cringed. Hey, I couldn’t do any worse. As soon as the drunken twosome finished the mic was quickly wrestled free and I was prompted up on stage. Harper was already back sitting at our table. He raised his beer in a silent salute and I sat on a stool that had been quickly brought up for me. My hand caressed the strings with a gentle strum as I leant into the mic.

“Hi there, my name is Bree. It’s been a while, so be kind.”  The crowd groaned in unison and Harper looked irritated as hell. I began playing the first song that had come to mind, one I had played for an audience before.
One Love
by Bob Marley. The crowd grew quiet for a moment and then one by one began to sing along and dance. As soon as I finished I led straight into
Hey, Soul Sister
by Train. The dance floor filled quickly and I spared Harper a quick glance. He was grinning from ear to ear. I gave him a small smile as I continued with the up-beat song. Once I had finished I looked around the stage quickly.

“Is there another guitar around anywhere?” I asked over the mic. I watched the smile fall from Harper’s face as he slipped down into his seat. Someone quickly managed to scrounge up another guitar from God only knows where and I gave Harper a cheeky grin.

“Come on up, Harper.” He threw back the last of his Corona and the crowd parted for him. A few slaps on the back graced his short trip from our table to the stage. He reluctantly sat on a stool that had been placed by my side and grabbed the guitar that had been offered. He was trying really hard to ignore the crowd. “Do any of you know Harper Somerville?” I asked over the mic and Harper gave me a stern look. There were whistles and calls from the captivated audience. “Awesome, for those of you who don’t, Harper Somerville is the current third place, world professional surfer. He is adored by women and envied by men, quite the catch.” I winked at him. “Though that might be true, I actually know another Harper. I know a Harper who gutter balls every throw down at the local bowling alley, I know a Harper who is terrified of clowns, honestly, since Stephen King’s
IT
he has never been the same.” The crowd burst into laughter as Harper blushed while still shooting daggers at me.  “I also know a Harper who is filled with indescribable acts of kindness. He is a man who would drive an hour just so his best friend could have her favorite vanilla ice cream with smashed strawberries and chocolate fudge. He is a man who would buy his best friend a perfectly gorgeous set of eyebrows,” I wiggled my new tattooed brows and he laughed. I made sure he was looking right at me when I continued. “He is a man who would drag his best friend’s sorry ass out of their apartment and show her how truly blessed she is to be alive right now. I know a guy called Harper who makes his best friend feel utterly beautiful when all she feels is ugly.” The crowd was so quiet I wondered if they were still there.  “The Harper Somerville I know should not have been left out of his best friend’s life for the last year and she will be forever sorry for that.” Harper didn’t look away. I could easily see the forgiveness in his gentle stare. “So, ladies and gentleman, I present to you Harper Somerville, surfer extraordinaire and my sexy as hell best friend. He hates performing in public and will likely never do this again, so if you have a phone get it out and video this monumental moment.” The crowd erupted with laughter and I’m sure more than a few phones were whipped out and pointed in our direction. I began strumming a tune I knew Harper was familiar with, we had played it together a few times and it was one of the few songs we both really liked. I began to sing Lady Antebellum’s
I Need You Now
. As I approached the chorus I could see the rise and fall of Harper’s chest as he took a few deep breaths. He was nervous and I hated that I’d forced him feel this way. With his eyes glued to mine he began to sing. His voice made my heart flip. It had a raw husky quality to it, very Chad Kroeger-esk and sexy as hell. He didn’t miss a beat through the whole song, the guy really did excel at everything he did. The crowd went crazy as soon as we had finished playing and Harper leant forward and gave me a quick kiss on the lips, the touch warm and over far too quick. He actually decided to stay up on stage with me and we played another three songs.  Finally exhaustion won and I grudgingly followed Harper from the stage. The owner of the bar was out of his mind with excitement. He tried everything he could think of to convince us to hang around Coffs Harbour for a few more nights and play again. We politely declined and made our escape.

Back at the hotel Harper walked me to my door. We stood for a moment in awkward silence. Should I invite him in? If he came in what would he expect? Would we just hang, would there be kissing? Would there be more? I was suddenly very nervous, my palms sweating as I rocked back and forth on my feet. Harper was quick to give me a reprieve.

“Early start tomorrow, so no sleeping in,” he whispered. And without another word he backed away from me, waved and disappeared behind the door to his room. Harper had managed to keep his hands mostly to himself all night, no inappropriate touches; he was every bit the gentleman. It would be so easy to walk over to his door and knock, so easy to ask him to touch me, to kiss me. So easy to give in to my heart and body’s burning desire. When I realized I was subconsciously tugging at my head wrap again, reality crashed back down on me like a heavy weight. Life wasn’t meant to be easy for me, life had become painstakingly difficult and adding a romantic entanglement with Harper was just asking for trouble. With a deep breath I turned and pushed open my door, closing it quietly without even a backward glance at Harper’s appealing doorway and far too comforting arms. In the safety of my room, I found my worn leather notebook and climbed into the comfy bed, sitting Indian style at the head board. The need to write was pulling at my heart.

Chapter 11

A Sick Fort

Sick – surfing terminology for Awesome!

Stuffing my notebook away under my pillow, I changed into one of Harper’s old shirts that I had forgotten I had taken from his room. I loved sleeping in his shirts, it felt so personal. I couldn’t help but quickly send off a quick text message to Mia. I knew she would more than likely be asleep, but I found myself needing to purge my confusing night and confusing feelings for Harper.

BREE: So, Harp took me on a date. A real date. Weird or what?

I threw my phone down on the bed and went to the bathroom to brush my teeth. Within less than a minute my phone chirped away with a response.

MIA: Did he kiss you?

A surprised laugh escaped my lips. Typical teenager! Oh who am I kidding, it would have been the first question I would have asked and I’m twenty-three!

BREE: No, he was the perfect gentleman

MIA: *sigh* What a shame ;-)

I smiled. Yeah, it was a shame and at the same time it most definitely wasn’t. Things were confusing enough without Harper’s mind blowing kisses.

BREE: How are you doing?

MIA: I’m really good, having trouble sleeping tho. Your road trip updates R keeping me smiling!

BREE: When ur up to it we should do a girls only road trip!

MIA: Holy hell that would be awesome!

BREE: Cool! Get some sleep, chat tomoz X

MIA: Give harper a hug (or kiss) from me x

It broke my heart thinking of all Mia was going through with her treatment. The exhaustion, the sickness, nothing else compared to the toll chemo and radiation put on your body. She was so small, so young. She didn’t deserve it, nobody deserved it. Why God saw it in his infinite wisdom to allow such a cursed illness to exist was beyond me. What had been subtle happiness quickly dissolved into utter misery. Fear consumed me, fear of my future, Mia’s future, fear of not being able to beat my fear. I glanced at the phone again sitting discarded at my side. I more than wanted Harper in this moment, I needed him. I picked it up and dialed his number.

“Is everything okay?” Just hearing his voice sent a shiver of calm through my body. It shamed me. I should be strong enough to deal with this on my own, Harper was becoming a crutch but I didn’t have the energy to fight my battle alone.

“You wanna come over and build a fort out of sheets?” I whispered, emotion clogging my throat. Harper was quiet for a moment. If he said no I thought I would crumble.

“On my way,” he said easily. The knock at my door followed less than a minute later.

Harper stood in the hallway, his arms full of blankets, a cheeky grin playing at the corners of his mouth. “Brought some more building materials.” His smile fell a little as he took in my miserable face. I tried for a smile but it felt forced. He strolled confidently into the room and dumped the blankets and sheets on the bed, promptly turning back to face me. “What’s wrong?” I leant into his embrace, drawing the strength from his powerful body.

“I just didn’t want to be alone,” I quietly confessed. After a moment Harper pulled away, his eyes raking over my sleeping attire. His shirt! He arched a brow at me.

“I like your shirt.” He grinned.  I couldn’t help but blush.

“I’m sorry. I was really sick one night during the treatment and I missed you so I pinched it from your room. I kinda forgot.” Harper’s smile fell a little.

“So, a fort. I guess we need chairs.” Harper, sensing how uncomfortable I was, easily changed the subject. He began dragging furniture around the room. Feeling useless just standing to one side watching I grabbed a blanket off the bed and threw it over two of the chairs. After Harper dragged two more chairs from his room, we spread the fort as wide as it would go. It lacked height and looked a little like a miniature circus tent, but it had made me smile. Watching Harper try and restrain several curses when the chairs kept falling over had given me no end of enjoyment. Finally we had dragged all the pillows under our faltering structure and climbed beneath the sheet canopy. The lights had been flicked off, a subtle glow radiated from the lamp beside the bed. The only sound that broke the silence was our breathing.

“This is a pretty sick fort,” Harper noted.

“It is pretty cool, needs a bit more height though,” I said raising my hand to touch the sheet that had already begun to sag in the middle. After a few more moments of silence, Harper chuckled.

“You know what would make this more fun?”  My mind immediately raced with highly inappropriate thoughts.

“Enlighten me,” I sighed, pushing those erotic musings away. Harper sat up, his head brushing the top of our fort. He shook his water bottle around in front of my face.

“We’re on a ‘never’ roll, might as well keep them coming. Spin the bottle?” I couldn’t help but laugh.

“There is only us here, we’ll spend the entire time just kissing each other.” Harper raised a brow.

“And that’s a problem how?” The problem was it wasn’t that much of a problem. “Okay, let’s make it a bit more interesting then. Spin the bottle truth or dare. Whoever spins gets to ask the question or give a dare.” I nodded, suddenly feeling a little excited and nervous. “If it doesn’t point directly at one of us we judge who is closest. In the middle is a re-spin.” Before I could respond, Harper had spun the bottle. It only spun two times before stopping to point directly at me. My grin was full of childish enthusiasm. Harper’s on the other hand looked a little devilish.

“Truth or dare, Breeze?”

I needed to prepare myself a little more for Harper’s dares.  “Truth.” He thought for a minute.

“Did you like it when I kissed you in March?” And there’s our oh-crap moment with pretty wrapping and a great big bow. “Simple yes or no, as long as it’s the truth,” Harper went on.

“Yes,” I quietly confessed because, let’s be real now people, that kiss had been A-mazing. Harper smiled triumphantly. A-hole! He spun the bottle again, and lo and behold it landed on me once more.

“Truth,” I asked, not entirely sure if truth or dare was a wise choice right now.

“Do you want to kiss me again?”

“Damn you Harper!” I yelled.

“Yes or no, baby.” If I had been a more profanity-inclined girl, I would have been swearing up a storm right now.

“Maybe,” I said through gritted teeth.

“Tutt, tutt, tutt, Breeze. Yes…Or…No.”

On a long suffering breath, I whispered, “Yes.” Another highly satisfied smile crossed his face. He spun the bottle and again, it damn well landed on me.