Page 5 of Love, Honor, and Ink

Chapter Two

Harper Rosso cursed and fumbled with the hammer before putting it back in his tool belt so he could answer his phone. He’d thought he’d turned the damn thing on vibrate but had apparently forgotten. The shrill ring had pierced his brain, making his already annoying headache even worse.

Taking a deep breath, he climbed off the ladder, pulled out his phone, and answered, not bothering to look at the display.

He should have taken the time to read the damn screen.

“What?” he barked, tired as hell and ready to get home. The first day of this damn job had taken longer than he’d expected, and he was going to end up behind on his timeline if he didn’t put more work in. When the Montgomerys had hired him for this project—restoring the old Mason Home—he’d done his research and had come up with a decent deadline. That didn’t mean shit when it came to mold, broken moldings, and shitty hardwood flooring. He didn’t have to fix it all today, or even by himself, but he had to at least make a list for all of the others to get started. He was one of the new guys on the Montgomery Inc. team, and if this project went well, the company would hire him on full-time. Everything he had was riding on this. He didn’t want to own his own business, but he wanted to work for those who knew what they were doing.

“Is that how you answer your phone? No wonder you don’t get laid.”

Harper closed his eyes and prayed for patience. Then he remembered he really didn’t give a flying fuck about his brother Justin’s feelings.

“What do you want, Justin? You’ve got two seconds, and then I’m hanging up.”

He could practically see the bastard’s smirk as he spoke. God, he knew it was probably a sin to hate his brother as much as he did, but honestly, the little maggot was lucky Harper hadn’t ended him when they were kids.

Harper inhaled through his nose then exhaled through his mouth, trying to calm himself. Only Justin could send him to violence so quickly.

“You’re such an ungrateful brat,” Justin growled.

“You’re running out of time,” Harper replied.

Justin let out a huff. “Fine, I just wanted to call you so you could congratulate me on my engagement.”

That brought Harper up short. Engagement? Since when was Justin seeing someone? Why Justin thought Harper would care about this development beyond feeling horror for the poor woman was beyond him.

“Good for you. I’m hanging up now.” Any longer, and Harper might have to take his hammer to his temple and end it all for good.

“Don’t you want to know who I’m marrying?”

While normally Harper would have just hung up, there was something in Justin’s tone that forced him to pause. His brother was a little too cocky about something.

And that worried him.

“Fine. Who?”

“Your lovely neighbor, Arianna King.”

Harper blinked, his mind going momentarily blank, his throat dry. “Excuse me?” He couldn’t have heard right. There was no way Ari would fall for Justin. His best friend and neighbor couldn’t even stand to be in the same room with her father’s lackey, his brother, let alone vow to spend the rest of her life with him.

This had to be a joke.

Or maybe a bad dream.

Maybe he’d hit his head with the hammer already, and this was his subconscious playing some weird fucking trick on him.

“You heard me,” Justin crooned. “She finally saw the light of day, and I’ll have her. It seems like you’re too late. Again. Too bad you never had the balls to come out and tell her you’ve been mooning after her for years.”

Harper took a deep breath, ignoring Justin’s taunt. Despite the fact that the brothers rarely talked these days, Justin still knew what buttons to push, how to cut deep.

Arianna was a sure-fire trigger.

“Thanks for the heads up.” He ended the call before Justin could say anything more and put his phone back in his pocket.

Engaged? That couldn’t be true. Ari wouldn’t marry Justin. There was no way. But that kernel of doubt spread through his body, and he rubbed his fist over his chest. Jesus, there had to be something more to it, and Harper had a feeling it had to do with Xavier.

When it came to Ari making choices that not only hurt her but also left Harper out in the cold, her father usually had a hand in things. Xavier was the reason Harper had stayed on the sidelines for all these years while Ari focused on her work. Harper had wanted to support her without getting in the way.

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