Page 6 of Redeeming Harmony

He cleared his throat. “If you’re too cold, I can turn up the heat.”

“I’m fine.” She continued to stare out the window. The coldness emanating from her wasn’t something he could fix by turning the heat higher, that was for damn sure.

“So, are you happy to be home? Your dad’s been as giddy as a little kid about seeing you again,” he said.

“I’m happy to see him too.”

Was it his imagination, or were herI hate youvibes getting stronger? He’d pissed her off and had no idea how. Maybe it was when he stepped in to help her with the dog? Maybe she thought he’d been overstepping. Maybe she was angry that he hadn’t trusted she could hold the dog herself.

“Great job with the dog,” he said. “I hope you don’t mind that I helped out with holding him. Sometimes fear and pain can make them stronger than they should be.”

“I’m aware,” she said.

After another couple of awkward minutes, he said, “I’m enjoying working with your dad. He’s a great guy.”

“He is.”

Christ, it was easier to walk a tightrope than get Harper to talk.

His headlights illuminated her absolute rust bucket of a car, and he pulled over to the side of the road, putting his truck into park but leaving the engine running. It would probably take a miracle even to get her car started again. How it made the drive from New York was beyond him. It looked to be about one rusty bolt from completely falling apart.

“Thank you for the ride, Dr. Henshaw,” Harper said stiffly as she reached for the door handle.

“Harper, wait,” he said.

Her hand on the door handle, she stared out the windshield and said, “What is it?”

“Have I done something to piss you off?” he asked.

Her nostrils flared, and a weirdly cute scowl crossed her face. “Have you done something to piss me off,” she repeated.

“I’m getting some realI hate your gutsvibes,” he said with a small grin. “But since we’ve only just met, I’m assuming I have it all wrong.”

“You know what assuming does,” she said icily.

She turned toward him, and the anger in her gaze decimated his feeble efforts to make her smile.

“Whoa,” he said, “Look, I’m not sure what I could have possibly done in the last forty-five minutes to evoke this type of reaction from you, but I -”

She snorted and shook her head. “No idea… of course, you’d say that. It’s what men like you always fall back on.”

“Men like me… you don’t even know who I am,” he said.

She turned her terrible, icy gaze back to him. “I know exactly who you are, Dr. Henshaw. You’re the man trying to steal my father’s clinic from him, and I intend to stop you.”

She shoved open the door and slid out of the truck, slamming the door shut and jogging across the road to her car. Surprisingly, it started immediately, and he watched in stunned silence as she drove away.

He stared at his reflection in the rear-view mirror before scrubbing a hand through his hair.

Well, shit.

Chapter 3

Harper had meant to speak with her father first thing this morning. She’d planned to get up as soon as she heard his footsteps in the hallway outside her room, but she’d tossed and turned for most of the night, finally falling asleep close to five, and she hadn’t woken until almost one.

An hour later, freshly showered, a fortifying cup of coffee and a bowl of Lucky Charms in her stomach, she hiked across the footbridge to the clinic, her messenger bag with her sketchpad tucked inside slung over one shoulder.

She opened the door and stepped inside. A man sat in a chair closest to the door. A minuscule poodle sat primly on his lap, tiny pink bows fastened to her head above each ear. The man glanced disinterestedly at her before looking at his phone again. The poodle studied Harper before baring her teeth, a low growl vibrating in her throat.

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