Page 30 of Redeeming Harmony

“Shit,” Harper said.

“He’s amped up the drinking in the last few weeks,” Addison said. “Jesse told me he’s even called in sick a couple of times. Daniel loves his job, and I don’t think he’s ever called in sick before now. I don’t know what to do.”

“I’m sorry, honey,” Kira said.

“Why don’t we get out of here?” Harper said. “We can go back to Kira’s.”

“No.” Addie used her fingers to blot the tears caught in her bottom lashes. “I’m not spoiling your evening. We’re here to find you a fuck buddy, and that’s what we’re gonna do.”

Determined to push Nathan and his stupid sexy lips right out of her head, Harper squeezed her hand and said, “Okay, but he needs to have a man bun, a leather jacket, and know how to find a woman’s clit.”

Kira burst into laughter. “That’s oddly specific.”

Harper grinned at her as Addie raised her glass of wine and said, “Challenge accepted.”

* * *

Harper staredat herself in the water-spotted bathroom mirror and wondered whether she could convince the others thatOperation Find Harper a Fuck Buddywas a bust and they could call it a night.

Sure, it’d only been a couple of hours, but despite her best efforts to forget all about Nathan, she had zero interest in every other guy in the bar. Which, frankly, pissed her off. She was young, reasonably attractive, and single. Why shouldn’t she blow off some steam with a fuck buddy tonight? God knows she needed it. She’d been wound up since the day she returned home, and a night of orgasms was precisely what she needed.

If all you need is a night of orgasms, you don’t need a fuck buddy for that. You have a beautiful array of vibrators to choose from.

Her inner voice made a good point, and she suddenly decided that her stellar collection of vibrators was a preferable orgasm achieving method tonight. After all, orgasms were guaranteed with her vibrators. Not so much with a fuck buddy. And if she happened to picture Nathan and his perfect lips while using her vibrator… so what? It was perfectly normal to fantasize about hate fucking a guy.

She dodged past three women walking into the bathroom and started down the hallway toward the main section of the bar. A cowboy tipped his hat to her, but she hurried past him before he could say anything. Now that she’d made her decision, she was in no mood for flirting.

“Oh, you’d better watch your fucking mouth with me, old man.”

Harper stopped just beyond the hallway, staring in dismay at the way Daniel, his chest puffed out like a peacock, stood toe-to-toe with another man, a broken beer bottle on the floor between them. The man was older with a beer belly, but she’d seen plenty of his type at the farms and ranches spread out on the outskirts of Harmony Falls. He was a ranch hand, and even with the beer belly, he’d also have hard muscle from years of wrangling cows and horses.

“Old man?” He looked Daniel up and down with a sneer of contempt. “Your mama did a piss poor job of teaching her kid to be respectful to her elders, didn’t she?”

“Don’t you fucking talk about my mother.” Daniel was so drunk he could barely stand. Weaving, his chest bumping against the older man’s, he said, “Tell you what, you buy me a beer to replace the one you made me fucking drop, and I won’t embarrass you in front of your friends by kicking your ass.”

The man laughed, glancing at the other two hard-faced, silent men standing behind him. “Can you believe the audacity of this fucking kid? He thinks because he’s got a few muscles, he’s some kind of hot shit. Well, guess what, asshole? You ain’t nothing, and you keep accusing me of spilling the beer you’re too fucking drunk to keep a hold of, and I’ll show you the meaning of pain.”

Harper pushed past the small crowd that had gathered around the two men and grabbed Daniel’s arm as he said, “Oh, that’s it, you motherfucker. I’m gonna… Harper? What are you doing here?”

“Hi,” she said, smiling brightly at the ranch hand. “How are you? I’m Harper.”

“You’re Doc Brandt’s kid,” the man said.

“That’s right.” She held out her hand, and the man shook it briefly. He looked familiar to her, and she searched her memory banks desperately, hoping she’d come up with the right ranch. “You work at, uh, Shaw Ranch, yeah?”

He nodded, and she kept that bright smile plastered on her face. “Good to see you again. Sorry about my friend. He’s had a bit too much to drink.”

Daniel made a loud snort of indignation. “I’m not drunk, and this guy -”

She squeezed Daniel’s hand hard before throwing her arm around his waist and snuggling up to him. “Daniel, honey, dance with me.”

“What?” he said.

“Dance with me.” She smiled up at him and ran her hand over his chest. “C’mon, handsome, I haven’t had a dance all night.”

He grinned at her and put his arm around her waist, squeezing her hip. “Sure, doll. I’ll dance with you.”

She smiled again at the ranch hand, murmuring a second apology under her breath as she led a weaving, staggering Daniel toward the dance floor. The crowd gathering around them dispersed with an audible sound of disappointment.

---