Letting Go by Bridie Hall Read Free Book Online Page B

her blood shot to her face , and he chuckled.
    “Why didn’t you want anything to eat earlier if you were that hungry?”
    “I don’t have any money,” she mumbled and wolfed down the rest of the piece.
    “That’s silly, Isabelle.”
    “I didn’t want to owe you, ” she said quietly.
    “You’d rather starve than owe me five bucks?” He sounded incredulous and a little bit angry, she thought.
    “More than five. You’re paying for the room, too, remember?”
    “Oh, yeah, because this dump costs a fortune.” He rolled his eyes and grabbed another slice. “You can pay me back if it’s bothering you so much.”
    On her third slice, she shrugged.
    For a few moments they ate in silence. Harper was looking around the room as if there was anything to see. Isabelle concentrated on the food. When the box was empty, he asked, “Why does it bother you so much, anyway?”
    “What?”
    “Owing me? Why does it bother you?”
    “I ...” She shook her head. “I don’t know, it just does. I don’t like to owe people because they can then hold you in check.”
    “Uh-huh.”
    “What?” He had an amused expression on his face, one that she couldn’t interpret. That was always a bad sign with Harper.
    “You’re afraid I’d blackmail you into something you wouldn’t want.” It wasn’t a question.
    She didn’t know where he was going with that but she wished he would stop asking her about it, so she said, “It fe els weird owing someone.”
    Her pokerfaced response didn’t deter him, however.
    “You think I ’d force you to pay me back in kind?” he said and wiggled his eyebrows.
    “Oh, leave it,” she huffed, standing up to take the empty carton box to the trash. She needed to put some distance between them.
    I t occurred to her that she ate well over half the pizza. She’d had five slices and that meant Harper had eaten three. Half way across the room she turned to him, eying him suspiciously.
    “What?”
    “Did you eat so slowly on purpose?”
    “Huh?” He looked genuinely dumbfounded , but with him one could never tell.
    “You only ate three slices, leaving five to me. You did that on purpose, didn’t you?”
    He grinned. “The way you wolfed them down, I didn’t have a choice.”
    His laughter made her blush. Did she just eat away his dinner after she so stubbornly protested that she wasn’t even hungry? Not just that she ate almost twice as much as a guy who outweighed her by at least fifty pounds, but he was also the one paying for it. God, that was embarrassing.
    “Look, can you order another one? For yourself? I’ll pay for it. Once we get home, that is. You must still be hungry. I’m so sorry,” she babbled.
    “I’ve had enough. Relax.”
    “But I mean it, I ’ll pay for it.”
    “I don’t doubt it. It’s fine, though. Unless you want another one?”
    Embarrassed, s he shook her head no and took the box to the trash.
    “ Did you try the crepes they sell on the streets in Paris?” he changed the topic.
    “ No.” She returned to the bed and sat down with her back supported by the pillows. Harper stretched his legs in front of him. His scuffed boots almost touched the bed.
    He huffed dramatically. “What a shame. The culinary wonders of the world are lost on you.”
    She thought he’d bring up her monstrous appetite from moments ago, but he didn’t. To lead him to safer ground, she said, “I didn’t know you were such a foodie.”
    “Didn’t Jamie ever tell you that I cooked for the family after Mom left?” She wished she knew more about their mother. Jamie didn’t like to talk about her, so she learned not to ask.
    “It never came up. So you can cook, too?”
    “Oh, I can do amazing things in the kitchen,” he announced pompously and for no explainable reason at all Isabelle had a flash of a kitchen table and nakedness. Where did that come from?
    Some of her panic must’ve shown on her face because he asked what was wrong.
    “Nothing. It’s just that ... I can