A Diamond For The Single Mum

“I can get you an account here.”

She bit her lower lip. “If I have to use my profit from selling my condo as a down payment for another condo, God knows when I’ll be able to pay it off.”

“Why don’t you let me worry about that?”

She closed her eyes. “I can’t do that.”

His heart melted. He could afford to buy the whole damn store and she wouldn’t let him buy her a few dresses.

“What if we get the account, but you make the payments. Probably won’t be too much if you spread it out over a few months. And new clothes will give you the confidence you need on your next interview.”

She licked her lips. His libido sent blood straight to the wrong part of him, as his emotions zigzagged in four different directions. He’d always had a thing for Harper. But he’d also known her as his best friend’s wife. He wanted to help her. Almost needed to help her. But he loved her strength, her pride, her longing to make her own way and be herself.

Hell, hadn’t he fought to be allowed to be himself?

“Please.”

She glanced at him. “I know you’re doing all this to pay back a debt to Clark. But he never felt you owed him.”

“I owe him everything I am today. Which is why I understand why you don’t want to take the help.”

She chuckled, then shook her head as if amazed by him. “You will let me pay the bill?”

“I’ll consider forwarding that bill a sacred obligation.”

“I do like that black dress back there.”

He motioned for a salesgirl. “Then you should try it on.”

They shopped long past Seth’s lunch hour. She tried on dresses, pants, blouses, skirts, sweaters. Though Seth would have had her take it all, he let her sift through and find eight pieces she could mix and match, and three simple dresses.

The salesclerk happily tallied the price and boxed the first dress neatly. Expensively. From his days of living hand-to-mouth while at university and in his two years of working as a lowly broker for a big investment firm, he knew that little touches like a box with tissue paper made a person feel a bit better about themselves, about who they were.

He watched as the clerks tucked away the other two dresses, then the trousers, and started on the tops.

“Harper?”

The woman’s voice came from behind Seth. He turned and saw a tall, black-haired woman with big blue eyes very much like Harper’s.

“Mom?”

His gut almost exploded. Harper’s mom wore an expensive suit, shoes that probably set her back thousands and a purse that had probably cost more. The diamond on her left hand could have blinded him. All of Harper’s fears came into sharp focus for him. This was a woman who liked being rich, who thought more of money than people.

She reached out and caught Harper by the shoulders, hugged her, then kissed her cheek. “It’s so lovely to see you here.”

He thought the comment odd until he realized this boutique existed purely for wealthy clientele. Harper’s mom didn’t know her daughter was broke. She believed her daughter belonged there.

“And buying things!”

Her mother sounded thrilled, but also proud. Knowing appearances meant everything to her, he understood why she was over-the-top happy.

Harper, however, looked like a deer trapped in the headlights of an oncoming car. She opened her mouth as if trying to speak but couldn’t get any words out. Her eyes drifted to the stack of clothes, almost all packed into bags and boxes now.

Unconcerned about Harper’s silence, Harper’s mom faced Seth. “And who is this?”

He decided to pick up the dropped ball and held his hand out to shake Harper’s mom’s. “I’m Seth McCallan, Mrs. Sloan.”

She took his hand with a gasp. “Seth McCallan. Of course. I’ve seen you at a few charity functions. I’m sorry I didn’t recognize you. I’m Amelia Sloan. My husband is Peter. Please call me Amelia.”

He smiled. “It’s nice to meet you, Amelia.”

Pleasure lit Amelia Sloan’s face. “What are you doing here with my Harper?”

“Just a little shopping.”

The salesclerk finished boxing Harper’s new clothes and casually handed the receipt to Seth.

Amelia’s eyes narrowed, then widened slightly as she figured out Seth was paying for Harper’s purchases.

“It’s not what you think, Mom.”

Amelia clucked. “And how would you know what I think?”

While the women seemed to be on the same page, Seth needed a minute to process why Harper was struggling. Drowning really. Here was the very person Harper wanted to keep her situation from, standing in front of them, seeing someone buying clothes for her daughter. She didn’t know Harper was broke or that she intended to pay Seth for the purchases. And he realized explaining that might make things worse. Amelia would ask why Harper had to have someone else pay for her clothes, everything Harper was trying to hide would come tumbling out and the thing he’d spent a week of torture to avoid would happen.

Amelia Sloan would blame Clark.

There was only one way to fix this...

“We’re dating.”

The words came out of Seth’s mouth in a rush, as if the quicker he said it, the quicker Amelia would stop going down a road that Harper didn’t want her traveling.

But where Amelia’s face glowed with happy surprise, Harper’s mouth fell open.

Her reaction would have ruined everything if Seth hadn’t thought to step closer and put his arm around her waist.

Amelia all but melted with joy. “You didn’t want me to know you were dating one of the most eligible men in Manhattan? Harper! That’s ridiculous.”

“No, it’s not. Because we’re not—”

Seth squeezed her waist. “We’re not serious. Just started seeing each other,” he said, trying to mitigate the lie.

Amelia’s eyes narrowed. “And you thought my Harper didn’t dress well enough for your rarefied world?”

“No!” Seth assured her, scrambling for what to say. “She said she liked something in the window.” Oh, crap. Another lie. “And I wanted to buy it for her.” He had wanted to buy her clothes. “Because it pleases me to give her things.” That, too, was the truth. Remembering the joyful expression on Harper’s face when the clothes she loved had looked so good on her, he’d give away half his trust fund to see that look on her face again.

“Well, that’s sweet.” Amelia hugged her daughter. “I’d love to get coffee and chat, but I have something this afternoon. Why don’t you and Seth bring the baby over some night.”