Page 6 of One More Chance

Everyone except Cora laughs.

“You can be Harper’s plus one!” Lyla says, with aggressive enthusiasm—a lot of aggressive enthusiasm.

I’m somewhat startled hearing this change of plans. For starters, I would’ve assumed Harper already had a date. Why wouldn’t she have a date? “Oh, okay.”

“Yeah, of course. I mean, it doesn’t mean anything really. It’s just a numbers game for seating and catering anyway, right? So yeah, of course,” Harper’s saying.

I’m watching her sister attempt to discreetly elbow her in the ribs to get her to stop rambling and I successfully suppress a laugh. “Great, it’s settled. I’ll be your date,” I say.

I watch Harper’s eyes grow wide and if I didn’t know any better, I’d say she’s stopped breathing, but I pretend not to notice.

As we’re all standing there starting to pull bags from Cora’s car, a man joins us, walking from the direction of some barns.

“Jensen, this is Gentry,” Lyla says.

The man walks next to her and wraps an arm around her, kissing her on the forehead.

“Good to meet you, man,” I say, shaking his hand.

“It’s nice to see you again, Gentry,” Cora says.

Cora’s been down to visit Lyla a few times since she moved here, and has gone on and on about how perfect these two are as a couple. And, how perfect Gentry is. Then she starts in with her why-can’t-I-just-find-a-man-like-Gentry talk and even though I’m the little brother, I do my best to comfort her.

Lyla turns to Gentry. “Babe, a little change of plans. Cora met a date on her flight. So Jensen is gonna be Harper’s plus one instead.”

Gentry’s head shoots up in my direction again and he looks me up and down in an assessing manner. I don’t exactly know what he’s looking for but I just sort of stand there and tuck my hands in my pockets while he’s doing it.

“All right, I guess,” he says. “Come on, I’ll show you where we’ll be staying.” He motions to me, and I climb the porch stairs and grab my bag then follow after him.

I stop and turn briefly. “Oh. Hey, Harper?” I call out.

She turns toward me, her long blonde hair flowing in the breeze. I watch her gently tuck it back over her shoulder. “Yeah?”

“It was really great meeting you. I hope we can get back to our game later?” I say, and I catch Lyla look at Harper.

“Oh, uh, sure,” Harper says. Then she wrings her hands in front of her again.

“Great,” I say, smiling at her. When I turn back, Gentry is looking at me now. More like staring at me. The man has sort of an intimidating glare going on. I catch up to him and we begin our walk back further onto the property. “So, what’s the story with Harper?”

Gentry looks over to me again, a little less severity in his eyes. “Listen, around here, we don’t go telling each other’s stories. It’s not our place. But I’ll tell you this, and you can take it as a warning. Tread lightly. Lyla and I aren’t married yet, but Harper’s been a little sister to me for a while now.” Gentry’s quiet again as I contemplate his words.

“Okay then, I’ll just have to ask her about it. I’ll find out for myself. I can appreciate that.”

“Yeah, you can try,” Gentry says, almost snickering.

Challenge accepted.