“She had a big heart and an even bigger outgoing spirit.” Harper let out an adorable laugh. “She was always dragging me to parties or out to dinner with her friends. She’d do anything to get me out of the house.”
Ethan reached for her hands and gripped them on his lap. “You didn’t get out much?”
Harper shrugged, glancing down to their joined hands. “Let’s just say I didn’t have the confidence my sister did.”
She smiled and glanced back up to him. “I was always overweight and shy in school. My sister was the popular cheerleader and homecoming queen. I was so proud to be her sister, but I never felt like I measured up.”
“That’s absurd,” he replied before thinking. “What does size have to do with anything at all?”
Harper tipped her head. “That’s so easy for a man to say. Being a plus-size girl in high school is not the funnest of times. Changing for gym class while trying to hide that roll over your pants or going shopping for prom dresses when your friends are grabbing their size twos and fours while I’m over there whispering for an eighteen.”
Ethan listened but didn’t hear pain in her voice. He heard strength and bravery.
“And what made you see yourself differently?” he asked, tugging her farther to stand between his legs.
“I got out of school, where there was too much competition to be perfect,” she told him. “My mother started traveling around the world, and my sister and I grew even closer. I realized I have one life, and spending each day questioning what other people thought wasn’t the way I wanted to live.”
Ethan released her hands and reached for her hips. “That’s a pretty smart revelation.”
“Well, I kept telling myself that, but it took a while before I started to actually believe the words.” Harper rested her hands on his shoulders, the tips of her thumbs brushing along his neck. “My sister constantly urged me to get out more and more, so over the years I went when she asked. Coming here was strictly for work.”
“You don’t usually travel alone?” he asked. “Get away and just take vacations to treat yourself?”
“I never have. Carmen and I would go places, but this is the first time I’ve gone anywhere by myself. I was packing to come here and saw that skimpy red bikini.”
Harper laughed again and sighed. “Carmen bought me that last summer, and I refused to wear it. I tried it on, and she kept telling me how good I looked and told me not to hide a killer body.”
“I like your sister.”
Harper smacked his shoulder. “You like boobs, so don’t act like it was the bikini.”
“Why can’t I appreciate both?” he asked.
“Anyway,” she went on, rolling her eyes. “Circling back to my sister. She’s the reason I’ve evolved so much, and she’s the reason I’m here. She started this company and asked me to join her, having more faith in me than I did in myself.”
“Sounds like she had faith in you about everything.”
Harper nodded, biting her lower lip as her chin quivered just a touch. “She did. I guess I just feel lost without her. It’s got me second-guessing my decisions here.”
“She wouldn’t want that.”
“No,” Harper agreed. “She wouldn’t.”
“So why are you doing this to yourself?”
With a shrug, she held his gaze. “Because I don’t have anyone to tell me otherwise.”
Ethan released her hips and framed her face. “Then consider me that someone. You’re brilliant, you’re talented and you’re going to turn this resort into something magical.”
Tears filled her eyes. “You sound so sure,” she murmured.
Ethan was positive. There wasn’t a doubt in his mind that she’d have Mirage on the bucket list of everyone from suburban housewives to A-list celebrities. Mirage of Sunset Cove would be the place everybody flocked to when they wanted to escape.
And it would be all his.
“I’m positive,” he insisted, easing forward just enough to slide his lips over hers.
He couldn’t resist her, wasn’t even going to try. There was something here that pulled him closer and closer into her world. Not the baby and not the fact she was Robert’s daughter. There was a storm brewing inside him.