He's a cynic. She's a romantic. One deal, one wedding, and one gigantic secret stand between them.
**
Harper Lane wants to believe in true love. After her parents split, she began photographing evidence of it. Couples holding hands. Valentine's Day...
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Harper's third-grade teacher had once told her that the most famous photograph in the world was by a French photographer named Henri Cartier-Bresson.
It was called "Man Jumping The Puddle," Mrs. Gates explained. In the black-and-white picture, a man leaps over a pool of water behind the Saint-Lazare train station in Paris. He's suspended above the water, his foot just about touching it. "The photograph," her teacher had explained, "is the first example of a decisive moment. A fleeting second, captured by the photographer before it's gone forever."
Harper hadn't really understood what Mrs. Gates had meant at the time. She'd been nine, and more interested in Webkinz than dusty old photographs.
But now, she finally got it.
There was one second — just one second — where Griffin still didn't know. Where Harper could have snapped a photograph of his face. Immortalized the pleasant confusion, the slightly bemused tilt of his head.
And then the foot landed.
"You didn't know?" Jake asked. "Hale and your sister came to the wedding together."
Griffin shook his head. "No."
"Yeah." Jake frowned, turning to face Lawson and Harper. "Wait, I'm so confused. Aren't you two dating?"
Her throat felt dry. "Well, that's not— I didn't exactly say that I was—"
"What's going on?" Griffin's voice was sharp. "Are you two here together?"
He already knew the answer. Griffin had never been very good at hiding his emotions; it was written all over his face. Still, Harper thought, she could save it.
"No," Harper said. "I lied to you before, Jake. I'm not dating anyone." Her cheeks were burning, but she pushed on. "I'm still single. I have been, since we broke up; I was just too embarrassed to admit it."
Beside her, Lawson shifted. It was impossible to tell what he was thinking without looking at his face. Was he surprised? Proud? Disappointed? The cold night air continued to drizzle, sending icy fingernails down her back.
Jake's frown deepened. "So you're not dating Hale?"
"No," Harper said.
"Really?"
A strangled laugh lodged somewhere in her throat. "I think I'd know."
"That's strange, because I was sure..." Jake clicked his fingers, his expression clearing. "No, I remember why I believed you. Because I saw you together at the garden party. In the hedge maze, right?"
A fresh wave of horror hit her.
Harper closed her eyes. She sent out a silent prayer for a hole to open in the ground. A thunderbolt to hit the tent. Duct tape to miraculously appear over Jake's mouth. Anything to stop the oncoming trainwreck.
