If You Only Knew (Harper Falls Book 3) by Mary J. Williams Page A

looked over Harper Falls
and the Columbia River. They also had a straight-across look at Harper House.
    Drew had spent the first eighteen years of his life living
in that cold mountain of brick and mortar. Looking at it every day was not his
idea of a good time. Which brought him back to his earlier musings. Why move
back to Harper Falls?
    Convincing Jack hadn’t been a problem. He was tired of Los Angeles.
A small town boy at heart, he embraced Harper Falls and its little quirks
wholeheartedly. Buy the better part of a mountain? His partner was all in.
Build their homes from the ground up, each only miles apart and minutes from
work. Jack hopped right on board.
    Then again, Jack was an easygoing soul. Drew had all the
edges.
    Coffee. That was the first order of business. Like
everything else at H&W, the coffee machines were state of the art. Did
spending an arm and a leg on a machine with more bells and whistles than he
would ever use make a better brew than a good old reliable Mr. Coffee? Damn
straight. He didn’t care if he never used the milk steamer or the cream
frother. One perfect cup of espresso, that was what he asked for; this machine
gave it to him.
    Christ, his mind was all over the place this morning. Drew
settled down at his desk, putting his feet up and staring sightlessly out the
window.
    When it came right down to it, he moved back to Harper Falls
for only one reason. Tyler Jones. Now that he was here? It surprised him how
much he had missed his hometown.
    Getting away had been his goal. How many times had he and
Tyler laid in each other’s arms and talked about their dreams? Any place but
here. Together. At seventeen, it had all seemed possible. He had barely turned
eighteen when it all turned into a mess of epic proportions.
    It did no good to replay the past in his mind. Eleven years,
countless memories. So many of them were good. No, not good. Amazing. He
savored those, the ones that brought him back to Harper Falls and the woman who
had stolen his heart when he was a teenager.
    It was still hers.
    Sometimes, when he was in one of his more optimistic
moments, Drew could believe that Tyler still cared. That she would be happy to
know he never stopped loving her. This morning he chose to embrace that
thought. If he closed his eyes, he could imagine her right now sharing his
thoughts. Picturing the two of them, so damn young. So sure that nothing and no
one could ever tear them apart.
     
    TYLER TOSSED IN her bed, angry that sleep had eluded her for
most of the night. It was all Drew Harper’s fault. He entered her thoughts with
an increasingly alarming frequency. Grown up Drew. The memories she could deal
with — often welcomed. She didn’t know what to do with the man he was now.
    She rolled over, closing her eyes and drifting. Back. Back
to the girl she was and the woman she became in the arms of Drew Harper.
     
    ELEVEN YEARS EARLIER
     
    TYLER HOPPED OFF her bike. The trail down to the river was
steep and rocky, with a drop-off that would have made the most intrepid rider
hesitate. She was a risk-taker, but she wasn’t stupid.
    It had become an interesting summer. Usually joined at the
hip, she, Rose, and Dani were apart more than at any time since Rose had come
to Harper Falls. Dani’s aunt was sick, so she and her mother spent more time in
Tacoma than they had first anticipated. They came home every other weekend to
visit and make sure all was well at home, then back they went.
    Rose had a musical to produce. The Harper Falls High Fall
Musical Extravaganza turned into a one-woman show. It seemed that either every
bit of help she had lined up dropped out because of scheduling conflicts or
they just couldn’t keep up with the musically gifted Rose.
    Even Mr. Niles, the faculty advisor, found it hard to be
around a young woman a third of his age who outmatched him in both talent and
ambition. Imagine giving up on your dreams, becoming a teacher. Then