“Absolutely!” Rita grinned, attention dropping to the tablet. Rita and I had an arrangement—she wasn’t to utter the total of my bill aloud.
“Is it possible to get everything delivered Monday?” I asked, and she nodded earnestly, her finger sliding across the table as she input my order.
“Delivery will be between nine and eleven a.m. Address please?” She peered up at me expectantly. I relayed it, eyes sliding over to Harper and Asher.
Asher was splayed out on the mattress, feet dangling off the edge, and Harper was running her finger along the sheer curtains around the bed.
When I looked back at Rita, she was holding the tablet out to me with a warm smile. “You have a beautiful family.”
I glanced back, nodding with agreement. I used the dangling stylus to sign before passing it back.
“And that’s that,” Rita said, clicking something. “I’ll be right back with your receipt—it’s printing right now. An electronic one was just sent by email as well.”
“Thanks,” I nodded, attention wandering again to the two halves of my heart, immediately distracted by them. No wondered I’d felt so divided the last nine years. I should never have left.
I knew it wasn’t going to be easy, to be us again. I could see the hesitation in Harper’s eyes sometimes; hear the caution in her voice. I hurt her once, and that’s always going to be a fact between us, but maybe it didn’t have to define us.
I’d spend the rest of our days together, showing her that I’m not the same guy I was even a week ago.
Moving toward them, I caught the tail end of Asher’s joke. “What do cows like to do on a Friday night?”
“I don’t know. What?”
“Go to themoovies.”
Harper
I twisted to look at Asher as he slept, his head against the window, lips parted slightly. He snored gently with every inhale. 2
“He’s out cold,” Cal remarked, glancing at him in the rearview mirror.
“I know,” I laughed, facing forward and inclining my head to him. “He’s had a few late nights the last week. I guess they’ve caught up to him.”
Stealing a peek at me, he bit his lip, like he had a question he was hesitant to ask and was weighing the pros and cons of it.
“What is it?” I pressed, subconsciously leaning closer.
He kept one hand on the steering wheel and ran the other through his hair, a fidgeting move that he often did when he was uncomfortable. “It’s nothing serious. We’ve got plenty of time to talk about it.” His eyes darted to the rearview mirror for a moment before returning to the road.
“Talk about what?” Dread filled my belly, and I hated it.
Cal glanced at me again, catching the look that filtered across my face. His eyes softened.
“My mom and Connor are looking forward to meeting Asher and seeing you again. Connor goes back to school Sunday night, and I wondered if we could arrange something before then?”
“Oh,” I sat back in the seat, unable to completely relax. I wondered if they hated me for keeping my distance. “Yeah, that would be all right. Will…will your dad be there too?”
Calum’s expression hardened, and he sighed. “I’m not sure ifI’llwant him there…” he trailed off, shrugging, his jaw tense. He looked at me again, his eyes and lips softening. “I more or less told him I wouldn’t have him around us if he didn’t play nice.”
“Is he? Playing nice?” The leather of his jacket squeaked when he lifted it in a shrug.
“I’m sleeping on Dare’s mom’s couch,” he pointed out.
I let out a breath I hadn’t realized I’d been holding. “I’d kind of rather just face your mom and Connor first, to be honest.” The prospect of facing Michael again wasn’t exactly alluring.
I’d always struggled to like and understand the man; how he treated Calum made my stomach tighten with anxiety. I was thankful he’d had spoken up about it; I didn’t want Asher around that any more than he did. It was another one of the reasons I’d kept away.
It was a hard decision, as I would have had the majority of Calum’s family’s support, but Michael would have used it as a weapon to hurt his son—and I could never do that to Cal.
