“Everything is telling me it's not fair to want more with you, that you have your whole life in front of you and I would only become a burden.” The distraught tone of his voice sinks into my skin, as if his head and heart are pulling him in different directions. “But I can’t help it. I love you, Harper, and I want so much more than what we already have together.”
Trembling starts in the tips of my fingers before working its way up arms under every inch of skin. It’s like I’ve forgotten how to speak. His confession kickstarted a reboot of my mind and left me with a blank screen.
Nolan Archer loves me.
Me.
He lovesme.
I run through the statement in my head in a million different variations because I can’t believe it. My nervous system was ready for rejection, it shut itself down so the pain of being left would minimize whatever damage his words were going to cause because I was sure I loved him, and that would have wrecked me.
Couples twirl around us, casting conspiring glances as we interrupt the flow of the dance floor by remaining still.The longer I take to answer, concern grows larger in his eyes but right as I open my mouth to tell him exactly how I feel, my parents spin by us.
My mother takes one look at my gown and downturns her thin pale pink painted lips. Her eyes narrow on my bust line, silently critiquing.
“Nolan, thanks for taking one for the team, but I’m sure Harper is needed somewhere and Sadie’s been waiting all night for you to ask her to dance.”
There’s a shift in the air between us. Nolan stands a bit taller, rolling his shoulders back as his features morphed into a scowl.
“I’m right where I want to be.”
My father’s laugh is an exasperated bark. “Funny, I think she’s sitting at the table.” He then turns to me. “Harper, you can go.”
As helpless as a feather caught in the wind, I follow his dismissal. My foot steps out to leave when fingers thread through mine with a tight grasp.
“Harper’s also exactly where she needs to be.”
I watch as my father’s eyes slide from Nolan to me, and then to where our hands are still joined. “What is going on?” My father doesn’t even try to keep the accusatory tone out of his voice. It’s front and center, demanding access to information he has no business knowing.
A lie is slowly loading on the tip of my tongue but Nolan speaks first. “Harper and I have been seeing each other.”
My mother gasps, in an honest to God, pearl clutching moment. I have to force my eyes shut or else they’ll roll into the back of my head. As if the mere thought of us as a couple would cause her to faint.
“You and Harper?” Dad questions, slowly drawing his eyes from Nolan, to me, and then to where Nolan has his arm draped across my waist. “But she’s so…”
I’m all too familiar with the feeling lighting up in my gut and anticipating the next words out of my father's mouth. Too big, too plain, too much and not enough all at the same time.
My spine turns to lead but Nolan only grips me tighter.
“Dan, we’ve been friends a long time.” Nolan’s words are quick to cut off whatever my father was about to say.
“Yeah, longer than she’s been alive,” he interjects.
“But I won’t hear a word about Harper from you or your family ever again. Either in front of me or behind our backs.” Nolan drop his hands from mine, taking a step toward my parents. My mother is forced to tilt her head back and places herself behind her husband like it will do any good. Nolan and my father are the same height but the slight fear in his eyes isn’t hard to miss from where I am. “I know what you’ve been doing.”
My father doesn’t respond. He only stares, a slight tick in his jaw after a second.
People are still moving around us. No one stops to see what’s happening but I can feel all their eyes on us. Nolan doesn’t care, he continues on. “I know about Sadie and her father. I also know that Apollo Enterprises rejected your initial proposal to fund your little expansion project.”
My father tenses, shoulders rolling back and opening his mouth like he might say something but Nolan presses forward. “All I want is what's best for Cupid. The expansion is a good thing.”
"Whatever deal you made with Sadie has emboldened her to try and sabotage this whole event for God knows what reason, but it stops now. All of it."
“Sadie?” I question; a thousand thoughts rushing in.
Nolan looks toward me. More and more eyes are on us, stopping to watch what’s unfolding on the dance floor, but he doesn’t seem to care. His fingers brush across my cheek, tucking a rogue curl behind my ear before dancing down my neck. One small move and I almost forgot the sea of people around us.
“I did some digging last night. The order that was double booked with ours was for Apollo Enterprises, Sadie’s father’s company, but there’s no party. I checked her officephone records, and the band's management company was on her call log.”
