“It’s fine.” She paused. “It’s good. You were right. This is warmer. Even though it’s a little…. weird for us to sleep like this.”
“Well, I don’t know that I’ll be sleeping anytime soon anyway,” he said. “Truth is, I’m not that tired.”
“You’d think we would be, given the day we’ve had,” she agreed. “But I’m not tired either. I don’t know… it’s like I had an energy drink or something and it’s keeping me awake.”
“It’s the adrenaline. The car stalling out, breaking into this place…”
“We didn’tbreak in. Nothing is broken. We opened an unlocked door.”
“Yeah, whydon’tthey lock their doors?”
“I mean, probably because they aren’t worried about people breaking in.” She grinned. “In our defense, it’s not like we aren’t going to pay for everything we consumed while we’re here. We’re going to be paying guests as soon as they give us the opportunity to do that.”
Theo laughed. “Have you always been this much fun?”
“I have no idea what you’re talking about. You hate spending time with me, remember?”
“Oh, stop. You know I don’t. You know I never did. I didn’t understand you, that was all.”
“And you understand me now?”
“You understandmenow, don’t you?”
“Better than I did,” she said. “What you told me about your family really helped me see the world through your eyes. But does that go both ways?”
“Sure it does.”
“Lay it on me, then. What do you see aboutmethat you didn’t before?”
“You’re not just obsessed with planning the perfect wedding,” he told her. “You’re a romantic. You’re thrilled for your friend, because her dreams are coming true, but at the same time, itmakes you feel sad because you’re not sure whether the same thing will ever happen for you.”
She was quiet for a moment. “You make me sound so selfish.”
“I don’t mean it that way,” he assured her, scooting forward slightly and sitting upright. “I don’t think it’s selfish at all, Harper. It’s natural for you to take stock of your own life while your friend is going through such a significant milestone. Actually, I think it’s incredibly selfless of you to put in the work to make this day so memorable for her even while you’re feeling conflicted about it. You never let anyone see those feelings. You keep them to yourself.”
“But you saw them.”
“Yeah, well, I think youletme see them today. I think you and I got a little less guarded with each other.”
“And that doesn’t make me selfish?”
“Don’t worry about it. I’m sure the walls will go back up as soon as we get out of here. AmIselfish for thinking about how much I don’t like the idea of marriage while my little brother is about to do it?”
“If you had asked me that yesterday, I would have said you were,” she said with a light laugh.
“But now?”
“Of course you aren’t selfish. You went through a lot of complicated things to bring you to this point. Your feelings are natural.” She sat forward too and hugged her knees. “I guess it’s all right for both of us to feel some complicated things at a time like this.”
“That’s the way I see it. As long as we still do everything we can to give them the wedding they both deserve, what we have going on in the privacy of our own minds and hearts is our business.”
“And each other’s business, now, I guess,” Harper said.
Theo nodded slowly. “It’s kind of good to know that there’s going to be someone at this wedding who gets the way I feel about it all,” he admitted. “It makes it a little less isolating.”
“That’s funny,” Harper said. “I was just thinking the same thing. And the strangest part is that I was so disappointed at the thought of you being my partner at the wedding.”
“You were, huh?”
