16
Simon
“Absolutely not.” The refusal didn’t come from Simon, who was too astounded to reply. It came from Jayne, who crossed the room and blocked Harlow from Simon’s view. “You’re telling me you want to take my teenage brother, turn him into a little violence machine, and encourage him to run away?”
“No, that’s not the point.”
“Then whatisthe point, Mr. 18D?” Jayne stepped forward, unafraid—or perhaps ignorant—of the storm that Harlow had just embodied. “Because it sounds an awful lot like you’re enabling two teenagers to do whatever thefuckthey want.”
“And how do you propose we stop them?”
“You take Evie, we keep Shep. You go back to Los Angeles, we stay in Aurora. Two thousand miles. That far enough for you?”
“It’d work for Shep, but Evie? A few hundred dollars on a plane ticket isn’t going to stop her. She could buy tickets for both of them without making a dent on her bottom line.”
“Thenyouneed to do your job as a father and keep her in check.” Jayne jabbed a finger at Harlow’s chest, causing Simon’s heart to stop. Didn’t he understand who Harlow was? What he was able to do? “We’ll deal with Shep, you deal with Evie.”
“Jayne!” Shep protested. “Youtraitor.”
“You’re too young to understand what a terrible decision you’re making, Shep.” Jayne didn’t turn. Simon had never seen him so resolute before. “Your frontal lobe is physically not developed enough for you to understand what a mistake this is. It’s a scientifically proven fact.”
“And his frontal lobe isn’t developed enough to understand that, either,” Harlow shot back. “I would rather have my daughter prepared for the missteps she’ll make than have her run headfirst into trouble because I was too stubborn to prepare her for the future. Teenagers do stupid things—that’s the only fact we can count on right now. They’ve already tried to run away once… what do you think is going to stop them from running away again?”
Jayne wasn’t ready to give up the fight—Simon found his determination both inspirational and idiotic. Harlow could crush him. “First, he’snevergoing to run away again. Second, Shepisprepared for the future.”
“But is he prepared for a future with Evie?” Harlow stood firm before Jayne, refusing to let Jayne under his skin. The back and forth was making Simon dizzy—he couldn’t imagine what Shep and Evie had to be feeling. “Because a life with a celebrityisn’tlike life with an everyday civilian. Shep might be ready to take on high school, a part-time job, normal pursuits, but is he ready for paparazzi? For watching every little thing he does in public? For the rumors, for the fabrications, for the hatred?”
“Guys,” Simon said quietly. “Maybe you should stop… Shep and Evie are—”
Jayne apparently hadn’t heard him, and cut Simon off. “He’s not going to need to be ready for any of that, because Evie’s going to go back with you, and we’ll worry about all of this when they’re both eighteen.”
“You’re being willfully ignorant.” From where Simon stood, he was able to see Harlow’s face, and was surprised to find it burdened with regret instead of pinched with anger. A glint shone in his eyes like an apology—like he was sorry that he couldn’t see the situation from the same angle Jayne did. It surprised Simon that a man whose very body was a weapon would favor an emotional response over a physical one, but second by second, Harlow deconstructed Simon’s preconceptions.
The man Simon thought he knew wasn’t who Harlow was at all.
Butterflies once dormant in Simon’s stomach took flight, the feather-duster beating of their wings heating him from within.
Jayne didn’t feel the same way—he snapped back at Harlow viciously. “And you’re being willfully irresponsible.”
“It looks like both of us are so firmly set in our beliefs that we’re not getting anywhere with this discussion.” Harlow’s sorrow brightened, and while his expression didn’t lose his apologetic edge, he was able to give Jayne a sad smile. The look wove through Simon’s heartstrings, plucking them one by one until Simon’s heart was full of music and his bones vibrated with sound. “I suppose we’re going to have to call in a tie-breaker.”
A tie-breaker?
Who would they be able to find who’d be discreet about what was going on? No one knew Evie was there except for them, so…
Harlow’s gaze met Simon’s. He smiled at him kindly, causing realization to strike all at once.
Oh.
Oh.
“M-me?” Simon gasped. “I, um, I… I’m not really… not really good at…this.” Distressed, Simon tried to return Harlow’s smile, but it quivered and shook until he couldn’t take it anymore. He bit his lip to try to still it. “I don’t… I don’t know…?”
Jayne turned on his heel, furious. “You don’tknow?”
“I mean,” Simon squeaked. “I mean, b-both sound… sound like they have their benefits and… and d-detriments, so…”
How was he supposed to choose? Jayne was his brother, and they worked together as a team to make sure that Shep was brought up to the best of their ability, but Harlow had made points that Simon couldn’t disagree with. If Shep had been ready to run away with Evie today, then what other feats would they be able to pull off if given more time?
