“Later.” Owen followed my gaze, then looked back at me. “Right now, I just want to enjoy this. You said yes.”
He kissed me again, laughing against my mouth, and for a moment, everything else faded away. The test. The uncertainty. The conversation we still had to have with Jax, Kaia, and everyone else.
All that mattered was this. Owen’s arms around me, and the promise of forever stretching out ahead of us.
Whatever came next, we’d face it together.
And really, that was all I’d ever wanted.
CHAPTER 36
HARLOW
The last dayof school before winter break should have felt liberating, but it didn’t. I walked across campus with my heart lodged somewhere in my throat, my brain running a thousand miles per hour, and my stomach doing things that I really hoped were just nerves and not... the other thing.
Tomorrow morning at six a.m., we were flying to Vegas.
I was going to marry Owen Taylor in less than twenty-four hours.
The thought sent a giddy thrill through me, immediately followed by a wave of terror so intense I nearly tripped over a crack in the sidewalk. A girl passing by gave me a weird look, probably wondering why I was grinning like a maniac one second and looking like I might vomit the next.
Welcome to my life. It’s a whole thing.
Three weeks of winter break that would include a secret Vegas wedding, a trip to Tennessee to face my family, and potentially life-altering news delivered via a plastic stick I’d been actively avoiding.
The pregnancy test was still sitting in Owen’s bathroom cabinet, unopened, taunting me every time I brushed my teeth.
We agreed to wait.
But God, the not knowing was driving me insane.
Every morning I woke up nauseous, and I couldn’t tell if it was because my body was growing a tiny human or because I was so anxious about everything that my stomach had simply given up on functioning normally. I wanted to rip that box open and take the test.
One more week. By the time we found out, we would be married.
Mrs. Owen Taylor.
Harlow Taylor.
I tested the name out in my head for the thousandth time, and it still made me want to giggle like a twelve-year-old with a crush.
My car came into view across the parking lot, and I picked up my pace. Owen was waiting for me at home. We had a checklist to finalize. Bags to pack. A marriage license to obsess over.
Just normal pre-elopement activities.
My phone rang, cutting through my racing thoughts, and I fumbled it out of my bag with a smile already spreading across my face. It was probably Owen calling.
I didn’t even check the caller ID.
“Hey, you,” I answered. “Miss me already? It’s been like three hours.”
“Harlow.”
Not Owen.
Syn.
I stopped walking so abruptly that a guy behind me nearly plowed into my back. He muttered something rude and swerved around me, but I barely noticed. Something about Syn’s tone made my veins crystallize with ice.
