“Because…” Harper doesn’t finish, but instead comes over and wraps me in a hug. I’m shocked senseless, my arms hanging limply at my side. “I’m so mad at you for keeping me in the dark and not telling me. But I’m also so sorry, Marcus. I know how much you loved your sister and Dan. And your dad. I’m so sorry. But mostly I’m mad at myself because I can’t be mad at you after you’ve been through so much.”
I hold Harper to me, sinking into the feel of her in my arms. Having Harper in my arms feels like I’m taking the first deep breath in seven years. The calm to the chaos in my life.
I don’t know how long we stand like this, but the sweet scent of Harper calms all my frayed nerves. It was always like this.
It won’t stay like this. I know it won’t. And all too soon, she’s pulling back.
Harper wipes the tears from her red-rimmed eyes. “We should get going. I don’t want you to be late for the game.”
“Right.” I clear my throat.
I watch as she shutters her face, closing off her emotions. Backing away from me, she grabs her bag off the bed and is at the door, waiting for me.
“Are you okay?” Harper asks as I follow her out into the hallway.
“I’m good.” And for once, it’s not a lie. It’s like a weight has lifted by sharing this with her. The one person in my world who needed the truth but never got it until now. “I’m sorry to burden you with all of this, but you deserved to know.”
Harper nods, clasping her hands around the chain of her purse and walking in front of me. Her mind has to be swimming.
If she needs time and wants to talk to me later, I’ll be here.
Because if she wants to talk, that’s a good thing.
It might mean an opening to keep talking. And that means we’re not out of each other’s lives just yet.
Chapter Ten
MARCUS
There’s a weirdness in the air between the two of us. Harper has been quiet since I dropped the bomb on her of why I left.
If there’s one thing I knew about her, it’s that she was always loud and joyful. She was a ray of sunshine from the minute I met her. A southern California girl through and through.
I loved that about her.
It’s like her light has dimmed somehow. Under the bright lights of the strip, she’s not the brightest star out here.
“Talk to me, Harper.”
She’s picking at her fingernails. It was always her tell when she was nervous, usually while watching my games. Harper was never nervous around me. That’s something that’s new.
“It’s weird being here now. I never thought I’d come back to Vegas.”
“Too many bad memories?”
The light in front of us turns red and we stop. Shelooks up at me. Studying me. “We were happy once, right? I didn’t make that up?”
I shake my head. “You didn’t. We were really happy. I think being here with you was one of the happiest days of my life.”
“Mine too.” The light changes and the blinking light indicates we can walk. “It’s just…messing with my head is all.”
“I’m sorry.”
The blinking sign of the chapel comes into view. “Let’s just get this over with.”
“Right.”
Get it over with.
