“You don’t have to do this,” I said softly.
“I know,” he replied.
“I could handle it.”I was lying.
“What’s the point in having money if I don’t take care of the people I love?” Harley countered. My heart did a funny little flip, and I did my best to play it off.
“You love Roxy?” I teased, trying to make a joke out of it.
“No, I love you.” He rotated as he leaned against the counter and pinned me with that intense stare of his. I searched his pretty face for any sign of doubt in his expression. There wasn’t any. That was almost scarier than the potential of questioning. “And technically, this makes Roxy your family, so I’m just taking care of you and your family.”
I didn’t want his money. I didn’t want to be some project to him, and I didn’t want to owe him.
“I don’t need your money, Harley.”
He said nothing as he accepted the receipt and pocketed it before I could take it from him. It was such a small gesture, but itirritated the hell out of me. Harley smiled at the woman, wished her a good day, and turned to leave.
“Are you coming?” His tone was ridiculously polite in an irksome kind of way. He didn’t even bother looking at me and just walked out of the waiting room.
The clinic was inside an office building. The foot traffic was light as I followed him to the main lobby. My discomfort festered quietly as I stared at his rigid shoulders. The growing silence didn’t take the edge off. It just made everything worse.
“Exactly how long do you plan to ignore me?” I demanded, making him pause. He turned and stared at me for a long moment, something inexplicable crossing his expression.
“Are you always going to fight the fact that I have money?” Harley asked softly.
“I’m not fighting you.”Okay, maybe I was a little bit.From the way he sighed, his frustration matched my own.
“I can’t help that I have money, Mav,” he continued. “We are both the products of our circumstances. My circumstances mean that I have… a lot of money.”
“I know.” I crossed my arms, my jaw ticking.This felt an awful lot like bragging.I was all too aware of the income gap between us. I didn’t need him reminding me.
“No, I don’t think you do,” he said. He stepped closer, his voice dropping significantly. “I have two bank accounts with more numbers than you can probably imagine, and I’m fortunate.”
“Yeah, this feels a lot like bragging,” I muttered. I didn’t want to know any of that. “Why are you telling me this?”
“Because I don’t know what the point is of having this kind of money if I can’t do something good with it,” Harley admitted. “I don’t want fancy cars or clothes or…”
“You kind of wear fancy clothes, princess,” I pointed out when he faltered. A ghost of a smile turned the corner of his mouth, fading away almost as quickly as it appeared.
“I can’t make my money go away, Maverick,” he told me. “I don’t want you to hate me for it or… resent me for it.”
“I don’t…” The words got stuck in my throat.Fuck.He waited, silently challenging me to tell him he was wrong. The problem was that he wasn’t. I didn’t hate him or resent him personally, but I hated what money turned people into. I’d seen it my whole life as I watched Aidan chase every last dollar he could find. I saw it when his mother showed just how corrupt she and so many others were.
“Yeah,” Harley said when I didn’t continue. Reaching into his pocket, he pulled out the folded receipt and gave it to me. “So you can plan for next time. Goodbye, Maverick.”
I stared at him, stunned, and watched him leave.This goddamn man was actually leaving. And could I blame him? After all, he was right. He couldn’t change his circumstances.
And this was Harley. Harley wasn’t about to use his money to hurt anyone. Hell, he didn’t have to pay for Roxy’s appointment. He had no stake in this whatsoever. That was just him and his kindness.
Fuck, I was an idiot.
He made it to the door before I managed to pull my head out of my ass.
“That’s it?” I practically yelled as I chased after him. Heads turned, but I didn’t care about them. They didn’t matter; Harley did.
He stopped in the vestibule, and I let the doors shut behind us in an attempt at privacy. The sad expression on his face broke my heart a bit.
“I’m so tired of fighting, Mav,” Harley whispered. There was no hiding it in his worn-down expression. It was practically etched into every part of him at this point. “I don’t want to fight you, too.”
