maverick
Pissed off didn’t begin to describe what I felt. The anger festering inside me was so toxic and overwhelming that not even alcohol touched it. I was ready to drive to his house and rip him a new one. I didn’t, but I wanted to.
Instead, I made myself go home. There wasn’t a damn thing I could do to make Harley talk to me. He’d walked away once, so why the hell wouldn’t he again? I wasn’t anything to him.
I had every intention of drowning in a bottle, but as I eased my car into the drive, that plan was shot down with the sight of Harley’s fancy two-door parked next to my house.What the hell was he doing here?It was almost midnight. There was no reason for him to be here.
I stood outside for a long minute, drawing in deep breaths to avoid going off on him the second I saw him. The least I could do was assess the situation before letting my temper and the alcohol do the talking.
I didn’t know what I was expecting to walk into, but Harley making dinner and a clean home wasn’t it. A candle I didn’t own burned low on the table, mingling wonderfully with whatever he was cooking. He moved around the tiny kitchen as if he belonged there with a dish towel I didn’t own tossed over his shoulder.And my shirt clung to his lean frame.
My chest tightened at the sight of him, inexplicable feelings obliterating all the anger I’d been carrying. His gaze collided with mine as I shut the door.
“You’re here,” I said stupidly.
“I let myself in,” Harley replied. “Obviously… I hope it’s okay. I called the bar to see when your shift ended… I was trying to… I wanted to make you dinner.”
I didn’t say a word as I watched the array of emotions pass over his face, all of them ending in anxiety as he second-guessed his decision.
“This was stupid,” he muttered and dropped the towel on the counter before heading toward the door. “I shouldn’t have done this. I should’ve just texted and apologized instead of trying to do…this.”
I caught his elbow as he tried to squeeze past me, dumbfounded that he would go as far as to make me dinner as an apology. The movement pulled him up short, and for a second, I didn’t say anything. I just looked at him.Really lookedat him.My gaze drifted over his pretty face, taking in the tension still lingering there while his eyes searched mine like he was bracing for something. For me to yell. For me to fight him. For me to stay pissed off.
Fuck, I didn’t want him to think of me like that.
Reaching out, I brushed my fingers through the short hairs at his temples. My thumb traced the curve of his cheek lightly as I admired him. I leaned in and kissed him. It was brief—soft and barely more than a brush of my lips against his—but it said everything I didn’t have the words for. The little sigh of relief he let out mirrored my own, and his forehead rested against mine.
“I’m sorry,” he whispered, his voice breaking. “I’m really sorry.”
“It’s fine,” I dismissed roughly as if one gesture made up for ignoring me.
“It’s not.” He shook his head. “I should’ve texted back… my mother… she just…”
“She’s a bitch.”
“She knows,” Harley corrected me. Those two words filled me with dread. It was bad enough dealing with Aidan and all of his bullshit, but at least Aidan was predictable. I knew I could handle whatever he threw at me.
Mrs. Lowell… she was a different story. I could only imagine the nightmare she would become about us being together. I didn’t exactly fit in her perfect little world.
Unless…
“Is this your way of being done with me?” I asked—though I wasn’t sure I wanted the answer. “Because if it is, just fucking tell me. I can’t do the back-and-forth. I can’t deal with you just disappearing one day. I can’t—”
His mouth landed on mine, shutting me up, while his hands cradled my face. It was soft and steady, as if he was grounding both of us. His thumbs brushed lightly across my cheeks while Iclung to his sides, holding him close against me. When he finally pulled back, it wasn’t far—just enough to breathe. His forehead rested against mine, and his warm breath fanned across my face.
“I’m sorry,” he whispered once more. “I’m not good at this… she’s just… a lot.”
The only upside to my situation was that Aidan wasn’t constantly up my ass about anything. He was a total asshole when he showed up, but he left me alone unless he needed something. Harley lived with a leash around his neck, and his mother was the one holding it, jerking him around like a goddamn toy.What kind of life was that?
“That’s no way to live, Harley,” I said.
“I know,” he let out softly. “I just… I don’t know how to fix it. I can’t leave.”
Walking away was easier said than done. Hell, I struggled to keep Aidan away, and I sure as fuck didn’t know how to cut him out of my life. We were both products of awful environments, and we were trying to break a cycle determined to destroy us. We both deserved better. If only life came with a goddamn manual to tell us how to fix it. How to escape. How to be better.
I kissed him once more, using the taste of him as a distraction from the spiral of dark thoughts ebbing their way to the surface.
“Tell me what you made for dinner, princess?” I asked. Focusing on the bad shit was pointless. We were both dealing with enough. I didn’t need to turn it into a problem between us. The little good things had to be enough.
