“Harlan and I have a history.”
“Weren’t you crushing on him in high school?” Rachel asked. “Seems like I heard that rumor. That’s not a history.”
When she didn’t say anything, they both stared at her. “Or is it?” Avery asked.
“It was a little more than crushing. We dated for a while in our senior year, but we kept it quiet.”
“Why?” Avery asked.
“I can answer that,” Rachel said. “Savannah’s dad would have shit a brick if he’d known. Harlan being a bad boy from the Barrels and all.”
“Would he really?” Avery asked her curiously.
Savannah thought about her father and the fact that he put every boy she dated through the wringer. She didn’t doubt for a minute that if he’d known about Harlan and her, he’d have forbidden Savannah to see him. He’d been determined that she date and marry “the right sort.” And then there was what he’d said at lunch. Clearly, he still thought of Harlan as a boy from the Barrels, and therefore, unworthy.
“Absolutely. I was surprised he didn’t find out about us somehow but he never said anything. I’m sure he’d have forbidden me to date him if he’d known.”
“How long were you two together?”
“Long enough for me to fall madly in love with him.”
“What about him? Was he madly in love too?”
“I thought he was.” Sometimes she wondered how she could have been so wrong. “He was my first.”
“Your first what?”
Savannah just gave her a look.
“Oh.Thatfirst.”
“So what happened?”
“Three days after we had sex he dumped me. He said it wasn’t going to work and when I asked why he wouldn’t say any more. I was so naive, I thought he loved me too.” She shook her head. “But he didn’t. To me that proved he’d gotten what he wanted and didn’t really care about me at all.”
“Well, that sucks.”
“Yeah. I thought he’d spread it all over school how he’d scored with the banker’s daughter, but I never heard anything.”
“Neither did I,” Rachel said. “Which you’d think I would have if it was all over the school.”
“Maybe he didn’t tell Elijah or Logan,” Avery said. “Or anyone.”
“But if that wasn’t it, why did he break up with me?” She’d never understood what had happened. It had been so weird. They’d been together over the weekend. On Monday she’d seen him at school and everything had been fine. They met after school and went to the Diner with a big group of friends. When they left, Harlan walked her to her car and they made plans for the next weekend. He’d kissed her, and he’d been every bit as sweet and loving as he’d been the night they made love.
The very next day he’d broken up with her with as lame of a reason she’d ever heard, before or since.
“Ask him,” practical Avery said.
“I can’t. He asked me if I was still pissed about it and I told him I’d almost forgotten it. And thatof courseI wasn’t still mad at him.”
Rachel tilted her head, considering her. “But you are.”
“I wouldn’t say that. Exactly.”
“What would you say, then? Are you plotting revenge?”
“Of course not,” she scoffed. “That would be childish and ridiculous.”
