Page 28 of Harper’s Renegades

Reaching up, I took both pointer fingers and tried to pull up the corners of his mouth. “You never smile, you know that? So grumpy all the time. I’m sorry you lost someone you loved. I know how that feels, but being sad for so long doesn’t make them come back.”

Magnus pulled my hands away from his face to kiss the backs of them before placing them on my chest. “What if I told you, you make me smile?”

“Prove it. Since I’ve been here, you’ve maybe cracked a smile once, and I’m not talking about smirks or grins. Like a real smile that goes all the way up into your eyes. The kind you feel that comes from your heart,” I explained.

Magnus smiled, but it was a sad smile—a smile that told me he was still hurting inside. “I guess you’re going to have to teach me how to smile like that again because I can’t remember the last time it happened.”

“Only if you promise not to be such an ass. Try asking me to do things instead of ordering me around. It might go better for you… just saying,” I answered with a shrug.

Magnus nodded and started to massage my head again.

At some point, I drifted off to sleep because when I opened my eyes, it was morning, and I was tucked in bed, wrapped around Magnus with the feeling of someone behind me. Everything in me didn’t want to move, but I knew that my bladder was what woke me up, demanding attention. Groaning, I untangled myself and slid out of bed, stumbling my way to the toilet. My body felt like it was run over by a Mack truck, and my head had its own pulse that pounded against my brain.

There was a reason I had a ritual I did before going out and coming back from drinking. I’d managed to get it down to a science, so I didn’t have this happen. I would be out for the count today, and I imagined the triplets would have other plans for me. Finished in the bathroom, I cleaned up and crawled back into bed, hiding under the pillows. I hadn’t seen Ghost yet, but I was sure he was off doing something shady while the other two babysat me.

“Gorgeous, you alive under there?” Jaxson asked, lifting the edge of one of the pillows.

“Fuck off,” I mumbled.

“Guess that clears up that question,” he teased as he wedged himself in further, so we were almost nose to nose. “I’m thinking today is gonna be pretty unproductive if this is how things are starting out.”

“Everything hurts, and my body hates me. Can we have a stay-in-bed day?” I inquired, pushing out my bottom lip to give him a proper pout.

Jaxson rolled his eyes. “Okay, we can have a stay-in-bed day if you really want, but that means tomorrow you do whatever we want to do.”

“Um… I’ve been doing that since I got here, I don’t think it will be hard,” I commented, shoving the pillow off my head to curl around it instead. “Besides, Maggie over here is still sawing logs. It would be rude to wake him when he clearly needs to get some sleep.”

Jaxson frowned at me. “You don’t remember much of last night, do you?”

“What are you talking about?” I pressed, returning his expression of confusion.

He sat up and looked down, brushing strands of my hair out of my face. “You passed out for a bit, and we let you sleep, then you started doing this strange sleepwalking thing. Any time we took our eyes off you, you’d be trying to take the Jeep out for a joy ride. Then when we tried to stop you, tears would burst out of you, and Magnus was the only one who could get you to stop.”

Shooting up straight, I gaped in horror at Jaxson. What he was talking about was what my therapist called a trauma response from losing my parents. I’d grown out of it, and only if I drank certain liquor or was under a great deal of stress did it reappear. Clearly, the combination of what was happening to me caught up with my subconscious. Then I remembered what had to happen to calm me down and hid my face in my hands.

“Oh God,” I moaned. “Please tell me what I think happened didn’t actually happen.”

“Interestingly enough, Magnus was the only one who knew the song, although, after the number of times he had to sing it, we all learned it, but you latched onto him like an anaconda,” Jaxson shared, trying to hold back a smile.

“Who in your family was a fan of Bye Bye Birdie?” Magnus asked, his voice gravely with sleep. “These two idiots refuse to watch a classic movie, let alone a musical.”

“My mother. She loved all the old classic musicals and would let me watch them with her. She changed the song from “We Love You Conrad” to “We Love You Harper,”” I answered softly, feeling a little shy after making him sing what I dubbed the blue song. “I used to make her sing it to me every night, so after they died, it was one of the only things my grandmother could do to calm me down. I haven’t done the sleep-driving thing since my last final project for college.”

Jaxson reached up and tweaked my nose. “Gotta admit it was hella cute to watch grumpy Maggie sing you a lullaby while you curled up in his arms.”

Groaning, I hid my face again, my embarrassment so strong it was overpowering my headache for the moment. “I’m so sorry. Dax wanted to murder me because I left school and drove to her place. Then for the rest of the night, she had to deal with me and sing that stupid song.”

Both of them laughed at that, and I couldn’t blame them. If you knew anything about my best friend, you’d know she wasn’t the best at the cuddly touchy-feely type stuff in our friendship. Although now that she had her harem of men, I’d seen a softer side coming out.

“Where is Ghost?” I asked, looking around for him.

Jaxson slid out of bed and held out a hand to me. “Don’t worry about him. He’ll pop up eventually. Come on. I think a hot bath will help you the most right now… maybe some coffee too.”

I let out a moan of delight. “That sounds wonderful. How do you seem to always understand what I need?”

He pressed a kiss to my lips and winked. “Can’t give away all my secrets. I’ve got to keep some mystery in the relationship.”

“Ah, that I don’t think you should be worried about. You three have enough mystery to last you the rest of my life,” I muttered as I trudged after him, only to bump into his chest, causing me to look up at him.