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“What’s going on?” His voice was low, steady. Those gray eyes searched mine with an intensity that made me want to look away. “Why are you scared of seeing your family?”

Scared. Such a simple word for something that felt so much bigger. I wasn’t scared—I was terrified. Of going back to Seattle. Of facing my parents. Of seeing the empty chair at the table where Bryce should have been sitting.

Of them finally saying out loud what I’d known for five years—that it should have been me.

“I’m not as strong as you think I am.” The whisper scraped against my throat like broken glass.

Harry’s expression didn’t change. “Let me be the judge of that.” His thumb brushed along my jaw—barely a touch, but it sent sparks cascading down my spine. He’d never touched me like this, although I’d thought about it more times than I cared to count. But Harry was off-limits. We lived together. His best friend was dating my best friend. And I couldn’t hide from him, not like I did with the other guys I dated. Harry would be able to see right to the heart of me if I let him get too close. I’d always known it. And yet like a moth to a flame, I was still drawn to him, still craved him.

“Do you trust me?” he asked.

“Yes.” The word came out without hesitation, surprising us both. “I trust you.”

It was true, even if I knew I should keep him at a distance. But I’d done that for the last year and a half, and it hadn’t done anything to tone down this crazy attraction I had to him, or my desire that I might finally be able to tell someone my truth.

A flicker of warmth filled his eyes before he quickly banked it, but not before I caught it.

“Then let me help you carry this.”

My throat tightened. He couldn’t possibly know what those words did to me. How desperately I wanted to let him.

I wanted to tell him everything.

But the words wouldn’t come. They’d been locked away for so long that I didn’t know how to release them anymore. The lock had rusted over, and every time I tried to open it, the weight of everything I’d buried threatened to crush me.

Harry seemed to understand. Maybe he could read it in my silence or in the way my hands had started to shake. Because he didn’t push, didn’t ask me to explain. He just looked at me with those impossibly steady eyes, and then leaned forward.

His lips pressed against my forehead in a kiss so tender my eyes fluttered closed and the burn of tears threatened.

In all the months we’d lived together, Harry had never gotten this close. He wasn’t the type. Physical affection wasn’t really his thing, at least not that I’d ever witnessed. But now his mouth lingered against my skin, and it felt like my chest cracked open.

When he pulled back, I was pretty sure I’d stopped breathing entirely.

“I’m going with you,” he said, his voice rougher than before. “And I’ll be your boyfriend as long as you need me to.”

“Fake boyfriend.” My voice was a whisper.

Harry’s dark eyes seemed to shine with challenge, the corners of his mouth twitching like he wanted to say something. But he didn’t. He just held my gaze, letting the silence stretch between us until it felt like its own kind of conversation.

What was that supposed to mean?

THREE

My phone had been vibrating nonstop since I’d sent the text to my sister letting her know there was a change of plans and I wouldn’t be coming home for Christmas.

I didn’t need to look at it to know it was her. Vivienne had been hounding me for weeks about Christmas this year.

“Are you sure you don’t need to get that?” Sam asked me as we waited to board our flight. Her brother was sitting on the other side of her on his phone. He’d been glued to her side since we got here, almost like he was afraid she’d find any excuse not to get on the plane.

“It’s my sister.”

Sam winced. “Is she upset you’re not coming home?”

I pulled out my phone from my pocket and showed her my notifications.

I had seventeen unread text messages, twelve missed calls, and five voicemails that I had no doubt ranged from curious to furious.

The texts told the story clearly enough.