“Yeah he does!” Brian called out from his station, never looking up from his brother’s calf. “Hell, even when you two fought all the time, he was still in here getting work done. Now your boy’s peaced out. Your girl dumped him, and he’s avoiding you now more than ever? Trust me, bro, he knows.”
“I doubt it.” Brad said at the same time I shook my head, and said, “There’s no effing way. He’d beat the shit out of me if he knew.”
“Exactly,” Brad agreed, and pointed his empty bottle at me. “You shoulda seen the way he went after Chase. Not saying Chase didn’t deserve it, but he was beyond pissed. And that was before anything happened.”
“He knows,” Jeff disagreed. “Otherwise, he wouldn’t be avoiding you.”
“He’s avoiding everyone.” I tightened my hold on the back of the chair I was leaning against. My heart had started racing with the possibility of Brandon’s knowing what had happened between Princess and me. I quickly glanced around the shop to make sure we were the only ones in there, and my gaze settled on her name on my arm.
“I just don’t get why you’re still waiting for her,” Jeff said. “You’ve been waiting for months, and now she breaks up with her boyfriend and . . . how long has that even been?”
I gritted my teeth as I answered, “Over a month and a half.” And no . . . I hadn’t been keeping track . . .
“Month and a half,” he continued. “and she barely talks to you. Just get over the girl already.”
“He loves her!” Brian called from his station, and I snorted a laugh. He’d listened to me bitch and whine about Princess for over half a year, and he still backed me up in my feelings for her.
“Whatever!” Jeff said exasperatedly. “It’s been a month and a half since she said they’d ‘talk,’ and that still has yet to happen.”
I continued to stare at her name on my arm as I thought about the few times I’d seen her since she told me she’d broken up with Brandon. It’d been a handful of times, maybe a little more, but almost all of them were glimpses as we passed each other. She’d said she would talk to me, and I’d given her plenty of time for that. But her birthday was in two days, and I had a plan. “It’ll happen.” I looked at Jeff, then over to Brad, who nodded. “I’ll make sure it happens.”
I ONLY HAD one class tomorrow, but it was Harper’s birthday, and I had a surprise planned for her. So on my way out of my last class, I stopped by my professor’s office and handed over the paper due, saying I’d be out of town. I’d just left his office when I saw Harper rush into the bathroom, her hand covering her mouth. Looking around to make sure no one was around, I pushed opened the door and heard her getting violently sick in one of the three stalls. Her backpack had been discarded on her way to the stall, and she hadn’t even closed the door.
Walking up behind her, I leaned against the side of the stall and rubbed large circles on her back until she was finished.
“Go away,” she groaned as she flushed the toilet.
Not likely. I did step away, but it was only to wet a few folded-up paper towels and bring it to her. “Here you go, Princess.”
She grabbed it and wiped her mouth before standing up and turning to look at me. “Thanks.”
I looked over her, but she didn’t look sick. She looked beautiful. Absolutely beautiful. “Are you okay? Do you want me to take you somewhere?”
“No, I’m great.”
“Great? You just threw up, Harper.”
She took a deep breath in and held it as she returned my stare. With a subtle shake of her head, she looked back down and moved past me out of the stall and over to the sink to rinse her mouth. “I know, and now I feel fine.”
“If you don’t want me to take you, at least let me call Bree so she can take you home.” I thought about my conversation with Dad this morning, and added softly, “Speaking of, when were you going to tell me you moved into my parents’ house?”
She turned off the faucet and put a piece of gum in her mouth, chewing a few times before asking, “Does that bother you?”
“Not at all, but I just found out this morning that you’ve been living there over a month. I would have come around more if I knew you were there and not hiding from me in your dorm.”
“I haven’t been hiding from you, Chase.”
I almost snorted. Jeff had been right last night—I’d barely talked to her in the last month and a half. I knew she wanted time, but she always seemed to run in the opposite direction from me. My head dropped, and I stared at her backpack sitting between us. “You sure about that?”
She was quiet for a few moments, and when she finally said something, her voice was soft and shaking slightly, “I’ve just been busy, and you haven’t been around much either. You haven’t come to a family day in months.”
“As before, Harper, I’m giving you the time you asked for.”
“Oh.”
Yeah.
She picked up her backpack and walked past me, and when I turned to look at her, she was looking at me expectantly, her hand on the handle of the door. I followed her outside, and remained silent until I caught her looking up at me from the corner of my eye.
“Harper, can you tell me one thing?”
“I’ll tell you anything, Chase.”
I touched her arm to stop her and waited until she was looking at me with those wide gray eyes. “Have I—have I missed my chance?”
Her brow furrowed. “What do you mean?”
“I mean with you, us. Did I miss my chance?”
My chest tightened painfully when she closed the distance between us and wrapped her arms around me. The night on my parents’ driveway when she kissed me softly before telling me she was staying with Brandon flashed through my mind, and I held my breath and gripped her tighter when she answered.
“I’m sorry that you would even have to ask that. I wish you knew how much I love you, Chase, it’s just been a hard time for me. I didn’t know you were still giving me time; I figured I’d already lost you.” Her voice broke at the end, and I almost thanked God out loud.
“Aw hell, baby. That’s not possible.” I kissed the top of her head and squeezed her tighter to me. “What’s been going on? Is it still because of Brandon? Or did something else happen?”
“We need to go, Harper.”
I dropped my arms and stepped back when I heard my sister’s voice. Once again, I expected Bree to freak out, but she just stood there with a soft smile on her face.
Harper looked up at me and touched my arm softly. “See you.”
“Bye, Princess.”
I watched her walk away from me again, but this time I promised myself it would be the last time. Tomorrow, she would be mine.
I hoped.
Chapter Eleven
I’D GONE TO Los Angeles early in the morning to get everything I needed for Harper’s surprise and barely made it to school in time after dropping it all off at Brian and Marissa’s. I laid the bouquet of orange lilies onto the chair that was propping open the door to Breanna and Harper’s class and stood back, hidden from view. Not more than five minutes later, the girls were walking up. I watched as my princess looked up, then did a double take at the chair. Her footsteps faltered as she walked slowly over and picked up the bouquet. Her body straightened as she turned around and scanned the crowd before picking the note out and moving the bouquet to the crook of her arm while she read it.
When she turned back around to look through everyone again, she had the widest smile on her face, and it took everything in me not to go to her. Bree took the note from her and shook her head slowly before looking around again as well. As soon as they walked into the classroom, I pulled out my phone.
You look beautiful today
Princess: Were you watching me?
Maybe. I finally got to give you your lilies
Princess: You already gave me my lilies a few months ago, remember?
I couldn’t forget that day even if I tried
Princess: Well, you could have given these to me yourself, you know. I would have liked to see you
It was worth it to see that smile on your face
Princess: :) Thank you for my flowers. I love them
What are you doing for your birthday?
Princess: Dinner with your fam tonight, movies at the house after. You’re invited
I’ll see what I can do
I wouldn’t be there. But I sure as hell hoped she loved her surprise.
Since I’d missed it this morning, I went surfing with Brad and Drew before going back over to Brian and Marissa’s to help get everything ready for that night. I couldn’t help but laugh when I saw Brian knee deep in lilies.
“Good look for you, Bri.”
He pointed a bunch of lilies at me and glared. Coming from a man of his size, mass of hair, tattoos, and piercings . . . that shit was hilarious. “Watch it, Grayson! I’m doing this for you!”
“And I appreciate it.”
“Chachi?” Marissa came running into the living room. “Do you think we got enough flowers? We can go scope out some flower shops around town.”
My eyes widened as I looked around their living room. “Uh, Riss. We bought every orange and white lily they had at the flower market. I think we’re good.” My phone rang, and I answered without looking, “Yeah?”
“Hey, sweetheart!”
“Hey, Ma, what’s going on?” Since Mom and Dad had sent me back to my house, I hadn’t seen or talked to Mom much as Harper was usually with her. Hopefully, that was all about to change.
“Well, um, I don’t know if you know . . . because you know . . . well maybe—”
“Mom, just say it.”
“It’s Harper’s birthday, you know.”
I smiled widely. “Oh yeah? Huh. That’s good.”
“Are you rethinking your feelings for her?” She sounded panicked, and I took my phone away from my ear to look at my screen for a second.
“Hell no. What’s going on? You okay, Ma?”
“Oh that’s good . . . that’s real good.”
Seriously, why is she being so weird?
“Well, we’re all going out to dinner tonight for her birthday, and I know she’d love it if you were there.”
“Yeah, look, I’d like to, but I just can’t. I’ll be busy tonight.” If she hadn’t started to weird me out so much, I might have told her my plans; but she just wasn’t acting like my mom.
“I hope you don’t give up on you and Harper, sweetheart.”
“Mom.” I spoke softly into the phone. “I haven’t. I promise. I have things I need to do tonight though . . . all right? If it eases your mind, I’ve decided to stay in San Diego after graduation.”
She blew out a relieved breath, “Oh thank God. All right. Well, if you change your mind, we’re going at six tonight.”
“Six. All right. Love you, Ma.”
“Love you, too, honey.”
We got all the flowers put together before I had to go in for my first of two appointments at the shop; and by the time I was done with the second, I was rushing to get the lilies, so they were covering every surface in the living room and breakfast bar at my parents’ house. I walked into the kitchen in search of anything I could scarf down quickly and a book sitting on the end of the kitchen table caught my eye. I did a double take when I saw the title and froze.