by Lucy Smoke
The thought of short-lasting friendships however concerned me. It made me wonder—if the guys and I didn’t fix this thing with Teddi, would we last? What if Teddi did end up tearing us apart? Texas seemed okay, but I knew that Knix was worried. Grayson and Marv were as well. And Bellamy had to be at least somewhat concerned. Though they seemed to get along now, I knew that they did so for my sake.
“Hey.” Lizzie’s voice drew me out of my thoughts, and I jerked my head up realizing that I was sucking hard on my straw, which was now stuck in an empty drink. “Thinking pretty hard there, aren’t you?” She grinned my way, not the least bit offended that I hadn’t been listening to her.
“Sorry,” I said, setting the drink to the side. “I’m just worried about something.”
I should have known better than to even hint at it. Lizzie’s eyes gleamed with interest and she, too, set her now empty drink to the side as she leans forward and cupped a hand around her chin, propping it up with an elbow on the table top. “Care to share with the class?” she prompted.
I blanched, looking away. “It’s complicated.”
Lizzie reached up and flicked my ear. I squealed, reeling on her and cupping a hand over the side of my head belatedly. Across the shop, the barista eyed me and I blushed. “What was that for?” I hissed at Lizzie as heat rose to my cheeks.
She shrugged. “For you being stubborn. You mentioned it. Now you have to tell me,” she said. “Them's the rules, babe. Spill your guts before I spill them for you.”
I rubbed my ear and glared at her. “I don’t even know what that’s supposed to mean,” I said.
“I’ll bring out the tickle hands and tickle you until you pee—right here. Right now—in front of that judgmental barista and the patrons of this shop unless you tell me.”
“You wouldn’t.” I narrowed my eyes on her.
She grinned. “Try. Me.”
We sat there, eyeballing each other for several moments before I caved. There was no use. I doubted she would actually tickle me until I peed—at least, not in public—but she was the only friend on the outside that I had at the moment, and I needed advice on this, advice I wasn’t one hundred percent comfortable going to my mom about.
I sighed and began to lay it all out. I told her about Grayson’s mom, how she’d followed me and had me followed. How I was worried about my mom. About the night with Knix’s mother showing up. About being with the guys but feeling like Grayson’s mom was ruining everything.
“Wow,” she finally said after I was done and through with it all. “She sounds like a piece of work, this Teddi person.”
I sat back in my seat. “Oh, believe me,” I replied, “she is.”
“What are you going to do? Kick her ass?”
“I wish I could,” I said, rolling my eyes before adding, “I have the feeling just walking up to her and punching her in her custom-made nose job won’t get the results I want, though.”
“What are the results that you want, then?” Lizzie asked. “Start there.”
I blinked. “Well, uh…I guess I just want her to leave us alone. I’d like for me and the guys to just…be left alone. Yeah, I want to have this relationship with them and not worry about them being followed or their business or work being messed with. I just want to live a normal life—preferably with them and with her out of the equation. I’m...” I swallowed around an unusually thick throat, “I’m just scared that if things don’t get better, the guys won’t want to be around me anymore. That they might think it’s easier to just call this relationship off. It’s already going to be hard. It’s not every day a girl dates several guys.”
Lizzie tilted her head to the side. “Babe,” she finally relented after several moments of quiet contemplation, “the guys love you. Normal guys wouldn’t even consider this kind of relationship.”
“You don’t think so?”
She snorted. “Of course not.” Lizzie waved her hand as though it were obvious, but I wasn’t objective here. I was firmly sequestered in my situation, surrounded by the guys. I couldn’t see things like she could, damn it. “Normal guys would just accuse you of not loving them enough and walk away. Normal guys would insist that you choose. Have they?”
I shook my head. “No, not…I mean, at one point I thought they would, but no. They haven’t.”
She nodded. “Then they’re into you. And this Teddy-bear chick...well, she, honestly, doesn’t sound like good news to me.”
I sighed. “Maybe if she’s out of the way then things will go back to normal,” I said.
“Do you think that’s possible? Getting her out of the way, I mean?” Lizzie asked.
I shrugged. “I hope so.”
“Do you think you can just ask her to stop?” Lizzie clarified.
I lifted a brow. “No, we’ve never thought of that,” I commented sarcastically. “Grayson’s already talked to her and she replied with that by tracking me down while I was visiting my mom.”
“So, what are you planning then?” she asked.
I sat forward, putting my elbows on the table as she tilted her head at me, waiting. “There’s an annual charity masquerade in Charleston next weekend,” I admitted. “She’s going to be there and we’re going to give her a taste of her own medicine.”
Lizzie frowned, dropping her hand away from her chin. “And just how are you going to do that?”
“Well,” I said, “she’s been using underhanded, dirty tactics with us, so it’s time for a little payback. We want her to know that we’re not going to sit around and take it. We’re not going to let her bully us into submission. She wants Grayson to come back to her, but that won’t accomplish anything. We’re going to show up and show off.”
She frowned. “What do you mean?”
“Well,” I started, “we’re going to show up and just kinda…I mean, we’re going to show her that we’re not scared of her.”
“You’re calling her bluff?” Lizzie clarified.
“Yeah.” I nodded. “Well, sorta… I mean, she’s not bluffing. She’s being serious. She’s followed through on all of her threats so far.” I frowned. “But I think she’s doing it because we haven’t really fought back, you know? Like she thinks she can get away with it because we’re not stopping her.”
“I don’t know, Harlow. I don’t like the sound of this.” Lizzie shook her head, her brows furrowed in worry.
“I don’t know what else we can do, Lizzie,” I said a bit desperately. “If you have an idea, please, I’m all ears. I’m open-minded. I just need this to stop. I hope if we show up and basically prove that we’re not going to go away and we’re not going to cave in to her demands, she’ll back off or at the very least, rethink her strategy.”
Lizzie shook her head. “Do you really want her to ‘rethink her strategy’?” she asked with her fingers raised in quotation marks. “This lady doesn’t seem all that stable, if you know what I mean.” Dropping one hand, Lizzie rotated her remaining hand, one finger out, in a circle next to her head.
I grimaced, fingering the side of my cup. “I don’t know what else to do, Liz,” I admitted. “I mean, this seems like the best way to show her that we don’t care and not escalate things.”
“Not escalate things?” She lifted an eyebrow at me. “If what you’re telling me is true, then she’ll probably do something either way.”
“What else am I supposed to do?” I asked. I really didn’t know. I was desperate. We’d already decided we were going, but…
Lizzie sighed as she looked me over, her eyes roving over my frown and my own obvious worry. “I don’t know what to tell you, Harlow. I’m just concerned that you’re getting into something you’re not sure about. I’m worried that this might hurt your relationship. One, with Grayson, but the others as well, maybe.”
That felt like an arrow straight to my heart. That was what I was worried about as well. Teddi wasn’t directly causing issues with the guys—not all of them anyway—but I could tell it was a strain on them as mu
ch as me. What if Grayson decided I wasn’t worth it? What if it made the others wonder if a relationship like this could really work? They were the ones to come up with it, yes, but… I felt like I’d been given everything I didn’t even know I wanted, and now it was slipping away.
I bit my lip and looked down at my hands. “It’ll work out,” I said.
It had to.
I didn’t even want to think about what would happen if it didn’t.
Chapter 13
It took a long time for me to fall asleep later that night. It was as though there was something hovering on the fringes of my mind, urging me to stay awake. As though, subconsciously, I knew what was coming. But I was exhausted. Though the day with Lizzie had been wonderful, a lot of what we had talked about was eating at me even when I got home and had dinner with the guys.
I tried to act as normal as possible, but I wondered if they, too, could sense that something was off. Cleo didn’t join me in bed that night, instead choosing to find a comfortable place with someone else. It felt like even my own cat knew something was up. As soon as my head hit the pillow, I was out like a light, and the dream descended.
I sat at the counter in Alex’s, my legs swinging, swishing the skirt of my pretty floral dress—the same dress I had worn to the garden party all those months ago, around the first time I had met the guys. My heart thudded against my ribcage as I waited—for what, I wasn’t sure. Turning my head, I scanned the restaurant, noticing that I was alone. It was a ghost town. I shivered uncomfortably and went back to staring at the countertop, wondering what I was doing there. I could have moved or stood, but I knew I was there for a reason. So, I remained…
When the front door’s bell tinkled a few minutes later, relief flooded my system. I whirled on my seat, a smile stretching my lips. Knix walked in first, ducking his head slightly as he always did and then stood tall. Then Marv just behind him and Bellamy, Grayson, and Texas. They strode in with their heads held tall and their faces passive.
I tilted my head to the side. Something was wrong. They looked different—older. As though it had been years since I had last seen them. But my relief at seeing them overrode that thought. I leapt off the stool and flung myself at Knix—who was at the forefront of the pack. He blinked in shock, but caught me and held me stiffly as I hugged him.
“I’ve been waiting forever!” I chastised, pulling away.
I looked up at Knix’s face, expecting a look of regret or guilt and an apology I would be more than happy to accept because I was just glad that they were there, that they had shown up. But that’s not what I got.
Knix frowned. “Harlow, what are you still doing here?”
I backed away, realizing that whatever was wrong stemmed to them as well. He didn't look particularly happy to see me. "I-I was waiting for you," I said.
"Waiting?" This time Bellamy spoke. I turned my head towards him, hoping for some spark of familiarity. But there was nothing. I took another step back, confusion warring with concern in my head.
"Yeah," I repeated. "I was waiting on you guys to get here."
"Why?" Bellamy asked.
I opened my mouth, but the truth was, I didn't know. Why had I been waiting on them?
“Well, since you’re here...” Grayson was the first one to break the awkward silence that had descended, “I’d like for you to meet my girlfriend, Harlow.”
Shocked, I stared at him. “Girlfriend?” I parroted and my eyes widened even further as my heart sank deep in my chest, drowning under the weight of betrayal and pain as he reached behind him, obviously holding the hand of another girl. He brought her forward with a smile. “Justice, this is Harlow.”
I backed up, my spine bumping against the counter as I watched Justice smile my way and lean up to kiss Grayson on the cheek. “Oh, we’ve met,” Justice said.
I turned my betrayed eyes to the rest of them, but they were all staring at Justice as well, their gazes soft with…love?
“Yeah, she’s our girlfriend now, Harlow,” Grayson clarified. “You know—after everything that happened, we decided that maybe another girl might be easier.”
“Everything that happened?”
Texas nodded as he, too, reached for Justice’s other hand. My heart splintered into a million pieces, each shred falling and stabbing at me—inflicting the worst kind of agony. “Justice is really sweet. I know we can’t be together anymore, but maybe you two could be friends?” he said.
I wanted to vomit—could feel the bile rising up my throat. I cupped my hand over my mouth and shook my head. “No,” I managed to choke out.
Bellamy frowned my way and moved closer to Justice as she feigned a hurt look. “You don’t have to be rude, Harlow,” he snapped.
Harlow.
Harlow.
Harlow.
Not Sweetheart.
Not Spider-Monkey or Princess.
Not Sunshine.
Not Little Bit.
I turned my eyes to Marv, surely he wasn’t in on this too. But his eyes were on Justice, shining as a soft smile played at his lips. “Actually,” Knix said drawing my attention back, “we were just stopping by Alex’s for a special dinner. We didn’t expect to see you here.”
“Special dinner?” I couldn’t seem to stop repeating everything they said. It was as though I were an echo in the room—an echo of a past self, an echo of a past romance that went awry. What did they mean by “after everything that had happened?”
I didn’t realize I’d spoken the question aloud until Marv answered for me. “Oh, you know,” he said lightly. “With Teddi. It just got to be too much. You couldn’t handle it. We couldn’t handle it. Teddi has no problem with Justice and we’re happy like this.”
“You’re...happy?” Without me? They were happy without me?
Marv nodded. “Yeah, actually…about that special dinner…” He turned his back on me, facing Justice as he got down on one knee. “I’ve decided that I can’t wait for dinner.”
My breath caught in my throat as one by one, all of them fell to their knees. Justice eyed me over their heads, a wicked smile on her lips as Grayson leaned forward and kissed the back of her hand and Texas did the same with the hand he held.
Stop.
“Justice. I know we haven’t been doing this long, but you mean so much to us.”
Stop. Please.
“We don’t want another day to go by without you.”
I can’t take this.
“Will you do us the honor…” Knix took her hand from Texas. Bellamy from Grayson.
No!
“Of becoming our bride? Will you marry us?” Marv finished.
I screamed. I screamed until my lungs burst. I screamed until the whole restaurant shook and the windows shattered and the walls fell down and my knees scraped against the hard floor and my throat burned and my ears bled and I couldn’t hear myself scream anymore.
The only thing I could hear was my name being shouted over and over again.
Harlow!
Harlow!
Harlow!
“Harlow! Wake up!”
I jolted, my eyes slamming open as my chest heaved. My eyes darted around the brightly lit room. Over me, Grayson, Bellamy, Knix, Marv, and Texas stood—all of them with concern and worry written on their faces in various forms. I couldn’t stop it. I flung myself at the nearest one—Bellamy—as I began to sob.
I choked on my tears as I clung to his big broad shoulders. Even as I pressed my face against his neck and shut my eyes, I could feel the palpable confusion in the room. Bellamy moved me back onto the bed and sat back with me curled up in his lap as I cried. He patted my head, running his fingers through my hair.
“Harlow?” Marv’s voice was nearby, just to the side. I lifted my head and turned to meet his stormy gaze. “What happened?” he asked.
“I-I-I—” I couldn’t get the words out. They stuck in my throat, threatening to suffocate me.
“Was it a nightmare?” Knix asked as he moved close to M
arv, bending down low so that I could meet his gaze as well.
I nodded.
“Do you want to tell us what it was about?” Grayson asked as he approached the bed.
He looked like he’d just gotten out of bed. Hell, I didn’t know how or if he’d heard me from the pool house, because just like everyone else, he was wearing pajamas. Noting my pointed look and confusion, he looked down at his sweatpants and wife beater before answering my unspoken question. “I was in the kitchen getting a glass of water,” he said. “No cups in the pool house.”
I sighed, rubbing my cheek against Bellamy’s broad chest. “Sorry,” I mumbled.
“It’s okay,” he assured me. “Do you want to talk about it?” he repeated.
I shook my head. I did, but I didn’t. I didn’t want them to know how scared I was that they would leave me. That was something a girl who was weaker than I was would be afraid of. I shouldn’t be scared of that. I should be more concerned with Teddi and Grayson and my mom and literally anything other than whether or not my freaking boyfriends were going to leave me or not.
“Princess…” I turned my head as Texas spoke. He reclined on the end of my bed, watching me with a soft smile. “Does this have anything to do with what you and Lizzie talked about today?”
I froze and then narrowed my eyes. “How do you know about that?” I asked suspiciously as my tears stopped and I sniffed hard.
He grinned, unabashed. “I may have texted her after you got home,” he answered. “You seemed a bit off at dinner. She told me about your worries.”
I blushed. That no good traitor, I thought.
“Don’t be mad at her,” Texas said, sensing my mood. “She’s a good friend.”
“A good friend wouldn’t have blabbed to one of my boyfriends,” I said with narrowed eyes.
“She would if she knew we could help reassure you.”
“Reassure her about what?” Marv demanded, sounding confused.
“She’s worried that this whole deal with Teddi is going to tear us apart.”
