by R. Linda
“Where were you guys?” I asked when Brody slid into the seat beside me, leaving Harper no choice but to sit next to him or at the other table.
Brody looked over his shoulder and glanced around the room.
“He’s not here,” Kenzie said, taking a deep breath, knowing he was looking for Ryder. “I better go and find Cole.”
“Well?” I asked again. They’d been gone for a while.
“Dropped Chace off at the E.R. Ryder broke his nose.”
Indie barked out a laugh but tried to hide it with a fake cough, sputtering, “Sorry. It’s just he always breaks his nose.”
“Four times, Chace told me,” Harper said.
“Chace should have learned by now, particularly after la—” Indie snapped her mouth shut.
“After?” Harper asked.
“Nothing. The last three times Ryder has broken it.”
“Is he pressing charges?” Linc asked Brody.
“Don’t think so. He seemed…”
“Remorseful?” Harper offered.
Brody nodded.
“Remorseful. Ha. No. There’s not a remorseful bone in that guy’s body. He doesn’t deserve anyone’s sympathy. He needs to be lo—” Indie cut herself short again and groaned into her hands. “We need to go before I say something I’m not meant to.”
“Okay, Ace, let’s go.” Linc slid out of the booth and pulled Indie with him, saying goodbye as they left.
And then there were three. We sat silently side by side in the large booth. It was awkward. No one knew what to say. I wanted to talk to Harper but couldn’t with Brody there. Brody kept looking at me as though waiting for me to leave so he could have her all to himself.
“Well, it’s been eventful. I’m going to check on Kenzie and Cole and then go to bed,” Harper announced after a torturously long and uncomfortable silence.
“It’s only seven-thirty.” Brody glanced at his watch.
“I’m tired.” Harper faked a yawn and waved goodbye.
“Guess we should go too, then, huh?” I asked Brody, shoving him out of the booth as he reluctantly agreed. The night was over before it started, but I had a feeling things were going to get a whole lot more complicated over the next few weeks.
Chapter Six
Harper
Kenzie and Cole left minutes after everyone else. She was exhausted and freaking out, and it was making Cole anxious. I offered to let Cole stay with us for the night, and Johnny and Julie were happy to have him so Kenzie could calm down and have a break, but she refused, saying she didn’t trust Chace not to come back and didn’t want to let Cole out of her sight.
After everything I had heard about Chace over the years, I couldn’t understand why he would suddenly show up here again and demand to know Cole. He had blatantly refused to acknowledge him and had caused so much pain and heartache for that entire family, Bailey included. It didn’t make any sense. But Kenzie was smart and the strongest person I knew, so I was sure she’d get things under control sooner or later.
I walked Kenzie out to her car so she didn’t have to cross the parking lot alone—that was how much Chace had her riled up—and then went around the back of the roadhouse. It was still early, and even though I’d told Brody and Nate I was going to bed, I wasn’t. I couldn’t sleep, and I couldn’t have sat with them in silence any longer. Nate looked like he wanted to say something, or maybe even stay, which was a bad idea. I couldn’t be in his presence for too long alone because I didn’t trust myself or my stupid hormones. And I wasn’t willing to risk hurting Brody like that. Then I couldn’t spend too much time with Brody either because the guilt of those three months with Nate weighed heavily on my chest.
There was this rickety old water tower in the field behind the diner. It was no longer in use and probably wasn’t very stable, but the view from the top was incredible, so I ran through the field and the rain and climbed the ladder. I was soaked to the bone, but I didn’t care. There was something freeing and calming about being out there in the storm, even if it was ridiculously dangerous, both from the slippery ladder and tower, and the strong wind. The moment I saw a flash of lightning, I was out of there, but until then, I’d enjoy the quiet and the view.
I settled back against the water tower and looked up at the sky. On a clear night, you could see the Milky Way, but tonight it was just black. No moon. No stars. Complete darkness except for the lights at the back of the roadhouse casting a soft glow over the field.
“What the hell are you doing up there?” I heard a voice shout, the sound almost getting lost in the howling wind.
It was probably Johnny coming to tell me to get my ass inside, so I scooted forward and peered over the edge. Jumping back, my heart in my throat, I smacked Nate in the chest as he climbed onto the platform beside me.
“What are you doing here?” I asked.
“Me? You’re the lunatic sitting at the top of a water tower in the middle of the storm,” he said, settling beside me and throwing a blanket over us.
I raised an eyebrow. “Where’d the blanket come from?”
“Johnny. I came back because I forgot my jacket.” He wiggled around a little bit and fluffed the blanket.
“Doesn’t explain why you’re up here with a blanket.” I couldn’t help it. It was like my body acted on its own. I leaned in closer to Nate until we were shoulder to shoulder, hip to hip. Stupid girl.
“I asked where you were, and your uncle said you were out here. He threw the blanket at me and told me to take it to you so you didn’t catch a chill and die.”
“He’s a little dramatic.”
“He’s not wrong. It’s not exactly safe out here.” He nudged my leg with his knee, and my heart skipped a beat. It literally stuttered in my chest from a simple, casual, and friendly gesture. I was screwed.
“Yet you’re still here.” I wrapped the blanket tighter around me.
“Can’t have you freezing to death alone, now, can I? How would I live with myself?” Nate shifted slightly, his hand brushing my thigh.
“So, you’re only here to save yourself the guilt later?” I squinted to look at his face.
“Exactly.” He grinned, a big, wide, show-stopping smile, and wrapped an arm around my waist, causing a shiver to run up my spine.
I was so screwed.
Tearing my gaze from his lips, which were still smiling, I brought my knees up to my chest and thought of something to say, but I drew a blank
“You live here? At the roadhouse?” Nate asked.
“Yep, there’s an apartment above the diner.”
“And Johnny is your uncle?”
“He’s my dad’s brother.” I nodded and hoped Nate wouldn’t ask why I was living with my uncle and not my own parents. I didn’t want to get into the family drama. They weren’t worth my energy or my time.
“And you spend a lot of time up here?”
“Are you trying to bore me with small talk, or what?”
“Just making conversation.” Nate laughed softly.
“Why?”
“Because you won’t talk to me. But I figure if I talk to you long enough, I’ll wear you down, and maybe we can be friends,” he said thoughtfully. “Can we be friends, Harper?”
“Friends?” The word tasted funny in mouth. It didn’t roll off my tongue as naturally as it did when I applied it to…any of my other friends.
“Sure. We’re going to be seeing a lot of each other, I’d imagine, now that everyone is back. So, friends?”
“Okay,” I agreed, even though I knew it wouldn’t work. We could never be just friends. There would always be something more, something hanging in the background, lingering like the touch of his fingers on my skin.
Definitely screwed.
“Excellent. I’ve been in the market for a new friend since mine ditched me for my sister.” He said it with such a serious tone that for a moment I was worried he might not actually approve of Linc and Indie’s relationship, but then he laughed.
“
You feeling lonely now?” I teased.
“Yeah, but you know, I’ve been keeping myself busy.”
I frowned and bit my lip to stop from saying anything because a snarky comment about all the girls he’d been bringing home to keep himself busy was on the tip of my tongue. I couldn’t let him know I was jealous, because I refused to acknowledge I was jealous. I had no reason to be. But when he smiled at me, and I imagined him looking at other girls that way, my heart hurt.
We were silent for the longest time until Nate finally broke it. “What are your plans this week?”
“We’re making small talk now?”
“That’s what friends do. They talk about small things. Or important things. You choose. I don’t care. We can sit in silence in the freezing rain until our noses fall off if you want.”
“I don’t want my nose to fall off.”
“Then why are we up here?”
“It’s a good place to think, and the view is beautiful.”
“Hate to break it to you, friend. We have no view.” He gestured with wide arms at the darkness surrounding us. I couldn’t hide the smile on my face from the way he called me “friend.” If I wasn’t careful, I’d get too comfortable with him and let my guard down. I couldn’t let that happen. For his sake and for Brody’s.
“Not tonight, but in the daylight or a clear night, it’s pretty spectacular up here.”
“Are you inviting me back?”
“What? No. I, umm…” I wasn’t inviting him over again, was I? No. It was too much. Having him so close made my brain turn to mush and made me want things I had no business wanting.
“I thought we were friends.”
“We are,” I agreed reluctantly. Friends.
“And friends hang out at the top of water towers.” He squeezed his arm around me. “You’re shivering.”
I hadn’t even realised I was cold. “I’m fine.” I was enjoying the warmth of his arm around me, and if I was honest, I didn’t want to move.
“Come on. Let’s get out of this rain. You can show me the view another day when the sun is shining.”
Nate stood and held out his hand to help me up. I stumbled on the wet surface and slipped backwards, but he tightened his grip on my hand and pulled me forward into his warm, hard, very firm chest, his other hand sliding around my back to steady me.
“Whoa, you okay?” he asked, looking down at me.
I froze, unable to speak, and stared into his dark as night blue eyes. All rationality was gone. Rain was dripping down his nose, cheeks, over his lips. His tongued darted out to lick the water away. My lips parted, and mimicking him, my tongue swiped over my bottom lip.
“Harper?” His voice was so soft as his head lowered so close to mine I was breathing in his breaths.
One kiss wouldn’t hurt anyone, right? Right?
One kiss was nothing.
People kissed all the time, and it didn’t mean anything.
It was harmless…
Only it wasn’t. Nothing was harmless when it came Nate Kellerman.
“I’m okay,” I said finally. The half a step I took back out of his arms almost physically hurt, but the daze he had me under was finally lifted, and I could think again.
A mask of indifference appeared on Nate’s face, and he smiled as he rolled the wet blanket into a soggy ball. “Good. Can’t have my new friend falling off a water tower.”
Nate Kellerman was going to be the death of me.
Chapter Seven
Nate
“Sit down,” Indie ordered and bounced on her feet with her hands behind her back while Linc stood beside her, quietly watching.
We were at our parents’ house for Sunday night dinner—a new thing our mother was trying to implement now Indie was home and we were all living separately. It had been a week since I sat with Harper in the rain on the water tower, though I admittedly returned to the roadhouse a few times through the week, with the excuse that Johnny’s burgers were so good I couldn’t get enough of them, in the hopes of catching my new friend Harper. If I kept this rate up, I’d end up fat.
There was something about her that I couldn’t shake. As hard as I tried to forget about her, I couldn’t. I wanted her, plain and simple, and I shouldn’t because I knew Brody did too. He talked about her all the time, wondering whether he should call her and see if she wanted to hang out, then second guessing his decision to call her because what if she didn’t see him that way, and then what if she did. He was like a teenage girl, and he just kept going round in circles. Ordinarily I’d tell him to man up and ask the chick on a date just so he’d stop going on about it, but since it was Harper he was talking about, I’d kept my mouth shut. As terrible as it was, I didn’t want him to have the opportunity for a second chance, not that I thought Harper would date him again because I was sure she wanted me the same as I wanted her. I just didn’t want to risk it.
“What’s going on, Indiana? Dinner will burn if you don’t hurry up,” my mother said as she perched on the arm of the sofa beside Dad.
“Well, we have something we want to tell you.” She reached for Linc and pulled him close, his hands circling her waist and coming to rest on her stomach.
No.
Fuck, no.
“You better not have knocked up my sister, man,” I growled and stood up.
“Sit down, son,” Dad said and pulled me back into my chair.
“Relax, she’s not pregnant.” Linc held his hands up and shifted so he was standing beside her with an arm around her waist. I narrowed my eyes at him.
“But we are getting married,” Indie announced holding up her left hand and flashing a diamond on her finger.
“And it’s not a shotgun wedding?” I asked stupidly, but my mind was a little slow on the uptake. I stood up again.
“No, you idiot.” Indie rolled her eyes.
“Oh, my baby’s getting married.” I was shoved to the side to make room for my mother to charge at Indie and Linc, wrapping them both in a hug and smothering them with kisses.
I shook Linc’s hand and congratulated him when Mum finally let them go. He eyed me warily, still unsure whether I was actually okay with them together or if I’d murder him in his sleep one night. Sure, I was protective of Indie. She was my little sister, so it came with the territory, but if she was going to marry anyone, I was glad it was Linc. I knew she was safe with him, and he’d make her happy. In fact, they’d both been deliriously happy since my parents’ second wedding in Fiji.
“I’m happy for you.” I pulled Indie into a hug.
“Yeah? You’re not going to go all big brother on me and beat up my fiancé, are you?”
“No.”
“How did he propose?” Mum was gushing like a giddy schoolgirl.
“I didn’t.” Linc frowned. “I had it all planned out, a grand gesture, romantic and all that, but she beat me to it.”
“Indiana, you did not propose?” Mum placed a hand on her heart in shock. She was a little traditional like that.
“I did. It just sort of happened.”
“When?”
“Last week. On the way home, in the car.” She laughed. “Very romantic.”
“We wanted to tell you first before we announced it to everyone else,” Linc said, pulling two small silver envelopes out of his back pocket.
“What’s this?” Mum twirled the paper in her hands.
“Open it and find out,” Dad said.
I opened mine and slid out a small white card. It was an engagement invitation.
“You’ve already planned an engagement party?” Mum’s eyes were wide, and she sounded disappointed.
Indie nodded. “We want to celebrate as soon as possible.”
“But I can help plan the wedding, right? Because I’m good at that. Look at the second wedding your father and I had. We can hire Lavenia again, and she’ll look after everything.”
I groaned. I knew exactly what my mother would be like. She’d bulldoze the whole thing and plan it all t
o her tastes. It would be extravagant and over the top.
“Umm, well…” Indie paused and winced. “We just want something simple and small. And we’re not in a hurry.”
“But, you can’t—”
“Leave it alone. If they want help planning their wedding, they’ll ask.” Dad placed a hand on her arm to calm her down.
“But—”
“Leave it alone.”
“We’d love your input, Mrs. K,” Linc said, nudging Indie in the side and shooting her a glare.
“Sure. It’ll…be…fun,” Indie said stiffly, forcing a smile.
“Oh, excellent. You won’t regret this.” She ran upstairs, muttering to herself.
“Oh, no! What have we done?” Indie whispered as she glanced over her shoulder.
“There goes your quiet wedding.” I laughed and walked into the kitchen to grab a beer.
“I’ll reel her in, sweetheart,” Dad said, following me into the kitchen.
I handed him and Linc a beer, and Indie helped herself to some wine.
“Dinner is going to burn.” She checked the oven and turned it off. “Where is she?”
“I’m right here,” Mum announced as she walked into the kitchen holding a giant folder.
“What is that?” Indie eyed the folder that landed on the table with a thud.
“My wedding folder. Samples, images, contact phone numbers, websites. Everything you could need for a wedding can be found in here.” Her smile was bright and wide, and her eyes sparkled with happiness as she flipped through the folder.
“How about we leave the wedding talk for another time?” Dad shut the folder and slid it out of her grasp. “I’m hungry, and you’ve worked hard on this meal. Let’s eat and get through the engagement party before you start planning the wedding, okay?”
She agreed reluctantly, putting the folder on the counter and shuffling around the kitchen getting the food ready. Indie breathed a sigh of relief and gulped down her wine.
“You might want to look into eloping,” I said quietly.
