And what if wewerea couple? It’s the first time I’ve really given it consideration. Enough people in our lives have assumed or made comments, but I’ve never actually considered it. Not like this. It never felt like this.
Leaning into Luke is nice. Not just physically, but emotionally.
But could we be something more than friends?
I lift my head and when I do, Luke watches me. I can practically hear his thoughts shouting at me. Like he’s trying to confess his love by just looking at me, and the thought of hearing him say those words out loud is terrifying.
I could almost picture how simple it would be with Luke. I could love him. I already love him. I know that to my core, but I’m not so sure it’s the type of romantic love I’d always dreamed of. Maybe it could be?
Luke’s face is only inches from mine. It’s the type of distancenormally reserved for people who are about to kiss. Is that what this is? Is this tiny stretch of space between us the last remaining bit of our friendship?
My eyes drift down to his lips, my body abuzz with nerves.
What if we don’t work as a couple?
“Harper!” A voice over the roar of the ocean breaks the spell. Luke looks away from me and stares out at the ocean, ignoring the voice. My body goes limp. I hadn’t realized how much I had been bracing myself for the kiss, only for the moment to be broken.
When I glance up, it’s Lily jogging over, a little breathless. I get up and take a few steps away from Luke.
“You okay?” she says when she’s close enough that she doesn’t have to shout. “Tom said you started freaking out and then left. Archie didn’t prank you or something, right? He should know better than to subject someone new to that.” As she finishes talking, I see her gaze linger on Luke, whom I’d been cuddling up next to just a few seconds ago.
I laugh a little at the thought of Archie. “No, just an irrational fear of birds.”
“Birds?” she asks, dumbfounded. Her eyes flick back to me, but I can see the questions there. She’s wondering what Luke’s role is in all this. Had she seen the almost kiss?
“I can handle them from far away and in small numbers. Not flying above my head by the hundreds.” An exaggeration, but still.
“Oh,” she says, not sure what to say next. “We’re leaving in a bit. Did you want to come to the next place?”
I’m not sure what Tom said to her exactly, but it seems likeshe already knows my answer. I’m sure she’ll report back to him and the rest of the gang about Luke. They’ll all assume Luke and I were kissing and I have no idea how that makes me feel.
I shake my head. “No, I’m good. It was nice meeting you all though.”
She smiles. “You, too! Enjoy your trip.”
And with a simple wave, she walks away.
I’m left sitting in a sea of thoughts, wondering if I feel relieved the kiss was broken off or if I wished we could get a redo.
Chapter 26
Luke
Iwas about to kiss her. I’m not sure if I should be happy or angry that the blonde girl came over to talk to Harper. On the one hand, everything in my body wanted to wrap Harper in my arms and kiss her. But the other more sane part of me is worried I got my wires crossed somewhere and that we’re still firmly in the friend zone.
She’s here with some British guy, for crying out loud. At least, she was.
Harper is walking back to me, her pace slow. And while I feel irritated to have been interrupted, Harper looks... relieved? She gives me a gentle smile as she walks over, but she doesn’t come to sit next to me. She stands, waiting for me to get up.
Yup. I must have mixed my signals. I’m 99.9 percent sure that if I had kissed Harper, it would have been the nail in our friendship coffin. The evidence? It could be the fact that she insisted I go out with someone else, or the fact that she’s also dating a British guy—or at least was. I wouldn’t be surprised if Harper were working on erasing Tom from her memory the same way she’d erase a kiss from me.
“Sorry about dragging you into all this,” Harper says as I stand up.
I brush a few stray black pebbles from my jeans. “I’m sorry that guy doesn’t have an empathetic bone in his body.”
She bites her lip, looking down. “It is a stupid fear.”
“No, it isn’t.” Harper wasn’t afraid of birds until a group of seagulls swarmed her when we were kids. Even I was terrified that day. But Harper was the one holding the food, so she was the one who got pecked at. I was able to laugh about it later, but Harper has always been freaked out around large groups of birds since then.
