“But—”
“But what?” I snapped. His eyes hardened a bit at my curt response.
“Okay,” he said.
My heart twisted a little when he turned to leave, and it took restraint not to reach out and grab his arm. He looked like a wounded puppy. Or a wounded wolf, maybe.
I pinched the bridge of my nose and sighed. My short replies were entirely due to my embarrassment, and that wasn't fair to Harrison. We were both adults. We had both wanted things. He hadn’t done anything wrong by being clear and saying he had no interest in a relationship with me. He’d explained it himself—he just didn’t want to hurt me.
While I waited for the bartender, I peeked over my shoulder. Harrison had returned to the edge of the crowd, but I could still make out his tall frame. He kept his eyes on me and didn’t turn away when I met his stare. I offered him a weak smile.
The bartender finally looked my way and poured four glasses of water when I asked for them. I would have gotten more, but feared I would accidentally dump them on myself. If my dress got any wetter, I might as well just jump straight into the ocean.
As I made my way back to the group, I decided it was time to stop making things awkward with Harrison. It wasn’t fair when we’d made so much progress. Our friendship—or the start of a friendship, at least—meant something to me. I wouldn’t ruin it over a silly kiss. Even if that silly kiss and the way his big hands had brushed gently over my skin were absolutely all I could think about.
“Here you go.” I forced Nigel, Will, and Mark to each take a glass from my outstretched hands. Thankfully, they didn’t fight me on it and knocked back their waters.
“We want to go check out town,” Bailey said, her eyes flickering between the boisterous boys and me.
“But the party is here,” Will argued.
“Yeah, we’re just getting started,” Mark agreed.
“Then it might be time to split up,” offered Kate.
“No way.” Nigel pouted and slung an arm around each of the girls’ shoulders. “We have to stick together.”
Kate and Bailey looked at each other, clearly stifling an eye roll.
“I’m ready to go,” I offered.
“Thank fucking God,” Harrison muttered, hovering at my side.
Mark and Will groaned in protest, but Nigel snapped his fingers. “I’ve got it. There are bars in town. We can do a little bar crawl while we explore.”
Paige and Bailey opened their mouths as if to protest, but then shrugged as if thinking better of it. Sometimes, just agreeing with the drunk party animal was the path of least resistance. While I doubted any of us wanted to go to another bar, we could easily sneak off and do our own thing once we got back into the narrow, winding streets of Old Town Mykonos.
“Let’s go,” Paige and Bailey said in unison.
We made our way through the party, back inside, and to the front of the building. There was a U-shaped driveway in front where we could wait for a cab to take us back into town. We called for two and waited.
When the first cab arrived, the girls piled into the back seat. I moved to join them in the passenger seat.
“Wait,” Harrison said, grabbing my arm. “Let’s ride together.”
I looked at the cab, then back to him. “We can’t all fit,” I pointed out.
He looked like he wanted to argue, but I could promise him that there was no way in hell Bailey, Paige, and Kate were going to allow themselves to get split up.
“It’s fine. It’s, like, a twenty-minute ride and we’ll be together again.” I tried to reassure him.
We’d all agreed on a meeting spot at the edge of town, the same place where we’d gotten picked up.
“Twenty minutes,” he repeated. His protectiveness warmed my heart. No matter how strange things were between us right now, he was always looking out for me.
“I’ll see you soon.” I took a chance and winked at him to break the unnecessary tension. The corner of his lip quirked up, and he let me fold into the passenger seat. Once I was secure, he lightly shut the door behind me.
The ride was quiet for me. While the three girls gossiped in the back, I tuned them out and stared out the window. Thisisland was so different than Santorini, yet still unmistakably Greece. Air from the open window beat against my face. It was almost too strong, but I welcomed it. It felt stimulating after the morning I’d had.
