“Harper?”
Orion. He looked fresh from row practice, in CHA athletic pants and a hoodie, and so damn handsome. Somehow, he was both the exact person I wanted to see and also the last person I wanted to see.
I turned my back, quickly wiping my eyes.
“What happened?”
“I don’t know. Someone moved my car. They put it on a rock and now it won’t start. It’s fine. It’s fine. I can manage—”
“Slow down, love,” Orion said to me gently, even as that dark, menacing expression came to his face again as he glanced around. “Breathe.”
“I don’t know what to do,” I said, panic rising in me as the shock wore off and the implications set in. “This is going to cost a fortune, and I have to get my brother from school…”
“Okay, hold on. One step at a time,” Orion said. “The best place in town for repairs is Ralph’s on Harbor Avenue. I’ll call a tow truck—”
“I can’tafforda tow truck,” I said, humiliation burning my cheeks. “My brother has an afterschool program. I have to get him by four thirty. I have Triple-A. I’ll call them. I don’t need your help.”
Orion stood with his arms crossed. “I’m not leaving you.”
I started to protest, but that duality of wanting him yet not wanting him wrapped around my heart. I hated for him to see me like this, and I didn’t want him to leave me. I didn’t want to do this alone.
I’m so fucking tired of doing this alone.
I called the tow service and thanked the gods of geography that Rhode Island was tiny. It arrived in ten minutes, and a guy in blue coveralls attached my car to his truck. But I’d still never make it to Dash in time.
“I have to call the school,” I said. “By the time I get to Ralph’s, get the car handled, then call an Uber—”
“Harper,” Orion said, his voice smooth, cutting through my frustration and panic. “There’s no time. I’ll take you to get Dash. Thetow will take the car to Ralph’s.”
“It will? I don’t have to go with?”
“No, ma’am,” said the tow truck driver. “Call ahead, and they’ll get you situated.”
“I’ll call ahead,” Orion said. “You talk to the gentleman here.”
“Oh. Okay,” I said. “I’ve never done this before.”
“No, worries, young lady,” the driver said. “I’ll take the car to Ralph’s. You do whatever you need to do, then call them when you’re ready. They’ll run a diagnostic, give you an estimate, then you authorize the work. Got it?”
I nodded. Diagnostics and estimates. I had a credit card with a tiny limit for emergencies, and if it wasn’t enough, I’d have to dip into the savings account I’d been dutifully cultivating my entire life. My stomach twisted.
While Orion called the repair shop, I filled out the tow truck paperwork, and then watched as my car was hauled away. That left me with five minutes to get Dash at his school, which was ten minutes away.
“I’m not going to make it.”
“Come on,” Orion said, giving my arm a gentle tug. “My car is here, and I drive really bloody fast.”
We hurried across the campus to the Atlas Hall parking garage. Orion’s expression was grim again.
“Do you know who did it?” I asked.
“I have an idea,” Orion said. Anger smoldered in his dark eyes.
“Your friends.”
“I told them not to.”
I nearly tripped. “You knew they had this planned?”
