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“You’re not a space filler, Harper.” His words were quiet, but powerful.
“I know that.” I shuddered out a breath. “I do. It took me a long time to realize that I was worth more than that, but I also refused to ever put myself in that position again.”
He got quiet then—uncomfortably quiet. Had I beentoohonest? Said too much?
“I’m no better than he is.” He rubbed his chest, as if he felt pained.
“How could you possibly say that?” I demanded.
“Three years ago.”
Heat creeped up my neck, and for the millionth time in recent weeks, I hated having such an obvious response to embarrassment.
“Not the same.”
“I made a choice too, Harper. We kissed.” He blew out a breath. “I couldn’t handle it.”
“Surely it wasn’t that bad.” I joked, not entirely comfortable with the direction he seemed to head.
“How can you not know how incredible you are?” He reached out and squeezed my biceps, lightly shaking me. “If I ever find that guy, we’re going to have words. Fists might be involved too.”
“I don’t think it needs to come down to that,” I said quietly.
For a moment, neither of us talked. His fingers tracing unknown patterns into my skin, leaving behind a trail of fireflies, was our only movement.
“I’m sorry.” He almost whispered the words, sending a shiver down my spine.
“You’re sorry you kissed me?”
“I’m so bad at this.” He groaned, then pulled me close enough to press his lips to my hair. “Kissing you is one of the few things on my list that I don’t regret. My apology is for the way I handled the kiss. It was very ungentlemanlike.”
“Ungentlemanlike.” I chuckled as I repeated his word choice. “Are you sure that’s a real word?”
“I’m trying to apologize here.”
“Sorry, go ahead.”
“You deserved so much more. I’m ashamed to admit that I tucked tail and got out of dodge.”
“I couldn’t find you to even talk about it.” The memory didn’t sit well, but it helped to know that he still carried guilt over it.
“Well, I didn’t know how to deal with my feelings about kissing you. There were a lot. Still are.” He reached up and ran his fingers down my jaw before rubbing his thumb across my bottom lip. “Plus, I didn’t want Steven to kick my rear.”
“Steven? What does Steven have to do with anything?” I batted his hand away so I could think clearly.
Flynn grimaced, and my head fell back in exasperation. I couldn’t believe my brother had anything to do with my relationship, or lack thereof, with Flynn.
“Please tell me you’re joking. This is that thing you do, right? Where you try to be funny, but it flops?”
“I didn’t say anything to him about what happened three years ago. But don’t be mad at him. He just wanted to protect you from me, I’m sure.”
“What are you talking about?” I demanded. “I can’t believe this.”
“It’s not important, Harper.”
“Flynn!”
“He may have warned me off of you.” He paused, as though he was weighing the consequences of coming clean with me. “Before I left for the circuits.”
