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“How long have you known she had feelings for me?”
His silence affirmed what I’d already been quickly piecing together.
I took a few steps in his direction. “Looks like maybe I have a bone to pick with you now.”
“Come on, Flynn,” Steve replied, holding his hands up and taking a few steps back.
“Okay, boys.” Madison stepped between us and motioned to opposite couches. “How about you two go to separate corners for now?”
“I don’t want to fight,” I said. “I just want answers. Like, for instance, since when does Harper teach ski lessons? Since we’re just throwing random stuff out in the open.”
Steve rubbed his eyebrows as he opened his mouth to say something, but nothing came out. He and Madison exchanged looks.
“What else do I not know? What did I miss?” I’d just come off a show where I’d been blindsided left and right, and now Harper’s best friend and brother were angry with me about things I didn’t even know about.
“Are you serious?” he cried. “She started taking serious lessons back in high school. How did you not know? She was at the same training school as you!”
“No, she wasn’t.” I threw my hands up. “It’s not that big of a school, Steve. I would’ve seen her. I’d say she was lying to you, but I’ve seen her skills firsthand.”
“She went three days a week, and you practically lived there. How could you never have run into each other?”
It only took a moment for it to click, the lightbulbs simultaneously lighting up over our heads.
“She didn’t want me to find out.” I dropped to the couch and rubbed my temples.
“She entered that tournament you were in every year, and she was determined. I thought you knew.”
I shook my head, still processing the realization that I’d been far more oblivious to Harper than I realized. I’d always had a thing for her but never realized she felt the same. Not then, anyway.
“I bet she didn’t want you to blab. Smart little minx.” I chuckled. “That’s a well-kept secret right there.”
“I can’t believe I never realized that she was heading somewhere else for lessons.”
But wasn’t that Harper in a nutshell? A woman determined to chase after what she wanted and not afraid to stick to her guns to do it. I glanced over at Steven, standing behind a recliner and absently squeezing the back of it.
“Look, I have to know. You warned me off back then, knowing how she felt. Why couldn’t you have just let us figure this out for ourselves?”
“Because I’d doanythingto protectmy sister from what she’s going through right now. You have no idea how devastated she is, and to be honest, I’m pretty messed up too. You’re putting me in a horrible spot.”
“I’d never expect you to side with me over Harper,” I began.
“But that’s just it. You’re making me feel like I have to. How am I supposed to be friends with the guy that destroyed my sister on national television?”
Nausea bubbled up in my belly. I’d told Harper I wasn’t any better than Aaron, and I wasn’t.
“I think what Steven is saying is that we’d like to understand what happened. Maybe not everyone knows the feelings you’ve had for each other for a long time, but we have. And we don’t understand.”
Madison lowered herself onto the couch next to me, then leaned closer to my ear.
“I can see the wheels turning, Flynn, and you need to stop. Yes, it’s unfortunate that she got dumped on television again. But she knew there was a chance when she signed up.”
I glanced over at her, wondering how she knew what weighed heavily on my mind. She was right.Myintentions were meant to protect Harper.Hurting her was an unfortunate byproduct that I desperately wanted to fix.
“Thank you. I’ve been nothing but the bad guy since the show ended. And I keep asking myself how it could have ended differently, but I haven’t figured it out.”
“You know how it could have ended differently. You could have kept her until the last show,” Madison replied.
I shook my head. “It was hardly that simple.”
