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Rowan sat in the chair beside him. “If Harry and I are together, that means Temperance and Harry aren’t.”
More nervous leg bouncing. Then, he nodded.
They were quiet for a long time.
“Red,” Duncan haltingly began, “you need to prepare yourself for what Harry might be like when he gets here tomorrow.”
Rowan’s belly turned over. “What does that mean?”
“I don’t know what happened between you two, but I’m assuming since he went back to Cali, and you’re here asking for help getting him back, it wasn’t good.”
“Fair assessment.”
Pensive, Duncan rubbed his hands together. “Harry ever tell you about why Mal walks with a cane?”
“No,” Rowan said. “But I’ve noticed Harry seems—different around Mal than he is with the rest of you.”
“Short version. Mal was Harry’s idol. Nate and Patrick were kind of their own duo, so Mal wasitfor us younger kids, you know?Thebig brother. Especially for Harry. Mal was home from college for Thanksgiving, and Ma and Dad couldn’t pick Harry up from soccer, so they asked him to do it.”
Duncan sat up straight. “Mal had gotten into drugs. I don’t know the details—I was just a kid, and nobody ever talks about it. Had something to do with a girl he met at Columbia. He was high when he picked Harry up, crashed the car, fucked up his leg. Harry didn’t have a scratch on him, but that pedestal he hadMal on crumbled and did a lot more damage, you know? Apparently Mal asked Harry to lie for him, say they saw a rabbit in the road, some shit like that. But Harry wouldn’t.”
Rowan’s heart broke for teenage Harryandfor young Malcolm.
“You know what Harry’s like, Red. Cool as a cranberry, but that temper, Christ. Once that fuse burns down—” Duncan whistled.
“I think it’s ‘cool as acucumber,’” she teased.
“Don’t you start, too.”
They laughed.
“Point is,” Duncan continued, “Harry stayed pissed at Mal for ayearafter that. Things are still rocky between them, all these years later. And I promise you, the pedestal Harry hadyouon had to have been miles higher than Mal’s.”
“I can handle it.” She chewed the cuticle on her thumbnail.
“He might not be nice.”
“Nice,”Rowan laughed. “I’m counting on it.”
“You want me to step in tomorrow, you just say ‘cucumber’ or something, and I’ve got your back, okay?”
“Okay.” She squeezed his knee. “Duncan. Did you have a bet with Nate and Patrick about me and Harry?”
The tips of his ears flushed pink. “You put me out two hundred bucks just now, Red. They said Harry had it bad for you. I thought—well, we just established what I thought.”
Rowan sat back and clasped her hands primly in her lap. “When did you guys make the bet?”
“April.”
“The wedding?”
“Jesus, I can’t believe Harry made a move on my date.”
Rowan reddened and laughed. “Temperance made her own version of that same joke, believe it or not.”
He squinted into the darkness beyond their island of porch light. “Did she?” His smile looked sad.
“Harry and Temperance have never been anything more than friends,” she said. “She’s like a sister to him.”
