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And the way she looked at me… I had to admit, there was a spark there. It made me wonder if she could be the one.
“So you don’t mind if I tell Kat then?” she asked, returning to the subject at hand.
“Not at all. I agree with you, honesty is the best policy.”
“Thank you, Aiden,” she said again as she stood up. I walked her to the door, but before opening it for her, I leaned in for a kiss.
She turned her head so I kissed her on the cheek instead.
“I’m sorry, but we can’t do this. We have to be realistic, and the last thing I want is to cause problems for your family.”
I hated hearing those words, but I respected the hell out of her for it. It just made me want her even more.
She left my room, and I watched after her for a long time, enjoying the view. To say I was impressed with the woman she had grown up to be would be the biggest understatement of my life.
12
Nathan
Nate, it would mean the world to me if you could be there. I know that what happened with Carly and me was fucked up, but it’s been three years. Can you at least be happy for us?
Happy? I felt a lot of different emotions in the moment after I received the message from my former best friend, but happiness was not one of them. I knew he was right. It had been three years, I should be over it already. But within one second, I lost my best friendandthe woman I thought was the love of my life at the time. Would I ever be able to forgive them? How could they even expect me to show up at their wedding after what they had done to me?
I wasn’t sure how to respond to Brett. I stared at the message but couldn’t find the words to answer him. I hadn’t talked to him in years, why would I want to start now? I wasn’t sure how to make it any clearer that I wanted nothing to do with either of them; they were most certainly not getting a wedding gift from me.
A knock at the door pulled me from my thoughts. I slipped my phone into my pocket and said, “Yes?”
“Nathan? It’s Harper.”
A smile pulled at my lips as I remembered how beautiful she looked naked in Jackson’s bed earlier. I had never done anything as adventurous as what we’d done with her. I had to admit, I loved every second of it.
“Come in, it’s open,” I said, standing up to greet her at the door.
Harper slipped into the room, and she was even more beautiful than before, if that was possible. I had always thought she was cute, and when she started growing from awkward pre-teen to a teenager, I had to admit that maybe I had a teeny, tiny crush on her. But I was with Carly and squashed any and all thoughts of her at the time. Now that we were both adults and both single… it left open a world of possibilities.
“Hey there, I hope I’m not interrupting anything. I just wanted to talk before dinner,” she said.
“Of course, have a seat.” I walked her over to the sitting area near the window. My room had some of the best views of all the bedrooms, and I watched as Harper looked out the window taking in the mountain scenery. She was quiet, so I prompted her. “What did you want to talk about?”
Harper surprised me. “You were cheated on too, correct?”
“I was. Why?”
“I heard about it after it happened, Kat mentioned it to me. But I had no idea at the time how much it could possibly hurt to be cheated on. I never liked Carly, Nathan, and you definitely didn’t deserve what they did to you.”
“Thank you,” I said softly. “And I’m sorry that you were cheated on as well.”
Tears filled Harper’s eyes, but she quickly wiped them away. “Oh, it’s fine,” she lied.
“No, clearly, it’s not. I remember when the wounds were fresh. I could sometimes convince myself, and others that I was fine, but I wasn’t. It felt like someone had ripped out my insides every time I thought about what I saw.”
I stepped into the bathroom and grabbed some tissues, handing them to her. She thanked me and dabbed at her eyes. “You caught them together, too?”
“I did. In my bed, nonetheless.”
“God, I can’t even imagine… I walked in on him with her on her knees, they were in his office. She was one of his students.”
“Ouch.”
