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“Where are they now?”
I take a sip of my water. “Gone. Both of them.”
“G…”
She’s about to saygone, but then our eyes meet, and she gets the point.
“They drank and drank, and then it was the end.”
We sit quietly for a while, and then I laugh darkly. “I told you, it’s depressing.”
“Maybe it is,” she says. “But it’s also your life. I want to know you, as much of you as you’ll let me.”
She bites down, as if she wishes she could take the words back.
“What’s wrong?”
Shaking her head, she says, “I sound like a stalker weirdo.”
“No, you don’t,” I tell her firmly. “You sound like…”
I trail off when the door opens, and two men walk into the bright sauce-scented room. One of them is tall with a lean face and a mustache I remember well.
“What is it?” Harper asks.
“That man.” I nod across the room. “He works for Adam.”
Harper turns, looks, then turns back to me, her mouth falling open. The man’s standing at the counter with his back to us.
“What do we do?” Harper whispers.
I swallow, hating what I’m about to say. Suddenly, the idea of telling Adam this was a coincidence seemed ridiculous. It would be insulting to lie to him about something so unlikely.
“We have to go. You leave first.”
Harper nods slowly. Hurt flits across her eyes, and my chest tightens in response. I feel like a bully.
She stands, head bowed, pulling her hood up as she quickly makes for the door.
The man doesn’t see her as she walks out. He sits at the other end of the bar, not looking in my direction.
I follow Harper, averting my gaze from him. It wouldn’t be a big deal if he saw me.
I need to see if Harper’s okay. She’s leaning against my car, her arms folded.
“I’m sorry,” I tell her.
“It’s not your fault,” she murmurs, staring at the ground. “Adam’s my brother. He’s your best friend. You didn’t choose that any more than I did.”
“But still…”
She flinches away when I raise my hand to touch her shoulder, glaring at me. Her eyes glisten as though she could cry at any moment, but she’s somehow holding the tears back.
“What if he sees? What if somebody else sees? We have to be careful, remember?”
I open the car door and climb into the driver’s seat. My head is full of voices, all of them telling me in a thousand different ways to reveal the truth to Harper, the fullness of my need, of my purpose for her.
She sits pressed against the passenger-side door as though she doesn’t want to be close to me.
