AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“Newsflash: I don’t need a man to be happy. I’m doing just fine on my own.” My mother and I had survived when my dad left, and I’d get through life just fine.
“That’s not what I meant. I think there might be someone out there for you who’d put you first, who you could trust to always be there for you.”
I blinked away the sudden sting of tears and moved away from him toward the boxes by the front door. “We should get moving. It looks like rain later in the day.”
Harrison tugged on my hand, and I turned to face him. “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean anything by it. I love you, and I want the best for you.”
Harrison was free with his affection. It made it easy to forget we were just friends. And this conversation outlined how he didn’t think of himself as the man for me. I was just a good friend.
“You’re not holding me back.”
His hand caressed my cheek, and I resisted nestling into his palm. “I never want to hurt you.”
Fuck. Did he know I harbored a secret crush on him? “You’re not.”
He accepted my answer, and we got to work. I supervised the packing of the items in the truck while he did the heavy lifting. His biceps bulged, and his jeans were tight around his thighs. It was doing funny things to my body. I felt restless. Overheated.
I let out a frustrated breath when I realized I wouldn’t be able to bring my vibrator. I’d be sleeping in Harrison’s bed with his eight-year-old down the hall. How was I going to get any relief?
“Did we forget something?” Harrison lifted his shirt to rub the sweat from his forehead, revealing defined abs.
Despite the drops of cool rain hitting my face, my skin was warm. I wondered what he’d say if I said what I was thinking. Just thinking of the pink object I’d left in my nightstand drawer made heat coil in my belly. “Nope.”
“You ready to head to my place so you have time to unpack? We need to head to Gran’s soon.”
“Sure.” I nodded eagerly, getting into my car.
At his house, Harrison said, “I emptied a few drawers and half of the closet.”
It wouldn’t be enough space for all my things, but I’d anticipated that being the case and only brought some of my clothes. I could always go back to my apartment and get more things. Or to take a break if I needed to cool off. It was going to be a long few months.
At his house, Wren greeted me and perched herself on Harrison’s bed—no,ourbed now—while I unpacked my clothes.
Kicking her legs, Wren ticked off the things we could do now that I was living with them. “We can watch movies and make s’mores.”
I smiled at her. “We did all those things before.”
“It’s even better because you’re sleeping over.” Wren couldn’t contain her excitement.
It was sweet, but it made me worry if we’d be hurting her in the end. I always planned to be in Wren’s life as Harrison’s friend, but what if she wanted more? What if we hurt her irreparably by promising her something that wasn’t real?
I tried to put those thoughts out of my mind and remind myself we were doing this to help her.
“You two ready to go?” Harrison asked once I’d folded most of my clothes and placed them in the drawer or hung them in the closet.
“As ready as I’ll ever be,” I said to Harrison as Wren skipped out of the room.
“What’s wrong?” Harrison asked, correctly sensing my pensive mood.
“Are we doing the right thing by Wren? We’re going to hurt her, aren’t we?”
He instantly sobered. “We’re trying to help her.”
“Are we though?”
He came over and pulled me into his arms, kissing the top of my head. “She asked to see me more often. She’s going to need us more than ever when Lola’s baby is born. I want to have shared custody in place by then so she can spend more time here, where we have time for her.”
“I’m trying to remember that.”
