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Shit. A stone plunked in my chest.
Mase: You didn’t need to do that.
Harper: Yeah, Mason, I did.
I didn’t reply. What was there to say?
I had to stay away from her. And she was obviously all too happy to let me go.
Harper made me feel things—things I didn’t want to feel. Things I had no business feeling. It was a one-way ticket to a whole heap of drama and distraction I didn’t need.
The sooner I could forget about her, the better. And I couldn’t forget if she kept drawing me into her orbit.
To hammer home my point, I sent her one last message.
Mase: You should give Ward a chance. He’s a good guy.
Before I could talk myself out of it, I hit send. Hoping like fuck, I sounded friendly and supportive and not petty and jealous.
Her reply came two minutes later.
Harper: Thanks for the advice. Maybe I will. See you around, Steele.
I stared at her words, anger swelling inside me.It’s for the best, Mase. You fucking know that.
Turning off my phone and removing any temptation I felt to reply and beg her to forgive me, I grabbed my pen and hoped a lesson on supply chain management would help me forget all about Harper Dixon.
The girl I didn’t want.
And couldn’t have, even if I did.
CHAPTER18
HARPER
Ward Cutler was cute.Dirty blond hair that fell into his eyes, a devilish smile that was impossible to ignore, and that hockey build that made girls get all hot and bothered.
He’d sat at the bar and kept me company most of my shift. But I’d heard the stories about the kind of guy he was. Seen it with my own two eyes.
Like most of the Lakers, he had girls lined up for him wherever he went, and he was all too happy to work his way through them.
I wasn’t looking to be his next conquest.
Besides, he was Mason’s friend.
Mason might have had no problem with me hooking up with one of his teammates, but I would never do that, even if I told him otherwise.
His text didn’t hurt; it made me angry because he was choosing to shut me out when there was obviously something between us.
I had all day to replay how things went down in his car the other night, pick them apart, and try to figure out what had changed. The only conclusion I could come to was that Mason Steele was a coward.
But maybe it was more than that. He had Scottie to worry about. Balancing the team, classes, and his responsibilities back home. He hadn’t opened up to me much about things, but anyone could see that he carried a lot on his shoulders.
It was commendable and only made him hotter—way freaking hotter. But I suspected it also made him guarded. Closed off and wary of letting people in.
“You sure you can’t come out with us after you get done here?”
“It’ll be way past my bedtime.” I batted my lashes at Ward, smiling so hard my cheeks hurt. But he was fun to be around. Easy-going and flirty.
