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I slammed my door shut and flipped the lock, even sliding the chain into place for good measure. Harlow turned me around and pressed me against the door, his hands spanning my ribcage. He held on tightly, and though it hurt to breathe through his grip, it helped. “You okay?” he rumbled.
I closed my eyes and sagged, swallowing thickly as I nodded my head. “She wears me out,” I muttered, reaching up to scrub my hands over my face.
Harlow gripped my wrists and pulled my hands down. I slowly opened my eyes to look at him. “What happened, Xavier?” he quietly asked me.
A tired sigh escaped me. “Sit at the bar while I finish dinner, and I’ll tell you,” I murmured.
He brushed his lips to the corner of mine before stepping back. He headed straight to the bar and took a seat on one of my barstools. I took a moment to clear my head, and Harlow just watched me with that understanding, loving gaze of his while I slid the chicken into the oven.
Finally, I turned to face him, bracing my hands on the counter behind me as I leaned back against it. “My dad was an abusive jackass,” I began. “Smacked me around. Smacked my mom around. Called us every fucking degrading name in the book.”
Anger simmered in Harlow’s gaze, but he kept his mouth shut. “Mom finally left him. Divorced him, and it wasn’t an easy divorce by any means. And we got a restraining order to protect us, though he never came back around—just washed his hands of us after getting what he wanted out of the separation. But my mother has never worked a day in her life, and when she did begin to work to try to support us, she never held a job long.”
Harlow cringed, obviously knowing where this story was going.
“Three months after my dad was gone, she began dating another guy. I didn’t like him from the get-go. Didn’t take Mom long to start wearing clothes that covered her more either. Three months after they started dating, they had a courthouse wedding, and he moved in, taking over all of our bills. He fed Mom’s shopping addiction, smacked her around a lot. But I didn’t take shit anymore. I refused to lay down and just deal with it, so I fought back.”
Harlow’s hands clenched on the countertop. I blew out a harsh breath. “He quickly learned I wasn’t an easy target, so he kept his hands to himself, but that didn’t stop him from treating me like shit and mentally wearing me down.”
“Fucking hell,” Harlow swore.
I swallowed thickly, bitterness coating my next words. “Mom chose him over me. When I turned eighteen and got this place, got a job with the fire department as a lifeguard, she wouldn’t come. Said I didn’t make enough to support her.” She also said some other hateful shit I never wanted to repeat—like I’d never make anything of myself, that I’d never make anyone happy, how I shouldn’t leave home and the man taking good care of us. “She thought I was an idiot for moving out and leaving the good man that supported us.”
Harlow scoffed. “What a bitch,” he muttered.
I shrugged. “I was determined. Even if it meant I was homeless, I got the fuck out of there as fast as I could. And I cut all ties with her. I didn’t want shit to do with a woman who would choose abuse and money over her son. Her fucking flesh and blood.”
Harlow stood and crossed the kitchen to me. The moment I was in his arms, breathing in the masculine scent of him, my body relaxed, and I sank into his hold.
“I’m proud of you,” Harlow murmured into my hair. He gripped the back of my neck, his other hand splaying over my lower back. “I’m so fucking proud of you for having the strength to get out and stand on your own, even if it wasn’t easy.”
I buried my face in the crook of his neck and gripped the back of his shirt. “Thank you,” I whispered. Hearing those words…fuck, it meant a lot. Because I’d had no one to tell me that I was going to make it. That everything was going to be okay. That they were proud of me for choosing the healthier road for myself, even if it was riddled with potholes, cracks, and broken bridges.
Harlow just pressed a lingering kiss to my temple in response.
EPILOGUE
Harlow
Iwas nervous as hell for this. For an entire year now, Xavier and I had been together, making this shit between us work. It came with a lot of ups and downs. He was still working through his own trauma, just as I was working through my own. We butted heads like nobody’s business, but I knew at the end of each day, we still loved each other.
And with love came compromise. A lot of it. We were no fairy tale couple by any means. I pushed him away when I was spiraling, and then yanked him back to me. He did the same with me, especially when I was hurting him by not letting him help me.
But all good things were worth fighting for, and he was the best fucking thing I’d ever had in my life.
Which was why I was doing this with him.
“He’ll be here soon,” Colwyn told me. Coincidentally, he and Raleigh were taking a sunset dinner cruise as well, and I’d been as surprised to see them as they were to see me. Apparently, Slater and Tawney were watching their little munchkin so they could have a night out to themselves.
“I’m nervous as hell,” I admitted.
Raleigh settled her slim fingers on my arm, giving it a gentle squeeze. “Just breathe. I’ve seen the two of you together, and you’re absolutely perfect for each other. Xavier is madly in love with you. There’s no way he’d say no.”
I gave her a tense smile. She patted my arm in understanding. Finally, Xavier made his way down to the docks, a grin on his lips. I quickly wrapped my arms around him, sealing my mouth over his.
“Hey,” he breathlessly greeted. “Sorry I’m late. One of the new guys didn’t show up on time, and I couldn’t leave.”
I didn’t work today due to me having an appointment with my therapist, which was why I’d told Xavier to meet me here when he got off work. It had sucked to be all day without him, especially since we always worked together in the summer during lifeguard season, but the break was good for us, too. It was unhealthy to always be up each other’s asses all the time.
