Chapter 3
“It’s so good to have you home, Turkey.” Dad hugged me hard, not letting go as Coen and Cole ran circles around us.
We’d just finished dinner out at my favorite little diner.
Man, I missed diners.
England had great pubs, but diner culture was a New England staple that just didn’t exist across the pond.
“I missed you, too, Dad.”
Addy leaned in, wrapping her one free arm around us while her other arm steadied Lacey, balanced on her hip. “I need to get in on this action,” she said smiling. “Your dad’s not the only member of this family who missed you!”
Coen stopped mid-run and pointed at our family hug. “Hug attack!”
“Hug attack!” Cole repeated as both boys launched themselves into the pile, hugging each of my legs.
“Oh no!” I shrieked. “Not a hug attack! Ahhh! I’m being suffocated by hugs!”
From within Addy’s arms, Lacey shrieked a joyful baby giggle and flailed her arms, blowing bubbles.
“Do you know what this means?” I asked the boys, as I scooped Lacey out of Addy’s hold and smothered her chubby cheeks in kisses. “We retaliate… with girlie kisses!”
“Noooooo!” The boys took off running down the hall of my new apartment complex.
“Cole! Coen!” Addy called out. “Watch where you’re?—”
It was too late. They ran smack into a man turning the corner of the hallway.
Not just any man… Adam.
And he was carrying an armload of groceries that spilled all over the floor.
“Oh jeez. I’m so sorry,” Dad said, jogging to the end of the hall to help him pick up the fallen groceries. “Boys, say you’re sorry!”
Dad didn’t recognize Adam right away, but Addy leaned into my ear and grabbed my elbow in a firm grip. “Holy shit,” she whispered. “Is that Adam?”
“Yep,” I whispered back.
“Whoa. He aged well.”
“Right again.”
“Is he still a total dickwad?”
I snorted a laugh and covered Lacey’s ears. “Addy. Language,” I joked saying the same thing she used to say to me in high school when I dared utter a curse word in front of her.
She waved me off. “She’s eleven months old. She can barely ask for juice. She definitely doesn’t even know enough to know what a dickwad is, let alone repeat it.”
Grinning, I shook my head and pressed another kiss to Lacey’s forehead. I’d only met my little sister once when she was first born and it pained me to be missing so much of their childhoods. Even though being in England meant that I had more time to spend with my other half-brother… my mother’s son, Duke.
My heart was split between the two countries. Between my two families. And it was damn hard.
And Addy was more like a sister—a best friend—than a stepmother. I could literally talk to her about anything.
“Jury’s still out on the dickwad thing,” I said, answering her question.
Truth be told, I wasn’t entirely sure that he’d even been a dickwad back in high school.
We were only eighteen.
And sure… he didn’t stand up for me against his father. But not many guys would have, right?
As for him not telling me about leaving early for summer classes at Dartmouth? Okay, yeah, it wasn’t great. But again, as a teenager? Emotions are weird. I didn’t know how to manage most of my feelings at that age either. I kind of understood why he didn’t want to tell me.
Like somehow by not admitting it to me, we had more time together.
We both could have handled that summer better.
But we were also both young and inexperienced. I was happy to leave the past in the past… as long as he was.
But if he was going to stand there and try to blame me, expecting me to feel guilty at how things went down? Well, he had another thing coming.
“Harper!” Dad called from the end of the hall. “Did you realize Adam lives just down the hall from you??”
Surprised, I blinked, standing there in silence for a few seconds.
It wasn’t until Addy’s voice broke my stunned silence that I realized I hadn’t answered. “Well…?” Addy asked. “Did you?”
“I… I didn’t know he lived here in this building, but yeah, I knew he um, worked at Dartmouth.”
Slowly, I found myself walking down the hall, still holding Lacey, with Addy at my side.
With a sheepish smile, Adam cradled his handful of groceries in the torn paper bag. “Yeah, uh. That’s my apartment, right down there,” he said, pointing at door 421. “The building is owned by Dartmouth and used for employee housing.”
“How nice!” Dad boomed, delightfully clueless as Addy and I shared a look.
Dad had no idea things had ended poorly between Adam and me. All he knew was that we broke up when Adam left for Dartmouth and that I spent two weeks holed up in my room listening to loud music until Addy and my friend Mia dragged me out of my room and back to the land of the living.
“Yep,” I said. “Nice. That’s… what it is.”
“And he doesn’t just work at Dartmouth… he works at the library there!” Dad added. “You two will probably be working together!”
I cleared my throat. “Actually, Adam’s the whole reason why I was hired by Dartmouth in the first place.”
Not for the first time, Dad and Addy were rendered speechless.
Adam rubbed the back of his neck, the action so entirely similar to what he used to do in high school that an ache throbbed behind my breastbone at the sight of it. “I wouldn’t say I’m the whole reason.”
“Is this your boyfriend?” Cole asked, blinking wide green eyes up at Adam.
“No,” I answered quickly at the same time Addy swept Lacey out of my arms.
“Okay,” Addy said. “Boys, it is past your bedtime! Give your sister a hug, then march your butts out to the car!”
There were a few groans and arguments, but Cole and Coen gave me another hug and rushed toward the elevator, fighting over who would press the buttons.
Addy squeezed me into a quick hug. “It’s good to have you home, kid. Even if it’s not a permanent thing.”
Dad pressed a kiss to my forehead. “Dinner Sunday at our house?”
“Wouldn’t miss it.”
With a wave, the chaos that was this new definition of the Meyer family was gone, leaving just me and Adam standing in the hallway.
“Wow,” Adam said. “Your family sure is different than in high school.”
I exhaled something that was a cross between a sigh and a chuckle. “Isn’t that the truth?”
My family had morphed and evolved a lot over the years, starting before Adam ever knew me.
Back when we lived in New York City, the Meyers family consisted of me, Dad, and Grandma. Then, it was just me and Dad for a little bit… until Addy entered our lives.
For a few years, it was just the three of us… with the occasional visits we’d take to England to visit my mother, her new husband, and my little brother, Duke.
Then Addy had the twins shortly after her wedding to my dad and all hell broke loose.
Well, maybe hell was the wrong word… it insinuated that it was a bad thing. The boys weren’t bad. They were chaotic, sure. Loud, God yes. But the farthest thing from bad.
With their arrival, our quiet house and little blended family of three turned into a nonstop hurricane family of five. I loved them all so much it hurt, but even still, it took some getting used to. I went from being an only child for eighteen years to watching my dad start the process all over again.
I’d always be his daughter. There was no doubt about that. But by no fault of his own or Addy’s, there were times I couldn’t help but feel like I was on the outside looking in at my own family.
I wasn’t resentful. It was just the way of things. The nature of growing up and moving away just as your Dad starts to have children in his second marriage.
And I knew that if Dad ever found out I had these thoughts? He’d make himself crazy with worry and overcompensate to try to include me even more. But the fact is, he’s not disincluding me from anything.
I was the one who moved to another country.
I was the one who didn’t visit more than once a year.
He was a great dad. Addy was the best stepmom I could ever ask for. And I loved my brothers and sister.
But it was still weird.
“Harper? You okay?” Until he spoke, I’d forgotten Adam was even standing there with me.
“Oh… yeah. I’m fine.”
I looked at the bunch of bruised apples in his arms and the dinged up cans of soup and winced. “Just tell me what I owe you for the groceries they ruined.”
He waved my concerns away, literally with his free hand. “Don’t worry about it. I can still eat all of these, even if they’re a bit dinged up. I was a six year old boy once, ya know.”
“Ha! There’s no way you were as wild as those boys when you were their age.”
“Um, excuse me, but I was the king of lightsaber battles. I was basically undefeated and challenged anyone who came within a ten foot radius of me to a duel!”
“Oh yeah. I forgot about your closeted love of Star Wars.”
“Not so closeted anymore.” He tugged his jacket open, holding the broken bag of groceries on his hip to reveal a Star Wars t-shirt that read: Tatooine National Park with a cool image behind it. “Haven’t you heard? It’s cool now to be a nerd.”
“Oh, I know. I have you to thank for falling in love with the franchise.” Laughing, I unzipped my jacket to reveal my shirt which read: At least I didn’t kiss my sister.
Adam tipped an invisible hat toward me as he turned for his door. “You’re welcome.”
“I guess I’ll see you tomorrow.”
“Bright and early.”
I turned, heading back toward my little furnished studio apartment where Jules was waiting inside for me, but paused after a step. Turning back around, I said, “Hey Adam?”
He looked up from where he balanced the groceries while unlocking his door. “Hm?”
“Do you know what the internal temperature of a Tauntaun is?”
His mouth lifted. “Of course I do. It’s Luke-warm.”
My smile spread wider as he leveled me with a playful scowl. “You’ll have to try harder than that to find a Star Wars pun I don’t know, Harp.”
“Challenge accepted, Adam.”