Chapter 16
There was a standardized list of rules I had to recite before I went out with Addy and her friends.
Nowine for Addy. It gives her a killer hangover the next day.
Onlywine for Haylee. A few years ago when I visited, we did Taco Tuesday with margaritas and she was literally dancing on the tables.
Don’t get Enzo talking about computer programming or coding. She’ll hijack the rest of the night using words none of us understand.
Hit on at least one guy… because they’re all married and live vicariously through me and squeal in delight if I get a guy to buy us a round of drinks.
Although, this time, that last rule felt wildly inappropriate.
Even if Adam and I hadn’t quite specified our exact status yet.
Besides, I didn’t want any ol’ guy to buy us drinks. There was only one guy I had on my mind lately. But on his measly professor salary, I wasn’t about to let him buy a round for us.
“How’s the book stuff going, Harper?”
Haylee’s question snapped me out of my thoughts, bringing my attention back to the bartop where Addy, Enzo, Haylee and I sat.
I dragged my finger down the droplets of water covering my sweating Aperol Spritz. If I was going to have a drink with these girls, then I needed to make sure it was half booze, half club soda. Especially since one of them was technically my stepmother, even if she was closer in age to me than my dad.
“I’m almost finished restoring it,” I answered honestly. As pungent as Jules’s urine was, it surprisingly didn’t take all that long to fix and get the smell out of the paper. Not nearly as long as I’d been concerned about.
Enzo tilted her head, her tattoo of a dragonfly at her collarbone pulsing with the movement. “That’s a good thing, isn’t it?”
“Yeah. Yeah, of course it is,” I answered, pulling my spritz to my mouth for a long sip.
“Then why don’t you sound happy?” Haylee asked, concern tilting her eyes.
Leaning forward and resting her chin in her palm, Addy bounced her eyebrows at me. “That wouldn’t have anything to do with a certain high school sweetheart who’s back in the picture, would it?”
“Maybe,” I admitted.
“Oooooh!” All three girls squealed in their good-natured teasing way. I crumpled my napkin in my fist and lobbed it across the table at Addy.
It bounced off her shoulder. Giggling, she bent over to pick it up. “You know, just because this gig ends doesn’t mean you have to leave New Hampshire. You can stay as long as you’d like. Rents around these parts are far cheaper than in London, anyway.”
“I heard that Laconia is looking for a new librarian,” Haylee chimed in.
Addy’s eyes widened. “See? I bet you’re the most qualified applicant they get!” Leaning over she wrapped her arms around me and squeezed. “My lil’ Oxford Graduate!”
I tried to smile at them and ignore the sinking feeling in my gut.
They were only trying to help. But the truth was, I wouldn’t be the most qualified applicant… I’d probably be an overqualified applicant.
Besides, I didn’t have the heart to tell them that I didn’t want to be a librarian. I wanted to restore books. I wanted to take something old and torn and broken and breathe life back into the pages.
“Sure,” I managed to croak and smile at Haylee. “I’ll take a look at the application.”
All three squealed again and threw their hands up in triumph.
“Mission accomplished!” Addy held up her glass to the others. They clinked the edges together.
“Mission accomplished?” I repeated. “Did I just get played?”
“Not played,” Enzo said. “Coaxed. Coaxed into considering staying around here.”
I shook my head and rolled my eyes at the girls. I couldn’t fault them for trying.
“So where is your old flame tonight? What’s Adam up to?” Haylee asked.
“He went out with some of his high school friends from the soccer team.”
Addy’s brow arched, disappearing beneath the swoop of bright red hair cutting across her forehead. “He’s drinking at one of my competitor’s bars? How rude.”
Behind me, I heard the chime of the front door as someone came in.
“Well, he didn’t want to encroach on our girl’s night,” I shrugged. “But he’s already texted me twice complaining that their old fashioneds aren’t nearly as good as yours.”
Addy stuck her tongue out at me. “You don’t have to lie to placate my feelings?—”
“I’m not!” I held out my phone for her to see where his text had come through seven minutes ago. “See?”
Biting her bottom lip, Addy’s grin widened. “I knew I always liked that kid.”
Addy had been the owner and operator of the best bar in Maple Grove for almost a decade now. She had bought and rebranded the bar as Shortcakes and it quickly became a town staple.
Enzo’s gaze drifted up and toward the end of the bar. “Well, his father certainly didn’t get the memo about our girls night.”
“His father?”
I turned in my seat, following the direction where Enzo was gesturing. Sure enough, Elijah Stone sat with a freshly poured pint of beer…
…Looking directly at me.
I froze, every muscle in my body going corpse rigid.
“What the hell is he doing here?” Haylee growled.
“Well,” I whispered, even though he couldn’t… or shouldn’t be able to hear me from across the room. “He lives here.”
“Yeah, but I can count on one hand the times he’s dared come into my bar in the last eight years,” Addy hissed. “He should know better.”
Elijah lifted his beer into the air, silently toasting me. Then, with a jerk of his head, he waved me over, patting the empty stool beside him.
Shit.
I started to stand but before I could reach for my spritz, Addy clamped down on my wrist. “You are not actually going over there, are you?”
“It feels weird not to,” I said. “I mean, I’m dating his son. Maybe I owe it to him to at least be cordial?”
“You don’t owe that man shit,” Enzo said.
“Not him,” I clarified. “Adam. Maybe I owe it to Adam to be polite to his father.”
“It’s never a bad idea to take the high road,” Haylee said.
Addy and Enzo whipped their scowls to her like she was a regular Benedict Arnold. But I seized the opportunity to slip from their grasps and with my spritz in hand, I made my way across the bar, carefully sliding into the seat beside Elijah.
I didn’t dare take my eyes off of him. Like a snake, I knew the second I did—the moment I let my guard down—that’s when he would strike.
“Mr. Stone,” I said.
“Harper, please. We’re both adults now. You can call me Elijah.”
It felt like a trap, though for the life of me I couldn’t figure out why. “How are you… um, Elijah?” His name felt weird in my mouth. Foreign. Like a four letter word. But despite that, I was impressed with myself that I managed to keep my voice steady, especially considering how badly my hands were shaking.
I slipped them beneath the bar, squeezing my fists against the sides of my pants to try to calm down my trembling fingers.
“Very well. You know, I thought I was seeing a ghost the other day in the faculty cafeteria of Dartmouth. I saw you come in, but I thought to myself, No, Harper couldn’t be here at Dartmouth.”
He laughed. Laughed right in my face. At the thought of me being at Dartmouth… again.
In spite of the comment that on the surface seemed so innocent. But we both knew what he really meant by those words. Harper couldn’t be at Dartmouth. She’d never be accepted as a student here, let alone faculty.
I gave him a tight smile. “You’re right. After getting my masters degree from Oxford, Dartmouth is the last place I ever expected to be, too.”
“Oxford,” he repeated, his brows lifting from behind his dark, plastic glasses.
I rolled my shoulders back triumphantly. That’s right, you pompous ass. Oxford! Put that in your arrogant Ivy League pipe and smoke it!
“Well,” he continued after a sip of beer, “Mummy and Stepdaddy must have had a hand in getting you in there, right?” He said the latter with a terrible British accent.
Do not punch your boyfriend’s father in the face… do not punch your boyfriend’s father in the face…
“Actually, I didn’t ask for their help at all. I did it all on my own.”
A grin twitched at the corners of my mouth as shock registered on his face. I’d waited years to see that face. Years of dreaming what it would be like to look into the eyes of the man who underestimated me and tell him just how wrong he was.
“Well, then,” he said after recovering for a moment. “I think you owe me a thank you.”
“I owe you a thank you? What the hell for?”
“Oh come on. All those years ago when Adam and I were on Facetime, I could see you there in the background listening in on our conversation.”
My throat dropped into my stomach. “You… you knew I was there? You said all those horrible things knowing I was listening?”
Elijah rolled his eyes. “Always so dramatic. I spoke the truth. It’s not my fault if the truth was horrible. And it sounds like it was the kick in the pants you needed to make something out of your life. So… you’re welcome.”
I sat there, my jaw gaping open. “I was eighteen. You broke my heart. Dammit, Elijah, you broke your son’s heart.”
He snorted. “First of all, don’t flatter yourself. And second of all, you broke my son’s heart. No one forced you to ghost him. You could have ended things. Said goodbye.”
Adam’s dad was such a bastard. Such a smug, self-entitled, arrogant bastard. “What were you doing with Jasmine in the faculty cafeteria?” I snapped, asking him point-blank.
His smirk grew, like he was just waiting for me to ask that. “Oh, I’ve known Jasmine for years. She and Adam have been close for a while.”
I narrowed my eyes. “I know she and Adam are close friends,” I lied. I didn’t know shit about her. Adam kept any info about that beauty queen locked tighter than the secrets of the Pentagon. “But that doesn’t explain why you were with her the other day. Alone.”
“I got to know Jasmine very well. He used to bring her home for holidays when she couldn’t be with her family in California. Any time I’m in the area, we find time to catch up. I don’t doubt for a second that she’ll eventually be my daughter-in-law. If my son knows what’s good for him.”
I tried to steel my heart for the blow his words made. They shouldn’t have caught me off guard. They shouldn’t have shocked and hurt me as much as they did. This was Elijah for God’s sake. The man found joy in causing me pain.
He was a miserable man who never got the woman he wanted—who just so happened to be my stepmom. And somehow, he saw me as an extension of why he never got to be with Addy. It ate away at him that I, the spawn of the man who won Addy’s heart, was dating his son in high school.
It ate away at him then…
…and apparently, it still did today.
“Hey, Keith,” I said, giving a nod to the bartender and long-time family friend. “Get Mr. Stone another beer on my tab.”
I stood up from the stool, ready to walk away from this man for as long as I could. Until I was forced to have another interaction with him at Adam’s side.
“Well, that’s awfully kind of you,” he said, his voice dripping with faux sweetness. “By the way, Adam came home this weekend to visit his buddies from soccer. You may want to steer clear of Murphy’s Pub tonight.”
I tilted my head. “Adam told you he was visiting Maple Grove this weekend?”
Elijah nodded. “Yeah. He’s staying at Wilson’s house.”
I stood there an extra second, staring at Elijah in a fog.
Adam told his dad he was in town this weekend. But he didn’t tell him he was here with me.
Staying with me.
Back together with me.
Of all the blows tonight, that one was the worst.
It was like a time machine had launched me back to being 18 years old where my boyfriend was too ashamed of me to stand up to his father.
Again.
Not knowing what else to say, I turned to walk away, the sound of Elijah’s voice stopping me. “Be sure to tell your dad I say hi.”
I don’t know what came over me. Or why that snide little comment was the breaking point. But I grabbed the beer that Keith had just slid over to Elijah and dumped it on his head.
Suddenly, I didn’t feel as bad.