Chapter 17
“Let me get this straight,” Haylee said, pushing her oversized sunglasses higher on her nose. “Elijah is having clandestine dinners with some chick who’s clearly after your boyfriend, and he admitted to knowing that you were listening in on their conversation where he basically said you weren”t going anywhere in your life?”
I nodded, taking a sip of my Diet Coke and adjusting myself in the lounge chairs on our deck. After the whole confrontation with Elijah last night, I’d grabbed myself an Uber and called it a night, telling the girls I had a headache. Of course, they didn’t believe me, but they’ve known me long enough to give me space when I need it.
But now I owed them an explanation. “Yep. That about sums it up.”
“Let’s not forget the whole Adam didn’t tell his dad that you two are here together this weekend thing,” Enzo snapped, turning her glare across the patio where Adam was in the oversized, eight-person hot tub, playing with Coen and Cole.
I inhaled the cool, spring air. It was one of those perfect New England days. Warm enough to sit out when you were in the sun, but cool enough that you could still enjoy time in the hot tub if you wanted to.
“Shhhhh,” Addy said, pressing her palm to her forehead. “Do you all have to yell?”
Haylee and Enzo slid me a look. We were barely speaking above a whisper because we didn’t want Adam to hear us.
Apparently, without me there last night, no one implemented Addy’s no wine rule and she was paying for it today.
“Sorry, Addy,” I whispered and handed her another bottle of coconut water from the cooler next to me.
“Stupid wine,” she muttered, taking the bottle and cracking the cap off, taking a big swig.
“Elijah got off easy last night if you ask me,” Enzo said.
Addy nodded. “If it were me, it would have been more than just a beer poured over the head. He woulda had a bottle up his?—”
“Who got a beer poured over their head?” Dad’s massive shadow appeared, shading all three of us from the sun.
He held grill tongs in his hand and Lacey propped on one hip. About twenty feet behind him, the grill smoked and the delicious scent of burgers drifted toward us.
“Elijah,” I whispered with another furtive glance at Adam. “I dumped a beer on his head last night.”
Surprise flashed briefly over Dad’s face. “Huh. Well, I could name a dozen reasons why he would deserve that. But… you gotta be careful kiddo.”
I nodded. “I know, I know. Technically, that’s considered assault. If he wanted to press charges, he could.” This was one of the reasons why I didn’t want to tell my dad about last night in the first place. He was still the sheriff of this town and he couldn’t turn his law enforcement brain off most days.
Not even for his own daughter.
“Well, yeah,” Dad said, bouncing Lacey a little as she fussed in his arms. “But also, no matter how big of a jackass he is, it’s still your boyfriend’s dad. If you’re going to make it work with Adam, you need to make it work with his family, too.”
Damn. Truth bomb, right to the face.
And I knew he was speaking from experience since he didn’t exactly get along with my mother’s family back in the day.
But it still wasn’t the advice I wanted to hear.
“And,” Addy added. “You should probably tell Adam what happened… before it gets back to him some other way.”
I groaned. I didn’t want to talk to Adam about all this. I just wanted to enjoy the time we had together before the reality of our situation and history poisoned us before we really had a chance to begin.
“Being the bigger person sucks,” I moaned and threw my arm over my head.
“Being the bigger person doesn’t mean you have to put up with abuse,” Dad clarified.
“Or even be nice to him,” Addy added.
“But you should probably refrain from pouring adult beverages over his head,” Enzo said, a little snicker in her voice.
Lacey squirmed in Dad’s arms and I reached out my hands. “Give me my baby sister. I want to get in all the snuggles I can.”
Dad handed her over to me and she cooed, curling into my arms.
Instead of going back to the grill to check on the burgers, Dad sat down on the lounge chair beside me, nudging my legs to the side to make room.
With his eyes still on Adam, playing in the hot tub, he said, “He’s good with the boys.”
I nodded, even though I didn’t feel like giving Adam credit for anything right now.
Why wouldn’t he tell his dad about us? Was he that embarrassed by me? After all this time, did he still believe those things his dad said about me years ago?
When, if ever, would I be good enough in Elijah’s eyes to be deserving of Adam’s heart?
And if the answer was never, then when, if ever, would Adam stop caring what his dad thought about me?
As if he could hear my thoughts, Dad leaned down and whispered. “Go talk to him.”
“I will.”
A smile twitched at Dad’s lips and he tilted his head toward the hot tub. “I meant now. Trust me. It’ll be easier to enjoy the weekend if you get this off your chest.”
“Fine.” With a roll of my eyes, I gave Lacey’s ruddy cheeks a few more kisses before handing her back to Dad.
His grin widened as he tucked Lacey into the carrier he wore holstered around his chest. “You know I’m right.”
“Yeah, yeah.” I muttered and stood, tugging my denim cutoffs further down on my thighs as I crossed toward the hot tub.
Behind me, Dad yelled out to Coen and Cole. “Boys! Time to get out!”
“Aw, Dad! Why?”
“C’mon! Five more minutes!” They both whined.
“Nope!” Dad boomed. “Now. It’s been thirty minutes and you know the rules. Now go inside and wash your hands and dry off before lunch.”
There were groans of protest from my brothers as they begrudgingly crawled out of the water onto the patio.
“Preferably without the attitude,” Dad called out.
I smiled to myself, remembering those days myself. It was weird watching my Dad be the father I remembered him as… to other kids. Especially when my own childhood was so far in the past.
Little wet feet slapped against the wood planks of the deck as Coen and Cole plodded past me. I lowered myself to the edge of the hot tub, sitting and dipping my feet into the warm, circulating water.
Planting each palm on the edge of the deck beside me, Adam pushed up, lifting himself out from the hot tub.
I stared shamelessly as water sluiced over the rippled muscles of his pecs, abs, and arms. That was a lot of hard muscle he’d been hiding beneath his college-type tweed jackets.
Which only made him that much sexier in my eyes.
“Hey you,” he grinned and kissed my cheek.
I stole a quick glance over my shoulder, confirming that everyone had gone inside the house, giving us some privacy.
“Hey,” I said.
There must have been something in my voice because his smile dropped immediately. “What’s wrong?”
“I ran into your dad last night,” I blurted out quickly.
There was no point in dragging this out and making it any more painful than it had to be.
A series of emotions flashed over Adam’s face in a matter of mere seconds. Shock, relief, apprehension, panic. “Okay… Please tell me you two just avoided each other?”
I dropped my cheek to my shoulder giving Adam a look. “When have you ever known either of us to be passive like that?”
Adam winced. “He knew I was visiting Maple Grove this weekend.”
“Yeah,” I said.”He told me.” In an attempt to keep the emotion out of my voice, it accidentally came out deadpan.
“He did?”
“Yep. Right before I dumped a beer on his head.”
“You what?”
“In my defense, he was being pretty awful.”
“Harper, Jesus.” Adam swiped a wet palm down his face, then reached for his towel that was draped over a deck chair beside him.
“I’m sorry, okay? I really am. I shouldn’t have let him get under my skin, but he started talking about the phone call I overheard, and my Dad?—”
“You have to let that go!”
I blinked in surprise at Adam raising his voice.
He was always the calm one between the two of us.
He rarely raised his voice.
“I have to let that go?” I repeated.
“Yes. God, Harper, we were kids. I apologized for it?—”
“We were kids, yeah. But your dad was a grown-ass adult. So what was his excuse?”
“That he was just looking out for me. He didn’t want me to miss out on a great college experience and an incredible scholarship because my girlfriend was taking a gap year.”
I took a deep breath before answering him. Harper of the past would have lost her shit. Either yelled back or stormed off. I was trying to be better, though.
After counting to ten, I opened my eyes again. “Fine. He was looking out for you. That’s probably true. But in doing so, he hurt someone you cared about. He hurt me. I don’t just have to ‘let that go’ because it’s in the past. I’ve forgiven you and you’ve forgiven me because we discussed it and each apologized. But your dad hasn’t done either of those things… so he hasn’t earned my forgiveness yet. And to make matters worse, at the bar last night he also admitted that he knew I was there in the background listening. He saw me on Facetime. He wanted me to hear. He wanted us to break up. And he wanted to hurt me.”
Adam stared at me for the longest few seconds of my life. “He said all that?” Adam asked finally. “That he wanted to hurt you?”
I nibbled my bottom lip. “Well… not in so many words, but basically?—”
“Not in so many words,” he repeated with a nod. “Do you think maybe you’re just hearing what you want to hear so you can villainize him?”
“No. No. Adam, you weren’t there. He was being awful?—”
“So you just pour a beer on him? Harper, you can’t do that shit. It’s my dad. If this is going to work between us, then you and he need to find a way to get along!”
“That’s a two-way street, Adam. He needs to be nice, too.”
“Yeah, he does. And I’ll talk with him about that.”
A humorless laugh bubbled to the surface and exploded from me. “Oh, you’ll talk to him?” I literally didn’t know why I couldn’t stop the laughter. Nothing about this was funny.
Adam’s face twisted as he gave me a strange look. “Yeah. I’ll talk to him.”
“Don’t lie to me, Adam. Don’t tell me you’re going to talk to him about me when you haven’t even told him that we’re here in Maple Grove together.”
“What?” For a brief moment, Adam’s face blanched before his cheeks turned pink.
“Your dad told me that you were here in Maple Grove this weekend… and that you were staying with some of your soccer friends.”
I waited for Adam to tell me his dad was a liar. That he was just being mean. Or trying to rile me up again.
But those words never came. Instead, he looked down at his hand clenched on the edge of the hot tub, avoiding my gaze. “We’re still new, Harper, you and me. I don’t even know if you’re sticking around yet or moving back to England. And it just seemed like an unnecessary fight to tell him…”
Adam’s words faded away and he licked his lips.
“Yeah, especially when he so clearly wants you to end up with Jasmine.”
Adam’s eyes snapped up to mine. “What are you talking about? Jasmine and I are just friends.”
“You might want to add that to the things to tell your dad when you talk to him. Because he and Jasmine are having clandestine dinners behind your back. I saw them together the other night.”
Shaking his head, Adam pulled his feet out of the hot tub and stood, grabbing his towel and drying off.
“Where are you going?” I asked as he scooped up his wallet and phone, sitting on the side table.
“To talk to my dad.”
“Right now?”
Adam paused and turned to glance at me from over his shoulder. “Yeah. Right now.”
It should have made me feel better…
… but somehow I felt worse.