Chapter 12
Harper
“I just need a trim,” I warned my Gram, watching her wearily as she walked around me. “Like an inch, maybe two.”
“I could add in some layers,” she mused, lifting her eyebrows.
“Trim,” I repeated, widening my eyes at her. “And no bangs either.”
“We’ll save bangs for if you break up with Bas,” she said, waving her hand airily.
“Oh, my god,” I groaned.
“I’m kidding.” She swatted at me as she walked around to my back. “Anyone who’s seen you two together knows that isn’t going to happen. That boy worships you.”
“The feeling’s mutual,” I assured her, closing my eyes as she began to run a comb through my wet hair. “It’s weird to think that I’ve known him forever, but I only realized how awesome he is now.”
“Well, he wasn’t exactly available before,” she said, little snips of scissors punctuating her words. “Or not that you knew, anyway. How’s that going? Your cousins still being assholes? I’m surprised Olive hasn’t called you, she seems less entrenched in the drama than the rest of them.”
“No.” I sighed. “But I haven’t really been available anyway.”
It had been over a week since I went with Bas to Portland and ended up in a car accident that night.
I’d been emailing with old coworkers and college friends, and I’d gotten a couple more job offers—but nothing that I wasn’t willing to give up.
The longer I stayed in Eugene, the surer I became that I didn’t want to leave again.
I didn’t want to travel, not even once a month.
I wanted to work and then come home to Bas.
Of course, I hadn’t told him that. We’d spent every night together, but it was always packaged as a date that didn’t end until the next morning.
I hadn’t even left a toothbrush at his house, and from what I could tell he wasn’t in any hurry to give me a drawer.
Which made sense, we’d only been seeing each other for two weeks, and I wasn’t crazy.
But with each passing day, it became more apparent that we just fit.
We never ran out of things to talk about.
Sex was mind-blowing. He was funny and charming, and he looked at me like he couldn’t get enough of me.
The feeling was mutual. I didn’t think I’d ever get sick of looking into his warm brown eyes or watching his ass flex as he walked naked across the room.
But it was more than that. I wanted to hear about his day.
I wanted to know what shows he was watching, what books he’d read, what his favorite foods were.
I wanted to know where he saw himself in five years or ten—and I wanted to be wherever he was.
I was all in. Hopelessly and happily falling.
“Well, if I see them, I’ll give ’em hell,” Gram said with a scoff.
“Please don’t say anything,” I pleaded. “I think once they see us together, they’ll realize it’s a good thing.”
“You’ll have to crawl out of his bed in order for that to happen,” Gram teased.
“Ariel’s birthday dinner is tonight,” I reminded her. “So, we’ll see them all then.”
“Is that why you asked me to trim your hair?” she asked. “You gonna wear makeup too?”
“No, that’s not why,” I argued.
“Nothing wrong with it,” she said, running a comb through the wet strands, parting it in the back. “Getting gussied up is as armor as old as time. Gives you a little boost.”
“I just wanted to hang with you.”
“Well,” she said. “I’ll take it. I never see you enough.”
“I think I’m going to be around a lot more now,” I confided.
“Is that right?”
“I’m done traveling, at least for work.”
“Does that have anything to do with a big, dark, pierced fella?”
“Maybe a little.”
She hummed.
“It’s early still,” I said with a sigh, looking at the photos hung on the wall across the kitchen. They reminded me of the photos in Bas’s childhood home that I hadn’t gotten a good look at.
“When you know, you know,” Gram replied. “Sometimes it happens that way. You know someone for years, and then suddenly you realize they’re your perfect match. They see all your warts and broken parts and love you anyway.”
“Is that what happened with you and Grandpa?”
“Something like that,” she confirmed. “I was best friends with your Aunt Callie first. He was just her smarter-than-was-good-for-him brother.”
“Then, suddenly, he wasn’t?”
“Oh, he’s still smarter than is good for him,” she said with a chuckle. “But at some point I realized that was good for me. I’ve never had to do taxes.”
I snorted.
“If Bas is the one, he’s the one. Who cares how long it’s been?”
“I think my parents would disagree with you.”
“Pfft,” Gram said, walking around in front of me to make sure my hair was even. “Not everyone can be in love with the same person since childhood.”
“Didn’t my dad date Auntie Cecilia first?” I asked.
“Didn’t stop your mother from writing his name in her diary,” she joked. “Took Leo a long time before the feeling was reciprocated.”
“Poor Mom.”
“No,” she said simply. “If your father had liked Lily then, Grandpa would’ve killed the creep slowly.”
It took me a moment to realize why she’d said it. My dad was five years older than my mom.
“I’m not even sure if Bas is thinking the same thing,” I said as she walked over to grab a blow dryer off the counter. “He hasn’t said anything.”
“I’m sure he will,” she replied easily. “Give the boy a minute to work up the courage.”
“We’ll see how he acts at Titus’s house tonight,” I said, raising my voice as she turned on the hair dryer.
“You think he’ll act any different?”
“Well, we haven’t really hung out with everyone yet,” I replied. “He might.”
“Not worth the condoms used to screw him if that’s the case,” Gram said firmly.
I choked on nothing. “Gram.”
“It’ll go fine,” she said, patting my shoulder. “I bet he’s eager to show you off.”
“To my own family?” I replied.
“As his.” She leaned around me to wiggle her eyebrows.
Hours later, I was climbing off the back of Bas’s bike in front of Titus’s massive house. I’d found my helmet, so my glasses weren’t pressed against my sore forehead, but the blowout Gram had given me was completely ruined. I fluffed at it as Bas grabbed a wrapped present from his saddlebag.
He held my hand as we walked into the house, and something settled a little inside me.
Everyone seemed to be gathered in the big kitchen, and we could hear them from the moment Bas opened the door without knocking.
Kids screamed and ran around, and the moment they realized Bas was there, they swarmed us.
I let go of his hand and took the gift from his hand, watching as he picked Ariel up from the crowd and held her at eye level.
“Did you bring me a present, Uncle Bas?”
“Of course I did, Mermaid. It’s your birthday. What kind of man do you think I am?”
“A big one,” she said tentatively.
Bas huffed out a laugh. “Everyone’s big compared to you.”
“I grew a whole inch this year. Mama measured me this morning.”
“I’m not surprised,” Bas replied. “You’re growin’ like a weed.”
“Is Harpy your girlfriend now?” she whispered, glancing at me.
“She is,” he replied, whispering back.
“I like her glasses.”
“Me too.”
The other kids were waiting for his attention, and the moment he set Ariel back on her feet, he crouched down to patiently listen to them tell him about a thousand different random things.
I wondered if this was a normal occurrence or if it was because he’d spent the past two weeks with me and they had to catch him up on all the news he’d missed.
“Okay, let’s let Uncle Bas get a drink and say hello to everyone else,” Otto called out, making the kids scatter. “Hey, Harp.”
“Hey Otto,” I said as Bas and I walked toward him.
Bas didn’t grab my hand again, but I tried not to read anything into it.
The entire Hawthorne clan was gathered in the kitchen, and they called out their hellos as we made our way into the group. Immediately, I found Nova and made a beeline for her.
“Coming as a couple, huh?” she said quietly. “Bold move.”
“Noel called and invited me,” I replied, leaning against the counter next to her. “I’m not his plus one.”
“Did you bring your own gift?”
“Shut up,” I grumbled, glancing at the gift I’d left on the kitchen table with the others.
“Harpy,” Aunt Heather, Titus’s mom, said, wrapping her arms around my shoulders from behind. “How’s my favorite niece?”
“Oh, you know, just living off my parents and eating ice cream for breakfast,” I replied, leaning into her. “Just what I dreamed of as a child.”
“Your mom loves it,” she said, giving me a squeeze. “How’s the head?”
She walked around me and waited for me to pull my glasses down.
The wound was closed, and a pink line was the only sign it had ever been there beyond some yellowed bruising around my eyes that I’d covered with makeup.
Actually, Gram had covered it. She’d ushered me into her bathroom and hadn’t let me go until she’d done a little something.
I didn’t mind—it wasn’t that I disliked makeup, I just never bothered because I couldn’t wear my glasses while I was doing it, and it was a pain in the ass leaning that close to the mirror.
“All healed,” I announced. “Dad’s truck took the brunt of it.”
“Something to be said about those old trucks,” Uncle Tommy said, eavesdropping. “Like drivin’ a tank.”
“I’m back to driving nothing now,” I replied, rolling my eyes. “After that crap with the car the club loaned me.”
“Well, you’ve got Bas to chauffeur you around,” Aunt Heather said mischievously.
“Yes, he’s at my beck and call,” I replied, grinning.
“That’s kind of fucked up to say,” Myla said, opening the fridge.
“I was joking,” I insisted incredulously. I was pretty sure that was evident in my tone.
“Hey, man,” she said, holding her hands up. “Not my business.”