Chapter 12 #2
My stomach sank. I knew they weren’t, like, inviting me to sleepovers or whatever, but I’d thought that they were getting used to me and Bas.
I’d seen all of my boy cousins at different times throughout the last week, and none of them had seemed bothered.
Suddenly, I felt very conspicuous. My cheeks heated as I glanced around the room.
No one else seemed to be looking at us.
“Myla, stop being an ass,” Aunt Heather scolded. “What the hell is wrong with you?”
“Nothing’s wrong,” Myla said with a shrug as she wandered to the other side of the room.
My eyes traveled to Lou, who was helping one of Otto’s kids color at the table. She seemed completely relaxed. Me being there didn’t bother her.
“Ignore her,” Nova ordered quietly as Aunt Heather followed Myla.
“I—yeah,” I replied faintly.
Bas was talking to Mick and Otto all the way on the other side of the kitchen, and it would’ve been weird for me to go over there. I wouldn’t give Myla the satisfaction of thinking that I’d gone over to tattle or something.
“Thanks for coming,” Noel said as she hurried into the kitchen from the back porch. She came over and gave me a hug.
“Thanks for inviting me,” I replied. I wasn’t a stranger, but none of the rest of the club had been invited. Only the Hawthornes were present, except for Lou, Bas, and me. Frankie and my brother weren’t even there.
“Of course.” Noel smiled. “I didn’t want you to think you could skip it, since I knew Bas would be here.”
“He spent an hour at the store looking for the right present,” I told her, smiling back.
“I’m not surprised.” She glanced over her shoulder at Bas. “The kids love him. He’s so good with them.”
“Mama,” one of her girls called, waving her arms over her head.
“Duty calls,” Noel said with an exasperated sigh. “If we don’t get a chance to talk again tonight, you guys should come over next week for dinner! I promise, it’s usually not so chaotic here.”
“Was it just me, or was she trying to convince you of how good Bas is with kids?” Nova joked once Noel was out of earshot.
“She was,” Noel’s sister Esther said with a laugh. She was doing something at the sink with her back turned toward us. Titus and Otto had married sisters. It was less weird than it seemed.
“He’d make such a good father,” Nova said, fluttering her eyelashes at me.
“Shut up,” I mumbled.
God, Bas was hot. He was laughing at something Titus said, and I had a flashback of the first night we’d kissed when his smile had completely changed everything for me. I could no longer imagine seeing him and not finding him the most attractive man in any room.
Dinner was chaotic, with all the adults eating where they stood while the kids took up every inch of the kitchen table.
Afterward, we sang the “Happy Birthday” song and watched Ariel blow out her candles.
While Esther and Aunt Heather plated cake and ice cream and passed it out, Ariel opened her presents.
I watched as she shook Bas’s, and her eyes lit up. With a squeal she ripped off the paper to find the Lego set Bas had meticulously chosen.
“I’ll come over this week and help ya build it,” he told her when she looked around the room for him.
“Just me and you?”
“Just me and you,” he replied. “Or maybe you can come over to my place and we can make it there.”
“Can I?” Ariel demanded, her head whipping toward Noel.
“Sure,” Noel said, leaning back against Titus’s chest.
Ariel looked toward Bas. “Is Harpy gonna be there?”
He glanced at me across the room. “Not if you don’t want her to.”
Ariel thought about it for a minute and then shrugged. “She can come.”
I grinned as she hopped up from the table and ran to Bas, hugging him tight around his legs. I couldn’t hear what they said while she was over there, but eventually Ariel made her way back to the table to open the rest of her gifts.
There were so many people in the house that it was pretty easy to avoid any awkward moments for the rest of the night.
The kids ran off to the living room to play with Ariel’s new toys while the adults visited.
Someone turned on music, though much quieter than they’d had at the last party.
I helped clean up, rinsing the dishes as they were brought from the table and loading the dishwasher.
By the time we were finished, some people had already left. I couldn’t see Bas anywhere, but Noel looked like she was getting a little frazzled as it got later and later, and I knew she needed to put her kids in bed, so I went searching.
I heard him first.
“What the fuck is the matter with you?” he asked quietly. “I didn’t give you shit when you and Cian hooked up.”
“That’s not the same, and you know it,” Myla replied. “Lou—”
“Have you talked to Lou?” Bas demanded.
“Of course,” Myla spat. “She said she doesn’t care who you’re with.”
I felt embarrassed that I was eavesdropping, but I didn’t tell them I was there. I wanted to know what was being said.
“Exactly,” Bas replied. “Fuck’s sake, Myla. Harper is your cousin, and you’re treatin’ her like a fuckin’ leper.”
“I just think it’s funny,” Myla said, her tone indicating that funny wasn’t the right word “That you’re hooking up with my cousin, then sleeping with Lou, and then disappearing to hook up with my cousin some more. If anyone’s the bad guy here, it’s fucking you.”
It took a moment for the words to register, but when they did, it felt like I’d been hit by a truck again. Panic, followed by confusion, followed by fury.
When the hell had Bas slept with Lou? Had it been before or after he’d assured me that there wasn’t anything between them?
God, I’d flat-out asked him, and he’d said they were only friends.
Had he been lying the entire time? I knew he hadn’t slept with her since we’d started sleeping together, so it had to have been before… but after the night of Brody’s party.
“Well,” I said, making my presence known. “That’s news to me.”
I didn’t even bother to look at Myla. She’d gotten caught up in the clusterfuck through no fault of her own, and hell, maybe I would’ve been acting the same way if I was caught between my cousin and best friend.
“It’s not like that,” Bas said, shooting a glare at Myla. “I told you it’s not like that.”
“Did you sleep with Lou after we kissed at Brody’s party?” I asked bluntly.
“In the same bed, yes—”
That was all I really needed to know. My cheeks burned with shame as I nodded, waving my hand to shut him up. I’d been really clear with him that I didn’t want to step into the middle of something. He’d assured me that I wasn’t.
Maybe our definitions were different, but the spirit was the same.
“I wasn’t trying to cause any drama,” I told Myla. “I fucking asked about what was between him and Lou.”
She nodded, her face filled with remorse.
“Harp, it’s not what you’re thinkin’,” Bas said, stepping toward me.
“I don’t really care,” I replied flatly. I turned and walked away, half expecting him to follow. Out on the front porch, Nova and Rumi were saying their goodbyes.
“Hey, could you guys give me a ride home?” I asked, keeping my voice light.
Nova searched my face before nodding.
Once we were on the road, I asked them to take me to my grandparents’ house.
My parents were expecting me to stay the night with Bas, and I was too stunned to deal with explaining why I was home.
I’d text them and let them know I was staying at Gram’s for the night and deal with their questions tomorrow.
“You good?” Rumi asked after a few minutes. “I’ll take care of him if you want me to. It won’t be a surprise, he knew what would happen if he fucked up.”
I let out a bubble of laughter. “No murder necessary, you psycho.”
“He’d have to get in line, anyway,” Nova said, looking at me from the front seat.
I was pretty proud that I’d held it together the entire way to my grandparents’ house. I waved at Nova and Rumi as I stomped up the porch steps and knocked on the door before pushing the code and letting myself inside.
“Gram?” I called out. “It’s Harper!”
“I know who it is,” she said, coming out of the bathroom. “What are you doing here?”
“Can I stay the night?” I asked, dropping my purse on the floor.
“When have you ever needed to ask?” she replied. “There a reason you’re not going home?”
“Drama with Bas,” I explained with a sigh. “I don’t want to talk about it.”
She looked at me for a long moment. “All right. Grandpa’s at the club, so it’s just me and you until who knows when. You want some popcorn?”
“I’d kill for some popcorn,” I replied, my voice wobbling.
“Great. Come on.”
I sat on the counter while she puttered around the kitchen, cooking popcorn on one burner of the stove and hot cocoa on the other.
“Did Ariel enjoy her birthday?” she asked while we waited for them to heat up.
“Yeah, she seemed like she had a good time. I was surprised I didn’t see Auntie Rose there.”
“She’s under the weather,” Gram replied. “And you know how protective that husband of hers is.”
I grinned at the snark in her voice. “Why do you give Uncle Grease such a hard time? They’ve been married forever. You know you’re stuck with him.”
“Don’t you worry about that,” she said with a sniff. “He knows why.” She nodded in the direction of where I’d left my purse in the entryway. “Text your mother and let her know you’re staying the night.”
“I’m not twelve,” I argued halfheartedly as I jumped off the counter.
“Just common courtesy,” she said, turning back to the stove.
I walked toward the front of the house. “She thinks I’m staying with Bas anyway,” I called over my shoulder. “She wouldn’t even—”
I stumbled to a stop, breath catching in my throat.
Standing just inside the front door was a man I’d never seen before. He lifted a finger to his lips and gestured at me to go back the way I’d come.
“Gram,” I shouted, the word choked as I struggled to pull air into my lungs. I didn’t get another word out, because he raised a pistol and pointed it straight at my chest.
“Go,” he ordered, making the shooing motion again with his other hand. “Not a fucking word.”
I was too afraid to turn my back on him, so instead, I shuffled backward to the kitchen.
“Who are you?” I asked, taking as much time as I could. I hoped Gram would go out the back and call for help, but I knew she wouldn’t.
She hadn’t responded when I called for her.
My heart beat frantically as I stared at his face, trying to ignore the gun that was still pointed at my chest. If I got out of this, I was going to need to remember what he looked like.
Short brown hair. Light eyes—I couldn’t discern the color. Medium build. Only a few inches taller than me. Blue jacket. Blue jeans. No scars that I could see. No tattoos either. Sharp jaw. Clean-shaven. Thin nose with prominent nostrils. Thin lips.
He could’ve been any man on the street. Unremarkable. Easy to forget.
“Who are you?” I asked again.
“The boogeyman,” he said flatly.
“Why are you here?”
I wondered if he was here for Gram. She would’ve been home alone if I hadn’t shown up. Maybe it had something to do with the club. Things had been quiet for most of my life, but I knew there were times in the past when that hadn’t been the case.
“For you,” he said as I stumbled on the rug running the length of the entryway.
“I don’t know you,” I replied dumbly. I’d never seen him before in my life.
“You pissed some people off,” he said, gesturing at me with the gun. “Move.”
“Who?” I asked, moving a little faster. The longer I could keep him talking, the better off I’d be. The longer we were in this house. The longer he didn’t shoot me. Every moment was one more that there was a chance someone would come. There was a chance Grandpa could be there any minute.
“Bitch, go,” he said, cocking the pistol in his hand.
I nodded frantically and stepped into the light of the kitchen.
Taking another step backward, then another, I glanced to where I thought Gram would be.
Then two things happened at once.
The man stepped into the kitchen, and a gunshot rang out.