9. Harper
9
HARPER
“ A re you sure?”
I shudder, and aches make themselves known along my back. My arms. My head pounds.
“Who is he?” another voice asks.
I open my eyes.
Royal and Olivia stand over me, but they didn’t ask the question.
Camden Church is behind my brother, a few steps down. Standing, he’s even with my seated position. He’s the one who inquired, and Royal and Olivia both twist to eye him.
“No one.” Olivia’s tone dismisses him.
He bristles.
“An old teammate of mine,” Royal says on a sigh.
I lick my lips. That’s not the whole story—not even close. Maybe Royal wants to keep his best friend at a distance from this? For me? It wouldn’t help—Camden is about as close as someone can get, whether I want him here or not.
Not in an entirely bad way.
Not like Max Keegan.
“He had a thing for me.”
Camden’s gaze never leaves mine, even when his best friend is speaking, but now a muscle in his jaw spasms at my words.
Royal grimaces.
“He would leave flowers in my room,” I continue. “When we weren’t home. I’d come back from some after-school activity, or a sleepover, and find pink roses spread across my bed. He always talked about going away to school, though. I thought when he graduated with Royal, that was the end of it…”
“Was it?” Camden asks.
“No.”
He scowls. “So, what, he just showed up?”
Olivia takes over. “He was wearing Shadow Valley gear. Said he just wanted to see Royal play and didn’t expect Harper to be here.”
Max is the reason I don’t post on social media. He’s the reason I didn’t make it known to anyone outside of Olivia and Royal where I had chosen to go to school. My parents have been worried about it so much that they got the local police involved, but with no imminent threat…
Flowers don’t count, I guess. They did put in a report with the police about the breaking and entering, but that’s where it stopped. They couldn’t prove it was him. He was never on the security cameras we put up, there were no fingerprints.
I didn’t even know it was him until he asked if I got his gift.
“Now he knows she’s here,” Camden muses. He eyes Royal and lifts a brow.
My brother seems to come to some sort of decision. About me, I would imagine. I open my mouth to argue, but he beats me to the punch.
“No,” he snaps. “Don’t. There’s an extra room in the hockey house, and it’s yours until further notice. This is not an option, Harper.”
I gape at him. Olivia even seems surprised.
“You can’t be serious.” I grip the railing and haul myself up. “I’m not moving in with you and four other guys.”
He shakes his head. “It’s that or I tell our parents.”
Ah, shit.
There’s no way they’d let me stay if they knew Max had been here.
Olivia shifts her weight, and I can read her mind. She’s thinking, well, it’s not the worst idea . The one thing Max always shied away from was fucking with Royal. They were teammates, after all.
“Come on.” Royal holds out his hand. “We can use the exit downstairs. Then we’re packing your shit.”
I heave a sigh, but what am I to do? Wait for Max to break into my dorm room? The security in that place is shy of nothing. Camden was able to get in easily. Cynthia would probably believe whatever story Max fed her about me and let him wait for me on my bed.
I wrinkle my nose at that thought.
But in the end, I take my brother’s hand.
“This is it.” Royal gestures.
One of the other guys in the house, Lucas, is kneeling next to a half-inflated air mattress in my new room. The whir of the motor pumping it almost overtakes Royal’s words. Other than the air mattress, the room is empty.
No dresser, no lighting except the glaring overhead one. That’ll need to be changed immediately. Well, tomorrow. It’s late now, and there are less people filling the downstairs of the hockey house than I was expecting.
Maybe the party is elsewhere?
“Why do you guys call it the hockey house when there’s only four of you living here?”
Lucas snorts. He’s a defenseman like Royal, I think. I don’t know much else about him; beyond that he has the vibe of a Canadian hockey player. I can’t explain it.
“It became the hangout spot for the starters. Hosted a few parties here, then the name stuck,” he explains. “A lot of the other guys either live in dorms or apartments around Framingham, but this is the biggest.”
Huh.
Well, that’s dumb.
Once the air mattress is finished inflating, he shuts off the motor, caps it, and scoots past us. “Welcome to the house, roomie.”
Royal glares at his back, then tows me farther into the room. He shakes out a fitted sheet and spreads it across the mattress. I have a laundry basket full of blankets and pillows, and we make the bed in silence.
Lucas comes up a minute later with my two suitcases.
“You pack bricks in here, Lawson?” he grunts.
“Shay,” I correct. “Harper Shay.”
“Right. Shay .”
“And, as a matter of fact… no. It’s just a lot of clothing.” And shoes. And my textbooks, notebooks, and pen case. They wouldn’t all fit in my backpack, so…
The textbooks are probably the problem.
“Thanks for your help.”
He waves me off and heads out again. Royal plants his hands on his hips, staring around at the not-quite-so-empty room.
“Shopping tomorrow,” he says. “We’ll get everything you need.”
“You have a game tomorrow,” I point out. “You leave early. You should already be asleep?—”
“I’ll sleep on the bus,” he interrupts. “I’ll leave you a credit card, yeah? Don’t make that face. It’s fine. I just want to make sure you’re settled.”
“I just need sleep,” I say quietly. “The rest… Olivia and I will figure it out tomorrow.”
He nods, then pauses. Carefully, he shuts the door and faces me. He seems a lot more tired than he did a minute ago, like a mask has dropped. “I’m just worried about you. I know you wanted to go farther away for school, and FSU wasn’t exactly your idea. But Olivia is close, and I’m here, so…”
“I know.”
A lump forms in my throat. I was planning on going farther away. But after everything with Max last year, even when he was supposedly off at college, it began to feel dangerous going somewhere new. Somewhere I’d be all alone.
“I’m glad you’re here. Playing kick-ass hockey with your friends.” I make a shooing motion. “Now go away so I can get some sleep.”
He chuckles, but he does leave me. I hesitate for a second, then lock the door behind him. I kick off my shoes and flop onto the bed. My phone vibrates against my ass. I roll and pull it from my jeans, and I freeze.
Unknown
It was really good seeing you, Harper. I look forward to our next run-in.