2. Jefferson
CHAPTER 2
JEFFERSON
When I pull up to Harlow‘s house, I’m relieved to see my sister’s car is still here. That means Graham is still here too and I can talk to him and Harlow together. He’ll hopefully keep Harlow from murdering me. But I don’t think he’ll keep her from yelling at me. He never has in the past.
I park my truck at the curb, and walk up the short, paved path to her front porch. I note all of the cars here. Looks like most of the girl gang is present. The rest could have carpooled over, but I know Sasha is at the bar, working with her dad, and I’m guessing that Whitney Bennett and Mia Hansen, Harlow’s older sister, are with Kaelyn doing wedding stuff.
Yes, my brother is the only guy at this girls’ night. And yes, that’s completely typical.
I climb up onto the porch of Harlow’s little house. It’s a one story, two-bedroom, one-bath bungalow. It’s small, but cozy, full of mismatched furniture with an abundance of cushions and pillows and blankets and just…stuff. She’s got more bookcases than any one woman really should and while many are filled with books, there are also plants and photos and knickknacks packing the shelves.
Harlow is a collector of things . I won’t call it junk because it probably all means something to her. If I had to guess, I’d bet most of it’s gifts, actually. That’s just who she is. People love her and she inspires things like gift-giving. But there’s not much room to walk around or gather. Yet, somehow, this is always where people show up to hang out.
I can’t count the number of times I picked up one or both of my siblings from this house. Drunk, hung over, or late for something. If they’re not showing up for something on time, my mother will send me to go find them, and I always start at Harlow’s house without even calling either of them first. Even when she was living with her parents. This has been going on for years.
It’s a pleasant night for mid-June in Nebraska so her windows are open as is the front door. Through the screen door, I can hear conversation and laughter from inside.
I’m surprised they’re not on the back deck I remember her dad, brother, and several of the other guys building three years ago.
I take a deep breath and then knock on the wood frame.
“Come in!” someone calls. I don’t think it’s Harlow.
Yeah, they’re expecting more people to join them.
I pull the door open and step inside, just as Harlow comes around the corner from the kitchen.
She stops short when she sees me, her smile dying. Then she frowns and continues forward.
She’s in short denim shorts, a black tank, and is barefoot, her toenails painted bright blue. The shorts show off the tattoo that decorates the outside of her right thigh. A goldenrod. The state flower of Nebraska.
I can’t see it, but I know there’s also a deer silhouette tattooed on her right shoulder blade. It’s another symbol for our home state, but there’s deeper symbolism to deer and I’m certain Harlow is aware of that.
As she approaches, I note the sparkling blue gem pierced through her nose, the many ear piercings, and the multitude of rings on her fingers.
She’s got her full jewelry on even though she’s definitely dressed down and has her long dark hair up in a messy bun on top of her head and I find myself wondering if she ever takes it all off. To shower? To sleep?
I do not need to be wondering about Harlow Hansen showering or in bed, I remind myself as she comes to stand in front of me.
Tendrils of hair are escaping her bun, framing her face, and brushing against her long neck and I can see the faint lines where her bathing suit crosses her shoulders and wraps around to tie behind her neck.
She’s beautiful. There’s no doubt about that.
I might even be attracted to her if she didn’t hate my guts.
“No fucking way.” She plants her hands on her hips.
But she does. So I’m not.
And, I remind myself, I don’t like her much either. She’s a pain in the ass who always thinks she’s right, was a bad influence on my brother, and thinks I’m a bad guy for no fucking good reason at all.
“No way what? I haven’t even said anything.”
“You can’t have them yet.”
I roll my eyes, even though it makes sense that she thinks I’m here to pick up Ginny and Graham. Rolling my eyes with Harlow is just an instinct.
“Graham has been home for two days and this is the first time I’ve had him,” she informs me. “He and Ginny are sleeping over.”
I shift my weight and tuck my hands into the front pockets of my jeans. I give her a smirk. “Did Mom say that was okay?”
My sister is twenty-six, Graham and Harlow are twenty-four. Obviously, no one gives them direction on where they’re sleeping.
Harlow sticks her tongue out. “I know you don’t have any friends, but that’s your own fault for being an asshole. Leave my friends alone.”
I frown. “I have friends.” She knows that very well. She knows all of them.
“Do you? Or have they just all been stuck with you because this town is so tiny?”
“Says the woman who’s having a sleepover tonight with people she’s known literally her entire life.”
I’ve got a point and she doesn’t even have to say so. “Well, you can’t take Ginny and Graham. So get out of here.”
“I’m not here to pick them up. I…” Might as well rip the band-aid off.“I need to talk to you, actually.”
She’s predictably surprised. “About what?”
“Something happened tonight that you should know about.”
She straightens, her expression immediately turning concerned. “Is Alex okay?”
Alex Fallon is something Harlow and I have in common besides my siblings. And our hometown.
He just graduated, after coming to live with a foster family here three years ago. Harlow is a social worker and child advocate who has been working with Alex. She has gotten close to him and the affectionate feelings are very mutual. Alex is also one of my star football players. I love the kid.
And part of me loves that she immediately thought of Alex and was concerned.
I blow out a breath. “No, this isn’t about Alex. Sorry. I see why you might’ve jumped to that.”
She breathes out in relief. “Geez, Jefferson.”
“It’s something about you, actually.”
“What is?”
“I need to tell both you and Graham.”
She narrows her eyes and starts to say something—an argument I’m sure—so I step around her and head toward the kitchen.
I hear her give a little growl behind me and can’t help but smile.
Everyone thinks she’s so sweet and sunny. I know better.
I step into the kitchen. The group is gathered around the middle island. She only has a tiny wooden table with two chairs near the window because that’s all there’s room for, so when there’s more than two people here, obviously they have to stand and cluster around the counter. They don’t seem to mind.
In the center of the island is a fondue pot filled with melted chocolate. There’s a plethora of other items spread everywhere—crackers, fruit, marshmallows. I notice there are potato chips and pretzels and know that’s what Harlow is using. She’s not really into sweets.
I frown as I realize I know that. I mean, I probably know what most of these people like for snacks. I’ve known them all forever. But…no, I don’t. I know Graham is going to go for the fruit, and Ginny will be all about dunking cookies into the chocolate, but I don’t know what Sloan or Margot prefer.
“Jefferson is here,” Harlow says flatly, right behind me.
“Hi,” Ginny says, surprised to see me.
“We’re staying here tonight,” Graham informs me.
I roll my eyes again. “You’re twenty-four. I’m not here to pick you up.”
“Then why are you here?”
Everyone in town knows that Harlow Hansen and I do not get along. No one would expect me to be invited to a get-together at her house or for me to just show up as a friendly drop-in. Least of all my siblings.
“I need to talk to you and Harlow about something.”
Harlow reaches for a thick wavy potato chip. “Something that just couldn’t wait until he wasn’t crashing the party and ruining the fun.”
Yeah, well, I definitely didn’t think about what she was doing tonight before I opened my mouth in front of Zach.
She leans over, barely dunks the chip into the chocolate, then leans her elbows on the island. “So, what is it?”
“How about we do this in private?” I ask.
They all just stare at me.
I forgot for a moment that this group never does anything without the rest of them knowing.
“No way,” Harlow says biting into the chip. She crunches for a moment. “If you wanna talk to me about something, I want to do it in front of witnesses.”
“And near weapons?” I ask, my gaze dropping to the tiny fondue forks.
She gives me a grin. “Maybe.”
Her gaze moves to my left and I follow it to the butcher block full of knives. When I look back at her, she simply dunks another chip into the chocolate.
I sigh. “Fine. Zach is in town for the wedding. Plans to be here for the whole week. I ran into him down at the Come Again.”
There’s frowning, grumbling, and Ginny says, “Well, we expected him.”
I don’t look at anyone but Harlow, though.
She’s studying the chip in her fingers.
Everyone gathered in kitchen hates Zach. And we all hate him because of how he treated Harlow. I am the only one who has additional beef with him.
“Thanks for the warning, I guess,” Harlow says after a few seconds.
“Yeah, well, there’s more. You need to pretend to be dating Graham this week.”
Everyone goes still and quiet. Everyone looks at Harlow. Including Graham.
Her gaze bounces up to mine. “What are you talking about?”
Suddenly the back door to the kitchen bangs open. “You guys, guess what!” Sasha Wright asks as she steps into the house. She stops when she sees me. She visibly deflates. “Oh. Did you tell them?”
“That Zach is back? Yes,” Harlow says.
“And that he now thinks you have a boyfriend and that everyone at the bar is very curious about who it is?” Sasha asks. “I am very curious about who it is and why Jefferson knows and I don’t.”
Harlow looks from her to me. “Boyfriend? Why does Zach think that?” She looks back to Sasha. “Did you tell him I don’t?”
Sasha shakes her head. “Of course not. I wasn’t going to argue.”
“But you know I don’t have a boyfriend,” Harlow says, straightening.
Sasha gestures toward me. “But Jefferson said it. I thought maybe Graham knew and told him or something.”
Harlow turns slowly to face me. “ You said I have a boyfriend?”
Here we go. “Yes.”
“ Why ?”
I cross my arms and meet her gaze directly. “Because he said he was here to get you back. And that’s a terrible idea. I thought you having a boyfriend would make him back off.”
Harlow is staring at me. “ What ?”
I nod. “He said he’s ready to settle down. He’s finishing his residency, and has a job lined up. So now he’s come home to win you back.” I frown. “And I hate the idea that he thinks you’ve been waiting for him.”
Harlow tosses down the potato chip that she still hasn’t eaten, and crosses her arms, mimicking my stance. “You mean you wanted to make him mad.”
I shrug. “Yes.”
It’s no secret to our friends and family that I hate Zach. Of course, they all think it has to do with his and my history with football. None of them really know the part that Harlow plays in it. And that’s fine. They don’t need to. She doesn’t need to.
Her eyes narrow. “Who does he think this boyfriend is?” Then she looks at Graham, understanding dawning on her face. “Wait, you told him Graham and I are dating?”
“No. But that makes the most sense.”
“When Zach asked who it was, Jefferson said that he was pretty sure Zach could figure it out,” Sasha says with a grin. “Or something like that. Which has the whole bar talking. Because everyone is now trying to figure it out. And…” She turns her attention to me. “Zach is suspicious because no one in town seems to know about this boyfriend.”
Harlow growls again. “Great! So you just left it as some random dude. He’ll never believe that. Especially when the whole rest of the town doesn’t know!”
“They’ll all believe it if it’s Graham,” I say confidently. “You can say that you didn’t want to make a big deal of it before you were sure it was serious, but now it is.”
Everyone goes quiet for a moment. Then they all start laughing at once.
I frown. “What?”
Ginny shakes her head. “That will never work.”
“Of course it will. Harlow and Graham have been friends forever. Now he’s dressing better and is more social. He’s very successful in his job. They’ve grown up. He's been away for awhile so it will be easy to believe they missed each other and then realized they had deeper feelings and fell in love.”
In fact, I’ve been continually surprised that they haven’t. I was convinced for most of their high school years that they were secretly crazy about each other and that they were just keeping it on the down low. Or that Graham was in love with her and it wasn’t reciprocated, which pissed me off and caused me to be…okay, a little mean to her if I’m totally honest.
Harlow gives Graham an affectionate grin. Then she looks at me. “No.”
“It makes sense,” I insist.
“They’ve been friends all their lives,” Sloane says, speaking up for the first time. “If it was going to be more than friendship, it would’ve happened by now.”
“They were just kids before. Maybe they needed to grow up a little,” I offer.
Now it’s Margot‘s turn. “Anyone who has been around Harlow and Graham knows that they’re only friends. There’s no chemistry. And this entire town has been around them before.”
I’m gritting my teeth now. “Look, Zach isn’t the brightest bulb in the drawer. We tell him that Harlow and Graham are in love. They spend their time together this week so that Zach can’t get close. He leaves town and it’s all over. This doesn’t have to be difficult.”
“They’ll never be able to pull it off,” Sasha says. “They’re going to run into Zach a lot even if he’s only here for a week. They’re not going to be able to be convincing as a couple in love.”
Margot nods. “I guarantee they can’t kiss with any heat. And if they try, they’ll probably get the giggles.”
Harlow actually giggles at that. Again, she’s looking at Graham. He’s grinning at her too.
“And Graham is interested in someone,” Harlow says. “I don’t want her believing that he’s involved with me .”
“Harlow,” Graham says, his voice low with warning.
She gives him a wink.
Wait, my brother is interested in someone? Who? Why hasn’t he told me? Has he told Ginny? Will he tell me if I ask?
Probably not. If he’s got Harlow, he doesn’t need anyone else. It’s always been that way.
Harlow looks at me. “So this is a terrible plan. Big shock. You’re bad at matchmaking too.”
“Well, excuse the hell out of me for trying to help you with Zach,” I say with a frown.
“First of all, I don’t need help with Zach.”
“You’ve always needed help with Zach. He’s the one person who could talk you into terrible decisions.”
Her eyes widen and her cheeks get pink. “Fuck off, Jefferson.”
I take a breath. Okay, that was low.
“I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have said that. I just…” Then I decide to be fully honest. “I really hate that guy. And he seemed so happy to be home and everyone at the bar seemed happy to see him and…I wanted to see him sad.”
I shrug. I never said I was a saint.
Harlow studies me for a moment. Then she smiles. “Did the idea of me with someone else make him seem sad?”
I lift one brow, but say, “Yes. And a little surprised. I think he thinks you still have feelings for him.”
She shakes her head. “I hate him.”
“He’s very easy to hate.”
“ Very easy,” she agrees.
Our smiles grow.
“I can understand the urge in the moment to make him sad. Or knock him down a peg. Or whatever,” she says.
“I’d love to knock him down,” I mutter. And I don’t mean emotionally. Or with my words.
“I’d love to see that,” she says.
We smile at each other again.
So we have four things in common—loving my siblings, loving our hometown, loving Alex Fallon, and hating Zach Nelson.
“You know,” Sloan muses. “People would believe if you two were dating.”
Harlow and I both turn to look at her.
Then I look around.
Everyone else in the room is nodding.
I turn to Harlow.
She stares at me.
Then we both start laughing.