3. Jefferson
CHAPTER 3
JEFFERSON
Sloan shrugs. “I’m serious.”
“We hate each other,” Harlow tells them. “The whole town knows that. We fight all the time. “
“You treat each other differently than you treat anyone else,” Sloan agrees. “You are both so nice to everyone else, but you’re rude as hell to each other. You bicker. You argue. But I guarantee, if I told five people in this town that you two were dating, four and a half of them would not be surprised at all.”
“How do you get half?” I can’t help but ask.
“They would be surprised at first, but when they thought about it, they would realize it made sense,” Sloan says with a smile. “The other four would just believe it right from the beginning.”
“You’re crazy,” Harlow tells her.
“There’s a fine line between love and hate,” Graham pipes up.
“Most importantly,” Sasha says. “It would bug Zach so much if it was Jefferson.”
That much is true. I think Zach would hate to think that Harlow is taken and not waiting for him no matter what. But if the guy she was dating was his arch nemesis, that would definitely hurt more.
“That’s not a terrible…” I start.
“No way,” Harlow says. “You don’t think Graham and I could pull it off because we have no chemistry. How the hell would Jefferson and I pull it off? We’d be out in public and start screaming at each other and everyone would know it was fake.”
“We never scream at each other,” I protest. “We needle each other. We definitely bicker. We love to poke at each other. But we don’t scream and throw things.”
She lifts a brow.
“Okay, we almost never throw things.”
There was that one time she threw a shoe at me. But I easily ducked that. And there was the time she threw a water gun at me. But that was because it was empty, and I had cornered her during the water fight. And I guess I did then throw a water balloon at her. And soaked that see-through white cropped tee she was wearing and exposed the white and red striped bikini top she had underneath…
“There’s definitely passion between you,” Margot says with a grin.
Harlow is shaking her head adamantly. “No. That’s a terrible idea. Besides I don’t need to have a boyfriend to fend Zach off. I will just tell him I am not interested. Which I am not .”
“Fine,” I say, throwing up my hands. “I’m going to look like an idiot in front of the guy I hate so fucking much I’d rather chew glass than admit I lied to him. But it’s my fault. He drives me nuts. He started mouthing off and I just spoke up without thinking.”
Harlow studies my face for a moment, then says, “I get it. He makes me crazy too. How about I’ll tell him that I was seeing someone and you just didn’t know we had broken up.”
That’s actually very decent of her. “Thanks,” I say.
“You’ll have to say it was someone from out of town or something,” Sasha points out. “No one in town knew about it. Your parents didn’t know.”
Harlow rolls her eyes. “It’s okay if not everyone in this town knows every detail about my life.”
But we all just snort at that. It would be okay, but not at all realistic.
Her dad is the town cop. Her mom is a partner in the busiest bakery in three counties. Everyone knows Harlow and they all keep track of her.
But there’s no one in this room for whom that isn’t true. Myself included. My mom is her mom’s partner in that bakery and my dad and his business partner, Lauren, are two of the biggest employers in town. Really in the entire area.
“Okay, well, I’m going to head out,” I say, jingling my keys. “Y’all have fun. Call me if you need a ride home,” I tell my siblings.
They just grin.
I let myself out and am down the front porch steps when I hear Harlow call my name.
I turn back.
She’s standing on the top step, arms crossed.
“Zach really said that he was here to get me back? In those words?”
“Yes. And he didn’t seem to think that it would be much of a challenge.”
I don’t think even Harlow knows everything I know about her history with Zach. But he was a manipulative, cheating, lying scumbag when they were together.
“Well, for what it’s worth, it will be a challenge. One he won’t win.”
“I know you don’t need help with him,” I tell her honestly. “I believe that you don’t want him back. I just really liked the idea of him not getting his way and him being as miserable as possible in the process.”
She gives a soft laugh. “I completely understand that sentiment.”
“Is he allergic to anything? Something we could sneak into his food?”
She grins. “No. Unfortunately.” She pauses. “But there’re always laxatives or something.”
I snort. “Well, I guess if I can't break his heart, chaining him to the toilet isn't a terrible option B.”
She laughs. “I'll keep thinking.” Then she gives me a sly look. “I know I seem very sweet, but I can be really mean when I want to be.”
“No way,” I deadpan.
“Yep.”
“Gotta say, I'm glad to be on your team rather than on the opposing side in this case.”
She crosses her arms. “Yeah, well, don’t get used to it.”
I roll my eyes. “Wouldn’t dream of it.” I start to turn away but then…for some reason…I say, “Of course, when we are on the same team, some pretty great things happen.”
She narrows her eyes.
Yep, she knows exactly what I’m referring to.
“You do not want to go there, do you?” she asks. “Really? We were kind of getting along. For us. Can’t we just work on torturing Zach?”
I shrug. “I’m just saying we were a hell of a team when it came to Alex.”
She frowns.
But why did I say that? I could have just not said that.
She’s right that we were kind of getting along. We were agreeing to hate Zach together at least. And she’d thrown me a lifeline by agreeing to tell Zach that I just didn’t know she and her boyfriend had recently broken up rather than outing me as a liar.
Why do I always want to poke her? Because this topic does poke her and I know it. It riles her up. Makes her mad at me.
“Jefferson,” she says, her voice low. “I do not forgive you for Alex. Drop it.”
“There isn’t anything to forgive,” I say. “That all turned out great. We were great. Ask anyone. His parents. His teachers. His coaches. His counselors. Him .”
She’s gritting her teeth and glaring at me now.
But that’s why I poke her about this. Because I want to hear her admit that we were both a part of Alex’s success. I want her to acknowledge it.
Alex is a bright, big-hearted, happy kid with a future full of possibilities. Now. But he hasn’t always been. He certainly wasn’t when we met him. He’d been a fifteen-year-old, angry, grief-stricken, scared kid who’d showed up at a foster home in our town after his mom had been killed by her boyfriend in their home.
We’ve had to track him down after he’s run away from home.
We’ve given him rides to and from his therapy appointments.
We’ve sat up with him when he’s had suicidal thoughts.
We sat by his hospital bed together when he tried it with pills once.
It’s been almost two years since all of that happened.
Now he has friends. He smiles. He lets Harlow hug him. He texts me every other day.
It was a long road getting there, especially that first year, but he made it. We made it.
And five weeks ago, Alex left for Colorado. He’s moved into his room on campus, started his summer class, and is getting ready for football camp in preparation for the fall.
He’s got a very bright future ahead.
And Harlow is pissed at me, because I’m the one who got the scout here to look at him, encouraged Alex to consider Colorado, and then drove him to campus.
She blames me for him being so far away from her. Just like she blames me for Graham leaving Sapphire Falls. And Ginny leaving. And her brother Austin leaving.
“Well, you do like sending people away from Sapphire Falls,” she says. “Feel free to turn that energy on Zach .”
I sigh. I do not like sending people away from Sapphire Falls. It’s just that sometimes that’s what’s best for them.
“I will,” I say, deciding not to press this bigger topic any further right now.
“But you might not enjoy this as much,” she says, “I mean, I don’t like Zach. I don’t want him to stay here. And you seem to especially like getting rid of people I care about.”
“You know that’s not?—”
“’Bye, Jefferson,” she says, turning on her heel and heading for the door. “ You can definitely leave. My house. My front yard. My life .” She pulls the screen door open, but pauses to look back at me. “Of all the people you’ve convinced that Sapphire Falls has nothing to offer, why haven’t you ever taken that advice and gotten the hell out of here?”
But it’s not like she’s really wanting or waiting for an answer. She steps inside, letting the screen door slap shut. Then, for good measure, she slams the inside door as well.
She probably also turns the lock.
Yeah, the two of us should totally pretend date. That’s a great idea.