Chapter 41
FORTY-ONE
HARLEY
One minute.
Five minutes.
An hour.
I don’t know how long I’ve been putting one foot in front of another, but it’s been long enough for my head to clear and my heart to feel like it’s about to explode out of my chest from exhaustion.
I needed to work off that jittery feeling I was getting while being in the house and knowing I had no idea where Savannah was.
She snuck out of a goddamn window four days ago, and while the others say they’ve spoken to her and that she’s okay, it didn’t stop me from spiraling.
The only thing I could think of to help calm the chaos was to come to the gym.
And yet even though it’s dulled, I can’t stop my brain from going to her, wondering what she’s doing.
I’ve been thinking about it a lot lately, and I’ve come to realize that maybe the feelings I thought were dead and buried years ago never really went away.
Maybe they were masked by the hatred and the disgust, but there was still a part of me that wanted to be around her, that wanted to see her and spend time with her, even if I did go about it in all the wrong ways.
Because I’m a selfish fucking asshole who royally fucked up, and now I can’t even get her to see me, never mind talk to me.
Then again, it’s not like I’ve tried to see her.
I pull the stop button, worried my chest is about to cave in from either anxiety or exhaustion.
Or maybe both.
Everything is just so… well, it’s fucked, basically.
Everything is fucked.
I grab my water and take a drink before squirting some on my face to cool myself down.
I nod to one of the guys on Logan’s team—it still weirds me out that he plays hockey, a team sport—and head out of the gym.
Sure, Logan is close with us guys, along with Gracie, Lana and Savannah, but other than us, he hates people.
He will literally go out of his way to avoid talking to people, so for him to play a sport where he has to work with and converse with people that aren’t us, honestly, makes very little sense to me.
I don’t pay much attention to what’s going around me as I make my way through the building, but as I head down a corridor, a voice I hear from one of the rooms to my left has my entire body coming to a halt.
Is that…?
I get closer and try to hear it again, but I can’t make it out. There’s no window on the door, so it’s not like I can even peek into the room, so I crack the door open a little.
Because my eyes are always automatically drawn to her, I see Savannah first, wearing a short pair of gym shorts and a tank top. Her hair is slicked back on her head, her chest rising and falling as she bounces around the mats placed on the floor.
Fuck, she’s beautiful.
The most beautiful thing I’ve ever seen in my life.
And then my eyes slide to Logan.
What the fuck are they doing?
He’s wearing gym shorts and nothing but the tattoos covering his skin, making a growl build in my throat.
Couldn’t he have at least put a goddamn shirt on around her?
Neither of them have realized I’m here, so I stand and watch. I watch as they spar with each other. I watch as Savannah uses moves I learned years ago, and it makes me realize that this is probably why they’re so close.
Savannah is good. So good it’s clear she’s been doing this a while and not just something she’s taken up since the recent attack, so it makes sense Logan taught her.
I still have no idea how it came about or how they became friends to begin with, but if this is what their friendship was built on, then I can only be grateful to Logan, even if I do wish he’d put more clothes on.
Speaking of Logan, his eyes meet mine in the mirror, and he calls for a timeout.
“You’re doing good, especially since you’re still healing.”
She smiles at him, and it makes something ugly clench in my gut. God, how I wish it was me on the receiving end of that smile.
“Thanks,” she says and takes a drink. “You good to keep going?”
I should leave, I know that, but I can’t force my feet to move.
I can’t take my fucking eyes off her.
“Actually…” Logan starts and nods his head toward me. “I’ve got somewhere to be, but I’m sure Harley won’t mind taking over. Will you, Harley?”
What is he playing at?
Savannah’s attention snaps to me for the first time, her eyes widening as she realizes I’ve been watching. I step into the room and lean against the wall, putting on a casual front when really, it feels like my heart is about to beat out of my chest.
“You good with that?” I ask her, not wanting to make her uncomfortable.
She looks to Logan, as though silently asking if he thinks this is really a good idea, and I can’t say that doesn’t sting. They have a silent conversation between themselves before she finally meets my gaze once more.
“Okay,” she agrees. “Let’s do this.”
I nod, inwardly grinning to myself. This is the opening I’ve been waiting for, so let’s just hope I can survive it.
Something tells me that doing this could change everything, and I don’t know whether it’ll be for the better or worse.
Though really, things can’t get much worse for me than they already are right now.