Chapter 38
HARLOW
The December air was cold against my cheeks, but I couldn’t bring myself to go inside.
Owen’s second-floor patio wasn’t much, just a narrow strip of concrete with a rod-iron railing and barely enough room for two chairs. I pulled the blanket tighter around my shoulders, tucking my knees up to my chest in the plastic chair. My phone was pressed to my ear.
“I just want to make sure you’ve thought this through,” Kaia said, her tone careful. “Owen is... he’s complicated, Harlow.”
“I know.”
“And after everything that happened with Cam…”
“I know, Kaia.” I stared out into the darkness.
“I’m not saying he’s a bad person. I’m just saying that he has a pattern and they don’t usually change overnight.”
I wanted to explain to her that he was different with me, but there was no use. She needed to see for herself to believe it.
“Harlow, why didn’t you tell me?”
The question landed like a punch. Not because it was unexpected, I’d been bracing for it since I dialed her number, but because of the hurt in her tone. She was my sister. I’d always told her everything, but this was different.
“I...” The words stuck in my throat. “I don’t know.”
“You don’t know?” She huffed out a humorless laugh. “Harlow, we talk every week. Sometimes every day. You told me about the barista who spelled your name wrong three times. You sent me a twenty-minute voice memo about whether you should get bangs. But this you kept from me for months?”
My eyes burned. “It’s not that simple.”
“Then explain it to me. Because I’m sitting here trying to understand how my little sister fell in love, and I had to find out through Jax, after he got a text, instead of from her.”
I pulled my knees tighter to my chest. “I wanted to tell you. So many times. But Owen and Jax... their friendship goes way back, Kaia. I felt like he needed to be the one to tell Jax first. Before anyone else knew. It was their thing to work out.”
“And what about us? What about our thing?” Her voice cracked on the last word. “I’m your sister. I don’t care about the order of operations or who tells who first. I care that you were going through something huge and I wasn’t there for it.”
“You’re two thousand miles away…”
“Don’t.” The word was sharp, final. “Don’t you dare use that as an excuse. Two thousand miles doesn’t mean anything. You know that. If you had called me at 3 a.m. and said you needed me, I would have been on the first flight out. I would have dropped everything.”
The tears spilled over, hot against my cold cheeks because I did know that.
“Jax isn’t the only one who loves you, Harlow. He isn’t the only one who gets to be protective. He isn’t the only one whose feelings matter in this. I’m your sister, and I’ve been over here living my life, thinking everything was normal, while you were falling in love and hiding it from me.”
“I’m so sorry, Kaia. I didn’t… I wasn’t trying to shut you out. I just got so caught up in the secrecy of it all, in protecting Owen and Jax’s friendship, that I didn’t stop to think about what I was doing to us.”
Silence stretched across the line.
“I would have kept your secret,” she finally said, quieter now. “You know I would have. I wouldn’t have told Jax. I wouldn’t have told anyone. I just... I would have been there. For the good parts, the scary parts, and all of it.”
“I know. I know you would have.”
“Just... don’t do that again, okay? Don’t shut me out. I’m always on your side first. Always.”
I nodded, even though she couldn’t see me. “I won’t. I promise.”
“Good.”
“How’s Jax?” I asked after a moment, dreading the answer but needing to know. “Is he still...”
“Furious?” Kaia let out a long breath. “Yeah. He’s been pacing around the house since that phone call. Kailyn’s the only thing that calms him down, and even then, he keeps muttering under his breath about loyalty and betrayal and twenty years of friendship.”
My stomach twisted. “That bad?”
“You know how Jax is. He’s always been overprotective of you and Syn. It’s not just about Owen breaking some unspoken rule, it’s that Jax genuinely believes he’s supposed to shield you from getting hurt and Owen’s track record...” She trailed off.
“Isn’t exactly reassuring,” I finished.
“Right. But Harlow, he’ll come around. He always does. Remember when Syn got her first tattoo without telling him? He didn’t speak to her for three days, and then he was buying her lunch like nothing happened.”
“This feels bigger than a tattoo.”
“It is bigger. But Jax loves you, and he loves Owen. Even if he’s too angry to admit it right now.” She paused. “He’s just scared. He knows that if Owen hurts you, it won’t just break your heart. It’ll be the end of their friendship. There will be no coming back from it.”
The weight of those words settled over me, heavier than the one already wrapped around my shoulders.
And what happens when he finds out we flew to Vegas and got married behind everyone’s back?
The thought hit me like ice water. Tomorrow morning, Owen and I would be on a plane to Vegas. By the time we made it to visit Jax and Kaia, I’d be Owen’s wife, and Jax, who was already furious about us dating, had no idea.
How much worse would it be when he found out we eloped without telling anyone?
Would he ever forgive us then?
I pushed the thought down, burying it beneath layers of justification. We were doing this for us. We were doing this because we loved each other and didn’t need or want anyone’s permission.
But the guilt lingered, settling into the spaces between my ribs.
“Can I tell you something?” I asked, desperate to anchor myself to something other than the spiral of what-ifs.
“Of course.”
I took a deep breath, letting the cold air fill my lungs.
“Owen makes me feel seen,” I said slowly, searching for the right words.
“Like he notices things about me that I didn’t even know were there.
He remembers the stupid stuff I say in passing and brings it up weeks later.
He knows when I’m stressed before I do, and he doesn’t try to fix it or tell me to calm down. He just... sits with me. In it.”
Kaia was quiet on the other end.
“He makes me laugh,” I continued. “The kind that hurts your stomach. He argues with me about rom-com logic and lets me steal his hoodies and never once has he made me feel like I’m too much or not enough.”
“He’s sweet and thoughtful.” My throat tightened. “I know you all see the guy who messed things up with Cam. The guy who makes impulsive decisions and doesn’t always think things through. But that’s not all he is. That’s not even most of what he is. Not with me.”
I pulled the blanket higher, tucking it under my chin.
“He fought for us, Kaia. When Jax called, Owen didn’t back down. He didn’t try to minimize what we have or make excuses. He just told him the truth. That he loved me. That I was different.”
“He said that?”
“He said I was his everything.” The memory made my chest ache in the best way.
“And I believe him. I know that sounds naive, and I know his history isn’t exactly reassuring, but I believe him.
Because I’ve seen who he is when it’s just us.
When there’s no one to perform for and that person.
..” I exhaled shakily. “That person is someone I want to build a life with.”
I could picture Kaia on the other end, probably curled up on the couch with a sleeping baby in her arms, processing everything I’d said.
“You really love him,” she finally said. Not a question.
“I really love him. More than I knew I could love anyone.”
More silence. Then, softly: “Okay.”
“Okay?”
“Okay, I trust you. If you say he’s different with you, I believe you and Jax will come around eventually. Just give him time.” A pause. “And if Owen hurts you, Jax and I will make his life a living hell, but until then... I’m happy for you, Har. Really.”
More tears streamed down cheeks. “Thank you.”
“I love you. We’ll talk more when you get here, okay? Get some sleep.”
“I will. Love you too.”
I hung up and sat there for a moment, letting the tears fall, letting the relief wash over me. She understood. Or at least she was trying to understand, which was more than I could have hoped for.
The sliding door opened behind me.
I turned to see Owen stepping out onto the patio, his breath forming clouds in the cold air. He was wearing a black hoodie that I was definitely going to steal later, and sweatpants. Even now, even after everything, the sight of him made my heart do something embarrassing.
“Hey,” he said softly.
I stood, the blanket still wrapped around my shoulders like a cape. “Hey.”
“Does Kaia hate me?”
The vulnerability in his voice cracked something open in my chest. This man, who faced down Jax’s fury without flinching, who stood his ground and declared his love in the middle of a verbal assault, was now standing here worried about what my sister thought of him.
“No,” I said, stepping toward him. “She doesn’t hate you.”
He opened his arms, and I walked into them. His warmth enveloped me, and I pressed my face against his chest, breathing him in.
“She’s cautious,” I admitted, my voice muffled against his hoodie. “But she trusts me and is willing to give you a chance.” I hesitated. “She said Jax will come around.”
Owen’s arms tightened around me. “And if he doesn’t?”
“He will,” I said it with more confidence than I felt.
I tilted my head back to look at him. His face was half-shadowed in the dim light from the apartment, but I could see enough. The way his eyes softened when they met mine. The smile playing at the corner of his lips, despite the weight of everything hanging over us.
“How do you feel?” I asked. “Now that it’s out in the open?”
“I wish I had been the one to tell them,” he said. “On our terms. The way we planned.” A pause. “But also... I’m relieved that we don’t have to hide anymore. That we don’t have to worry about whether someone might see us together. That weight is just... gone.”
“Yeah,” I agreed. “It is.”