Chapter 38 Falling Deeper #2
We're lying on my couch in comfortable silence, her head on my chest, my fingers running through her hair. Rex is snoring on the floor. The TV is on but neither of us is really watching it.
"I'm thinking about staying here over Thanksgiving break," Harper says quietly.
"Not going home?"
"My parents are doing this whole cruise thing with my aunt and uncle. They invited me, but the thought of being trapped on a boat for a week sounds like my personal nightmare." She tilts her head to look up at me. "What about you?"
"I'll probably go home for a few days, see my family. But I have to be back by Sunday for practice." I trace patterns on her arm, considering. "You could come with me. If you want."
She goes still. "Meet your family?"
"Only if you want. No pressure." But even as I say it, I realize how much I want her to say yes. I want my parents to meet the girl who's completely rearranged my priorities. I want my little sister to interrogate her the way I know she will. I want Harper to see where I come from.
"I'd like that," she says softly. "I'd really like that."
"Yeah?"
"Yeah." She sits up to look at me properly. "Fair warning though—I get weird around parents. I say awkward things and laugh at inappropriate times."
"My mom will love you."
"You don't know that."
"I do, actually. Because I love you, and my mom has excellent taste."
The words are out before I can second-guess them. Harper's eyes go wide, her lips parting in surprise.
"You love me?" she whispers.
My heart is pounding, but there's no taking it back now.
And I don't want to. "Yeah, Harper. I love you.
I've been in love with you for weeks, probably.
I just..." I run my hand through my hair, trying to find the right words.
"I wanted to wait for the right moment, but I'm realizing there's no perfect time.
There's just the truth, and the truth is I love you. "
Her eyes are shining with what might be tears. "Cole..."
"You don't have to say it back," I add quickly. "I'm not trying to pressure you or—"
"I love you too," she interrupts, her voice cracking slightly. "God, I love you so much it scares me sometimes."
Relief floods through me so powerfully I have to pull her into my arms. She climbs into my lap, wrapping herself around me, and when we kiss it feels different. Bigger. Like we've crossed some invisible threshold that changes everything.
"Say it again," I murmur against her lips.
"I love you."
"Again."
"I love you, Cole Richardson."
I kiss her harder, trying to pour everything I'm feeling into the contact. Rex whines from his spot on the floor, probably wanting this same affection.
Harper pulls back just enough to meet my eyes. "I didn't think I could feel this way about someone. This certain."
"Me neither."
"I was so scared of getting hurt again, of making the wrong choice. But with you..." She shakes her head, smiling. "With you, everything just feels right."
"It is right," I say with conviction. "We're right."
We stay tangled together on the couch for a long time after that, trading kisses and quiet words.
No sex tonight, just pure contentment in each other’s company.
The TV continues on unwatched, Rex eventually gives up on judging us and falls back asleep, and somewhere in the middle of it all, I think about how completely my life has changed in just a few months.
Hockey used to be everything. Grades, future plans, staying focused—those were the pillars of my existence. But Harper has become a pillar too, maybe the most important one. She doesn't diminish the other things I care about; she enhances them. Makes me want to be better at all of it.
"What are you thinking?" she asks, her fingers tracing idle patterns on my chest.
"That I'm the luckiest guy alive."
She laughs softly. "That's very smooth."
"I'm serious. Before you, everything was..." I search for the right word. "Compartmentalized. Hockey in one box, school in another, social life in another. But you blur all those lines. You make me want to blur them."
"Is that a good thing?"
"The best thing." I kiss her forehead. Then I hesitate.
“What were you going to say?” she murmurs, searching my face.
I swallow. "I was scared after everything with Liam that I'd lose you before I ever really had you. But you chose me, and… I want to remind you that I don't take that lightly."
Her expression shifts slightly, something flickering across her face at the mention of Liam's name. "Cole, about Liam—"
"We don't have to talk about him."
"No, it’s okay." She sits up a bit, making sure I'm looking at her. "What happened with him... it's in the past. Completely. Sometimes I see him at these things and there's this moment of awkwardness, but that's all it is. History. You're my present and my future."
I want to believe her completely. And mostly, I do. But I can't shake the memory of that look between them at the party—brief but loaded.
"I trust you," I say, because it's true. Whatever lingering connection might exist between Harper and Liam, I trust her to honor what we have.
"Good. Because you're stuck with me now. I said I love you, so there's no backing out."
"Wouldn't dream of it."
Thanksgiving break comes faster than expected. Harper meets my family, and just like I predicted, my mom loves her immediately. My sister peppers her with questions about everything from her favorite books to her intentions with her brother, and Harper handles it all with grace and humor.
On the drive back to campus, Harper's hand finds mine over the center console.
"Your family is wonderful," she says.
"They loved you."
"Your sister threatened to hurt me if I break your heart."
"She's protective."
"It's sweet. You're all sweet." She squeezes my hand. "Thank you for bringing me."
"Thank you for coming. This was..." I glance at her, finding the words. "This was important to me. Having you meet them."
"It’s important to me too."
We drive in comfortable silence for a while, the highway stretching out ahead of us. I'm thinking about the future—not in the vague way I used to, but in concrete terms. Graduation, what comes after, where Harper fits into all of it. The answers are starting to form, and they all include her.
"Cole?" she says after a while.
"Yeah?"
"I'm really happy."
I bring her hand to my lips and kiss her knuckles. "Me too, Harper. Me too."
The semester barrels toward finals, and Harper and I fall into that intense rhythm of studying together, stress-eating takeout, and stealing moments of distraction when the pressure gets too high.
She quizzes me on business concepts while I help her rehearse presentations.
We're a team in a way I never expected to need or want.
One night, we're at the library at two in the morning—because apparently that's what we've become, people who voluntarily stay at the library until ungodly hours. Harper is half-asleep on her textbook when I lean over and whisper, "Come on, let's go home."
"Can't," she mumbles. "Have to finish this chapter."
"You've read that same page four times. Your brain is fried."
"Your brain is fried."
"Devastating comeback. Really showed me."
She lifts her head, squinting at me through bleary eyes. "Take me home, boyfriend."
"That's what I've been trying to do."
We pack up our stuff and head out into the cold December night. The campus is quiet, most students either asleep or holed up in their own study spots. Harper leans into my side as we walk, and I wrap my arm around her shoulders.
"Only two more weeks until break," she says.
"You counting down?"
"Desperately. I love school, but I'm so ready to not think about marketing strategies for a while." She looks up at me. "You're still coming over for Christmas, right?"
"Wouldn't miss it."
We've been doing this—making plans that extend beyond the immediate future, weaving our lives together in ways that feel both natural and monumental.
Harper knows my schedule for next semester.
I know when her internship applications are due.
We talk about spring break like it's a given we'll spend it together.
This is what love looks like, I realize. Not just the big moments or grand gestures, but the accumulation of small daily choices to show up for each other.
Back at my place, Harper immediately claims the shower while I let Rex out and check my phone.
There's a message from Liam in our team group chat about practice times, strictly professional.
We've maintained this careful dance of being teammates without being best friends anymore, and so far it's working.
Mostly.
Harper emerges from the bathroom in one of my t-shirts, hair damp, looking more beautiful than anyone has a right to at two in the morning.
"Bed?" she asks.
"Bed," I agree.
We curl up together, her back to my chest, my arm around her waist. She's asleep within minutes, but I lie awake a little longer, thinking about how much has changed since that disastrous team dinner months ago.
I chose to forgive her. She chose me. And every day since, we've chosen each other again.
It's not always easy. There are moments where I can see the ghost of Liam in her eyes, fleeting seconds where I wonder if she thinks about what might have been.
But then she looks at me with that smile that's only mine, says she loves me like she means it with everything she has, and the doubts fade.
This is the real deal.