Chapter 41 Harlow
HARLOW
“You can’t be serious.” Kai says, not at all thrilled with what I just asked.
“Come on, Kai. She’s going to end up at our house regardless, so why can’t she just ride with us? Her family is already there!”
Grayson tries, and fails, to fake a cough to cover his laugh, earning a glare from my brother.
“Listen, Harlow, I understand that she is still your best friend. I get it, I do, but are you seriously going to make me spend an extra two hours with her?”
I give him my best puppy face, because yes. Yes, I am.
He stares at me for a moment, completely unimpressed, before letting out a long exhale.
Victory.
“Fine, she can ride with us. But that means you two are in the back, and Grayson is in the front with me.”
Damn. I didn’t think that part through. Oh well.
“That’s fine. She’ll be here any minute.”
“You told her she could ride with us before even asking me, didn’t you?”
I grin at my brother, and Grayson completely loses the battle on hiding his laugh this time. He brings me closer to him and kisses my hair. “You are nothing but trouble sometimes.”
Turning in his arms, I look up at him, giving him a slow smile. “Oh, I can be lots of trouble.”
Grayson bites his lip, and I want nothing more than to—
“Uh yeah, I’m literally still standing right here,” Kai says, making a gagging noise and heading for the door of their apartment. “Let’s go put the bags in the car, Bennett.”
Grayson kisses me once before following Kai out the door. Pulling out my phone, I open the location sharing app. Wren is less than a minute out, so I head outside and wait by Kai’s car.
Wren pulls up just as the guys are putting the last bag into the trunk. I stare out the window and focus on the passing stretch of highway. Kai shakes his head, already regretting the situation, and walks back into the apartment.
“Your brother seems thrilled that I’m tagging along,” she says, grabbing her bag out of her backseat before locking her car.
“He’ll be fine,” I say, helping her add her bag to the small pile in the trunk.
When Kai comes back, we all pile into the car, and immediately, the tension is thick.
Two hours. We can all survive two hours.
“Okay,” Kai says from the driver’s seat, adjusting the rearview mirror. His eyes find mine in the reflection. “Ground rules.”
Wren rolls her eyes beside me, and I have to do my best to hold in a laugh.
“We’re not twelve,” I say.
“Ground rules,” Kai repeats, as if I didn’t speak. “We do not mention the suspension to Mom and Dad until after dinner tomorrow. Dad’s blood pressure doesn’t need that before he’s had his turkey.”
I glance at Grayson. His jaw does that thing where it shifts slightly to one side, like he’s biting the inside of his cheek.
“Solid plan,” he says, and he sounds completely genuine, which is one of his more impressive skills.
“Front seat has full control over music.”
Wren about jumps into the front seat at that. “The fuck you do!”
“You’re more than welcome to drive on your own, Wrenly.”
Her mouth drops open. “You did not just use my full name.”
Kai smiles at her in the mirror. “Oh, I did. Does that bother you, Wrenly Mae Calloway?”
I can literally hear Wren snap her teeth together. “It’s not my fault you have the world’s shittiest taste in music.”
“If I remember correctly, you listened to the playlists I made you for years.”
“I am the one who made those playlists on your phone, and we listened to them, thank you very much.”
They have a staring contest via the rearview mirror, and you could literally cut the tension between them with a knife.
Maybe we can’t survive two hours.
I clear my throat. “So, can we just listen to One Direction?”
They all three groan in unison, Kai and Wren immediately starting to argue about who is the worst boy band they’ve been forced to listen to thanks to me.
As we leave the parking lot and head for the highway, Grayson looks at me with an expression that says, is it always like this?
I look back with one that says, you have no idea.
He chuckles and leans back against his seat.
I focus on the window again.
The highway unfolds into two lanes, then opens into the kind of wide, flat stretch that only exists between cities.
Having Grayson with us feels different. That’s the thought I can’t put down, even when I try.
Tyler came to our house twice, but never for me. He was there with Kai, and I simply existed in the background.
Both times, my parents were politely awkward in that way they got when they didn’t trust someone but didn’t want to say it out loud.
Both times, Tyler sat at our kitchen table and talked almost exclusively to Kai, like I was just the reason he’d been admitted entry.
Like I was the footnote to his visit instead of the point of it.
Grayson is here because he wants to be. Wants to be with me.
I think about how different this feels. How different we feel, compared to what I’ve experienced before. We don’t need a lot of words. That’s something that I’ve realized slowly, the way you realize you’ve been breathing easier without knowing when exactly that changed.
Wren leaning toward me breaks me from my thoughts. “Your brother used to fucking love 5 Seconds Of Summer. Don’t let him fool you.”
Kai's eyes flick to the mirror. “I can hear you.”
Wren just grins right back at him, and I look out the window so I don’t laugh.
We pull off the highway a little before six, and the streets get smaller and more familiar the closer we get. Houses with porch lights on.
The Mercer house is a pale-blue colonial with white trim and a porch my mom has been threatening to repaint for the three and a half years since we moved in. The driveway is lit up, and I can see the warm yellow glow through the front windows before we even pull in.
My stomach does something complicated.
Not bad. Just full.
Kai parks and has his door open before the engine is off, which is exactly how he operates.
Grayson hops out, coming around to meet me at my door. He grabs our bags out of the trunk, Kai and Wren already arguing about something new as they head for the house.
Taking his free hand in mine, I pause to look at him. “You ready?”
“I think so.” Grayson swallows. “I’ve never really done the whole ‘meet the parents thing.’”
“They’ll love you, I promise.” I give his hand a squeeze before we head toward the house.
The front door swings open before we’re halfway up the path, and my mom appears in the doorframe, holding a dish towel and wearing the expression she reserves for moments she’s been anticipating too long to play it cool.
“Ahh! Look at all of you!” She rushes Wren first, earning an eye roll from Kai.
“Yes, Mom, definitely hug the one who is not your actual child first.”
Letting go of Wren, she snaps the dish towel at him. “Oh hush. I just saw you a couple weeks ago. It’s been almost a year since I’ve seen her pretty face.”
She quickly hugs Kai, her head barely coming to his chin, before turning to me.
“How’s my girl?” she asks, and no one here misses the layers that the question holds.
“Hi, Mom,” I say, stepping in to hug her. “I’m good. Really good.”
When we pull back, her eyes are glassy, and she gives my shoulders a little squeeze before turning to look at Grayson.
“You must be Grayson.” She says it like she already decided she likes him, and this is just confirmation. “I’m Sherry.”
Grayson sets our bags on the ground and extends his free hand, keeping hold of mine in the other. “Grayson Bennett. It’s really great to meet you, Mrs. Mercer.”
She waves him off instantly. “Sherry. Please. Mrs. Mercer makes me feel ancient.”
She glances at me with an expression that communicates several things simultaneously, none of which I acknowledge. “Come in, come in. Thomas is in the kitchen pretending he’s helping but mostly just tasting things.”
We file inside.
The house smells like rosemary and something sweet and the particular warmth that comes from a house that’s been cooking all day with every light on. The kind of smell that lives in your memory whether you want it to or not.
Normally, the smells alone would be overwhelming. Today, though, they bring with them a sense of comfort that I believe comes mostly from the man holding my hand.
My dad appears from around the kitchen doorway with a wooden spoon in one hand and reading glasses pushed up on his head. He takes us in the way he always does, quick and assessing, then settles into a smile that starts at his eyes.
“There’re my kids,” he says, like we are simply his kids, all of us, as a category.
“Dad.” Kai claps a hand on his shoulder on the way past to drop his bag.
My dad looks at me next. “Hey, Bug.”
I roll my eyes at the nickname, then I let him pull me into a side hug because that’s the appropriate response to the eye roll.
Then he looks at Grayson.
“Thomas Mercer,” he says, extending his hand.
Grayson shakes it like someone who’s done this before and means it. “Grayson Bennett. Thank you for having me.”
My dad looks at him for one long, unhurried moment. The kind of look he gives people when he’s making up his mind. Then he nods once, the specific nod that means good enough for now. “Of course. Any friend of Kai’s.”
“He’s here with Harlow, babe,” my mom says from somewhere behind us.
My dad’s eyes flick to mine. Something passes through them, and I can’t tell if he’s about to go super protective dad mode or what. I lift my chin slightly, silently begging him not to make this into a big deal.
He nods again. Same nod. Slightly warmer this time.
“Come on,” he says. “I’ll show you where you’re staying.”
The guest room is at the end of the upstairs hall.
There’s a full bed, covered with a quilt my grandmother made.
It has a window that looks out over the backyard towards the beach, and it’s located on the exact opposite end of the house from my bedroom.
My dad walks Grayson to the door, points out the bathroom across the hall, and says something about extra blankets in the closet.
Kai materializes at the top of the stairs with his arms crossed.
“Guest room good?” he asks Grayson, with the tone of someone who has thought very carefully about where the guest room is located relative to other rooms.
“Perfect,” Grayson says.
“Great.” Kai looks at him for one beat too long.
Grayson looks back, completely undisturbed. He has the extraordinary ability to be in the direct path of Kai’s glare and appear as if he is simply looking at a wall. It's one of the most impressive things about him.
The corner of his mouth does something small and private. He glances at me over Kai’s shoulder.
Heat climbs my neck, and I look at the floor.
My dad disappears back downstairs, already talking to my mom about something involving the good china. Kai lingers for approximately four more seconds, makes direct eye contact with Grayson one more time for good measure, then follows him.
Grayson looks at me.
I look back.
“Guest room,” I say.
“Guest room,” he confirms, very seriously.
“Pretty sure Kai measured the hallway and made sure you’d be at the farthest point away,” I say.
“I believe it.”
My mouth pulls at the corner against my will.
He steps closer, not all the way, just enough that his voice drops to the register that only exists between us. “Hey.”
“Hey,” I say back.
“This is good.” He says it simply. Not like he’s trying to convince me. Just like it’s true.
My chest tightens in a good way, the way I’m still getting used to identifying correctly.
“Yeah,” I say quietly. “It is.”
He lifts a hand, tucking a loose piece of hair behind my ear, with his thumb brushing my cheek once in the way that makes my entire nervous system reroute. Then he drops it.
“And before you even think about it, I’d like to keep my anatomy intact, so no, I will not be sneaking anywhere.”
I step toward him, wrapping my arms around his neck, bringing him even closer.
“I would never suggest such a thing.”
“Sure,” he says. “And I don’t play hockey.”
His eyes are doing the thing where they’re warm and laughing at the same time, which is deeply unfair. “Kai would absolutely hear it, you know. The man has the hearing of someone who has spent years anticipating bad decisions.”
I laugh at that. He’s not wrong. Tilting my head, I look up at him. “I’m really glad you’re here, Gray.”
“I’m glad you wanted me here.”
“Of course I did.” Leaning up on my tiptoes, I press my lips to his, and he instantly melts into me.
I go to deepen the kiss, but loud squeals from downstairs interrupt our moment, and we break apart.
Judging by the commotion, I’d say the Calloways have just arrived.