Chapter 15 #3
“So? Maybe he just thought she might suffice, but if he knows you’re definitely it, especially after what the both of you shared and what he told you about how he felt about you in high school, he’ll drop her like a hot potato and be right beside you.”
“Hot potato?”
“Sorry. Been binging on 80’s sitcoms while you were away.”
“You were bored.”
“Very bored.”
Harper closed her eyes and took a big gulp of her pina colada.
“You need to talk to him.”
“I know. But I’m afraid because it obviously was an accident. If I don’t mention it, it won’t be weird if it’s not what he wanted.”
“No. He’s going to suffer if the mating occurred. And the fates are never wrong. If they’ve decided that you belong together and got tired of waiting, maybe they stepped in.”
“I’m not sure he felt what I did, though. He was planning to hide it and keep it to ourselves, and was even rushing me to get dressed after before somebody caught us.”
Summer looked at Harper, her expression critical. “For him to care all these years, that’s what you said, right?”
“Yes, it’s what he said.”
“For him to care all these years and never take action. Never let you know or even make an effort to be around you. That is kind of weird. Maybe he wasn’t feeling exactly what you did and just didn’t want to hurt your feelings.”
Harper sat quietly for a second, going over their conversations in her head. “He did do this one thing he confessed to.”
“Confessed? That sounds interesting.”
Harper looked at Summer. “You have to promise not to get mad.”
“Why would I get mad? Clay’s part of our Pride and all, but it’s not like I ever dated him or anything.”
“No, but he’s kind of the reason that you didn’t date at all.”
Summer’s entire expression went flat. “What? How is that even possible?”
“He said that it drove him nuts that the guys would talk about me, or us in the locker room. About what they thought of me, or us, and what they wanted to do, and just guy shit. They talked about everybody. But when they talked about me, he couldn’t take it because he didn’t want me to be with anyone but him.
So he threatened them all with death if they even looked in my direction.
Then he felt bad because I was always at home and he didn’t want me to be lonely, so he threatened them the same way over you because you were my best friend and we could be home together and nobody would ever spend time with me or touch me. ”
Summer sat quietly on her float. Then she screamed as long and loud as she could.
Basilio came running, Renata came running. Harper was shocked, and Summer just kept screaming. Until she ran out of breath.
“What the hell was that about?” Basilio shouted.
“Anger! I’m going to kill Clay!”
“Fine, but don’t scream like that! Scared the hell out of me. I thought something was hurting you!” Basilio yelled.
“Sorry, Daddy.”
“You’re fine?” Basilio demanded.
“Yes, sir. Just irritated.”
“Chill!” Basilio ordered.
“I’m chill,” Summer promised.
Basilio stomped away, shaking his head as he cursed under his breath.
“Summer…” Renata said.
“Sorry, Mom. It’s his fault that I never got asked out or taken to dances or anything.
Because he liked Harper and didn’t want her to date, so he threatened all the guys in school to stay away from us both.
Me, so that I would stay home with her and Harper wouldn’t be lonely. He ruined my high school years!”
“Did you hear that?” Renata called through the open lanai door.
“Yes, I did. Smart boy. Should have thought of it myself,” Basilio said. “Or find a way to make her scream like that again. That’ll scare them all off into the next damn decade.”
“You girls get ready to get out long enough to eat. Your steaks are about ready.”
“Yes, ma’am,” Harper said as Renata went back inside, closing the door after herself.
Summer glared at Harper. “Take an insurance policy out on him. If you’re really mated to him, and he is happy about it. Take out a policy. Take one out anyway. Because I’m going to kill him and at least you’ll have money to live on.”
“You can’t kill him, Summer.”
Summer snarled softly.
“You can’t. You know that.”
“Fine. But I can make him miserable every chance I get. I’ll find ways. Ways that he has no idea are linked back to his crap in high school.”
“If we’re really mated, and he wants it, I have to warn him.”
“I don’t care. Warn him. It doesn’t mean that he’ll realize what’s happening as it’s happening. But I’ll know, and I’ll be a little happier each time.”
Harper laughed as she sipped her drink.
“Fair?”
“Fair. As long as he’s not actually harmed, or it messes with his status at a job or something.”
“Understood,” Summer snarled.
They floated a little longer before they got out to eat.
“So, now that you know what he did to us, unwittingly anyway, are you still willing to help me through this?”
“You are my sister of the heart. I will always help you.”
“What’s next?”
“You have to talk to him.”
“Do you think he might know?”
“Harper, everything you’re feeling, if he’s feeling the same, he already does. Especially if he’s really felt this way all long.”
“He’s still got finals, though. I don’t want to shake him up if it is going to shake him up, until after his finals.”
“Okay, good point. So, send him a text. Maybe just say that you’re home and that you really need to talk to him, so when he gets home next weekend and gets settled maybe you could meet for lunch or something.”
“You know, that’s not bad.”
“I know. I’m pretty good at peopling. And at observing. But nobody gives me any credit.”
“It’s probably all the rich, fashion conscious, BMW driving, lounging by the pool every day while you sip fruity drinks thing.”
Summer shrugged. “Probably. But, it’s so nice, isn’t it?”
“It really is,” Harper agreed and sipped her drink again as she finished off the steak Summer’s mom had brought her to enjoy by the pool.
“Can you hand me my phone?”
“Yes,” Summer said, picking up the phone that was on her side of the outside table.
“I wonder if he texted me again. It’s been a few days, but we were texting and then, nothing,” Harper said, holding her hand out to take the phone from Summer.
But before she handed it to Harper, she swiped the screen and woke it up so she could scroll through messages and look for Clay’s name.
“Oh, well, let’s see,” Summer said, waking up the phone and going to Harper’s messaging app.
“Hey!”
“What? You’re going to tell me anyway.”
Harper shrugged. Summer wasn’t wrong.
“Last thing is some messages you deleted.”
“No, last thing is some messages he deleted.”
Summer looked at the phone again, then at Harper. “You deleted these. These were sent to you from Clay, and now they’re missing. It says deleted by IPhone 17. That’s you.”
Harper’s face was suddenly furious. “Let me see that!”
Summer handed it to her.
Harper looked at the message trail, realized Summer was right and got angry all over again. “That Sonofabitch!”
“What Sonofabitch? You deleted them.”
“No! I sent a message to Clay the first morning I was having breakfast with crapwad before we went to the trade show. I put my phone down on the table when I went to the bathroom, because phones in a public bathroom… eww, the germs… I didn’t even think to check it again when I came back. He must have deleted them!”
“Or maybe you did it by accident. Once your screen goes dark it’s locked.”
Harper looked at Summer over the rim of her sunglasses.
“You have a screen lock on, don’t you?”
“I have it set for five minutes. I hate having to unlock the damn thing every time I just want to go get something out of the kitchen.”
“Harper…”
“I know. I need to change it. Obviously, now. But it had to be him, nobody else has been alone with my phone since I got Clay’s message.”
“Okay, now we have to whip his ass, too,” Summer said.
“Can you believe this shit? And on top of everything else he thinks he can make my father believe that he didn’t say the things he did.”
“He’s a real piece of work. What are we going to do?”