Harper
One Week Later
“Who are you looking for?” Jennifer looks around the crowded bar like she can spot the mystery person. She has no clue who I'm looking for and I don’t want to tell her.
Not yet.
Not when I'm not sure if he’ll even come.
The last thing I want is to tell her I'm looking for Jackson, and then he never shows up. I’d feel like such a loser then.
“No one,” I murmur, standing on my tippy toes to scan the area again.
“You’re such a liar!” She laughs and swats at my arm. “If I offered to let you climb onto my shoulders so you could get up higher, you’d jump at the chance!”
“Are you offering?” A slow smirk spreads across my face and I arch a brow.
“Absolutely not! Do you know how long it took me to pick the perfect outfit out? The last thing I want is for you to mess it all up by climbing on me.” Jennifer holds a hand out in front of her to stop me from coming any closer.
“You’re the worst friend ever.”
“I am not!” She laughs again.
“Are you looking for someone special?” A deep voice rumbles in my ear.
It’s a voice I know all too well. One I miss more than anything in the entire world. I whip around and come face to face with the man I can’t live without. My best friend and partner in crime.
“Jackson!” I squeal as I leap into the air and launch myself into his body. I wrap my arms around his neck and my legs around his waist.
“I missed you, Harp,” he murmurs, holding me tightly against him.
And that quickly, my life feels perfect again. I just needed to be in his arms and have him whispering things for only me to hear. His hugs feel like home and I don’t want it to stop.
“I missed you, too!” I bury my face in his neck, refusing to let go of him. He chuckles, but he does nothing to get me off of him.
Knowing Jackson, he’d carry me around like this all night if I wanted him to. Honestly, I’d let him. I want to feel safe and warm in his embrace.
“Hey, I’m Jackson.” He shifts so he’s holding me with one arm and shakes Jennifer’s hand.
“I'm Jennifer, Harper’s best friend.” I can hear her practically swooning, but I ignore it. Jackson won't give her even a bit of attention, he always keeps his focus on me.
“Eh, that’s not true. I'm her best friend. Sorry.” He lifts his shoulder in a shrug, but he doesn’t sound sorry at all.
“Oh, really? And how long have you known Harper?” I'm sure Jennifer has her arms folded across her chest and a scowl pulling her brows together. She doesn’t like anyone acting like they know me better than she does.
Except Jackson does.
“Well, I’d say around… eighteen years. Right, Boots?”
I pull back to meet his gaze and find a big grin covering his handsome face. He started calling me Boots soon after we met. I was four or five and he was eleven. Even though we had a pretty big age gap, we became best friends. It didn’t matter who else was around, we’d hang out together.
My mom is really good friends with his stepdad. They worked together in the operating room and hung out with a big group of friends all the time. We almost always ended up at the same parties or events.
“Boots? What’s the story behind that?” Jennifer smiles. She loves to get stories out of other people when she knows she’ll never get it out of me.
“I don’t think I saw her without cowgirl boots on for the first ten years of knowing her.
She was either bare foot or wearing boots.
I called her Boots one time when she was upset and I was trying to get her to smile…
and it stuck.” Jackson meets my gaze and his eyes soften.
He reaches up and tucks a strand of hair behind my ear. “Right, Boots?”
“Yeah,” I whisper, thinking back to all of the memories I have with him.
No matter what was going on in my life, good or bad, he was always with me.
“Where’s the birthday girl?” Evan calls over the noise. I wave my hand in the air and he comes right over to me with a big smile. As soon as his eyes land on Jackson and how I'm practically wrapped around him, his smile drops.
“Hey!” I scramble to get out of Jackson’s arms and smooth down my shirt. This doesn’t exactly look great on my part, but I was too excited about seeing Jackson to care.
“Who is this?” Evan nods towards Jackson. He doesn’t look happy, but I don’t care. Jackson’s the most important person in the world to me.
“This is Jackson!” I grin at my best friend, wishing for the hundredth time this week that I could introduce him as my boyfriend instead of Evan.
An arm wraps around my waist and I get tugged into Evan’s side. I glance up to look at him and my brows draw together. Why is he behaving like this? He grins, but it’s smug and I don’t understand it. He’s acting like he just won something, but what?
“Jackson?” He arches a brow.
“Yes! I’ve told you all about him. Remember?”
“The guy you used to hang out with when your parents and their friends got together?”
“That’s him! He came to town just to see me for my birthday. Isn’t that the sweetest?”
“Oh, yeah. So sweet.”
I frown at him when he says that. I didn’t need to be looking at him to know he was rolling his eyes. Why is he being such a jerk? Evan’s normally pretty laidback and he rarely ever pulls me into his side like he is right now.
“I’m Jackson McLaren. It’s nice to meet you.” Jackson holds out his hand and waits for Evan to shake it. When he doesn’t move right away, I elbow him in the side. He mutters something under his breath before shaking Jackson’s hand.
“I’m Evan, Harper’s fiancé.”
My eyes widen as I pinch my lips shut. I haven’t told anyone from my hometown about the engagement. Not my friends. Not my family. And definitely not my parents.