Chapter 3 - Alex
“Are you finally going to get over that girl from Ohio?” Zephyr sniggered, hooking an arm around my shoulder as we all piled into the Swinging Boot and filed into a round booth at the back of the bar.
“Sure,” I answered distantly, not committing to it.
The place was packed, dimly lit, and the music pounded through the small space. The bar up ahead was lit up by gaudy neon signs, the alcohol shelves spotlighted, and only two bartenders waited to serve.
It was small and filled to the brim. We stood out, a group of six men among the small towners, all in their samey clothes and all gossiping, knowing each other.
There’s Hayley! We haven’t seen her in a while! Did you ever sleep with her? She was interested, right? At least before she shipped herself off to the mainland.
Nah, never got the chance.
What about that girl, Greta’s kid? She’s hot.
It’s not her kid; it's her grandkid. Still hot though not really my time
The gossip swirled around me from either side of our round table. They talked loudly and freely, without judgment, because everybody seemed just as eager to hear the small-town news.
“I’m serious, Alex. It’s time to stop moping. Fray, tell him. He listens to you more.”
Fray snorted. “Does he really?”
“No, I don’t,” I answered with a grin. “Zeph, I’ve been on tour for the last four years with you guys. A month break here and there, sure, but I’ve been happy like that for the most part. Alone. Trying to move on and forget her, but… I can’t.”
“Yeah, but—”
“No but s,” I told him. “When I’m ready, I’ll look at moving on. But… I don’t know. I think I’d only be an ass if I got with someone now, knowing I was still pining for that girl.”
“Come on, man, you had a few months of the good life with her before it went to shit,” Zephyr groaned. “And yes , she was gorgeous, and yes , she was—”
“My mate,” I snarled at him, suddenly angry at him about to belittle the spitfire from Ohio four years ago. “She was my mate , Zeph. Watch your tone.”
“Sure, sure, but all I’m saying is—”
“Zeph, I wouldn’t,” Sweeney butted in. “Alex, chill out. Johnson went to grab beers.”
It took me a minute to slow my pounding heart and relax the fist I hadn’t even realized I’d clenched.
“Sorry,” I muttered to Zephyr.
He shrugged. “I stepped out of line. My bad.”
I looked for Johnson, returning with our drinks. I reached for one glass, but as I did, I caught sight of a flare of red hair, pretty waves fanning out, and a girl twirling up on the bar. Cheers began to rise, a chant and pounding on the tables, all encouraging her.
The girl swung her hips, dipping low, as she grinned and danced close with a dark-haired girl next to her. Not erotically, but enough to see that they were close. Everything slowed down around me. The thump, thump, thump from fists on tables, the clapping of hands, the stomp of the girl’s own heels on the bar. It all grew louder and slower until that was the only thing I could hear.
My heart pounded in time to the thumps.
The claps, the banging, the cheers. It all narrowed down to the two syllables of a name being called. Harp-er. Harp-er. Harp-er .
The voices around me faded out. All I could hear was the music and that incessant pounding, as my very heartbeat was the driving force of her dancing. I knew those eyes. I knew that smile—how she hated how her cheeks lifted when she smiled and said it made her eyes crinkle. I had always thought she looked beautiful.
I knew that hair—the softness of it as it had poured through my fingers, as it had been whipped out whenever we rode my motorbike through her old small town because she always refused to tie it back.
I knew her scent—I knew everything about her.
Except who she was now, four years on.
“Alex?” Zephyr’s voice came back to me slowly. “Alex?” And then I heard a whisper. “ Shit .”
And I knew I wasn’t imagining Harper Thollin. She was there—she was exactly up there after I had spent the last four years forcing myself to get over the heartbreak of walking away from my mate.
As if she felt my eyes on her, Harper spun around on the bar, her gaze scouring every inch of the bar until it landed on me. Her face went slack, her eyes widening. If I hadn’t been watching her as intently as I had, I wouldn’t have noticed when her foot slipped in those ridiculously high heels, and she began to fall.
I wouldn’t have shot over there without a second thought, knocking over a table in my path to her, shoving anyone out of my way who threatened to keep me from catching her. Time slowed, Harper cried out, and I was there, my arms out, waiting, as I always had been.
“Harper,” I whispered.
“Alex?” Her voice shook. For a second, everything around me ceased to exist. My team faded, the bar faded, even the blasting music quietened. All I could focus on was her. For a brief, beautiful summer, this girl had been my entire life until disaster struck us both, forcing me to walk away.
Harper didn’t look away, didn’t pull from my grasp. Her lips parted, her eyes growing heavy, caught in the same spell I was—the reunion spell, the surprise of seeing one another again after all this time.
But then reality slammed into her, and I saw the moment she let herself remember me walking away. She stood upright, and I grimaced as her heel caught the edge of my shoe, digging into my foot, whether intentionally or not. Her body trembled as she stepped back.
Our hands slid together—but just that spark of contact had her snapping back to reality for good.
Harper turned, pushed past me, and fled the bar.
My hand was warm where hers had been, transporting me back to a time when all I had ever thought about was ways to keep that hand in mine…
Joey’s Bar had been almost empty on a summer afternoon. I worked as an undercover bartender, pulling pints while watching the customers come and go, noting who they talked to, what they talked about . Surveillance had been tough. Not enough action and too much time wasted.
I had lost sight of my mission that summer.
But even more so when a beautiful redhead walked in, bubbly and chatty on the phone, talking excitedly.
“No, no, Grace, I swear! I’m having one celebratory drink alone, and then I’ll join y’all later.”
A voice on the other end of the phone talked in response, but the girl only rolled her eyes. She caught sight of me and grinned, sauntering her way over. Again, she rolled her eyes and pointed at the phone, as if I would understand the annoyance.
Honestly, I did.
“Okay,” she said. “Okay. Yes, I said I would! All right, love you lots. Bye.” She hung up, sighed, and collapsed into a bar stool. Underneath the counter, out of sight, I clenched my fists in the rag that I used to wipe down the bar. I knew exactly what she was when she walked into Joey’s.
My mate.
Everything pulsed, that one title ringing through me.
Mate. Mate. Mate.
Her voice finally cut through the pounding need to have my mate in my arms—the curses I was spitting mentally at finding her, of all places, in the one town I was supposed to keep a low profile in.
“Friends,” she muttered. “Can’t live with them, can’t live without them.”
“I hear you,” I muttered. “My best friend, Zephyr, is the same. Always harping on about nothing.”
“Harping,” she laughed.
“What?”
“It's just that’s close to my name.” She held out a hand. “Harper Thollin.”
I eyed her hand, wondering if she would feel the bond we had. If I touched her, how would she feel? I swallowed, reaching out, to grasp her hand in mine.
“Arin,” I lied. I was undercover, after all. “Arin Hawthorne.”
“Nice to meet you, Arin. You know, this is a small town. We don’t have a lot of newbies arriving to work here.”
I clenched the rag harder. I couldn’t look at her deeply enough. The freckles over her nose, the pale eyelashes, the blush that seemed to rise easily from how I looked at her. My thumb brushed over the junction of her hand where her thumb and forefinger met.
“I’m here on a summer program,” I lied further. “I’m from Columbus. A friend of a friend got me the job here so I guess I’m stuck here for the summer.”
“No way?” She looked impressed. “I like it there. And yeah, I guess you are. If you haven’t figured it out by now: in this town, stuck really does mean stuck.”
Harper rolled her eyes. “But! Enough of that. Today, I graduated college.”
“Congratulations,” I told her, nodding.
“How about you? Graduate? Studying?”
“Oh, yeah. I graduated three years ago.”
Her eyebrows shot up. “Nice,” she appraised. “Well, you’ll get how it is. A girl wants a good… Celebration, you know?”
She smiled indulgently at me, a smile that didn’t hide one inch of her intentions. And who was I to deny either of us? I let her snare me, pull me in, and soon, I vowed I would reveal all my secrets to her…
Our first night was hot, passionate, her mouth open and willing beneath mine as she’d raked fingernails down my back, her moans breathy and filled with praise of how strong I was, how the hell did I carry so much muscle? I had indulged that particular strength fantasy of hers. We’d crashed through the apartment I was staying at, and I had taken her on every available surface, unable to resist the demand of sex with my mate. It had clouded me, roared in my veins, that need to claim her.
The following day, we had begun a game of chasing one another throughout Haystock. After all, she never had quite made it to her friend’s gathering.
“So, summer, huh?” She had asked me the following morning, clad in my shirt, unbuttoned, as I trailed lazy kisses down her stomach. I couldn’t get enough of her. “What happens when it’s over?”
When it’s over, I have to return to base , I thought. I never voiced that. I couldn’t reveal any of my secrets yet. But this was my mate, and everything in me demanded I stay, duty and mission be damned.
I would have to leave her. As I settled between her legs that morning, I vowed to be honest. To tell her about my mission and the real reason for being in Haystock. We would take out the seriousness of whatever happened between us—as much as it killed me—because I knew I would have to part from her.
Or maybe she would come with you , a small voice said.
I shoved those thoughts aside that morning.
Three months later, I had walked away from Harper Thollin without a second glance.
I blinked, letting go of my memories at the sound of hurried footsteps as Harper ran away.
I went to go after her, but a hand on my chest stopped me.
“Alex,” Zephyr said, a growl in his voice. “We’re on vacation. When you walked away, you swore you would stick to that choice, remember?”
“Get off me, Zeph,” I warned.
“Don’t do it, man. Don’t—”
“I will,” I told him. “And I’d like to see you try to be held back when you meet your mate one day.”
I was only prickly because I roared and fought to go after Harper, not knowing the island, not even knowing what direction she would go in. I didn’t want to lose her. I shoved past Zephyr’s hold on me.
“We’ve always got your back,” he reminded me. “Just be careful, okay?”
I snarled in response before bolting out the door, disappearing after Harper into the night.