“And now she is happily married with babies.”
By the look Harper gives me, I realize maybe that wasn’t the best example. “But she suffered first.”
“Taco loves me. He wouldn’t hurt me.”
“Anyone named Taco isn’t someone I would trust,” Journey says simply. But before Allison can snap at him, Harper holds up her palms.
“Okay, we can’t change your mind on him, and that’s fine. But here is the deal, Allison. We won’t be there when he drops your ass like we all know he will. If you’re willing to throw away everything you worked for, all the money we put into volleyball for you, the hours we spent doing math with you, then I’m sorry, you will leave this house as naked as you were the day we brought you here.”
Allison’s eyes widen. “What?”
“You heard me,” Harper says sternly, but I see the hurt in her eyes. She doesn’t want to do this to our girl. “We will cancel your bank card, we will take the car, and everything will stay here. So, think long and hard if you want to give up all that—along with your college career.”
And with that, Harper walks out of the room. When she reaches the hall, though, I can still see her, and she drops her shoulders. Fuck, I think I hate it more when Harper cries.
“She’s not serious!” Allison hollers at me, but I don’t have to answer her.
Journey does. “Of course she is. They’ve given us everything, and you want to throw away the one thing you’ve been working for since you were ten for some guy? For a genius who wants to be a dentist, you’re a real idiot.”
That obviously offends my daughter. Offends me a bit too, but he isn’t wrong. “Like you even understand. Girls aren’t even on your radar! Or guys, for that matter.”
She stomps away, eventually slamming her door as I look down at Journey, who doesn’t seem to give two shits about what his sister just said. I didn’t think he would, though. He really just goes with the flow. He’s our easy kid, the one who doesn’t cause a fuss. He does him, and I love that about him. However, I’ve always wondered if he was gay. He’s never given any indication or behaved stereotypically in any way, but I’ve also never seen him with a girlfriend. Then again, I’ve never seen him with a boyfriend either.
When his eyes meet mine, I raise a brow. “Got something to tell me?”
He shakes his head. “Your daughter is an idiot?”
I want to laugh, but I don’t. I don’t want this to be a laughing matter. “I mean about what she said.”
He looks away, swallowing hard. “Nope.”
I nod and tap his knee before I get up. “Good talk.”
“Always.”
A smile pulls at my lips as I head toward our bedroom. It doesn’t matter if Journey is or isn’t. I love the dude, and he’ll always be my best friend. When I reach our room, I push open the door to find Harper on the phone.
“Elli, I don’t get it. She isn’t dumb.”
She looks at me, and I shake my head. “She’s gonna be the death of me, Jakob! It’s your turn to talk some sense into her.”
I hold out my hand toward the hall. “I tried! She doesn’t listen. She gets that from you.”
“Fix it!” she screams, and then she comes undone. Elli must have said something, because Harper sneers, “I know I gotta let her fucking fly, Elli, but not with that shithead!”
I slowly back out of the room. If she’ll yell at her best friend like that, she’ll have no problem cussing at me. I’m an easy target, too. I made the kid with her. I shake my head as I start down the hall toward Allison’s room. I should probably let the situation calm down, but I gotta head to the rink and I need her to hear what I have to say. I walk through the living room, and Journey hollers out, “May the force be with you.”
I snort as I reach my daughter’s room. I knock, and when she calls for me to come in, I take a deep breath. I’m terrified she is going to leave us. I push open the door to find her on her bed, looking down at a photo album. I close the door behind me, and she looks up at me with a tear-streaked face.
“I just want what y’all have. And if he leaves, I won’t have that.”
I scrunch up my face. “What?”
“You and Mom. I want that whirlwind romance that lasts lifetimes. And Taco, he’s that for me.”
“I don’t understand,” I say slowly before approaching the bed. It’s then I see what she is looking at. The photo album of Harper and me when we first started dating.
She points to a photo. “We smile like this, and I swear he makes me laugh like this. It’s all so picture-perfect.”
I snort as I sit beside her. In the picture, I’m gazing at Harper like she’s the queen of my world. She is, but man, I look like a doofus. “She ignored me for three days after that was taken.”
She looks up at me, those eyes blazing into mine. “What?”
“Our romance wasn’t picture-perfect, and we were older, Allison. That’s what we’re trying to tell you. Get your life together before you even try to find love, because it’s rough.”
“But…but y’all look so damn happy.”
I nod. “In pictures, sure. But that doesn’t show the times she ghosted me, or the time we fought in the front yard, or how she would never commit to me. How I loved her more than she loved me for most of our relationship.” I’m apparently rocking my child’s world, but I feel I need to. “I’d have married her the moment I met her, but it took time for her to feel the same. Relationships are hard, love. So hard.”
She seems put off by that. As if she doesn’t believe me. I mean, based on these pictures, I wouldn’t believe me either. “I thought you two fell in love right off the bat.”
I snort. “No, I fell for her. But your mom…well, she was a free spirit, and man, if I didn’t love that about her.” I glance down at the book, taking one of the pictures of us out of it. “She tried to shake me so many times, and I wouldn’t let her.”
“See? So how can you want me to let go of Taco?”
Well, that backfired a bit. “Because while I wouldn’t let her shake me, I also would never allow her to give up everything for me. I had her best interests in mind. Does Taco have yours?”
She looks down. I can see all over her face that he doesn’t.
“Tell me.”
I look over at her. “Tell you what?”
“Tell me the truth. Tell me what the pictures don’t say.”
I grin, my heart nearly exploding in my chest. I’m unsure if it’s a good idea to tell my adult daughter our story, but my wife did tell me to fix it. I wrap my arm around her, kissing her temple before clearing the emotion from my voice.
“Well, one thing these photos don’t show is the moment I fell in love with her.”
“Or how he hit on me with the perfect confidence of a man who knew what he wanted.”
I look up to see my wife in the doorway.
“He knew I was it. And all I was looking for was a good time.”
“But I wanted more than just a good time.”
Her eyes lock with mine, and it feels like it’s more than twenty years earlier and I am falling all over again. “He wanted everything.”
I nod, feeling Allison’s gaze on us. “And I got it.”
Harper’s eyes darken, and my whole body explodes in flames. This woman. This life she gave me. Nothing could ever compare. “You gonna let me tell the story?”
She gives me a dry look, coming toward us and sitting beside Ally. “Have we ever done anything apart since then?”
Our gazes stay locked as I shake my head. “Never.”
“Well, we won’t start now.”
My heart burns in my chest for this woman. “Are we censoring?”
Harper laughs, but Allison’s face is full of horror. “Yes, please censor. I don’t want to hear about y’all’s sex.”
Harper grins at me. “Fine. Plus, we know what happened.”
Man, we sure do, and she will always be the best moments of my life.
Nice Stick
Harper
Twentysomething years ago…
* * *
My best friend Elli Fisher would seriously lose her ass if it weren’t attached.
She forgets everything and anything. She blames it on her thyroid, says it makes her forgetful, though I have a hard time thinking something the size of a butterfly can ruin so much. But I have seen it happen. I’ve watched my best friend gain so much weight so fast, and it wasn’t like she was eating junk food. It all just happened, quickly, and because of it, I’ve watched her lose a man and her career over it. Elli being Elli, though, she fought back, lost the weight, and made a new career.
She’s my idol.
We’ve been best friends since we were maybe five. We lived next door to each other, and then we shared an apartment in New York. I went to NYU for digital arts, and she was on Broadway. Man, those were the times. We partied, we laughed, and man, did we live. The men threw themselves at us, but Elli was committed to a fuckface named Justin, so I made sure to console all the men she rejected. I don’t know what it is about a man, but hell if I don’t love them. Relationships are for the birds, though. Elli is a good example of that, and I am A-okay without one. Love ’em and leave ’em is my motto.