Stealing Harper (Taking Chances #1.5)(47)

“A little over a week ago. But it hurt me more than I could ever explain to do it, and I need time to get over that. I can’t just rush back to you because Brandon and I aren’t together anymore.”

I can’t just rush back to you . . . Does that mean she plans to come back to me? Hope surged through my body, and I cupped her pink cheeks in my hands as I bent down, so I was closer to her eye level. “I love you, I’ll give you all the time you need.” Shit, stop assuming. “Unless. Unless you don’t want me anymore?”

I held my breath as she grabbed my left hand and pressed her cheek harder to it. Her eyes drifted shut, and she took a deep breath in. “I’ve told you, I will always love you, Chase, but I’m still not sure you won’t eventually leave me. Because of that fear, I don’t know if I can be with you. And some things have changed since we talked last, so you might change your mind about me altogether.”

“That’s not possible.”

She removed my hands from her cheeks only to wrap herself up in my arms. I exhaled deeply and started to thank God when she kissed my throat and buried her head into my chest, but then she whispered, “I wish that were true.”

What do I have to do to convince this girl that I love her more than anything? Tears suddenly clouded my vision, and my voice cracked as they spilled over. “It is, Harper. I love you so damn much, why can’t you see that?”

Her wide eyes started watering as well, and her jaw started quivering. The next thing I knew, she was out of my arms and walking away. “I have to go; I’m sorry.”

“Harper, please. Please don’t just walk away. Talk to me, baby.” She didn’t stop and didn’t look back at me. “Princess, please stop walking.” Nothing; she kept her head down and continued away from me, and I was terrified that if I let her go, I’d never get her back. “Harper, please talk to me!”

She turned suddenly, but I didn’t stop walking until I was directly in front of her.

“I will,” she promised. “We will talk, but right now I have to go.” This time she cupped my face to wipe away my tears.

“Promise?” When she nodded, I whispered, “I love you,” before kissing the inside of her wrist and watching as she stepped away from me. I was so focused on Harper I didn’t notice anyone else was there until Bree touched my arm. My eyes flashed between the two of them, and I tensed up for their reaction at saying that out loud in front of my sister. But they both just smiled at me, and my body relaxed until I looked around and noticed we’d caught other people’s attention. Ducking my head, once again I quickly walked away from the girl I loved.

“YOU LIKE IT?”

Brad smiled as he looked in the double mirror to see the ink I’d just finished on his back. “Yeah man, Sarah will love it.”

I put ointment on the tattoo and covered it before Brad pulled his shirt back on and hopped up onto the table. I wanted to make some comment about how Brad was whipped for getting Sarah’s name on the back of his shoulder, but Brian had already done the piece on my arm that had “Princess” hidden in it. So I didn’t have much room to talk.

Jeff walked up to my station and threw a soda at Brad and me before opening up his own and sitting on my counter. It was a slow night in the shop, and Brian was the only one with an appointment . . . and it was his brother.

“We going surfing tomorrow?” Brad asked before taking a long drink.

“Yep. Do you know if Brandon’s going?”

Brad shrugged his shoulders. “I swear, you two switched places, you’re getting back to yourself, and Brandon’s disappeared, well . . . except for lunch the other day.”

“Yeah, but he left as soon as I sat down.” And Brad was so wrong. I wasn’t getting back to myself, I was just hoping that every day was the day I would finally get to take Harper in my arms again. But with each passing day, that hope had slowly started to fade.

“You’re not still fighting, are you? I mean neither of you have Harper, so there’s no point.” My expression deadpanned, and I shot a warning glare at Brad, who raised his hands in surrender and smirked. “Hey, man, you know I’m still pulling for you. I want you to be happy. But it’s the truth.”

I rolled my neck and sighed deeply. “We haven’t fought since he went back home over winter break. But we’ve only talked once since he got back, and that was the morning Princess fainted.”

“Well, I wouldn’t talk to you either if you had f*cked my girl,” Jeff huffed, and dodged my empty soda bottle. “Well, I wouldn’t!”

I’d f*cked plenty of girls. And what Princess and I had could never be considered a f*ck. “He doesn’t know.”

“Yeah he does!” Brian called out from his station, never looking up from his brother’s calf. “Hell, even when you two fought all the time, he was still in here getting work done. Now your boy’s peaced out. Your girl dumped him, and he’s avoiding you now more than ever? Trust me, bro, he knows.”

“I doubt it.” Brad said at the same time I shook my head, and said, “There’s no effing way. He’d beat the shit out of me if he knew.”

“Exactly,” Brad agreed, and pointed his empty bottle at me. “You shoulda seen the way he went after Chase. Not saying Chase didn’t deserve it, but he was beyond pissed. And that was before anything happened.”