To the Stars (Thatch #2)(7)

As soon as Knox saw me running toward them, a bright smile covered his gorgeous face, and he stepped away from the guys with his arms open just in time for me to launch myself at him. I’d planned to try to look cool walking up toward him—but there’d been no time for that once I’d seen him.

A soft grunt sounded before he laughed and tightened his arms around me. “Hey, Low.”

I could hear the guys talking who had been standing with Knox. They were trying to figure out if I was “the girl,” and something about that made my smile widen.

“Happy birthday,” I mumbled against Knox’s chest.

Pressing two fingers under my chin, he tilted my head back so his dark eyes could meet mine. “Thank you.” He studied my face for a while before asking, “Is it weird that I’ve missed you?”

Heat rushed to my cheeks. “You missed me?”

He gave me a look, like I should have known. “Yeah, Low.”

“Good,” I teased.

Knox laughed softly, and when I blinked against the drops that began falling from the sky, he quickly wrapped his arm around me and walked us toward the house without another look at his friends. And like we had every day on the phone, we picked right back up on our conversation from the day before. Only this time he was here again, in front of me. And this time my hand was in his, and every now and then he would cup my cheek and just stare at me—like my eyes held answers he was looking for.

“We’ve got some jailbait in here!” someone said loudly almost an hour later.

I wouldn’t have paid them any attention if Knox’s face hadn’t suddenly hardened as he looked over to the guys he’d been with at the beginning of the night, and then over to whoever had yelled.

“Hope you look good in orange, Knox!”

This time my head whipped around. What are they talking about?

Out of the two dozen people all smashed together in the basement of Neil’s house, almost everyone was cracking up as people started throwing around the word jailbait like it was a catcall or something.

Knox’s hand tightened around mine, and I watched his face pale.

“What are they talking about?” I asked so only he could hear me. When he didn’t answer, I looked around for Hayley and Neil—two of the other people not laughing besides us. She looked sad; he looked livid—I just wasn’t sure who his anger was directed at.

“No * can be worth jail time, bro. Don’t do it!”

That got everyone laughing so loud, the sudden roar made me jump, and Knox growled. His friends from outside were whispering urgently to him, but Knox didn’t seem to be listening to them.

“The guy is about to start college, Harlow! You really gonna force him into jail before he gets that chance?”

My breaths were coming fast—too fast. Embarrassment flooded me, even though I had no idea what was going on. I looked back at Knox’s blank face and pleaded with him to help me understand. “What are they talking about?”

He slowly turned his head to face me and offered me a weak smile. “It doesn’t matter. Just ignore them.”

Hayley was suddenly behind us on the couch, and her lips were at my ear. “Let’s go.”

“I don’t underst—”

“Knox is eighteen,” she said, cutting me off.

“And?”

“Which now makes you a minor for him. It’s illegal for you two to have any kind of sexual relationship.”

“We don’t!” I hissed.

“I would never—” Knox began, and pushed his friends away when they urged him to leave, but Hayley’s next words were all I heard.

“I know you wouldn’t do anything with him yet, Harlow. But since he’s not worried about hiding that he likes you, if anyone mentioned that the two of you did do something, he could go to jail. You two just being together the way you are right now puts him at risk.”

All the blood drained from my face, and I could no longer hear the laughing, the jokes, or Hayley even though I knew she was still talking to me. I turned to face Knox again; the frustration and defeat were clear in his eyes.

I tried pulling my hand from his, and he squeezed tighter. “Harlow, I don’t care.”

“I do! I can’t do this to you.”

When I pulled again, he didn’t try to stop me. Standing from the couch, I forced my way through everyone and to the stairs—ignoring their razzing and the tears that had started falling down my cheeks. I heard Hayley and Neil behind me as I climbed my way up, and soon there was only one set of footsteps following me. I was halfway across the lawn, my eyes blinking rapidly against the pouring rain when I was turned around.

I flinched away from Knox. “Don’t!” I snapped. “Why didn’t you tell me?”

“Because I decided it didn’t matter.”

“How could that not matter?”

“I know I wouldn’t do anything illegal with you.”

I flung my hands out toward the house, and my eyes caught Knox’s two friends standing near the door with arms crossed over their chests as they watched us. Looking back at Knox, I hissed, “According to Hayley, it doesn’t matter if we do or don’t do anything illegal. If someone said something—God. I can’t do this to you, Knox.” He wrapped his arms around me, and held tight even when I tried to push away. “Don’t do this; we can’t risk anything.”