“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 fucked my girl,” Jeff huffed, and dodged my empty soda bottle. “Well, I wouldn’t!”

I’d fucked plenty of girls. And what Princess and I had could never be considered a fuck. “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.”

“He knows,” Jeff disagreed. “Otherwise, he wouldn’t be avoiding you.”

“He’s avoiding everyone.” I tightened my hold on the back of the chair I was leaning against. My heart had started racing with the possibility of Brandon’s knowing what had happened between Princess and me. I quickly glanced around the shop to make sure we were the only ones in there, and my gaze settled on her name on my arm.

“I just don’t get why you’re still waiting for her,” Jeff said. “You’ve been waiting for months, and now she breaks up with her boyfriend and . . . how long has that even been?”

I gritted my teeth as I answered, “Over a month and a half.” And no . . . I hadn’t been keeping track . . .

“Month and a half,” he continued. “and she barely talks to you. Just get over the girl already.”

“He loves her!” Brian called from his station, and I snorted a laugh. He’d listened to me bitch and whine about Princess for over half a year, and he still backed me up in my feelings for her.

“Whatever!” Jeff said exasperatedly. “It’s been a month and a half since she said they’d ‘talk,’ and that still has yet to happen.”

I continued to stare at her name on my arm as I thought about the few times I’d seen her since she told me she’d broken up with Brandon. It’d been a handful of times, maybe a little more, but almost all of them were glimpses as we passed each other. She’d said she would talk to me, and I’d given her plenty of time for that. But her birthday was in two days, and I had a plan. “It’ll happen.” I looked at Jeff, then over to Brad, who nodded. “I’ll make sure it happens.”

I ONLY HAD one class tomorrow, but it was Harper’s birthday, and I had a surprise planned for her. So on my way out of my last class, I stopped by my professor’s office and handed over the paper due, saying I’d be out of town. I’d just left his office when I saw Harper rush into the bathroom, her hand covering her mouth. Looking around to make sure no one was around, I pushed opened the door and heard her getting violently sick in one of the three stalls. Her backpack had been discarded on her way to the stall, and she hadn’t even closed the door.

Walking up behind her, I leaned against the side of the stall and rubbed large circles on her back until she was finished.

“Go away,” she groaned as she flushed the toilet.

Not likely. I did step away, but it was only to wet a few folded-up paper towels and bring it to her. “Here you go, Princess.”

She grabbed it and wiped her mouth before standing up and turning to look at me. “Thanks.”

I looked over her, but she didn’t look sick. She looked beautiful. Absolutely beautiful. “Are you okay? Do you want me to take you somewhere?”

“No, I’m great.”

“Great? You just threw up, Harper.”

She took a deep breath in and held it as she returned my stare. With a subtle shake of her head, she looked back down and moved past me out of the stall and over to the sink to rinse her mouth. “I know, and now I feel fine.”

“If you don’t want me to take you, at least let me call Bree so she can take you home.” I thought about my conversation with Dad this morning, and added softly, “Speaking of, when were you going to tell me you moved into my parents’ house?”

She turned off the faucet and put a piece of gum in her mouth, chewing a few times before asking, “Does that bother you?”

“Not at all, but I just found out this morning that you’ve been living there over a month. I would have come around more if I knew you were there and not hiding from me in your dorm.”

“I haven’t been hiding from you, Chase.”

I almost snorted. Jeff had been right last night—I’d barely talked to her in the last month and a half. I knew she wanted time, but she always seemed to run in the opposite direction from me. My head dropped, and I stared at her backpack sitting between us. “You sure about that?”

She was quiet for a few moments, and when she finally said something, her voice was soft and shaking slightly, “I’ve just been busy, and you haven’t been around much either. You haven’t come to a family day in months.”

“As before, Harper, I’m giving you the time you asked for.”

“Oh.”

Yeah.

She picked up her backpack and walked past me, and when I turned to look at her, she was looking at me expectantly, her hand on the handle of the door. I followed her outside, and remained silent until I caught her looking up at me from the corner of my eye.

“Harper, can you tell me one thing?”

“I’ll tell you anything, Chase.”

I touched her arm to stop her and waited until she was looking at me with those wide gray eyes. “Have I—have I missed my chance?”

Her brow furrowed. “What do you mean?”

“I mean with you, us. Did I miss my chance?”

My chest tightened painfully when she closed the distance between us and wrapped her arms around me. The night on my parents’ driveway when she kissed me softly before telling me she was staying with Brandon flashed through my mind, and I held my breath and gripped her tighter when she answered.

“I’m sorry that you would even have to ask that. I wish you knew how much I love you, Chase, it’s just been a hard time for me. I didn’t know you were still giving me time; I figured I’d already lost you.” Her voice broke at the end, and I almost thanked God out loud.