“Dude,” Graham went on, “you need to stop talking to her, and you need to move on to someone who is at least eighteen.”
I huffed. “To who? Someone like Madison? Someone I can’t stand to be around, but informed me we were dating because she thinks we’re perfect together? I only let it go on because it shut you two up about Harlow!” I ran my hands over my face and groaned. “Look, I know you two hate the thought of Harlow, but I love her. That’s it; I love her.”
“But you can’t,” Deacon reminded me.
I kept talking like he hadn’t. “Throughout everything since middle school we have all been there for each other, and it is such bullshit that my best friends have turned on me now. Okay, yeah, I thought we were going to come to Seattle and party all the time and hook up with as many girls as possible. I know that was the plan. I know the plan wasn’t to get serious until after college, but screw the fucking plans! I met Harlow and I knew immediately that she was it. It wasn’t that I just wanted her; I needed her. I get that it isn’t the best situation—trust me, no one gets that more than I do. But I don’t need both of you making this that much harder for us! Harlow knows you both hate her. How do you think that makes her feel? How do you think that makes me feel? What would it be like for you, Graham, if Deacon and I hated the girl you were in love with?”
Graham looked like he was about to yell, but took a calming breath and said, “You aren’t understanding that you can’t be in love with her. Jesus Christ, Knox, Harlow is a child!”
My eyes narrowed. “That’s disgusting, don’t do that.”
“She is! You think of Grey as a little kid, and they’re the same age.”
“Grey isn’t as mature as Harlow. Harlow has spent her entire life with people our age; she doesn’t fit in with people her age. She doesn’t think or act like a sixteen-year-old. And no one has thought of Grey as a little kid since she got tits when she was twelve, Graham; get over it.”
“That’s true,” Deacon murmured.
Graham’s face pinched in disgust. “Okay, we’re not talking about my sister’s chest! Knox. You have to realize that this is probably just a game to Harlow. She likes that an older guy is interested in her, and she’s going along with it. But she’s not old enough to know what love is—shit, we’re not even old enough to really know what love is—and by the time she’s eighteen, she’s not going to care that you wasted all this time waiting for her. And that’s if she doesn’t get you thrown in jail before that.”
“Ditto,” Deacon said. “We love you, man. Like you said, we’ve been there together through everything. And even though you think we’ve turned on you now, we’re trying to protect you. We don’t hate her, we hate that she has blinded you to all that can, and is going to, happen to you because of her.”
I shook my head absentmindedly for a few seconds. “It’s not going to change anything. I’m still going to wait for her.”
Present Day—Thatch
“KNOX, WAIT!” GREY called out from behind me.
I turned around and tried to seem unaffected from the short conversation in the kitchen as she stepped up to me. “Grey, you need to be on the couch resting or something.”
“I’m not that pregnant.” She waved off the suggestion. “Look, I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to make you feel pathetic.”
“You didn’t,” I said automatically, and turned back toward my truck.
“Why are you leaving?”
I knew I couldn’t use the work excuse like I had with the nameless girl from earlier, and there weren’t many places I could use as an excuse in Thatch. “I just need to go.”
“So I was right.”
I rubbed at my jaw and sighed, but didn’t look at her yet. “About what?”
“That girl from college. That’s what’s bothering you still.”
A smirk crossed my face as I turned to look at Grey. “Well, technically she wasn’t in college.”
Grey rolled her eyes. “When you were in college, you knew what I meant. It’s been . . . it’s been years, Knox. You haven’t talked about her since, and there’s been . . .” She trailed off, and thought for a second. “Countless girls. And you always seem happy. Why didn’t you ever say anything?”
“I am happy, Grey,” I told her honestly. “I have you and my best friends, I have my dream job, and I have more girls than I know what to do with. I am happy. This was the life I was always supposed to have. This was the plan with Deacon and Graham. Well, maybe not to go on this long, but this was it. It just took a long time to learn how to be happy without her, and sometimes it’s still hard to remember how when something reminds me of her.”
Grey nodded and pursed her lips. “The girl today, did she remind you of her?”
“No,” I said with a laugh. “No, God, that girl was a nightmare. But she said something that I’d promised Harlow for a long time. And hearing someone say that to me . . . it just caught me off guard.”