She looked around to my parents and sister as she grabbed my hand. “Can you guys excuse us for a minute?”
I followed her up the stairs and to my room. As soon as we were in there, her next inhale was audible as she just stared at the bed for a few moments before going to sit on the edge of it. I fell into the middle of it and pulled her with me so we were lying down, me on my back, and her curled onto her side against me. We stayed silent for a minute, and I grabbed her hand, so I could link our fingers together before bringing it down to kiss her palm.
“I can’t believe we’re going to have a baby.”
Harper exhaled harshly, and my body locked up. “About that . . . Chase—”
“No.” No way was I going to let her do this to us again. “Don’t do this again, please.”
“Just hear me out, okay?” She leaned up on her elbow and looked directly into my eyes, “You’re twenty-two, you’re about to graduate from college, I don’t want to take your life from you. If you want to live your life, I won’t stop you. Just because this baby is yours, don’t think that means you’re forced to be with me . . . with us. I want you to be with us, don’t get me wrong. But I will let you go if that’s what you need.”
I knew she was being serious, but I couldn’t stop smiling at her. “Are you done?”
“Yes.”
Good. My turn. Since apparently you still haven’t figured this out. “Harper, I love you more than I could ever explain. Meeting you changed my world. Even when I thought you would never be mine, I couldn’t continue to live a life I knew you hated. The night you told me you loved me was the best night of my life, up until tonight. I never want to let you go again, I want to be with you for the rest of my life. I want to marry you someday, Harper.” I paused when her gray eyes widened. “I would do anything for you. I don’t know what to do to make you believe me, but I’ll spend forever trying to show you.”
“You want to marry me?” she asked softly.
More than I want to breathe. “You have no idea how much.”
“Not just because I’m pregnant?”
I brought her back down so she was lying on my chest and tilted her head back to kiss her lips softly. “Not at all. I gotta admit, it’s a little bit of a shock, but I’ve always thought about being with you and starting a family. And even though it’s sooner than I thought it would be, I’m so freaking excited that it’s happening. When should we be expecting him?”
“Him?”
“Yep, it’s gonna be a boy.”
She laughed softly and ran her fingers through my hair, “I’m due October 4.”
I quickly added up the months and grinned again. “So six months, huh? Do you want to take next year off from classes?”
“I can’t go back to school.”
I squeezed her shoulder. “Of course you can, I’ll help you.”
“No, not that. I know you would.” She took a deep breath and rolled off me and onto the bed, grabbing my hand. “I told Sir that I’m pregnant.”
“And?”
“He uh—isn’t going to pay for school anymore, and he said I’m not welcome back home.”
“Bastard,” I mumbled softly. “Are you serious? We’ll figure it out. If you want to finish school, we’ll make it happen.”
“Really, I don’t even want to go back after this semester. That’s not why I’m sad. I just hate how he is. I hate how he resents me for having been born.”
I pulled her closer to me again to run my hand up and down her side. How anyone could hate this girl, especially her own father, is beyond me. “It’s not your fault. He’s a douche, and it’s his loss for missing out on an amazing daughter.”
“I was afraid you’d resent me, too,” she admitted into my chest, “for getting pregnant. You wanted to stop, and I pushed you.”
“It’s not like you had to push hard, I wanted you so bad.” I laughed, but she remained silent as she traced patterns onto my chest. “I don’t resent you, Harper, I never will.”
She leaned up to kiss me soundly, and we lay there silently until my sister opened the door to let us know they were going to turn on a movie. When the door shut again, Harper didn’t move, and neither did I.
“Harper, I want you to be mine—and not just because we’re having a baby though I’ll warn you, I’m about to tell everyone that we are.” Her eyes brightened, and I smiled at her before kissing her nose. “But I want to be able to hold you in public, I want to show everyone that you’re taken, and you belong to me. That you’ll always belong to me. Are we done torturing each other by staying apart?”
“Are you done leaving me?” she countered, and I rolled over to rest above her, my mouth less than an inch from hers.
“I’ll never leave you again, sweetie.”
“Then I’m yours.”
She reached up to kiss me and I smiled through our kiss. Finally. This girl is mine.
“BRANDON, WAIT UP!”
He hesitated for a second before continuing to close the door to his Jeep. Both hands scrubbed down his face before falling to the steering wheel.
“We need to talk.”
We still hadn’t spoken to each other since the morning Harper fainted. All the guys in the house knew she was pregnant and that we were together, but Drew had been joking about Harper’s “Buddha belly,” and next thing I know, Harper’s hyperventilating. I’d freaked out, trying to figure out what brought it on all of a sudden, and when I looked up I saw Brandon walking away from all of us. I don’t know what her reason to Brandon was when they broke up, and I didn’t know if all of our joking about it was the way he found out. But I owed it to him to talk to him about it.
“I don’t have a whole hell of a lot to say to you.” He kept his eyes trained straight ahead of him, the muscle in his jaw ticking.
“Harper’s pregnant.”
He snorted. “Know that. And I know the baby is yours.”
“I’m sorry you had to find out the way you did; I should have come to you first.”
“Not really necessary since I’ve known. She told me the day she found out.”
I blinked quickly. “So you knew all that time, and you never said anything to me?”
“Wasn’t my place to tell you, Chase, it’s your baby. Harper needed to be the one to tell you.”
“No, not that.” I shook my head and took a deep breath, “I—I hated that you had her. I hated that I’d pushed her away in the beginning and told you she was available. And I just acted like a dick to you because of it. I started fights with you just because I wanted a chance to hit you. And you knew . . . for what? Two months? And you never did anything?”
“Three months.”
“What?”
He turned to look at me, his eyes glassy. “I knew for three months. As soon as I came back from Arizona, I knew. You couldn’t go more than a day without trying to start shit, and I come back and you won’t even say a word to me and look like you’re dead . . . and she couldn’t stop looking at that ring you gave her. I didn’t know she was pregnant yet, but I knew I’d already lost her.”
My gut churned with guilt. “And you did nothing?”
“What, Chase? What could I have done to make things different than how they were? She was in love with you, too. You’d already slept with her. She was already pregnant! I couldn’t fucking change anything. I couldn’t change the way she felt for you! So what’s the point of beating the shit out of you when it would change nothing?”
I watched as the tears rolled down his face, and, for the first time since all of this started, I felt sick. All I’d wanted was her, and I never considered how that would hurt my brother. All I cared about was how I felt like I was dying without her. “I’m sorry.”
“You were like a brother to me.” Before I could respond, he turned to glare at me again. “But I’m sure you can understand why I’m saying we’re done.”
Trying to swallow past the lump in my throat, I nodded and took a step back when he turned his Jeep on.
“Chase.” He cleared his throat and shook his head once. “That girl means everything to me. Which means her baby does, too. I will never do to you what you did to Harper and me. But know this. If you do not take care of them, and cherish them . . . I will not hesitate again to beat the living shit out of you. You get me?”
“I got you. I love them, I’ll always take care of them.”
With a hard nod, he threw his Jeep into drive and took off.
Chapter Twelve
“YOU GOT EVERYTHING ready for today?” Brad asked as he jumped up onto the counter and brought Sarah between his legs.
“Pretty sure.” I took the last bite of my apple and threw the core into the trash. “Called the dealership, called the B&B . . . everything should be good to go.”
“Harper’s gonna love today, Chase.” Sarah said with a wide smile on her face. “So sweet of you to do all this for her. But she’s going to think you’re gonna propose with how the day is set up!”
I grinned. “I already know when I’m going to propose, and it’s not today.”
“When?” Her eyes brightened, and she bounced up on her toes a few times.
“You’ll see.” I shrugged and caught the bottle of water she threw at me. “I’m not telling anyone, it’s a surprise.”
“Whatever. So you’re going to find out if it’s a boy or a girl today?”
“Guess so, she’s due October 4, so she’s sixteen weeks today, and her doctor said we should be able to . . . but I already know—” I broke off, and the massive grin I’d been sporting fell as Brandon walked into the kitchen.
“It’s not like I don’t know what’s going on,” he said without looking at anyone as he grabbed a bottle of Gatorade and two bottles of water. “You don’t have to stop talking because of me.”