“Damn,” Karen lets out a long, low breath. “And how did that make you feel?”
Emilia glares at her.
“Okay, stop with the therapist stuff,” she says.
“What?” Karen blinks innocently.
“Is that how your mom talks to you? Does she treat you like one of her clients?” Emilia shakes her head. “Adalee is obviously conflicted. Right, Adalee? Do you feel conflicted?”
“Uh, actually, yeah,” I blush.
“Why? Because Harrison is a dick and you still like him?” Karen looks at me curiously, but not in a judgmental sort of way.
“That’s part of it.”
“And why else?” Emilia jumps in. “Because you’ve known him forever?”
“Kind of, yeah. I just...maybe it would be weird. Maybe he doesn’t feel the same way.”
“So you’re scared he’s going to reject you,” Karen points out.
“Yep.”
“So you’re rejecting him first,” Emilia says.
“Maybe.”
Is that what I’m doing?
Fuck.
My thoughts feel so muddled and crazy that I don’t really know what they’re supposed to be. I miss the days when things were straightforward and easy. I miss feeling like the world made sense.
Nothing makes sense anymore.
Nothing at all.
“I have to go with him next week,” I say quietly. “Home. We’re going home together and we’re going to be alone at his house for like two whole weeks.”
“Won’t his dad be there?”
“
Barely.”
“Do you want to come to my house for Christmas break?” Karen asks. “I’m sure my mom wouldn’t mind.”
The thought is so tempting and sweet, but there’s no chance Frank would go for it. He wants me around Harrison as much as possible. He really wants to try to force the relationship between us because he wants Harrison to have a good, safe wife.
He wants Harrison to marry someone who is under Frank’s thumb, but I don’t quite know why. Does he think I’m going to be able to make an influence on his kid? If he does, then he definitely doesn’t know Harrison as well as he thinks he does.
Harrison is Frank’s kid through-and-through.
That means he’s stubborn.
He’s callous.
He’s hard.