HARLEY
Ten daysafter I made the mistake of sleeping with Carter—a mistake not only because of who he is, but also because I can’t stop thinking about him—I half walk, half stumble toward the front door of my house. It’s seven-thirty in the morning, which means I should still be in bed for another hour and a half, but an insistent knocking woke me. I’m only a few feet away when another round of knocking comes.
“Hold your horses!” I yell before mumbling, “Jeez.”
I don’t know who I expected would be visiting this early in the morning, but it sure wasn’t Jersey, my brother’s girlfriend. She’s a lot younger than my brother; seventeen years. Most people in town don’t think twice about the age difference between them. There must be something in the air here because it seems like big age gaps are happening a lot lately. You’ve got August, the high school English teacher, who’s dating one of his recently graduated students. Then there’s Spencer, one of Silver Falls’s detectives, seeing his step-daughter, Aleah, who’s only eighteen. Oh, and let’s not forget about my sister, Penelope, who recently started dating and is now pregnant by Kai, who’s twelve years younger than her and happens to be the boy she used to babysit when she was a teenager.
I mentally shrug my shoulders, because as long as everyone’s happy, their ages shouldn’t matter.
As soon as I swing the door open, Jersey holds out a paper coffee cup toward me. “Sorry for the early morning visit. Wesley, Sam, and I will be away for most of the day, and I wanted to stop by before we left.”
“You’ve more than made up for it.” I take the cup from her and gesture with my other hand for her to come inside. “You know how much I love my cappuccinos.”
She laughs. “I figured that might make up for waking you. But if it wasn’t,” using the same hand holding her coffee, she holds up a paper bag held by two pinched fingers, “I was hoping this would.”
“Blueberry scones?” I ask, unable to hide my hopefulness. The Coffee House makes delicious blueberry scones, but they go really fast, so it’s not often I’m up early enough to snag them.
Jersey grins as she nods her head. “Yep.”
I spin on my heel and throw “You are simply the best!” over my shoulder as I walk away. “Come on, let’s dig in while they’re fresh.”
She follows me into the kitchen and takes a seat at the small round table. I grab a couple of saucers and bring them back to the table, sitting in the chair across from hers. She pushes the bag toward me, and I immediately dig in. The scent of blueberry and vanilla hits my nose as soon as I open the bag, and I nearly moan.
I drop a scone on one of the saucers and slide it toward her, then put one on a plate for me. There’s one left in the bag, and I’m already contemplating how I can talk Jersey into leaving it for me.
“The extra is for you for later,” she says, reading my thoughts.
“I knew there was a reason I love you,” I tell her, making her laugh.
I take a big bite of the flaky pastry and my eyes roll back. When I say The Coffee House makes good blueberry scones, I mean they are fucking delicious.
Jersey watches me with amused eyes as she takes much smaller bites.
“Okay, hit me with it. Not that I don’t enjoy your company, but you didn’t come to just bring me coffee and scones. What’s up?”
She doesn’t answer right away. She licks her fingers, grabs a napkin from the holder in the middle of the table and wipes her hands, and then grabs her coffee, taking a swallow. The whole time, she keeps her eyes averted away from mine. The way she’s acting makes me nervous. I made sure no one saw Carter and me when we left Whiskey’s, and again when we came to my house and when he left. That couldn’t possibly be why she’s here. Right?
Unfortunately, Jersey proves me wrong when she says, “I saw you with Carter a week and a half ago.”
Well, fuck me sideways. So much for keeping my indiscretions a secret. I should have known better than to think I could get away with keeping a secret in Silver Falls. It never fucking fails, somehow, someone finds out.
I have no clue what to say, and the way my mouth opens, closes, then opens again proves it.
Before I can formulate a reply, Jersey continues. “I can see by the way you’re acting, you’re worried about my reaction. I can also tell you didn’t want me to know, or you would have already told me.” She rests her elbows on the table and laces her fingers together. “I want you to know that it’s okay. That you shouldn’t feel guilty.”
I unstick my tongue from the roof of my mouth. “How can you possibly say that? Sleeping with Carter is not okay.”
She’s already shaking her head before I can finish. “He wasn’t the one who hurt Sam and those other kids. He can’t help who he’s related to, Harley. Sam and I have had a long talk about Carter and his mother. He didn’t know Carter that much because he only met him a few times, but Sam said he was always really nice. He never made him feel weird in any way. Carter, nor Deandra, are to blame for anything that happened.”
“Yeah, but Sam doesn’t want anything to do with either of them, not that I blame him one bit. It doesn’t feel right to see Carter when your brother is still going through so much at the hands of Carter’s family.”
“Sam needed time to learn how to cope. Seeing Deandra and Carter would have slowed the process because they remind him of a terrible time in his life.” She pauses and starts picking at the crumbs on her plate. “Coincidentally, the same night I saw you and Carter going into your house, Sam came to me earlier that day and said he wanted to give seeing Deandra and Carter a try.”
“Really?” I ask.
“Yes. I think it’s great that he wants to see them. Especially Deandra. I can’t imagine how hard this has been on her. She lost three people by the actions of two.”
I nod my head in agreement. “Hopefully seeing them will help Sam.”