Chapter seven
Reed
Irolloverandlift my phone, squinting as the screen lights up. 1 AM. What’s she doing up at 1 AM? She better not be up with Bruce, giving him some ritualistic middle of the night watering under the moonlight. I would not put it past her.
I shift onto my back and listen as the odd squeak and snuffle drifts into my room. It sounds like she’s in the living room.
It sounds like she’s crying.
Maybe she is and wants to be alone. I know I like to be by myself sometimes. But my legs are already swinging out of bed before I have time to contemplate my actions.
I stifle my yawn, dragging a hand back through my hair as I head down the hallway and into the living area. She’s curled up on the sofa underneath a giant blanket, the light from her phone reflecting off her face as she wipes her cheeks with the heel of her hand. She sucks in a breath as her shoulders shake, and for one god-awful moment, my heart plummets to my feet. But then she breaks into a grin and the cross between a squeak and snuffle exits her parted lips.
“Harls?”
She startles, her eyes popping as she drops her phone in surprise. “Reed. Don’t creep up on me like that. I could have taken you out thinking you were an intruder.”
I look at her pink fluffy slippers sticking out from beneath the blanket.
“What would you do? Suffocate me with fluff? Tie me up with miniature glittery ropes?”
“Jerk,” she mutters, but her eyes soften as she looks at me.
“What are you doing up so late?” I swipe her phone up and drop down onto the sofa next to her, lifting her feet and laying them across my legs. The screen is full of my face, contorted in a weird mask of disbelief and pain as Freddy the goat butts me square in the groin. “That little fucker could have cost me the future Reed juniors.”
Harley snorts, fresh tears spilling from her eyes. “I’m sorry. I’m sure it must have hurt, but it’s made me laugh. And I needed that.”
I hand her phone back to her. “Something on your mind?”
She chews her bottom lip, sniffing. “You could say that. Today was, well, yesterday now, I guess… It was a date that is hard for me, for… certain reasons.” She drops her eyes from mine, fiddling with the edge of the blanket. “The party was so fun. And I thought I was okay. I thought I had gotten through it unscathed. But then I woke up and couldn’t get back to sleep again.” She lets out a deep sigh. Her chest deflates, so she looks even tinier and more delicate than usual. “I guess it was just waiting to surprise me instead.”
“You know…” I run a hand over the blanket, stroking her calf beneath. “There’s a date that sneaks up on me sometimes, too.”
“There is?”
“Yeah.” I clear my throat as I push the images that the memory brings back down deep into the darkest depths of my soul where I’ve learned to keep them most of the time. “It’s been a long time, and I don’t think of it often. But sometimes I do, and… well, let’s just say I hate those days.”
“I get it,” Harley says softly.
The blanket is smooth underneath my palm, and the rhythmic up and down strokes I’m making on Harley’s leg are helping to control the burning in my chest and throat that always come when I think about that night.
“But it led me to where I am today, and I think at least something good came from it. Politics is a more stable profession than music.”
“You wanted to work in music? What, like a producer or a manager?” Harley looks at me with interest.
I barely talk about it anymore. That’s an old life. A Reed in a parallel universe is living that version of my life.
“No. A musician.” I drop my chin and watch my hand trace over the blanket.
“The guitar in your room?”
“Been snooping, have you? Did you sniff my underwear too?” I laugh and look back up as she recoils and sticks her tongue out at me.
“I didn’t even go inside. I just saw it when I moved in. Your door was open.”
“Hey. It’s fine. You can go wherever you want. This is your home, too.”
She nods, rolling her perfect pink lips together.