Chapter 4

Four

Everly

O n Saturday, Harrison pulled up to my apartment in his large white work truck with stenciled lettering on the side declaring it Cain Rental .

“I’m not moving any furniture,” I said as he came inside. He wore jeans and a black work T-shirt that stretched nicely across his chest and biceps. Since his job required a lot of lifting and he hadn’t hired anyone to help him in the business, he was built.

“I wanted to be prepared in case there was something special you wanted to bring.”

I glanced around the room. Most of my furniture was hand-me-downs or secondhand furniture. Nothing I couldn’t live without for a few months. This was a temporary situation, after all. “I think I’d like to bring my desk. Do you have space for it?”

Harrison nodded. “We can put it in the guest room. Does that work?”

“Thank you.” That was the room I stayed in whenever I slept over, so that made the most sense. And he needed the office downstairs for his business. But I felt strangely appreciative of his efforts to make me feel at home.

Harrison held up his hands. “You’re helping me, remember? I want you to get something out of this deal, too.”

I refrained from flinching at his reminder that this was merely a temporary arrangement. “I get to live with Wren. I’m looking forward to us getting closer.” And I was looking at this whole thing as a test of sorts. Would living with Harrison burst the crush I had on him? Surely, he had some bad habits, like slurping his cereal from a bowl instead of using a spoon.

Harrison pulled me into his side, a familiar gesture. “I love that you love my daughter.”

As I looked up at him, my entire body heated from the contact. My cheeks hot, I said, “She’s easy to love.”

Harrison playfully cocked his brow. “What about me?”

“You’re impossible.” I elbowed him in the stomach, needing to create some space between us. Ever since he’d suggested this arrangement, I’d been analyzing every encounter with him. Was hugging me a friendly gesture, or did it mean something more? I was driving myself crazy, and Harrison was going to realize I was acting funny.

He rubbed his side. “That was uncalled for.”

I rolled my eyes, eager to get back to our regular interactions. We were friends. We joked. We touched. But it didn’t mean anything more. I just had to remember that.

“Gia mentioned something about a relationship between her partners being off-limits.”

I rolled my eyes, knowing exactly what he was talking about. The original group of planners had been celebrating with champagne when Gia came up with the list of rules. Some of them made sense, like don’t sleep with the wedding party , but others were more elusive, like no sleeping with the vendors . We’d all hoped it was a joke, but she’d kept it and brought it up on occasion. “That list is ridiculous. Abby slept with Nick when he was the best man at Ethan and Savannah’s wedding. Lily’s with the mechanic she used for her delivery truck. Gia’s a control freak, but I can’t imagine she’d enforce it.”

“I’m not so sure about that,” Harrison said, his gaze sliding to the kitchen. “You make me breakfast?”

My apartment was a one-bedroom with a combined living room and kitchen. It wasn’t much, but it was all I could afford while working an administrative job. I was looking forward to the increased space Harrison’s house offered.

“You know I did. Egg muffins with ham and melted cheese.”

Harrison cupped either side of my face, sending tingles down my spine as he kissed me firmly on the lips. It was a friendly kiss, one we’d shared before. But this time, it felt different. I hoped he hadn’t noticed my reaction.

I let out a shaky breath when he dropped his hands. He strode toward the counter, picked up the glass of orange juice, and drank deeply before taking a huge bite of the muffin. “You make me two?” he asked in between bites.

“You know I did.” I loved that we were so comfortable with each other and knew what the other liked. Our relationship spoiled me for other guys. I didn’t want to take the time to get to know someone else.

Harrison winked with a heart-stopping grin that made his signature dimple pop. “You know I love you, right?”

I sucked in a breath. Why did all his playful statements feel more real? Like there was a double meaning. Or maybe I was just looking for something that wasn’t there.

What if living with him only intensified my feelings? What if I discovered I loved him as more than a friend? I was so screwed.

He made quick work of eating the second muffin while I busied myself stacking boxes by the door. He came up behind me, taking the box out of my hands. “I’ve got this. Why don’t you make sure you didn’t forget anything in the bathroom or your bedroom?”

A rush of affection ran through me, and I hugged him. Nothing I hadn’t done before, but this time, I noticed my breasts pressed against his hard body.

I’d never had a friend like Harrison, and I wouldn’t want to do anything to ruin it. So I needed to ignore the feelings that being this close to him evoked.

I loosened my arms and tipped my chin back to meet his gaze. “Thank you.”

He dipped his knees to make himself level with me. “You know there’s nothing I wouldn’t do for you, right? You’ve been there for me and Wren. I won’t forget it.”

“You’ve been there for me, too.” I stepped back from him, already missing the warmth of his body.

His brow furrowed. “Moving in together won’t change anything, will it?”

“Of course not. Why would it?” My face was flushed, and my voice was a little higher than usual, but if he noticed, he didn’t point it out.

“I’ve never done anything like this before. It feels a little reckless.”

“You have to remember we’re doing this for Wren. She needs both of her parents in her life.”

Harrison sucked in a shaky breath. “Every time I take her back, she asks if she can stay longer. She wants more time with me, and I want that, too. Maybe she senses that things are going to change with her mother being pregnant.”

“We’re doing the right thing.” I meant that in relation to Wren. What it would do to my relationship with Harrison still remained to be seen.

He braced his hands on the counter, his expression sober. “Are you sure about that? If you move in with me, you won’t be able to date anyone else.”

My stomach sank at his easy reference to me dating other people. “I’m not interested in anyone.”

He raised a brow. “And why is that?”

I swallowed over the tightness in my throat. I hoped he didn’t realize my discomfort was because I liked him. “I just haven’t met anyone who has potential.”

He crossed his arms over his chest. “In all the years we’ve hung out, you’ve never been serious about a guy.”

My breath caught in my throat because I’d always been hung up on him.

He tipped his head to the side. “Is it your dad?”

I scrunched my nose at the unwelcome reference to the man who’d walked out on my mother and me. “What are you talking about?”

“Your dad leaving messed with your head. You have trouble trusting another man not to do the same thing.”

“Maybe.” I’d confided in him a long time ago that I had difficulty keeping friends. I pushed them away before they could decide I wasn’t worthy. Harrison was the only one who resisted my efforts.

“I don’t want to mess things up for you or ruin a chance of you finding the man you’re supposed to be with.”

His words sent a sharp pain through my chest. He’d effectively taken himself out of the running, or he never considered himself for the role. Harrison wasn’t interested in me as anything more than a friend, and I needed to remember that.

“Tell me I’m wrong, Everly.”

“Obviously, I can’t date anyone while we’re doing whatever we’re doing. But I promise you, I’m in no rush to get married or have kids.” Harrison was a bit more optimistic but still careful about bringing anyone around his daughter. Other than me, I didn’t think he’d ever introduced anyone to her.

“Why is that?” He moved around the island and rested a hip against it, crossing his arms over his chest. The movement caused his biceps to bulge.

“I don’t feel that pressure to get married. I’m not under any illusions that having a man will save me or make my life better.” Just thinking about how easily my dad walked away filled me with anger. Commitment was meaningless to him. Why would it be different for anyone else?

“I hate to see you close yourself off to happiness.”

“Newsflash: I don’t need a man to be happy. I’m doing just fine on my own.” My mother and I had survived when my dad left, and I’d get through life just fine.

“That’s not what I meant. I think there might be someone out there for you who’d put you first, who you could trust to always be there for you.”

I blinked away the sudden sting of tears and moved away from him toward the boxes by the front door. “We should get moving. It looks like rain later in the day.”

Harrison tugged on my hand, and I turned to face him. “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean anything by it. I love you, and I want the best for you.”

Harrison was free with his affection. It made it easy to forget we were just friends. And this conversation outlined how he didn’t think of himself as the man for me. I was just a good friend.

“You’re not holding me back.”

His hand caressed my cheek, and I resisted nestling into his palm. “I never want to hurt you.”

Fuck. Did he know I harbored a secret crush on him? “You’re not.”

He accepted my answer, and we got to work. I supervised the packing of the items in the truck while he did the heavy lifting. His biceps bulged, and his jeans were tight around his thighs. It was doing funny things to my body. I felt restless. Overheated.

I let out a frustrated breath when I realized I wouldn’t be able to bring my vibrator. I’d be sleeping in Harrison’s bed with his eight-year-old down the hall. How was I going to get any relief?

“Did we forget something?” Harrison lifted his shirt to rub the sweat from his forehead, revealing defined abs.

Despite the drops of cool rain hitting my face, my skin was warm. I wondered what he’d say if I said what I was thinking. Just thinking of the pink object I’d left in my nightstand drawer made heat coil in my belly. “Nope.”

“You ready to head to my place so you have time to unpack? We need to head to Gran’s soon.”

“Sure.” I nodded eagerly, getting into my car.

At his house, Harrison said, “I emptied a few drawers and half of the closet.”

It wouldn’t be enough space for all my things, but I’d anticipated that being the case and only brought some of my clothes. I could always go back to my apartment and get more things. Or to take a break if I needed to cool off. It was going to be a long few months.

At his house, Wren greeted me and perched herself on Harrison’s bed—no, our bed now—while I unpacked my clothes.

Kicking her legs, Wren ticked off the things we could do now that I was living with them. “We can watch movies and make s’mores.”

I smiled at her. “We did all those things before.”

“It’s even better because you’re sleeping over.” Wren couldn’t contain her excitement.

It was sweet, but it made me worry if we’d be hurting her in the end. I always planned to be in Wren’s life as Harrison’s friend, but what if she wanted more? What if we hurt her irreparably by promising her something that wasn’t real?

I tried to put those thoughts out of my mind and remind myself we were doing this to help her.

“You two ready to go?” Harrison asked once I’d folded most of my clothes and placed them in the drawer or hung them in the closet.

“As ready as I’ll ever be,” I said to Harrison as Wren skipped out of the room.

“What’s wrong?” Harrison asked, correctly sensing my pensive mood.

“Are we doing the right thing by Wren? We’re going to hurt her, aren’t we?”

He instantly sobered. “We’re trying to help her.”

“Are we though?”

He came over and pulled me into his arms, kissing the top of my head. “She asked to see me more often. She’s going to need us more than ever when Lola’s baby is born. I want to have shared custody in place by then so she can spend more time here, where we have time for her.”

“I’m trying to remember that.”

“No one will get hurt because you’re not going anywhere. We’re always going to be friends.”

What Harrison didn’t know was that I was the one who stood to get hurt the most.

On the way to Gran’s, Wren kept up a steady stream of chatter. She was clearly excited, but both Harrison and I were quiet. If he was anything like me, he was thinking of all the ways this could go sideways.

Wren knocked on the door. Then rang the doorbell.

“You don’t have to ring the bell five hundred times. I was coming.” Gran opened the door with her usual sense of humor.

“Gran,” Wren said as she hugged her.

“I missed you. Why don’t you ever come see me?”

“We visit all the time,” Harrison said, used to her antics.

Harrison kissed her cheek, and I hugged her as we walked in. “You have something you wanted to share?”

Gran always had the uncanny ability to sense when something big was happening. I don’t know how she did it, but she was very aware of everyone’s emotions and energy.

“Let’s sit down first,” Harrison said.

“Oh, I need to sit down for this one. I’m excited. Am I having another grandbaby?” Gran sat on the couch next to Wren, whose eyes had gone wide at the thought.

“No,” Harrison said. “No more grandbabies.”

He’d mentioned several times that he didn’t want to have another baby unless he was in a committed relationship that he was fairly sure would last. He didn’t enjoy the back-and-forth and said it wasn’t good for Wren. But there wasn’t any way around it. That was the life when your parents were either divorced or separated.

I didn’t have that because my father just left. He wasn’t interested in custody or visitation.

Harrison gestured for me to sit next to him on the smaller loveseat. “Everly and I have something we’d like to announce.”

Before we could say anything, Wren said, “Everly moved in with us.”

Gran’s eyes widened as she looked from Harrison to me. “You don’t say. What brought this on?”

“We’ve been dating—” Harrison began.

“For a few weeks—” I said at the same time Harrison said, “for a couple of months.”

“But we’ve been friends forever. It was the natural progression,” I quickly added to cover our inconsistent statements.

We probably should have gotten the timeline straight before we talked to his too-aware grandmother.

“I can’t say I’m not pleased. I had hopes, you know.”

“Yes, we know,” Harrison said. Besides Wren, Gran was the one who wanted us together.

“Since you’re moving in, will there be an engagement soon?”

I wasn’t sure if she was being traditional by wanting us to be engaged while we were living together. I exchanged a look with Harrison before he said, “That’s the plan.”

Wren squealed.

“I don’t see a ring yet,” Gran said, with a pointed glance in the direction of my left hand.

“I was hoping we could use yours,” Harrison said, recovering quickly.

I wasn’t prepared for that. Harrison wanting to use his gran’s ring for his fake engagement was taking things a bit too far for me.

“I’ll go get it. Come on, Wren. I’ll show you my jewelry.” Wren went willingly, loving when Gran showed her things and told her the stories behind them.

“What have we done?” I asked him, feeling like that entire conversation had gotten away from us.

“The important thing is that they believe us.”

But Wren and Gran wanted us together so badly that they were easy to convince. Would a judge believe it? Would Lola?

Harrison patted my hand. “You worry too much. As far as everyone’s concerned, we’re inevitable.”

“Right,” I said, wondering how he could say that without thinking about the possibility of us. Did he ever wonder if there was something there? Or was he so comfortable in our friendship that he couldn’t imagine me not being here?

Gran returned with a jewelry box. “I’m sure you want to surprise her with a proposal.”

“I want it to be perfect,” Harrison said, pocketing the box without opening it. I’m sure that fed into Gran’s assumption that there would still be some surprises—my proposal, apparently.

I couldn’t believe it was so easy for him to go along with this, lying to his grandmother and his daughter.

We helped Gran get dinner together and on the table. When we sat down to eat, Gran asked, “When is the big day?”

“Let me ask her first, Gran,” Harrison said reasonably.

“You’re a modern couple. You came here with your girl to get the ring. Surely, you’ve discussed a date.”

I glanced at Harrison and then said, “We’d like to get married soon.” I knew that was necessary for the custody case, but we hadn’t discussed actually going through with it. I felt dizzy.

I hadn’t eaten much since breakfast. I didn’t know how I was going to survive this.

“Can I help plan the wedding?” Wren asked.

“Of course,” Harrison said.

We were just getting deeper and deeper into this lie. There was no end in sight. My heart constricted.