Page 113 of Make Her Mine

“I heard Harlow finally punched Zach,” Phoebe says.

They all look at me with more surprise at that statement.

“Good for you,” Hope says.

“Don’t encourage her,” my dad says, but then adds, “In front of me anyway.”

Everyone chuckles. They know very well that my dad is fine with me defending myself, it just helps him have plausible deniability if he’s not the one encouraging it out loud with witnesses.

That doesn’t mean that he’s never given me a private pep talk about not taking shit from anyone, how to throw a punch, and that he always has my back.

“I also heard a rumor that he was going to press charges,” Phoebe adds. “The little shit.”

“That’s all been dropped,” my dad says.

Phoebe is looking at my mother with a smile. “Oh, I heard that part too.”

“Tell us what happened there, Peyton,” Hope says.

Everyone seems as surprised that my mother had some words for Zach as they are to find out that it’s going to be ninety degrees in June in Nebraska.

“I’m going to get drink refills,” my dad says. He looks at my mom. “Tell the story quick.”

Again, he would rather not hear whatever threats my mother made to Zach. Not because he’s upset she made them, simply because it’s better for the cop to not be included.

He moves toward the bar and my mom looks around the group. “Zach and I have a previous understanding that I simply needed to remind him of.”

Hope, Phoebe, and Adrianne share a look, but TJ, Joe, and Mason all look puzzled.

“What am I missing?” I ask.

My mom shakes her head. “Nothing. It’s all taken care of.”

I lean in. “Mom, how can you and Zach have a previous understanding?” I don’t mind having personal conversations in front of the rest of these people. I consider them all aunts and uncles. They’ve known me, and loved me, my entire life. It’s almost impossible for me to be embarrassed with any of them.

Studying my mother right now, it hits me she knows more about what happened with me and Zach than I realized.

“Mom,” I say, reaching out and touching her arm. “What did you and Zach talk about in the past?”

My mom is one of the most honest and open people I know. She is also fiercely protective of the people she loves.

As our eyes meet, I realize with a jolt that she knows everything that went down with Zach and me.

“I just reminded him that I saved his college career. I am the reason that he is…anything. I could’ve ruined him, but I didn’t, and for that I expect him to leave you the fuck alone for the rest of your life.”

I look at Jefferson, but he looks as stunned as I am.

“You know what happened that night? In high school?” I ask.

“You mean the night that he drugged your drink?”

My mom looks around the table and I realize that Adrianne, Hope, and Phoebe also know. This is part of my mom’s girl squad. She told them. Hell, they might’ve been the ones that kept her out of jail after she found out Zach had drugged her daughter.

But it’s also clear the men did not know. They all look stunned. And pissed.

I can only guess that my father doesn’t know either.

The women clearly had decided how to take care of it and had just done it.

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