Page 26 of Make Her Mine

“In that case, I’m glad it’s Jefferson,” Scott tells her.

She looks mildly surprised. “Why is that?”

“Because he’s probably the one guy who’s not too tightly wrapped around your finger. He can keep you out of jail.”

Her eyes are wide, and I cannot help my laugh.

“Thanks, Scott,” I comment so he knows I’m here.

Scott chuckles. “Just remember that’s my expectation, Jefferson.”

“Duly noted. If she commits any crimes, cover them up.”

Scott actually laughs a little harder. “Yep,” he says. “That’s exactly the energy I want from a boyfriend for one of my girls. I know it’s a lot to ask to keep her from committing crimes entirely. Though if you could do that, I’d greatly appreciate it.”

“Interestingly,” Peyton says. “We were just talking about how Jefferson would help Harlow hide a body.”

“I’m sure he would,” Scott, the cop, comments calmly. “If for no other reason than to have something to hold over her head.”

We all laugh at how closely his summation resembled what Harlow said.

And I’m not sure what that says about me, but I am looking forward to this week more all the time.

“So when people ask you about them,” Peyton says to her husband. “You can’t act surprised. You’ve known they’ve been dating for about three months,” she says, talking without looking at either of us. “But they kept it under wraps because they wanted to be sure it was something worth coming out about. Since it’s such a small town and they know so many people in common, they didn’t want it to be a big deal if it didn’t work out. But we, of course, have all known about it for at least two months. They successfully snuck around for about a month.”

Harlow straightens. “You think we’d only be able to sneak around for a month before you found out? Please.” She rolls her eyes. “If I wanted to hide something from you guys, I could keep it hidden for way longer than that.”

Peyton grins at her. “Oh, I have no doubt. But you fell madly in love with him in a month so you couldn’t keep it inside anymore. You just had to tell us about it.”

“I fell madly in love with Jefferson in a month?” She glances at me. “I don’t think so. If anything, he fell madly in love with me. He was going to tell everyone, and I told him he had to keep it quiet and could only tell our families, if he just couldn’t keep it inside anymore.” She looks back at her mom. “And if we were madly in love, why wouldn’t we tell everyone? Why just you guys?”

“Well, we convinced you to take it a little slower,” Peyton says.

Then I laugh.

They all look at me.

“Really?” I give my mom a grin. “My parents fell in love in a weekend. And they’re telling me that I would have to take it slower? No way is that believable.”

My mom nods. “He has a point.”

“Well, I know something about having a guy gaga over me forever before I gave in,” Peyton says. “So I’m cool with the story that Jefferson fell really hard and fast, but Harlow made him wait to tell everyone.”

Yes, we all know the stories of how all the parents in our friend group got together. Scott apparently fell first and hard for Peyton and she made him work for it.

I shake my head. “No way. I want Zach miserable knowing that I have the girl he wants, but it doesn’t help me out to make this look like I had to work extra hard to convince her.”

Harlow crosses her arms and stares at me. “You don’t think I would be hard to get?”

I chuckle. “In general? Absolutely. For me? No way.”

“Really? Why is that?” she asks.

“Because I know you too well. I would be able to easily romance you. I know all your favorite things. I know all your friends. Your entire family. They all love me. In fact, if we ever decided to date, we’d go in knowing it was serious. We’ve already done all the get-to-know-you stuff. We already know all the good, the bad, the ugly. I know all the annoying things about you.”

“And vice versa,” she interjects.

I nod. “Exactly. If we ever decided to even go on a single serious date, it would be because we already decided we wanted to make this something more. So I don’t think it would take us three months to come around and tell everyone. I’d say the story should be that we've been officially together for about a month. Our families have known for most of that time.”

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