Page 6 of Make Her Mine

“What is?”

“I need to tell both you and Graham.”

She narrows her eyes and starts to say something—an argument I’m sure—so I step around her and head toward the kitchen.

I hear her give a little growl behind me and can’t help but smile.

Everyone thinks she’s so sweet and sunny. I know better.

I step into the kitchen. The group is gathered around the middle island. She only has a tiny wooden table with two chairs near the window because that’s all there’s room for, so when there’s more than two people here, obviously they have to stand and cluster around the counter. They don’t seem to mind.

In the center of the island is a fondue pot filled with melted chocolate. There’s a plethora of other items spread everywhere—crackers, fruit, marshmallows. I notice there are potato chips and pretzels and know that’s what Harlow is using. She’s not really into sweets.

I frown as I realize I know that. I mean, I probably know what most of these people like for snacks. I’ve known them all forever. But…no, I don’t. I know Graham is going to go for the fruit, and Ginny will be all about dunking cookies into the chocolate, but I don’t know what Sloan or Margot prefer.

“Jefferson is here,” Harlow says flatly, right behind me.

“Hi,” Ginny says, surprised to see me.

“We’re staying here tonight,” Graham informs me.

I roll my eyes again. “You’re twenty-four. I’m not here to pick you up.”

“Then why are you here?”

Everyone in town knows that Harlow Hansen and I do not get along. No one would expect me to be invited to a get-together at her house or for me to just show up as a friendly drop-in. Least of all my siblings.

“I need to talk to you and Harlow about something.”

Harlow reaches for a thick wavy potato chip. “Something that just couldn’t wait until he wasn’t crashing the party and ruining the fun.”

Yeah, well, I definitely didn’t think about what she was doing tonight before I opened my mouth in front of Zach.

She leans over, barely dunks the chip into the chocolate, then leans her elbows on the island. “So, what is it?”

“How about we do this in private?” I ask.

They all just stare at me.

I forgot for a moment that this group never does anything without the rest of them knowing.

“No way,” Harlow says biting into the chip. She crunches for a moment. “If you wanna talk to me about something, I want to do it in front of witnesses.”

“And near weapons?” I ask, my gaze dropping to the tiny fondue forks.

She gives me a grin. “Maybe.”

Her gaze moves to my left and I follow it to the butcher block full of knives. When I look back at her, she simply dunks another chip into the chocolate.

I sigh. “Fine. Zach is in town for the wedding. Plans to be here for the whole week. I ran into him down at the Come Again.”

There’s frowning, grumbling, and Ginny says, “Well, we expected him.”

I don’t look at anyone but Harlow, though.

She’s studying the chip in her fingers.

Everyone gathered in kitchen hates Zach. And we all hate him because of how he treated Harlow. I am the only one who has additional beef with him.

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