Page 61 of Bookworm
“I’m sorry, okay? I really am. I shouldn’t have let him get under my skin, but he started talking about the phone call I overheard, and my Dad?—”
“You have to let that go!”
I blinked in surprise at Adam raising his voice.
He was always the calm one between the two of us.
He rarely raised his voice.
“I have to let that go?” I repeated.
“Yes. God, Harper, we were kids. I apologized for it?—”
“We were kids, yeah. But your dad was a grown-ass adult. So what was his excuse?”
“That he was just looking out for me. He didn’t want me to miss out on a great college experience and an incredible scholarship because my girlfriend was taking a gap year.”
I took a deep breath before answering him. Harper of the past would have lost her shit. Either yelled back or stormed off. I was trying to be better, though.
After counting to ten, I opened my eyes again. “Fine. He was looking out for you. That’s probably true. But in doing so, he hurt someone you cared about. He hurt me. I don’t just have to ‘let that go’ because it’s in the past. I’ve forgiven you and you’ve forgiven me because we discussed it and each apologized. But your dad hasn’t done either of those things… so he hasn’t earned my forgiveness yet. And to make matters worse, at the bar last night he also admitted that heknewI was there in the background listening. He saw me on Facetime. He wanted me to hear. He wanted us to break up. And he wanted to hurt me.”
Adam stared at me for the longest few seconds of my life. “He said all that?” Adam asked finally. “That he wanted to hurt you?”
I nibbled my bottom lip. “Well… not in so many words, but basically?—”
“Not in so many words,” he repeated with a nod. “Do you think maybe you’re just hearing what you want to hear so you can villainize him?”
“No.No. Adam, you weren’t there. He was being awful?—”
“So you just pour a beer on him? Harper, you can’t do that shit. It’s mydad. If this is going to work between us, then you and he need to find a way to get along!”
“That’s a two-way street, Adam. He needs to be nice, too.”
“Yeah, he does. And I’ll talk with him about that.”
A humorless laugh bubbled to the surface and exploded from me. “Oh, you’ll talk to him?” I literally didn’t know why I couldn’t stop the laughter. Nothing about this was funny.
Adam’s face twisted as he gave me a strange look. “Yeah. I’ll talk to him.”
“Don’t lie to me, Adam. Don’t tell me you’re going to talk to him about me when you haven’t even told him that we’re here in Maple Grove together.”
“What?” For a brief moment, Adam’s face blanched before his cheeks turned pink.
“Your dad told me that you were here in Maple Grove this weekend… and that you were staying with some of your soccer friends.”
I waited for Adam to tell me his dad was a liar. That he was just being mean. Or trying to rile me up again.
But those words never came. Instead, he looked down at his hand clenched on the edge of the hot tub, avoiding my gaze. “We’re still new, Harper, you and me. I don’t even know if you’re sticking around yet or moving back to England. And it just seemed like an unnecessary fight to tell him…”
Adam’s words faded away and he licked his lips.
“Yeah, especially when he so clearly wants you to end up with Jasmine.”
Adam’s eyes snapped up to mine. “What are you talking about? Jasmine and I are just friends.”
“You might want to add that to the things to tell your dad when you talk to him. Because he and Jasmine are having clandestine dinners behind your back. I saw them together the other night.”
Shaking his head, Adam pulled his feet out of the hot tub and stood, grabbing his towel and drying off.
