Page 13

twelve

Knox

“You did not. No fucking way, Pierce.”

“Swear on my life,” Harlow says, hands in the air.

“You wore colored contacts for six months in college to convince the guy you were seeing that you actually had purple eyes?”

“I scrubbed all the evidence from my phone, but I can guarantee my parents still have some pictures somewhere.” She laughs as she pops a bite of an onion ring into her mouth. Her excitement over finding those on the room service menu seems to have distracted her from what people are saying.

“What made you stop then? How did you have purple eyes for six months and then suddenly have bright blue eyes?”

“I got an eye infection and couldn’t wear my contacts. The guy thought I was an idiot and broke it off with me.” She covers her mouth as she laughs, hiding the food from view. “I was a dumbass at eighteen.”

“Sounds like it,” I reply, taking a bite of one of the onion rings.

She shoves my shoulder. “Is my pain amusing you, Spencer?”

“Very much so.”

She rolls her eyes and huffs out a laugh. “Okay, your turn then. I need an embarrassing story from you, sir.”

“Sir?” I raise an eyebrow at her.

“Don’t get hung up on that,” she says as she waves me off. “Tell me a story about you.”

I groan. “I was hoping I could steer you away from that.”

“Not a chance, Fort. Talk.”

“Fine,” I say in exasperation. “I’ve got one from my freshman year of college, too. I met a girl at one of the parties off-campus. She lived in one of the coed dorms. Flirting led to both of us going back to her room. And, well, I’m sure you can guess what was happening. What she hadn’t told me, though, is that she had a boyfriend, and when he came knocking on her door, I had to jump out of the fucking window. Thankfully, she lived on the first floor, but I had to hide in the bushes buck naked until my friends brought me some clothes.”

Harlow has to bring her hand up to cover her mouth and prevent spitting her food everywhere. “Oh my God, that’s fucking hysterical!” She wipes the tears from her ears, happy ones this time. “The blue balls must’ve been so painful for you afterward.”

I snort in reaction to her unexpected concern. “Fucking hell, Harlow. If you really must know, there were no blue balls. The fear of being caught naked outside of a girl’s dorm was enough to tame me.” She smiles as she softly chuckles. “Now come on. Tell me something random. I need to know more about my fake girlfriend.”

“Hmm… random,” she says, a look of concentration on her face. “Oh! Here’s something random. I don’t like flowers.”

“What?” I respond in surprise. “Who doesn’t like flowers?”

Harlow shrugs. “Me. Flowers die. I always get fake flowers if I want any.”

“Yeah, you’re definitely something. I’ve learned today that you don’t have purple eyes, you hate flowers, and you have freckles.”

Her hands shoot up to her face. “You can see them?!” She looks uncomfortable now.

“You must’ve removed your makeup when you rubbed the tears from your eyes earlier.”

“Oh,” is all she says in response.

“Why do you hide them? Today is the first time I even realized you had freckles.”

“I just don’t like them,” she replies quickly, looking away from me. There’s more to this, but I won’t press her. But I will make sure she gets comfortable with the fact that she has them.

“You shouldn’t hide them,” I say, taking another bite of an onion ring. “You look good with freckles. They suit you.”

She glances at me in disbelief. Before she can ask me more about it, the hotel room door opens, and Rory and Lucia walk into view. “Oh, sorry,” Rory says. “We didn’t realize you’d still be here.”

“Oh, uh… yeah. But she’s much happier now.” I stand from the bed, brushing a few crumbs from my shirt. “I should get going, though. The game’s at four tomorrow, so we have an early practice.” I turn to wave at Harlow. “I’ll catch you tomorrow, Freckles.”

Her mouth falls open. “You think you’re slick, don’t you, Knox?”

“I know I am.” She shakes her head as I wink at her. “Don’t look at any more comments, okay?”

“Promise. Never doing that again.”

“Good. Have a good night, Freckles.”

“Have fun at practice tomorrow, Slick.”

I laugh as I make my way to the door and walk out with an actual smile on my face.

“Why the fuck are you two in my bed?” I ask Lane and Josh as I walk back into my room.

“Cole doesn’t want to cuddle, and Josh and I want to see how Harlow is doing.”

“How is she?” Cole asks as he sits up on his own bed. “There’s some really awful shit out there right now.”

“She’s doing better now,” I say as I sit on the edge of my bed. “She was pretty rough when I first got there, but then she ordered some onion rings, and we just talked. It seemed to help keep her mind off of what people are saying.”

“I would’ve come with you if you didn’t take off like a bat outta hell, but thanks for cheering her up, man. My sister’s an emotional person—I should’ve known something like this could happen.”

“It’s the least I could do, honestly. She’s going through this shit because of me. Helping her feel better is at the bottom of the barrel regarding what I could do. But I’m glad it seemed to work.”

“I think she’ll be okay,” Lane chimes in. “She’s emotional, yes, but she’s tough. She’ll find a way to adjust to all this attention.”

“She’s come a long way after her fucking ex,” Cole adds. “I think she’s in the right headspace now to handle it. It’ll just be hard at first while she’s getting used to it.”

“She has a shitty ex?” I ask.

Cole takes a deep breath. “Yeah, but it’s not my story to tell. I’m sure Harlow will open up about that in the future. She’s spent a lot of the past year healing and getting back to the person she was.”

“Damn,” is all I can say. The Harlow I know now is outgoing, happy, and fucking confident. It’s hard to believe there was a time when she may not have been that way. I wonder what that asshole did. And I wonder if he’s the reason she hides those pretty freckles…

“So, what did you talk about?” Josh asks, cocking an eyebrow. “Anything fun?”

“Dude,” Cole says, throwing a pillow that smacks Josh across the face. “Shut the fuck up, will you?”

“We didn’t talk about anything like that, asshole. We just hung out and spent more time getting to know each other.” Since Josh doesn’t know this isn’t real, I add, “I need to know more about her if this is going to last.”

“So, what did you talk about then?” Lane asks.

“We shared some embarrassing stories.”

“Like?” Cole says, lifting his brow.

I sigh and tell them our stories. They weren’t nearly as interested in Harlow’s story as they were in mine, of course. In fact, the volume of the laughter in the room right now can probably be heard in the entire damn hotel. Cole, Lane, and Josh are dabbing tears from their eyes and trying to catch their breath.

“Fucking naked outside in the bushes. That’s fucking gold, man,” Cole says.

“It was fucking mortifying, prick,” I reply, using the pillow Cole tossed at Josh to throw right back at him. “I didn’t know she had a boyfriend.”

“Okay, okay,” Lane says, trying to compose himself. “Let’s not rag on Spence here. We can just enjoy the fact that he has now admitted he’s sharing things with Harlow. A big step from the man who doesn’t even talk to his friends.”

“I hate you all,” I say, shaking my head. “We’re getting to know each other. She’s my... girlfriend. I’m supposed to be sharing things with her.”

I know that’s the main reason I shared that with her today, but I can’t say it’s the only reason. I wanted to cheer her up, and if telling her an embarrassing story about myself did that, that was fine with me. I like her smile—I needed to put it back on her face.

It’s kind of scary how easy it is to talk to Harlow. I don’t know her well, but I can already find myself wanting to share things with her. She has such an inviting personality. And that personality seems to have already roped in the man they call Fort Knox.