Page 33 of Right Side of Paradise

With my Whole Heart

Alarm shuttered the guilt in Christian’s eyes when he opened his office door and saw the state Harlow was in beside me.

“Sweetheart.” He groaned, pulling her into his space, avoiding my gaze the whole time. “What the hell happened?”

There had to be laughing gas in whatever Harlow had been drinking tonight because she just laughed and fell into his arms while I closed the door behind us.

“I—” Hiccup . “Kinda walked—” Hiccup . “Into your waiter’s—” Hiccup . “Elbow.”

Christian hissed as his forehead creased. He studied the swelling under her eye and the way her eyelid was already starting to droop. “Damn it, Harlow. You’re gonna have a black eye.”

“It’s okay.” She giggled, falling into him. “It doesn’t even hurt.”

He looked up at me, but I shrugged and blew out a frustrated breath.

This was not how the fuck tonight was supposed to go. But when Soul called us as we were leaving dinner with our parents and told us to come meet him at Paradise because Christian was “hiding” from him, I should have known to expect the unexpected.

We’d been at the bar for two hours and Christian hadn’t made one appearance. It was weird behavior when he claimed he wasn’t working tonight.

Very weird behavior.

On top of that, Soul never got a chance to tell me why he was hiding because he and Harlow started taking shots the second we walked through the door.

Now he was somewhere in this bar, cross-faded and looking for an ice pack while Harlow laughed her ass off and Christian looked like he was about to pass out.

Whole family a hot fucking mess.

They were still mine, though.

I studied Christian as he held her face in his hands, worry and adoration fought for dominance on his face. He loved Harlow so damn much and couldn’t hide it if he wanted to. I loved how easily he slid into protective mode whenever he was around her.

And as much as I wanted to know why Soul said he was “hiding,” I knew I couldn’t push Christian too far before he turned into a clam.

But whatever it was had him at work on his day off and hiding in his office when he usually loved shooting the shit with the locals.

And the guilty look he slid me before he noticed Harlow with me wasn’t making things better.

Later . I’d deal with him later.

“Sweetheart, I need to get you an ice pack.”

Vigorously, Harlow shook her head, sending the fake hibiscus flower tucked behind her ear toppling to the office floor. “No. Soul is getting it. Don’t worry,” she said, her coherence hanging on by a thread.

Then she whipped around, grinning up at me. “Ricoooo,” she cooed with a snort of laughter.

“You’re drunk, baby.” I grabbed her by the chin anyway, tipping up her head to inspect her eye. I brushed my thumb over her left cheekbone, trying to gauge how far down the pain went.

Harlow only winced slightly before recovering.

“Still know I love you,” she slurred. “So fucking much.”

My fingers stilled while I stared at her, and her eyes grew glassy. I stood there, holding her face until Christian moved to open his office door again.

“What did you say?”

Harlow didn’t blink, but her smile stretched until she hid her face against my torso. “Said I love you.”

Soul walked in, holding up an ice pack while her words filtered through my head.

“C’mere, Harley baby.”

Taking staggered steps, she left my embrace and walked over to him.

Was I drunk?

Maybe, but I knew what the fuck I heard.

Harlow just said she loved me. And not the way she’d said for years when we were step siblings.

No, that same flicker of affection from earlier at dinner was present in her eyes before they glazed over just now. The same flicker that made me feel like there’d been a Harlow-shaped hole in my chest until she landed back in Onyx Cove.

“Hold that on your cheek until we get home,” Soul instructed. Then he turned to me. “We’re leaving.”

I smirked at the authority in his voice. “Yes, sir.”

“You coming or you plan to keep running from us?”

Oh, shit . Faded Soul wasn’t fucking around. More than that, Christian’s whole face changed when they made eye contact. The defensiveness I thought I peeped earlier melted into a longing look that spoke volumes even though he said nothing.

He simply nodded, grabbed his phone off the corner of his desk and led us out of the back of the bar to the beach.

Harlow mumbled about not wanting to leave yet but held tight to Soul’s shoulder when he kneeled in front of her to take off her heels.

He curled his fingers under the straps to carry them while lacing his other hand with hers.

The drunk leading the drunker.

I shook my head.

There was too much in my mind to make sense of right now. I was just happy we were going home.

So, I followed my best friend onto the sand and walked toward our house.

Like Harlow hadn’t just said she loved me, and I didn’t catch that look between Soul and Christian.