“Harley, you’re leaving for Harvard in a few months.”
I waved my hand. “I’ll deal with that. We’re going to meet up after my party to talk.”
“To fuck,” Bailey said under her breath.
“That too,” I said with a laugh. “But also to figure shit out. It’s been so long. I wasn’t sure it would ever actually happen.”
“And now? You’re going to tell your brothers? I love Whitt. He took Eve and me in when we were at our lowest, but he is going to fucking lose it. He hates the Sinclairs after what they did to Eve.”
“I know,” I said on a sigh. “He has reason to, and it’s going to suck. But…I don’t want to hide forever.”
“Maybe just go to Harvard and be long-distance and tell them some other time, like when you’re across the country.”
I shot her a look. “They’d hate that even more.”
“Well, it sounds safer.”
She wasn’t wrong. Truthfully, I didn’t know what to do about them. They all had real reasons to hate the Sinclairs. Between Chase and Annie, Ashleigh’s betrayal, the Sinclairs trying to steal Piper’s winery, and everything that had gone down with Eve, not to mention Arnold knocking up an employee and only getting a slap on the wrist, I, too, hated the idea of them. It had been instilled in me early.
Then Chase had happened.
I should hate him, but he wasn’t his family.
I wasn’t my family either.
But half the battle was admitting that we wanted to come clean. No more hiding. And then what?
That was what we had to figure out.
And I was more than ready to do that.
Two hours into my graduation party, and I was ready to leave.
Unfortunately, I was the guest of honor.
Even though more people were congratulating Whitt and Eve on their engagement than paying attention to me. Not that I minded. I’d helped plan the proposal to get them together without Eve knowing a thing. But it was hard enough that West and Nora were getting married in a month, which was insane with his current schedule, without a second wedding to plan.
“You look ready to run,” my mom said, passing me her signature cannoli.
I took a bite of the dessert. “God, these are amazing. I miss your cooking so much. Move down here?”
She laughed. “Just as you leave? You know I need to stay in Seattle for Grandma and Grandpa.”
I did know. Aging parents was its own challenge.
“So,” she said with a raised eyebrow, “I saw your young man at graduation.”
“Oh, well, yeah.”
“Is that still happening?”
“Well, no. We haven’t been together, but…maybe we will be?” I offered with a hitch in my voice.
“While you’re at Harvard?”
I shrugged. “See how it goes.”
“I liked him,” she said with a twinkle in her eye.