Page 169 of One Wrong Move

That makes him silent, and his eyes turn frustrated.

Connie chuckles. “No, it’s just his phrasing. And if I can make a guess… was it Harper?”

I tip my head back and look up at the sky. “How’d you know?”

“Just putting the pieces together,” she says softly. “You mentioned a few months ago that the wedding was called off, so you wouldn’t be coming to New York for it. Then, I heard from a friend of a friend that Harper moved to London. But you never mentioned that during our phone calls.”

“Yeah. I guess I didn’t.”

“Harper,” Alec says, sounding like he’s trying to remember where he’d heard the name. “Dean Johnson’s girl.”

I groan. “Don’t say that.”

“All right.”

“But yes. She was his fiancée.”

“Ah,” Alec says, and there’s a whole world in that single syllable. Realization tints his tone. “That must have been terrible.”

“Yeah. It wasn’t… great. Seeing them together over the years.”

Connie clears her throat. “Then, let’s make sure she moves back in. How do we solve this, Nate? What was the argument about?”

“I just said that I don’t want to talk about it.”

“I know, but if we’re gonna find a solution, we need to know what we’re dealing with.”

“When did this become an us situation?”

Connie’s eyes turn fierce. “When we were born to the same parents. Now tell us. Alec and I are experts at love and relationships now.”

Alec blinks. “Uh, yes. That’s right.”

“Very convincing,” I tell him.

He huffs a laugh. “I’ve got some experience in making bad decisions, at least, and unintentionally hurting people I care about.”

I look at them. Sitting in my backyard, and waiting for me to lay it all out there. I can’t remember the last time we ever did that. The last time it was the three of us like this.

“All right. So, it all has to do with her ex…” I paint a picture of everything in clear detail, keeping it short and to the point. It sounds no better out loud than it did in my head, getting rehashed time and time again.

When I’m done, Alec nods. “I understand. It’s what I would have done, too. He was a threat and you handled it.”

“That’s what I thought I did. But instead it drove a wedge between us.”

Connie blows out a sigh. “Because you went behind her back.”

“I know, I should have told her about it right after.” I run a hand over my face. Tiredness feels like a lead weight. “The one thing I’ve ever truly wanted, the one thing I’d give up everything for… and I probably fucked it all up.”

“No, no, you should have spoken about it with her before,” Connie says. Her cheeks are flushed with the heat. “Nate, maybe she’s afraid of losing her independence, her agency.”

I drop my hand. “What?”

“Her independence. You mentioned Dean used money to control her, right? To take that sense away from her? And now, just as she’s trying to get it back, you swoop in and handle her issues for her.”

“I did it because I love her,” I say.

Alec taps his fingers along the table. There’s a thoughtful frown on his face. “I know all about that,” he says, “but I think Connie is on to something here. What you deemed an act of love from your perspective, seemed like you taking control from hers.”

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