Page 43 of Where We Go From Here

Then a horrible thought crosses my mind and the words are out before I can stop myself. The blood pounding in my ears is roaring louder than any country song ever could.

“Is that why you keep saying sexual stuff to me? Is that why you wouldn’t let me take you to a restaurant?”

My brow furrows hard and I see her throat gently bob as she swallows.

“Are you trying to make me a rebound?” I ask her finally, the hurt in my voice betraying my stoic expression.

It’s about a minute before she speaks up, her beautiful lips quivering, her eyes wide with shock. Then she removes her fingers from under her ass and tentatively puts them on top of mine.

Somehow, even after sitting on them, her skin is still so much colder than my own.

“You really want to know?” she asks me quietly.

My hands are tingling, the feel of her touching me, consoling me, spreading through my veins like a drug. Fuck alcohol – give me this every night and I’ll be high for the rest of my life.

I grunt. “Yeah, I wanna know.”

“It’s confusing,” she warns me.

“Confuse me,” I tell her.

“I was seeing someone for two years. We got engaged last year and we broke up last month. I met him through work – I was the screenwriter, he was the actor. I knew him for a while before he finally asked me out, and he was always friendly so I thought it would be a good call.

“The last movie that I wrote… it was my favourite. It was a romance, so who better for me to base the lead guy on than my boyfriend at the time, right? Obviously, the second that the production house and the director looked at the script they wanted Evan for the part, because itwashim, or it was at least all the best parts of him.”

She swallows and looks away. I’m not sure who’s more uncomfortable right now. All I know for certain is that now the nameEvanis at the top of my kill list.

“The issue came when we were casting the female lead. That detail that I omitted from my life story? It’s that I have a sister, Holly. Ridiculously cute name, right? LA born and raised, the same as me obviously, only she wanted to be in front of the camera instead of behind it. Do you see where this is going?” she asks me, the delicate pulse in her neck hammering double-time.

I’m not sure that I do. All that I know is that her hands are still on mine and I don’t want her to ever let go.

“She wanted the part,” she says, squeezing her eyes shut, “even though I told her that it would be really fucked up. It’s bad enough having your boyfriend-turned-fiancé kissing any other woman on-screen, but having him kiss your sister? That’s just weird. Bottom line, I put my foot down, got in touch with casting, and I didn’t let her get the part. Not that she would’ve gotten it anyway, but I expressed my reluctance about having her involved with this role in this project. In turn, she decided to do me one better. She suddenly became Evan’s best buddy. All through our engagement she was just…there. She wouldn’t let it go. And then at the end of September, after we’d finished filming and we got the Christmas release date that we were after, Evan comes to my place one evening and tells me, ‘Hey babe, I heard the movie’s gonna be huge, so thanks for the role of a lifetime. Oh, and by the way, that weird friendship that I have going on with your sister? It’s more than a friendship. We’re fucking. Bye!’”

My jaw practically hits the table. Harper’s eyes are back on the couples, her fingers stilled on mine.

“That’s why I’m here,” she admits, a curl dropping loose from behind her ear. “Because I found out that the guy I gave a big break to decided to give me a big break of my own.”

She laughs dryly and shakes her head.

“We have our release week and press tour all through December and he’s going to be there for the whole damned thing. So I’m not going. I’m hiding away from the billboards and the paparazzi until this movie blows over, and then, after that, I’ll see if I can continue writing about idiots in love.”

“Harper–” I start, but she cuts me off with a look.

“Enough about me,” she says, scrunching up her nose to try and hide the fact that she’s got tears in her eyes. “I want to hear about you. Unless you realise now why I’ve been such a neurotic nightmare and you’d rather not get involved – which I totally understand. I can walk back to Pine Hills if you want.”

I stand up, reluctantly letting her hands drop from mine, and I move around to her side of the booth in three large steps. Then I sit my body down on the pleather, wrapping one arm around the small of her back and using the other one to take her hands, both delicate enough to sit perfectly in my palm.

“They didn’t deserve you,” I say to her, looking straight into her eyes and hoping that she can see how deeply I mean it. “You gave them a chance and they fucked it up – it’s their loss, Harper. They’ll never deserve you.”

Her brow arches in the middle and she re-crosses her legs so that she can drape a toned calf over one of my thighs. I let go of her hands so that I can run a palm up the outer side of her jeans, right up to her hip, and my fingers gently press, squeezing her ass.

Fuck.I hadn’t even intended to do that, but then she lets out a little mewl and grips her fingers around my belt loops. I quickly glance over my shoulder, checking that no-one’s watching, and then I turn back to her, shielding us with my shoulders. Keeping her body out of any peeping creep’s eye-line.

Like I told her, I don’t do stuff with an audience.

“Do we have to keep talking?” she asks me breathlessly, her eyes lingering on my mouth.

I can’t help but smirk at that one. “You aren’t gonna ask me any questions in turn?” I ask. “Makes me feel like you just want me for my body or something.”

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