Page 85 of Click of Fate

The buzz of candle wax and laughter still clings to my skin, but the weight of my conversation with the girls is starting to settle again.

Harper hasn’t said a word since we pulled out of the parking lot. She’s humming along with some acoustic indie song, her fingers drumming lightly on the steering wheel.

Too lightly.

She’s holding something back.

I steal a glance at her. “You okay?”

Her hum cuts off. “I’ve been trying to stay out of it.”

My stomach dips. “Oh.”

“But I can’t anymore,” she says, voice calm, measured. “You broke things off with Luke, and that’s your call. But if you’re doing it because you’re scared and not because it was actually wrong—then I think you’re making a mistake.”

I stare out the window. “It’s not that simple.”

“Of course it’s not. But neither is love. And honestly, Stell? You’re not the only one who got used to him being around.”

I glance over to her. “Lilly?”

“She misses him,” Harper says softly. “You should’ve seen her face when she let him in the other night. He listens to her. He gets her—and you.”

I press my lips together. “He’s… great. I know that.”

“Then why are you punishing both of you for it?”

Her voice isn’t angry. It’s tired. The kind of tired that comes from watching someone you love keep crashing into the same wall and refusing to look up.

“I panicked,” I admit, voice barely above a whisper. “It felt too big. Too fast. I didn’t want to mess it up.”

Harper sighs. “You’re not dad.”

That stings. Not because it’s harsh—but because it’s true.

“Just because he married every woman who looked at him sideways doesn’t mean you’re doomed to repeat it,” she continues. “And Mom…well. She didn’t stop living after the divorce, but she stopped believing in real happiness. Don’t do that, Stella. Don’t shut the door because you're scared of what’s on the other side.”

I blink quickly, eyes burning. “You really think I’m doing that?”

Harper glances over at me, her voice gentler now. “Lilly already picked Luke for you. She told me, after that very first climbing class… ‘Aunt Stella’s gonna fall in love with Mr. Luke.’”

My chest tightens.

“She saw it before you did,” Harper adds. “And she wasn’t wrong.”

The silence returns, but it’s different now—weighted, meaningful.

“We’ve all picked you, Stella,” she finishes quietly. “Me, Lilly, Cassie, Layla… Luke. We’re all here. You’re the one who keeps running away.”

I can’t speak. Not yet. I just nod, blinking at the windshield, letting her words land.

And when we pull into the driveway, I don’t move right away.

Because maybe… it’s time I stop running.

By the time I’m curled up in bed, the house has gone quiet.

Harper ducked into her room after giving me a kiss on the forehead like I used to give her when we were kids. Maple’s tiny snores float up from next to me on the bed where she’s flopped onto her side, belly up, like she owns the place.

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