Page 81 of Catch You

“And you haven’t cooked anything?”

“Guilty.”

“How are you still alive?”

Walking over, I wrap my arms around her waist as she plates up the dinner. “I get by,” I whisper in her ear.

She laughs, moving out of my hold and carrying our plates over to the makeshift table.

I watch her sitting opposite me as she takes a sip of her own drink before lifting her knife and fork to dig in.

“What are you waiting for? It’s going to get cold.”

“Thank you for this.” Dropping a forkful of her food into my mouth, I can’t help groaning in delight.

“It’s nothing. I had fun making it all this afternoon. It’s nice having someone beside Brooke to cook for.”

I can’t help but laugh at the mention of her best friend. “What?”

“Nothing, just thinking how different you two are.”

Harlow shrugs. “I told you.”

“How did you meet?” I ask, desperate to know more about her.

Her face drops immediately as she casts her eyes to the corner of the room.

“I-it’s okay, you don’t need to tell me.”

“No, it’s fine. It’s just weird talking about my life back then.” She thinks for a moment, chewing on a little more of her dinner. “I was fourteen, almost fifteen, when I moved into their house.” My brows draw together, not putting two and two together straight away. “I’d been in some awful foster and group homes up until that point. Living through those after losing my family hadn’t turned me into the nicest of teenagers. But Brooke’s parents never once gave up on me, no matter what drama I brought their way. And Brooke and I struck up an unlikely friendship that’s lasted us all this time.”

“Oh, wow. I thought you were going to say you met at college or something.”

“It wasn’t quite that simple. Brooke has been through … a lot with me, and just like her parents, she stuck by my side the whole time. I owe her everything.”

“Are you saying I need to be nicer to her?”

“Never. She’s a pain in the ass and deserves your banter.”

I laugh. “Good to know. So, you’re still close to her parents then?”

“Yeah, quite close. My uncle died in service when I was almost eighteen and my aunt came back from where they were posted. I moved in with her. I couldn’t pass up the chance to be with the only family I had left.”

“Jesus, Harlow.”

She shrugs like it’s nothing. “It is what it is. If it weren’t for Brooke and my aunt, I don’t think I’d be here now.”

My chin drops at her admission. “If it helps at all, I’m really fucking glad you are.”

She looks up at me, her large, dark eyes staring into mine, making my heart beat a little faster in my chest. She might havebeen the last thing I expected—wanted—to find, but already, I can’t imagine her not being in my life.

“So, what about you? What about your family?”

“My mum and sisters live in London,” I say, rattling off the easy stuff without a second thought. “My sisters are both at university. Mum’s just come back from Germany. She was living with my dad. But he …” I trail off. There are only a couple of people who know about this, and those in this country who do thankfully didn’t need me to tell them. They found out through the family gossip. “He was cheating on her. He left, and she was forced out of married quarters and sent home. Only, she didn’t have a home because my dad was everything.”

“Oh shit. Corey, I’m so sorry.”

“We all thought it would be fine. Dad’s been in the army all his life and worked his way up the ranks; he should have had a decent amount of money behind him. Mum sure seemed to think he did. Turned out a younger woman wasn’t the only thing he was hiding, because he’d lost everything gambling online.

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