Page 34 of Reckless

“You look cute,” Poppy said when she came out a while later. “Miles already thinks you’re gorgeous, but there’s no harm in reminding him.”

“Are you asking him to go with you tonight?” Nora asked like it was totally cool to bring that up in front of Miles’s sister.

“Ooh, invite him to what? He’s got great manners even if he comes off like a big head sometimes,” Poppy said.

“Big head?” Miles’s head seemed to Harlow to be in pretty much perfect proportion to the rest of him.

“Our Mum calls it a swelled head. Like you know, when a person knows how handsome or talented they are, so they let it go to their head? When I was little, I just called it big head. My brother knows he’s a good musician. He knows he’s talented and handsome. But he’s also still grounded most of the time.”

“My brothers live here in Atlanta. I’m going over to my oldest brother and his wife’s house for dinner tonight,” Harlow said.

“They said you could bring someone,” Nora said.

Harlow looked at her friend like she wanted to lock her outside the room.

Naturally Nora ignored that and continued talking. “Harlow didn’t grow up around them, or their mother, who dumped Har off with her dad when she was two. So, dinner there is complicated because they act like it’s impossible to see why their mother is a fucking monster. But she’s an absolute horror show. And Harlow is too nice to them and doesn’t want to make waves. So, I think she needs to take a backup with her. Someone who will protect her. It can’t be me, according to Harlow, so it should be Miles. If she took Brian they’d start asking when she stole her best friend’s boyfriend.”

Harlow just sighed. There was really no way to rein Nora in when she was protecting someone. And she was right on the mark about what would happen if she took Brian.

“Idefinitelythink Miles should go. In fact, I think if he hears you went alone and finds out how terrible it might be for you, it’ll make him sad. Not that you should let your partner rule your life that way,” Poppy added. “But he digs you so much. And he’s really good at saying stuff that isn’t an insult on its face, but it so totally is.”

“The songwriter in him,” Harlow said with a laugh.

“I’m sorry about your mom. That’s got to be really hard.” Poppy squeezed her hand briefly and let go.

Thank god someone knocked on her door before Harlow had to talk any more about it.

It was Miles, who had a ball cap in his hand, along with a pair of sunglasses. “Do I pass the Miles Brown Fanboy test?” he asked before kissing her soundly in front of everyone.

He had on an Editors tour t-shirt, jeans ripped in the right places and looked totally gorgeous. He put on the hat and glasses.

“Okay, yeah you tipped from Miles to one of his fanboys. Where did you get those sunglasses? I love them,” Harlow took them off his face and tried them on her own. “Super cute.”

“You can have them at the end of tour when I don’t need a disguise. And what’s yours?” he asked.

“My disguise is that way less people know about my band than yours. I’m just one of many chicks with this look out and about.”

Everyone laughed.

“Let me get my backpack,” she told him, but he followed her into her room completely and started chatting with Nora and Poppy.

“Maddie wanted you to know she was changing quickly and would be down to join you all shortly,” he said.

“Oh are we all going shopping?” Poppy asked just to poke at her brother, which made Harlow snicker.

“Sure. Just in different places.” He took Harlow’s hand. “Got a car waiting. Let’s go.”

“See you later,” Nora called out. “Ask him that thing.”

Harlow took her hand back for a second, walked back into the room and flipped her friend off, making Poppy guffaw.

“For the record,” Miles said once they’d gotten into the car, “you are nothing like one of many chicks with this look. There’s no one like you in the world.”

She smiled and sat back against the seat.

Miles held off until they came out of the first store, and he dropped their bags with the car, and they headed to the next place, just down the block. “What thing are you supposed to ask me?”

“I was expecting you to demand to know in the car.”

---