Page 70 of Reckless

“Look. You need to talk to Harlow about this. She’s on tour and you’re on tour, but at some point you both should sit down and talk,” Miles said trying to be careful. If he had said nothing, he’d have felt like he failed to protect Harlow. Richie needed to know the whole story about Gloria as a mom. And Richie needed to tell Harlow the whole story about his situation with Gloria too.

Miles simply wasn’t willing to watch Harlow suffer for other people. She could get mad at him for it, but someone needed to put her first and if it was him, that was worth the fight they’d have over it.

“That sounds ominous.”

Miles thought hard about what to say. “I think you know there’s more to it than a bad dinner with Gloria. And of course she knows there’s more to this entire situation with Gloria than she’s been told by you. You’re both so important to the other you’re holding things back, thinking you’re protecting one another. Silence sucks, Richie. You know it. It’s hurting you both.”

Richie clapped Miles on the back. “You care about her a lot.”

“Yes. I’m in love with her.” Saying it out loud made it so much more real. But not scary. “That’s why I’m urging you to talk to her. I’ll tell you one thing, because it was between me and Gloria and your sons. I let her know that if she persisted in her bullshit to harm Harlow, I would take away everything she holds dear. And I will. Gloria is a bomb waiting to explode in Harlow’s face and the longer she doesn’t know the whole story, the greater the opportunity Gloria has to use it to hurt her.”

Richie ran his hands over his face a moment. “Yeah, okay. You’re right. I want to ask you more about this, you know that right?”

Miles laughed. “Yeah. I get it. I would too. And if it were up to me, I’d tell you everything. But you made Harlow into the person she is, and you know she’d skin us both. She already says I’m bossy because I do thinks like deal with the door when there’s a food delivery or whatever.”

“You do that?”

“Yes, sir I do. Not because I think she can’t do it herself. But because I can do it for her, and I like taking care of her. She doesn’t need to go answering a hotel room door to anyone she doesn’t know at some ungodly hour of the day.”

“You’ll do just fine, Miles. I like you, kid. Don’t fuck my daughter over or dozens of metal dads will hunt you down and beat your pretty face in.”

It wasn’t until they’d gotten back to the hotel that she turned to him. “What did you say to my dad?”

He could have pretended he didn’t know what she meant, but he said, “I urged him to talk to you and be honest about the Gloria situation and to ask you himself about the dinner because he wanted to know more.”

“I made it clear that I’d talk to him after he was off tour but now he wants to talk sooner.” She put her hands on her hips, her eyes flashing, mouth set and goddamn he wanted to kiss her.

“He asked me a direct question. I told him he needed to speak to you. He’s not stupid. He loves you. He knows there’s something more going on with Gloria. Every day this goes on the potential for you to get hurt by some fucking secret is greater. Nora told me Gloria played the long game and she’s right. I don’t want this threat hanging over you.”

“I was handling it. Now he’s going to get upset during his tour. There’s no reason it couldn’t have waited,” Harlow’s last few words were so sharp they could have sliced skin.

Miles shrugged. “If you expect me to feel bad for answering a direct question andnottelling him everything he has a fucking right to know, it’s not going to happen. I should have told him. I wanted to tell him. But I didn’t. Because you asked me not to.”

“I didn’t want to bring this shit into his tour! Let the man have some damned success for five minutes without some of my bullshit.”

Miles couldn’t stop the, “Ah.”

There it was. Gloria’s abuse went deep into the place where Harlow wanted to please and protect her dad because she was terrified of losing his love too. That was why she protected everyone else at her own expense, andthatwas something Miles could not abide.

Her gaze snapped up to his and though he loved her, he didn’t miss the frisson of fear that slithered through him momentarily at that expression. “Ah?”

“You see, Harlow, I want to protect you and that means you having the information you need. And giving that information to your dad because he needs it too. To protect you as well. He’s a grown man. A father. He has the responsibility of dealing with a situation in his family life even while he is working. Millions of parents do it every day.”

“What about what I want?”

“If what you want is to shoulder everything so no one gets inconvenienced, I’m not going to help you achieve that. Your father loves you, Harlow. He regrets that he didn’t push you harder about her as you were growing up. He doesn’t love you more if you never make any trouble. You know that. He shreds that guitar and sings and does his thing, and he will do so after the two of you finally share this fucked up tale. And so will you. I expect some new songs will be written.”

“This is my life, Miles.”

He took her hands. “Yes, it is. Your one, beautiful and precious life that deserves to be free of this bullshit. That’s why I care so deeply about it. And why I did my best not to reveal whatyouneed to. But I was there at that dinner, and I’m allowed to speak on it, so I gave him one detail and that was something personal.”

She frowned. “I don’t like it.”

“I know.”

She gave him a glare but there was less heat than before. “What detail?”

“When I told her I’d strip away everything she held dear if she continued fucking with you. And those calls she made to you definitely qualify.”

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