Page 64 of Meet Me in the Penalty Box

NICO

Rolling over in bed, my eyes were still closed as I slid my hand across the mattress. I was expecting to feel Harper’s warm body against mine but when I didn't, I felt around for her in the bed with my hands. The side she was lying on was still warm, but she wasn’t there. I lifted my eyelids and lifted my head to look for her.

Where the hell did she go?

Panic slid through my veins and I couldn't help the feeling of dread that built in my stomach. After the accident, this newfound anxiety had decided to enter my mind. I was terrified of losing Harper. It wasn’t that I didn’t realize her importance in my life before yesterday—it was just one of those moments that really put things into perspective. And Harper was the one I knew I couldn’t live without.

I climbed out of bed and as I was walking to the door of my bedroom, a wave of relief fell over me as I heard her voice just outside. Thank God. Reaching for the doorknob, I turned it and pulled the door open. Harper was sitting on the hallway floor with her back against the wall across from my door. Her gaze lifted to meet mine as she saw me and I raised an eyebrow at her.

“Yes, of course,” she said quietly into the phone. I moved into the hall and sat down across from her as I saw the worry lingering in her eyes. “I agree that we should have a meeting to discuss this matter in person rather than over the phone.”

I glanced down the hall as my guest bedroom door opened up and my sister stepped out. She looked at both of us like we were insane and quickly signed to me.“What the hell are you guys doing on the floor?”

I shrugged.“I found Harper out here so I decided I’d sit with her.”

Giana stared at the two of us for a moment.“You guys are kind of weird. Can I talk to you for a minute?”

I looked back to Harper who was listening intently to whatever the other person was saying to her through the phone. Judging by what I had heard of her conversation, I was assuming it had to do with the small scandal we had caused. I swallowed roughly and climbed to my feet as I followed my sister out into the kitchen.

Giana took a seat at the island.“So, you can say no… but I was wondering if I could stay here a little while longer.”

“Absolutely,” I signed back to her.“You know my home is yours and you can stay as long as you want.”

She pursed her lips and fiddled with her fingers for a moment.“I don’t want to go back home. I meant to tell you sooner, but I want to live here, closer to you. There’s nothing for me in Tampa and I really just needed to come home.”

I assessed my sister for a moment.“Did something happen? Is everything okay?”

She nodded and smiled.“Everything is fine. I just think it’s time for me to start living my own life the way I want to.”

“You can stay here for as long as you need or want to, G,”I told her with nothing but honesty. My doors would always be open for my little sister.“What about Dad?”

“What about him?”she signed back and shook her head.“We literally live, like, fifteen minutes from one another and I rarely see him. I doubt he’ll even notice that I’m gone.”

Her words struck my heart and I felt bad. I left as soon as I was drafted, but Giana had no reason to leave. She went to college in Tampa and lived with our father during that period of time. Since she had graduated and started working as a marine biologist, she was able to get her own apartment, but she didn’t venture far away. I knew part of her stayed because she was worried about him.

Orchid Beach was always our home. When I went off to college, our parents moved to Tampa because my mother wanted to be on the gulf side. Ironically, she never made it back to our hometown before she passed away. And this was the only place I wanted to be because of her memory.

It just seemed like maybe Giana had finally realized we were never going to be much in our father’s eyes because we weren’t our mother. Some people just can’t move on in their lives after losing the most important piece of themselves. Loving Harper made me empathize with him more and I understood. But as his son, that didn’t make anything any better. It didn't make me feel better or any less pain for my sister.

I would like to think that if Harper and I had children involved and something happened to her, I would hold on to them as tightly as I possibly could. They would be the only lasting thing from her. Almost like her legacy or her living memory. I guessed that our father just couldn’t see past his heartbreak to realize he still had us.

“I’ll only stay until I get a job and can find my own place,”Giana told me as she broke through my thoughts and her hands moving caught my attention again.

I nodded at her.“As long as you need, G. You’re the only real family I have and I’ll always be here for whatever you need.”

She smiled at me and I watched as a wave of curiosity passed through her expression.“Did you hear that Malakai was back too?”

I slowly cocked my head to the side.“Since when? He didn’t say anything to me about it.”

“You still talk to him?”my sister signed back to me with a surprised look on her face.

Malakai Barclay was my best friend growing up. He came from an extremely wealthy family, but he was also troubled. He wasn’t one who openly spoke about his problems, except to one person. Winter Reign. Malakai never really told me what was going on between the two of them at the time, but when she left to go to college in Vermont, Malakai left too.

From what I knew, he didn’t follow her. He was off chasing his dreams of being a professional golfer and getting as far away from his abusive father as possible.

“We talk occasionally, but you know how he is,” I told her with a shrug.

Malakai was like a closed book. We had kept in touch over the years, but it was relatively scarce. He knew I was back in Orchid Beach so it surprised me that he didn’t let me know he had returned as well.

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