Her brows furrow. “Who?”
“Harland,” I say as if it's obvious. “I mean, he's not here trying to pound down my door. Where else would he be?”
She shakes her head. “I don't know, but it's definitely not with Lindsey.”
“How do you know that?”
“Because.” She shrugs. “I've seen him over the last couple months. He looked happier than he's been in a really long time, and after yesterday, I realized why. I take it he's been spending all his time here?”
I nod. “He wanted to spend time with Hollis.”
“And you,” she adds.
“No. I mean, I want to believe that. I do. But it's a losing game.” I swallow down the lump forming in my throat. “He chose her over me back then, and he'll choose her over me now. I can't put myself through that again. A future between him and me just isn't in the cards for us.”
Ashlyn hisses and slips away from me. “About that...”
My expression goes blank. “What?”
She cringes, like what she's about to say may unleash the beast. “I may have told him you were off limits.”
I roll my eyes. “And since when has Harland ever listened to you?”
“Since I pulled the Bar Harbor card.”
My jaw drops. “Ashlyn!”
When they were younger, during a trip to Bar Harbor before their parents’ divorce, Harland broke his dad's computer. He was at an age where he was acting out a lot and constantly getting in trouble, and his dad had said that one more fuck-up and he was sending him to boarding school. Knowing the computer would be the last straw, Ashlyn took the fall for him and said she broke it. In return, he promised that he would do something to make it up to her. It could be anything, no questions asked. And now I know what she used it on.
She holds her hands up in surrender. “I'm sorry! I just—I saw the way he looked at you, and I could tell he was crazy about you, but he was such a jerk all the time. I didn't want him to take you from me.”
“Ash.” I frown. “You could never lose me. It's not possible.”
“You say that, but what if he were to hurt you?”
I cuddle into her side. “Then it's a good thing I have a bad-ass best friend to get my revenge.”
She snickers. “I would, too. I don't even care.”
I'm sure she would, except she won't have to.
“Well, it won't come to that because he doesn't want me. Maybe he did at one point, who knows, but he doesn't now.”
“You don't know that,” she counters.
But I do, and I'm done getting my hopes up by letting myself think otherwise.
Chapter Ten
Harland
My fist pounds against Vance's door harshly. After a few moments it opens, and Vance stands there in nothing but a pair of sweatpants and bedhead. He looks at me like I've lost my mind, but instead of forming a logical answer for my being here, I hold up the bottle in my hand that's wrapped in a brown bag.
“I brought whiskey.”
He grunts and looks at his nonexistent watch. “It's like eight in the morning.”
I push my way inside. “It's noon, but close.”
“You couldn't have called? Given me the heads-up?”
Taking my phone out of my pocket, I show him the black screen. “It's dead, like my soul.”
I throw the device behind me and onto the couch before unscrewing the cap off of the bottle. However, just before I take a sip, Vance grabs it from me.
“Okay, drama queen,” he sighs. “How about you tell me what happened, and I'll decide if it's whiskey worthy, all right?”
Groaning, I plop down onto the couch. “What happened is I started dating a psycho nearly a decade ago, and she's made it her mission to destroy every bit of happiness in my life.”
He sighs and pours a single shot before passing it to me. “Lindsey's back.”
“Oh, she's back all right.” I swallow the shot down and wince at the taste. “She's not only back, but she managed to get rid of Emery in all of like ten minutes.”
“That doesn't sound like Em.”
“And after Emery and I finally hooked up last night, by the way.” I snort at how shitty my luck is. “But wait, it gets better.”
Pouring another shot, he slides it over to me. I tilt my head back as I let it slide down my throat. And then, I drop the same bomb on him that was dropped on me no more than a couple hours ago.
“She knew about Hollis. Like, from the beginning.”
Shock fills his face. “She didn't.”
I motion for another shot, thankful when he doesn't refuse. “Oh, she did.”
“And she never said anything?” He pauses. “Wait, how did she know but Ashlyn didn't?”
I shrug. “I don't know, and I can't even ask Emery because she won't talk to me.”
“Have you tried asking her?”
“She didn't give me a chance,” I answer. “I begged her to talk to me, but she wouldn't, and I don't blame her. I hurt her when I made the biggest mistake of my life and chose Lindsey. Then to see us together today, even if she doesn't know the full story, I can see why she hates me. Shit, I hate me.”
Vance sighs. “So, what are you going to do?”
“There's nothing I can do but give her time to cool off and then see if we can come to an agreement about Hollis.” I signal for another shot, but he doesn't give me one.
Instead, he just sits there staring at me.
“I need another.”
He shakes his head. “You can't honestly be that stupid, can you?”
My bottom lip sticks out. “I didn’t come here for insults. I just want whiskey.”
“No,” he says. “Fuck no. That is not how this is fucking going down.”
“Dude, what the hell is wrong with you?” I ask, bemused at his tone.
“You're what’s wrong with me right now, H!” he roars. “Are you forgetting that I was there all those years you used to stare at her from across the damn room? You should have made a move then, but you babbled some bullshit about a promise to your sister, so I left it alone. But Lindsey? You're really going to let Lindsey ruin this for you? You don't think she's ruined enough?”
I throw my hands in the air. “What else do you expect me to do? You didn't see how broken she looked! I can't keep doing that to her. I won't. She deserves better.”
“Don't act all noble,” he growls. “I don't know who the fuck you're trying to fool, but it sure as hell ain't me. Stop pretending like you're not taking the easy way out of this because you're scared.”
“I'm scared?” I question sarcastically.
“You're fucking terrified,” he replies. “Because while Lindsey might be a nutcase, a part of you loved her, and she screwed you over seven ways to Sunday. I'm sure seeing her today brought all of that back for you. And Emery? You feel something a million times stronger for her than you ever felt for Lindsey. So yeah, you're afraid. Afraid of letting your guard down. Afraid of letting her in. Afraid of giving her the ability to hurt you, because you don't know if you'd make it through that.”