Lately, I’m not doing a very good job of hating Harry, and hating him is important to me. He broke Mallory’s heart. Waking up next to him with Avery asleep between us was my best friend’s dream. I don’t belong here.
I slide out of bed and scoop her up, kissing the top of her head as she yawns.
“You don’t have to get up,” Harry whispers, approaching us quietly.
I feel his warmth next to me and I close my eyes, my traitorous body liking it.
“It’s my day,” I say. “Starting at seven.”
“It doesn’t matter.”
“It matters to me.”
I reach over and grab Avery’s Binky, refusing to even look at Harry. He looks crazy good wrapped up in a towel, and I figure with just one false move, it could come loose and fall off.
I already let him almost kiss me and slept in his bed. Those things are bad enough. There’s no coming back from seeing him naked.
Carrying Avery into the living room, I set her in her swing and buckle her in. When I put the Binky back in her mouth and start up the swing, she goes right back to sleep.
I go into the kitchen and start a pot of coffee, then begin unloading the dishwasher. I’ve almost finished when Harry strides in, dressed in a dark gray suit with a perfectly pressed white shirt and a navy tie.
“You okay?” he asks as he pours a cup of coffee.
“Yeah.” I focus on organizing Avery’s bottles on top of the counter so I don’t have to turn and look at him.
“So I’ve got a fundraiser thing downtown this weekend,” he says. “Saturday night. We’re raising money to build a new housing project for vets. The Chicago Blaze Foundation is sponsoring this event—that’s the team I used to be on.”
“I know what team you were on,” I say mildly. “And I’ll take care of Avery that night so you can go, or switch you or whatever you’re asking me for.”
“Great,” he says. “Because what I was asking is for you to come with me.”
I whip around to face him, the bottles forgotten. “What?”
“We can get a little dress for Avery and show her off to everyone.” He grins and takes his wallet out of his suit pants pocket. “I’ll leave a credit card so you can buy whatever you guys need for it—please don’t worry about the cost, okay?”
“No,” I spit out, unable to find any other words right now.
Harry glares at me. “Winter, I’ve got more than enough money for—”
Finally, I find my voice again. “I’m not talking about the money. I mean no, I’m not going.”
“Why not?” he asks, agitated.
“You think you can just pass me your credit card and I’ll go shopping and get all pretty so I can walk into this thing on your arm like some doting girlfriend? I don’t even like you, Harry. Why would I do that?”
He rolls his eyes and says, “Here we go.”
“Don’t patronize me.”
“Why are you so goddamned stubborn, Winter?” he demands. “You and I both know how much you’d enjoy dressing up for a night and getting out.”
“Not with you!”
“You’re full of shit.”
He rubs a hand down his face and then levels his intense gaze at me, sending a shiver down my spine.
“If I wanted to go, I’d say yes,” I say, shrugging. “But I don’t, so I’m saying no. If you think you know my mind better than I do, I really don’t care.”
“You’re gonna get tired of playing indifferent eventually.”
I step closer to him, bringing me up against the edge of the kitchen island. “I’m not indifferent,” I say, seething. “I can’t stand you. You’re smug and arrogant and you assume no woman can resist your abs and your money, but you’re the one who’s full of shit, because I don’t even like abs.”
He quirks a brow, amused. “You don’t like abs?”
“No.” I cross my arms. “It’s like snuggling with a rock.”
“Okay, clearly you’ve got some…hormonal stuff happening right now, so why don’t we—”
“You’re seriously trying to tell me I’m PMSing?” I hold both palms out in front of myself. “I seriously can’t with you, Harry. Hire a call girl to go to the fundraiser with you. She’ll bat her eyelashes and spread her legs just like you want.”
“Fine.” He shrugs. “And you want to just stay here with Avery?”
I’m about to say yes, but something stops me. Fuck him for assuming no one but him ever asks me to go out on a Saturday night.
“Actually, no,” I say. “I can’t take care of her because I have plans.”
He laughs bitterly. “Bullshit. You aren’t working on a Saturday night, Winter. You just want to screw me so I can’t sleep with anyone else that night since I’ll have Avery.”
“I didn’t say I was working. I have a date.”
“Really?” Another laugh, and he puts his hands on his hips, looking astounded. “Well, that happened fast. Because five minutes ago, you said you could take care of Avery that night.”
“I forgot until just now.”
“He sounds like a real winner, then. What’s his name?”
“What, my date’s name?”
Harry’s eyes are dark with annoyance. I’m getting to him.
“Yeah, your date,” he says, using air quotes.
“None of your business.”
Avery starts crying from the living room and I scowl at Harry and say, “Nice job, asshole. You woke her up.”
He scowls back at me. “Right, everything’s always my fault.”
“If you say so.”
“Winter, for a grown woman, you can be such a child sometimes.”
My eyes widen in surprise. “I can be such a child? Are you kidding me?”
Harry pours his coffee into a travel mug, his lips set in a thin line. “You know what? Have it your way. Let something great pass you completely by just because you choose to be so goddamned stubborn.”
I laugh bitterly. “What, you? Are you the something great I’m missing out on?”
“Not just me, Winter. Us. But you want to keep living in your spiteful alternate universe where I’m the worst person ever.”
“I can’t stand you,” I fire back. “And not because of something I imagined, because of what you did to Mal. You led her on and crushed her.”
“She led herself on. I was honest with her about not wanting a relationship or anything serious.” He screws on the lid of his travel mug, then walks over to the pantry to grab his car keys, not looking at me. “She said it was fine, that she didn’t want anything serious, either. But believing me doesn’t fit your narrative that I’m the enemy, does it?”
I’m now in the living room, unbuckling Avery from her swing.
“Even if it is true, I’m not like Mal,” I concede. “I don’t think you value women and I don’t think you’ll ever change. I’m only here for Avery. If not for her, I’d never want to see your face again.”
“The feeling’s mutual.” Harry sneers at me and leaves the apartment, the sound of the door closing marking the final note of our argument.