“I drew you something real good,” she said, her mouth pulling up into a wide grin. “It looks just like you.”
Taking the pad, I found myself sputtering over a laugh. The drawing was the profile of a bear walking. It was all outline with no characteristics drawn within the design. Neat and simple, and pretty damn sharp. But still I had no idea why she’d drawn it.
“Bears are patient, protective, playful. Cuddly too,” she explained, nudging my arm. “But mostly it’s in the eyes.”
“This thing doesn’t have eyes,” I pointed out, studying the soft lines she used for the slope of the bear’s neck. A perfect line. She really was something else, this girl.
“Not the bear’s eyes, Harp, yours,” she said and laughed when I looked at her unsure what the hell she was talking about. “You’ve got these big brown bear eyes that see everything. It’s one of the first things I noticed about you. Hence the bear.”
“Ah,” I said, sort of getting it, but mainly enjoying that she thought of me as something at all. “I like it a lot, boss. I wanna use it. Can I liven it up a bit, though?”
Small hands shot out to still my own. “You w-want to use it for what? A tattoo?”
“Yes.”
“But it’ll be on your body forever.”
“Generally, that’s how they work, sweetheart.”
“And you want something I drew to be with you forever?”
Something passed through me as I looked at her eyes. Her face.Her. There was so much right in her. So much I was learning and so much I still wanted to know. I wanted to keep knowing her. Keep her.
“If I had my way, sweetheart, I’d keep a lot more of you forever.”
Her throat bobbed with her thick swallow, her eyes saying more than her simple words did. “Okay then, edit whatever you like. If it’s going on your body, I want you to love it.”
Still drowning in her gaze, I said, “I think I already love it.”
I was hot. Scorching. Burning. My throat got dry and my voice went husky. I didn’t know what I was saying, but I somehow knew I’d never take the words back.
And to my surprise, the look in her eyes mirrored mine. “Harper?”
“Yeah?”
“Can I tell you something?”
My heart stuttered, both excited and terrified that maybe her something would match my something. “Anything.”
“I don’t ever want you to leave me alone.”
Satisfaction and disappointment. Once again she’d made the perfect cocktail of it. Satisfaction rolled off me at her simple but powerful words. She didn’t want me to leave, which meant she didn’t want to leave me either. They were almost better than those other few words. Yet, the absence of them was still glaring.
But surprisingly not pressing. As always, I didn’t mind waiting on this girl. I didn’t mind being ahead of her, because there was something behind those eyes that I understood. Something in the never ending fight she portrayed time and time again that promised me she would catch up soon.
Pressing my forehead to hers, I let out a long, steady breath. Steady because she stabilized me. And my words felt like a promise as I breathed, “Then, I won’t.”
Chapter Twenty-Eight
ALTA
“It’s too big!”
“No it’s not, Alta.”
“It’s literally not fitting, Harper. I’m trying.”
“Ally, baby. Quit getting so frustrated and try it again.”
