Chapter Sixteen
Harry
Ithrow the tennis ball so hard at the wall it almost ricochets back and hits me square in the face. I lash my hand up, grabbing it, listening as my phone blares on loudspeaker.
But it just keeps ringing.
Grace won’t pick up the damn phone.
All this time, she thought Gemma was mylover, which is the sickest thing in the goddamn world.
All this time, I could’ve fixed the rift between us if I’d just known about the mistake.
Sure, she still ghosted me, but I can’t say I blame her, now that I know why. It makes sense, from her point of view, if she thought that while we were having the most magical romance in the goddamn history of magical romances, I was elsewhere, making babies.
Fuck.
Thud-thud-thud, the tennis ball slams so hard now I swear I can feel the whole room tremble.
“You’ve got Nick waiting in the car park in case she comes home,” Gemma says, frowning at me from the seat across the desk.
She leans back, arms folded so that for a second, it feels like she’s the big sister.
“You’ve already been by her place and she wasn’t there. What else are you supposed to do? Just relax.”
I drop the tennis ball and throw myself into the leather seat, the material sticking to me, my body coated in anxiety and sweat.
“You two will work it out, bro,” she says softly. “I know you will.”
I flinch. “I thought you hated her, Gem, to be honest with you.”
“Hated her?” She narrows her eyes. “I guess I didn’t like the way she ghosted you when we were kids. But I saw how much you loved her, too. It was crazy, actually, Harry. It’s like she brought out all your good qualities overnight. I’ve never seen a romance like that.”
“All my good qualities?” I bare my teeth in a facsimile of a grin. “Are you saying I’m not all sunshine and rainbows now, then?”
“Ha, ha,” she mutters, rolling her eyes. “But seriously, I want you two to work it out. You clearly loved her back then, and you’ve clearly never stopped loving her.”
“Love her?” I mutter, reaching for my blue mug. But then I let my hand drop, realizing it’s empty and I’ve already pounded three coffees today. “That’s a big word, Gem. Let’s not get ahead of ourselves.”
“If you didn’t love her, jackass, why did you invite her here and basically seduce her? You told me you’ve been seeing each other since the camp started.”
“Yes, but …” I shift uncomfortably. “I had a plan.”
She blinks, tilting her head. She takes off her glasses and rubs the bridge of her eyebrows with a sigh. “Jesus, Harry, I don’t like the sound of that. What sort of a plan?”
Feeling like one hell of a douchebag, I tell Gemma about my plan.
“I was going to make her fall for me and then ghost her, like she ghosted me.”
“Wait, what?” Gemma mutters, tilting her head at me. “You were going totrickher?”
I laugh grimly. It’s like hearing the outraged tone in Gemma’s voice sends a realization hammering into my chest.
Maybe – just maybe – what I’ve been doing is a hundred shades of messed up.
“I wanted revenge,” I mutter, scratching at the desk with my trimmed fingernail. “You remember how fucked up I was when I tried to contact her and she wouldn’t call me back.”
“Do you think that justifies it?” Gemma asks sternly, sounding so much like Mom it’s insane … not that I’d ever tell her that, and definitely not right now.
