wants to be with me, but I realized that all the shit that's happened with our families, it’s just going to drag him down and he’s too good for that. He has way too much to lose and I can’t be the reason that he loses everything he’s been working for.”
Kylie rubbed her hand up and down Harper’s back and the soothing touch eased some of the tension in her shoulders. Just saying it out loud helped. Hearing her own words laying it out made it all clearer. She was doing this because she cared so much for Ethan, not because she didn’t.
“I get where this is coming from, I really do, but Harper, what does Ethan want? What did he say about all that, because I don’t even know the guy but I know you and you wouldn’t just fall for some hot face…” Her words drifted off when Harper gave her the look.
In Tahiti wasn’t that exactly what she’d done? Ethan pulled her from that riptide and she’s immediately gone all hot and bothered over him. But had it been more from the start because he not only had a godlike body, but he was fun to be around. Spending that day with him had been the highlight of her year and after, that had been off the charts.
Finding him again had been a shock.
Finding out she was pregnant had been life altering.
Ethan had pushed his way back into her life vowing he wanted to be with her but that tiny voice of doubt had grown louder and louder, and now she was lost.
Kylie shook her head as if she could hear what Harper was thinking. “I know that what Ethan sees is more than you’re giving him credit for. He could have bailed on you when the story came out. He didn’t do that did he?”
Harper shook her head. “He took me to meet his parents. They were...nice.”
Weighing everything that had come out at dinner, they had been calmer than her parents would have been for sure. Even after the outburst, the argument between Ethan and his father, things had settled down. Robert Wentworth had not threatened her this morning. He’d been sympathetic and had only pointed out what she’d seen already on the gossip site; public opinion of her motives was on the top of everyone’s minds. With that kind of pressure, how in the hell did a new relationship even get off the ground?
“See. If a guy wanted to run, the last thing he’d do is take you to meet mom and dad. Look sweetie, I know I don’t have anything to go on except what you’ve told me, but I think maybe you need to give it a chance. At least let him tell you what he wants.”
But Harper already knew what he wanted; her. And the baby.
A baby that she couldn’t tell Kylie about yet. As much as she believed her best friend had not had an active part in outing her and Ethan’s relationship, she couldn’t make herself trust Kylie enough right now. The very last thing either her or Ethan needed was the public finding out about it and filleting her over open coals with speculation. If they were questioning her motives now...
God, talk about a clusterfuck if that got out.
“It’s not that easy, Kye.” Harper dropped her hands into her lap and tears splashed over onto them. If it was only about her and Ethan she might be willing to try. The media had already dragged her name through the mud and if she had to, she could endure, but an innocent child getting dragged into this drama? Into this feud between families was something she couldn’t do.
Not with everything boiling on the front burner, about to spill out and make a mess everywhere.
She had no choice. Even though it was the last thing she wanted, the thing her heart protested against so hard that her ribs hurt, she had to let Ethan go.
Harper spent the entire afternoon at Kylie’s apartment marathoning The Walking Dead and eating too much Ben & Jerry’s. Kylie didn’t pry about Ethan after Harper’s breakdown and for that Harper was grateful.
After feeling so alone earlier, it was nice to just spend time with a friend without any expectations. She could just be and forget, even if it was only temporary. At least she felt better after getting it all out, despite the fact that Kye still thought she ought to give Ethan a chance.
If Kylie