Heath pushed me away and said, “You need to leave.”

“Heath,” I objected but he lost his patience with me.

“Jesus Christ Harlow. Don’t you get it?”

His tone made me frown and my voice rose. “No, no I don’t, Heath. I don’t understand this at all! Why don’t you explain it to me?”

He shook his head. “I don’t know how else to put it.” He looked pained. Frustrated. Agitated. “You need to move on. Okay? I don’t want you Harlow.”

His words, like a Tyson punch to the side of the head, punched the fight right out of me.

“You don’t mean that.” I whispered, feeling the sudden onset of heartache rise in my throat.

Through my hurt I saw him suck in a deep breath and frown.

“What is it going to take for you to understand, Harlow?” His jaw flinched and his fists clenched at his side. “I. Don’t. Want. You. Around.”

Another Tyson blow. This time to the belly where it winded me and left me breathless.

“I don’t understand.” Feeling dazed by his rejection I stood very still. “You’re breaking up with me?”

He looked frustrated. “We were never together!”

“I thought you were … that we were best—”

The thought dawned on me like an approaching tsunami. Heath had played me. We weren’t best friends. We never had been. He had played me just like he played every other girl he encountered. Now that he knew I wanted him, now the challenge of the chase was over, he wasn’t interested in me anymore.

It was hard to process and my brain struggled. Fucking asshole.

I looked up at him. My eyes wet. He was casting me aside.

“Just like that?”

“Yeah, just like that.”

The hurt in me bubbled over but my eyes never left his shimmering blue gaze. We stared at each other without speaking. And in that moment my proud little heart broke in half.

I fixed him with my most hateful look. “Fuck you, Heath.”

It was all I could manage. But it seemed fitting.

And just to back it up I shoved him—a good, you’re a fucking asshole shove to the chest—before I stormed out.

Just like the others.

Just like all those girls he’d fucked over before me.

Chapter Nine HEATH

There was no point trying to pull me out of my morose because it wasn’t possible.

She rubbed my arm, my back, my hand.

She being my sister Nikki. We were sitting on the porch steps.

“That’s because you are being an asshole,” she said, matter-of-factly.

“That isn’t helping.”

“It’s not meant to. I don’t want you to feel better. I want you to see that you’re being an asshole.”

“It’s called self-preservation.”

She scoffed. “Oh purleeese.” She gave me a playful shove in the shoulder. “It’s called being a jerk and you know it. This girl adores you. You adore her. She isn’t asking anything of you, other than you be a good friend to her.”

Nikki pulled her long hair over one shoulder. “But you’re in love with her, aren’t you Heath? This is what it’s about. You’re in love with her and it terrifies you.”

Reluctantly I found her blue eyes. I didn’t need to say anything. Nikki knew me too well. She didn’t need me confirming nothing.

She sighed. “And you think pushing her away is going to fix how you feel about her?”

I shrugged.

“I’ll tell you what it’s going to do, it’s going to send her running straight into the arms of that guy she’s been seeing.”

My head shot up to look at her. “What?”

“You just rejected her.” She put her arm around my shoulder. “You just took yourself out of the picture and left a clear path for her. And that path leads straight to the other guy.”

Nikki is two years younger than me. Sometimes I think she’s the older, more sensible one when she comes out with this kind of shit.

Because she was right.

Like a fool, I had just pushed Harlow right into Dean’s more than willing arms.

Goddamn it! If he laid a finger on her I was going to have to hurt him.

“When did the fight fall out of you?” Nikki asked.

“What do you mean?”

She looked disappointed. “You’re a fighter, Heath Dillinger. Why aren’t you fighting for her?”

I couldn’t answer. Why wasn’t I? Why wasn’t I fighting for the girl I had fallen for?

“Because she isn’t my girl.”

Nikki shook her head. “She became your girl the moment you fell in love with her.”

Oh fuck. My sister was right.

She took my chin in her hand and turned my face to her. “You do love her, don’t you?”

When I paused—because I have never been in love before—she shook my chin and repeated the question.

Did I love Harlow?

Was it even fucking possible for me to fall in love with someone?

And then I saw her. In my head. Every single fucking amazing thing about her.

“I’m batshit crazy in love with her,” I whispered.

Nikki smiled broadly. “Then you need to do whatever it takes and make her your girl. Do you understand me brother? Stop being a dipshit and go get that girl.”

* * * * *

HARLOW

Heath was still on my mind when I got ready for my evening with Dean and his friends.

You are going to have a good time tonight, I reminded my reflection in the mirror as I applied another coat of red lipstick and then stepped back.

My dress was black, short and clung to every curve. Definitely the type of dress that would raise Heath’s pulse. Not that it mattered, because I wasn’t friends with Heath anymore. Which was good, because he was an asshole.

To match my lipstick I slipped on a pair of red stilettos that raised my height four inches. The outfit was a knock out.

Because we were checking out a new club which was more upmarket that some of our usual haunts I’d decided to dress up, foregoing my usual jeans and a top for something more glamorous.

Plus, my ego had taken a battering as a result of Heath’s assholeness and I figured a little dressing up always made a girl feel better.

Remembering Heath’s attitude towards me over the past week, I forced back pangs of hurt and humiliation. I was done with his bullshit games. I deserved a night out to take my mind off it. Let karma take care of him. Let her be a bitch when she turned up. And let her be wearing a pair of stilettos when she kicked his ass.

“Wow! You look amazing. Heath is going to blow a gasket when he sees you in that,” Bridge said from the couch. She was sick with the flu and her nose was red from blowing it so much. A blanket covered her legs, and she clutched a scrunched up tissue.

“I’m not going out with Heath. I’m going out with Dean and his friends to the opening of a new club,” I replied, looking for the pair of earrings I remembered seeing on our coffee table earlier.

“Dean? I though you weren’t interested in him.”

“I’m not. What I am interested in is having a good time while I am here. Dean understands we’re nothing more than friends so when he asked me to check out this new club with him and a few of his friends I thought it might be fun.”

“And what does Heath think about that?”

“I don’t know. You’d have to ask Heath. But good luck. He seems to have lost his ability for speech lately.”

Bridge shifted on the couch. “Uh oh. What happened?”

I found my earrings in the coconut shell we used as a coin bowl.

“Apparently we are no longer friends,” I said putting my earrings in. “Apparently he doesn’t want anything to do with me.”

“Since when?”

“Since this morning when I confronted him at the gym,”

“You confronted him at the gym?”

“He’s completely ignored me all week. He hasn’t answered any of my calls or text messages. I wanted to know why.”

I briefly explained the encounter at the gym.

“All right, I’m calling a cab,” I said, not wanting to spend a moment more on Heath and his bullshit. I checked my reflection one last time in the mirror by the front door.