Chapter 50: Chapter 50

“Hey,” Hardin says and rubs the back of his neck.

I don’t say anything. I look at Steph, then grab my purse from the table and begin to walk away.

“Tessa, wait!” she calls after me. The thick heels of her shoes smack against the hard tile as she hurries to catch up with me. “Can we talk?”

“Talk about what, Steph?” I snap. “How my first and basically only friend here let me be humiliated in front of everyone?”

Hardin and Tristan look at each other, obviously unsure whether to intervene.

Steph throws out her hands. “I’m sorry, okay! I know I should have told you—I thought he would tell you!”

“So that’s supposed to make it okay, then?”

“No, I know it won’t, but I’m really sorry, Tessa. I know I should have told you.”

“But you didn’t.” I cross my arms.

“I miss you, I miss hanging out with you,” she says.

“I’m sure you do miss having me as the focus of all of your jokes.”

“It wasn’t like that, Tessa. You are . . . were my friend. I know I fucked up, but I really am sorry.”

Her apology catches me off guard. But I recover and say, “Well, I can’t forgive you.”

She frowns. And then her expression turns angry. “But you can forgive him? He’s the one who started it all—and you forgave him. How fucked up is that?”

I want to snap at her, cuss her out even, but I know she’s right. “I haven’t forgiven him, I’m just . . . I don’t know what I’m doing,” I whine and put my hands over my face.

Steph sighs. “Tessa, I don’t expect you to just let it go like that, but at least give me a chance. We could hang out, just the four of us. The group is all fucked up, anyway.”

I look up at her. “What do you mean?”

“Well, Jace has been an even bigger dick since Hardin beat the shit out of him. So Tristan and I have been keeping our distance from everyone.”

I look over to where Hardin and Tristan are watching us and then look back at Steph. “Hardin beat up Jace?”

“Yeah . . . last Saturday.” She scrunches her brows. “He didn’t say anything?”

“No . . .” I want to hear as much as I can before Hardin walks over and stops her from spilling, but she’s eager to be on my good side, so she starts without my even having to ask.

“Yeah, well, it’s because Molly told Hardin that Jace planned the whole . . . you know,” she adds quietly, “telling you in front of everyone . . .” But then she laughs a little. “Honestly, he had it coming, and the look on Molly’s face when Hardin basically pushed her off of him was priceless. I mean, seriously, I should have taken a picture!”

I’m pondering the fact that Hardin turned down Molly and beat up Jace that Saturday before he came to Seattle, when I hear Tristan say, “Ladies,” almost as if in warning that Hardin’s near.

Hardin joins me and takes my hand, and as Tristan starts to pull Steph away, she stays facing me for a moment and says with wide eyes, “Tessa, just think about it, okay? I miss you.”

Chapter thirty-two

TESSA

You okay?” Hardin asks when they disappear.

“Yeah . . . I’m fine,” I tell him.

“What did she say?”

“Nothing . . . just that she wants me to forgive her.” I shrug, and we head off down the main throughway. I need to process everything that Steph just told me before I bring it up to Hardin. He must have been at one of their parties before he came to Seattle, and Molly must have been there. I can’t deny it’s a massive relief to hear Steph’s take on things. It’s almost funny that he had told me he slept with Molly that same night he was actually rejecting her. Almost. The relief and irony are quickly overshadowed by my guilt over kissing that stranger at the club while Hardin was pushing away Molly.

“Tess?” Hardin stops walking and waves his hand in front of my face. “What’s going on?”

“Nothing. I was just thinking about what to get your dad.” I’m a bad liar, and my voice gets more rushed than I’d like. “Does he like sports? He does, right? You two were watching that football game, remember?”

Hardin eyes me for a moment, then says, “The Packers, he likes the Packers.” I am positive that he wants to ask more about Steph, but he stays quiet.

We go to a sporting goods store, and I stay fairly quiet as well and Hardin chooses a few things for his father. He refuses to let me pay, so I grab a key chain off the display case near the register and pay for it myself just to annoy him. He rolls his eyes and I stick my tongue out at him.

“You do know that you grabbed the wrong team, right?” he says when we exit the store.

“What?” I reach in and grab the small object.

“That’s the Giants, not the Packers.” He smirks, and I shove the key chain back into the bag.

“Well . . . good thing no one will know the good gifts are actually from you.”

“Are we done yet?” he whines.

“No, I have to get something for Landon, remember?”

“Oh yeah. He mentioned that he wanted to try a new shade of lipstick. Maybe coral?”

I put my hands on my hips and face him. “You leave him alone! And maybe I should be getting you the lipstick, since you seem to know the exact shade,” I tease. It feels good to be bickering with Hardin in a playful way instead of a let’s-burn-the-house-down way.

He rolls his eyes, but I see a small smile appear before he speaks. “You should just get him hockey tickets. Easy and not too expensive.”