Midnight Kiss

Chapter Seven

James let out a sigh, then dropped his head back against the upper cushion of the couch, staring up at the ceiling. "Sucks that he had to find out that way. I'd planned on telling him alone. Maybe go hang out at a bar, have a few drinks and tell him I've started dating someone; drive home the fact that I think she's the one before dropping the bomb."

"The one, huh?" Harper asked. Though he'd confessed being in love with her the night prior, hearing it phrased in this way created goosebumps across her skin.

James looked over at her, his blue eyes sparkling like the surface of the ocean. He didn't need to answer when the truth was in his stare, but he replied anyhow. "I wouldn't have kissed you the second time if the first hadn't confirmed what I've suspected for a very long time, Harper. Fate brought me to your family because I was meant to be with you."

A smile pulled at James' lips and he ran his fingers through his dark, wavy hair. "I know that sounds corny as hell, and normally I'm not the guy that blurts all this shit out so soon, but this thing between you and me has been a long time coming.

"I feel more like me when I'm with you than with anyone else and it's always been that way. You never try to make me something I'm not and see me for who I am with no judgement. I can open up to you and not feel like it's going to be used against me somewhere down the road."

Harper always had the same suspicions. Since she was old enough to have a full grasp on what love meant, Harper had wondered if James was 'the one' she could never call her own.

James patted the cushion beside him and Harper sat down, allowing his arm to slink around her and pull her close. "I know you don't want to and I know itwill be brutal, but we need to tell Layla before she finds out in the worst possible way."

Though her insides twisted and turned, Harper nodded her agreement. There was no good way of telling her sister that Harper stole what once had been her future out from under her, but if she found out about them in a similar matter as her father or brother... to say it wouldn't be fair would be an epic understatement. 

As an ex, Layla had no right to know anything going on in James' life. As her sister, however, things were different. That single fact changed everything, and Layla deserved to know the truth. If they'd been broken up for years, Harper wouldn't be so terrified of this moment. Layla would have moved on by then. Unfortunately, she hadn't moved on yet and showed no signs of doing so. Layla was still in love with James Wittig and it would destroy her when she found out Harper felt the same and would become a knife in the back finding out James loved her in return.

"Sunday," Harper said before looking up and James. "I'll tell her Sunday."

"We will tell her Sunday," James corrected, giving her body a squeeze. "I don't want you doing this alone."

Neither did Harper, but she would have as much of her parent's support as they could provide without being insensitive to their other daughter. "I won't be alone. I promise I'll call you when it's done, but if you're there, it'll be like we're rubbing it in her face and I don't want that."

James let out a heavy breath and rubbed at the back of his neck, his eyes closing only for a moment before returning to her. "I wish we could enjoy this. The beginning of a relationship is supposed to be this carefree and exciting time where we can't keep our clothes. Instead, we're dealing with all this bullshit and every time I undress you, one of your family members show up."

Harper winced at the words. 'Mortifying' didn't cover both situations. At least her father could make it light-hearted, though her brother made no such attempt.

No knock on the door occurred before it opened, and Nevaeh popped her head in. "The parents are here. Time to get back to work, sugar."

Harper nodded and stood from the couch, her hand ending up in James' grasp.

"Come over to my place tonight. I'll cook you dinner and see if we can do this date thing right."

Most of the date had gone perfect until it came to the nightcap.

"I'll be there at around six," she agreed with a smile. Harper was about ready to barricade the damn door this time around.

James let her go and Harper followed Nevaeh out to the main room, wiping her hand against her hair to make sure everything was in place.

"Well, isn't that boy just a tall glass of sexy?" Nevaeh said with a grin.

Sexy didn't quite cover it. Like one of her friends once said when they ran into him while she was on break from college, he looked like the cover of a romance book come to life with the personality of a leading man you wished you had in your own love life.

And he was all hers.