Chapter Thirty

Grayson

 

I swung my legs down to the curb, wincing at the pins and needles that ran along my legs. Taking a deep breath, I looked over to where Cal was stretching by the hood of the truck.

We'd just hammered some shit out, yeah. But that didn't stop me from breaking out into a run.

"You fucking..." he swore as I blew past him, racing him to be the first at her front door. "Idiot! You don't even know which one is her place!"

I slowed to a halt. He was right. "Dammit," I exhaled, leaning over. "And I suppose you're not going to show me?"

Cal grinned his control freak grin and waved his phone in my face. I snatched at it, but he yanked it away. "Ha!" he yelled, dancing backward. "What are you gonna do now?"

"Kick your ass?" I promised, ducking for the dive tackle.

"Hey!" a voice came from above. Cal and I both looked around for a second like God himself was speaking from the heavens, but it turned out to be an Indian guy on the fifth floor of the building in front of us. "Keep it down!"

"Aren't they used to people fighting on the streets in New York?" I wondered as Cal called up his apologies. "It's loud as fuck, here."

And it was. At this hour in Reckless Falls, the only noise would be the cawing of crows and maybe the sound of the wind through the bare trees. Here the sheer volume felt like an assault on my senses. "How the heck does Harper get any sleep?" I wondered aloud.

"She's probably sleeping right now," Cal added. "It's Saturday morning. She might have been out last night."

I definitely did not like the twinge of jealousy I felt at that. "You think she went out with someone else?"

Cal's lips twisted into a snarl and I knew he was thinking the same thing I was. "You wanna go find out?" he asked turning towards one of the low brick buildings.

"Yeah, and kick his ass," I muttered, following him. He walked up the concrete steps and then paused for a second before opening the first door into some kind of atrium. He pulled on the second door that led into the lobby of the building and then stopped.

"Well that makes sense," he chuckled.

"What's that?"

"It's locked," he said. "So random guys like us can't come wandering into people's houses.

I looked around and noticed a bank of names on the wall. "Here's the call buttons," I told him, then stopped. "Do we just...buzz her?"

"I guess, yeah."

"What do we say?"

"Are you starting to freak out on me?"

I was, but I definitely didn't want to admit it. "It's just, she's not expecting us."

"It'll be a fun surprise."

"What if she doesn't want to see us?"

Cal's face darkened. "Then we'll make it worth her while."

I sucked in a deep breath. "Fuck yeah,” I said, and turned to press the button.

I heard a muted beep and then the speaker came on with a hiss. "What the hell?" came a tinny voice.

"Harper?" I called.

There was a faint scratching sound and then a bang, then that same tinny voice, louder this time. "Is that... Grayson is that you?"

I felt my face stretch into a smile so wide I was afraid my mouth would break. "Yeah baby. Yeah, it's me."

"It's us," Cal chimed in from over my shoulder.

"You..." There was that scratching sound again. "You're here? How did you get here?"

"Cal's truck," I told her. "It wasn't very comfortable. Mind if we come in?"

"Stretch our legs?" Cal added.

There was a long stretch of silence. I looked at Cal who looked away and I knew he was thinking exactly what I was thinking. One time we could write off, call it a fluke. Something to cross off our bucket lists, like Harper said. But a second time? A second time, that made it into something real. Something that we couldn't ignore. A second time made it clear that this was something we wanted...especially after driving through the night to make it happen.

There was a buzz, then a click. Cal grabbed the door and yanked it open, but I shoved past him. "You don't know which apartment is hers!" Cal hissed, reminding me.

But I didn't need to know. "Harper," I breathed, stopping short.

She stepped out into the hallway, feet bare, green eyes shining. Were those tears? Was she happy or sad? Or pissed?

There was only one way to find out.

"I've fucking missed you," I said, moving to catch her in my arms. Before she could stop me, before she could say anything, I was kissing her, and holy fuck she was kissing me back and that's when I knew that her tears were tears of happiness, of relief, because I felt them too. I had her again.

We had her again.

Cal slid behind her, kissing her neck, her shoulders. She made a sound against my mouth, and her hand flung out, pulling us back into her apartment before anyone could see. Where we could be reunited, for real.