Harper finished plating the food she’d made and set it in the microwave, just as she’d been doing for the past couple weeks she’d been here now.  She wondered if Blue even knew it had been her preparing these meals for him, but in some small way, she felt a warm feeling of acceptance every day she saw he’d eaten it.

She cleaned up what little of a mess remained, leaving the kitchen spotless before heading back upstairs.  It was funny, she thought, how she’d only just finally unpacked her things, and now, there she was waiting for Blake to arrive home from work to tell her she felt it was probably time for her to be moving on.

She’d considered her options of where she’d go next or what she’d do.  She had her alimony from John that was more than enough for just her to live on, but she was tired of living off of everyone else’s means and abiding by everyone else’s expectations.  She’d had dreams once of running a small restaurant, and had even finished her business degree in college with a minor in Restaurant Management that she had never gotten the chance to use. 

To her father, though, college had just been a means for her to find a husband, as far as he had been concerned.  When she hadn’t even been able to do that right, he’d grown impatient with her and had taken matters into his own hands, arranging her fateful meeting with John Morgan.  The rest was bitter history.

She had a lot of unrealized dreams in her life, she thought, but as much as she wished things could have been different here, she knew it was about time for her to go and find a new dream, much as the old ones were hard to let go of.

  She went down to Blake’s room as soon as Blake got home that evening.

“Hey, H,” Blake greeted with a warm smile, falling back onto the sofa.  She kicked her feet up on the coffee table in front of her and pulled a pillow in to snuggle at her side, definitely looking happier and less weighed down than she had when Harper had first arrived those few weeks ago.

Harper sat in the nearby armchair and faced her.  “Do you have a minute to talk?  There’s something I wanted to tell you if you don’t mind.”

Blake’s smile diminished as a look of concern spread across her face, and she leaned forward in her seat, still holding the pillow tight in front of her now.  “Sure, what’s up?  Is everything okay?”

“I think so …” she began and measured Blake’s response before proceeding.  So far, so good.  “I just wanted to talk to you to get an idea of how you might feel if I started looking at where I wanted to go next.  You seem like you’re in a better place now than when I first got here, and I think you’ll be okay now.  I don’t really know how much good I’m doing here, anyway,” she admitted.

Blake frowned as her face fell.  “Aww, H, you know you can stay for as long as you’d like.  I know I’ve been busy and kind of all over the place lately.  I guess you’re right … I do feel better since you’ve been here, but you’ve helped me more than you know, just knowing I have you here in my corner.”

Harper got up and moved to the couch next to Blake.  Blake swiveled around so that they faced each other, and Harper took her by the hands.  “I know you don’t mind me staying, but look at you!”  She squeezed Blake’s hands for emphasis.  “Look how strong you are.  You’re piecing your life back together.  You’re way ahead of the game if you ask me.  Now, it’s time I start taking a lesson from your playbook and start taking charge of my own life.”

Blake smiled with pride.  “Well, I guess I can’t exactly argue with you on that, even though I kind of want to.  But there’s no rush leaving on my part.  Seriously, you’re always welcome here, and I’ll be here to help any way I can, too.”

Harper felt her face redden.  There was a reason to rush, actually.  Things with Blue were still about as tense and awkward as they could get, and it just didn’t feel right staying when she knew he didn’t want her being there, regardless of what he may have said. 

Blake must have sensed her uneasiness.  She dipped her head down to catch Harper’s eyes.  “What?  What are you not telling me?”

Harper hesitated with uncertainty.

Blake’s eyes widened as she realized Harper was holding something back.  “Oh my gosh!  What, Harper?  There’s something you’re not telling me, and I insist you spill it.”

Harper sucked in a deep breath, garnering her courage.  “To be honest …”

She watched Blake’s head bobbing as though trying to rush the words along out of her, and it only made it harder to say them.  Once she said them, they couldn’t be unsaid, and Harper knew these words could hold the power to change the way Blake saw her.  Maybe even cause her to question their entire friendship.

But the simple truth was, she was tired of lying about it anymore.  Keeping this secret had been more destructive to her own life than anything else, and it was time to let someone else in.  So, she let out her breath, wrung her hands together, and decided to let her rip.

  “Blake, I don’t think your brother feels good about me being here.”

Confused, Blake shook her head.  “Well, that doesn’t make any sense.  Why would Blue care about you being here?”

Filled with nervous energy, Harper stood and walked around the coffee table to pace the open floor.  Blake’s eyes followed her.

“What if I told you that Blue and I had history that nobody knows about?”

Blake looked as though she were combing her memories, trying to pinpoint anything that might have indicated what Harper just revealed.  She looked back up at Harper and shrugged, shaking her head.  “Like when?  What kind of history?”

Still pacing and wringing her hands together, Harper replied, “It was a really long time ago, B.”

Blake’s eyebrows furrowed. “How long ago?”

“A long time ago,” Harper emphasized.

Starting to look almost angry, Blake repeated slowly, “How long ago?”

Uneasiness filled Harper.  Maybe this had been a mistake after all. 

“We were young,” she tried to explain.  “And you know my father.  He would have never allowed it.  Not to mention the way this little town would have talked with Blue being so much younger than me, which really would have made my daddy angry.  So, we never told anybody.”

The look of shock on Blake’s face sent panicked worry through Harper, and she braced herself for what Blake might say next.  She felt awful.  Worse than awful.  She could feel her eyes start to burn with the threat of tears.

“I can’t believe this,” Blake said, then paused.  “I … cannot … believe this!”

“I know, I should have told you.  I’m so sorry, Blake.  I don’t know what else to say.”

“You’re damn right you should have told me!”  Blake sprang up from her seated position on the couch.  All that stood between them was the coffee table and the tension that was as thick as Country Crock. 

“Blake, I-”

“You and my brother?” Blake interrupted, her arms splayed out wide to emphasize her shock, but a smile played at the corners of her lips.  “And you never told me, your best friend?  I thought we had a promise to never keep anything from each other, and you’ve been hiding something this big since we were kids?”  Her voice became more and more shrill, but Harper felt relief flood through her realizing Blake wasn’t livid with her like she could have been.

Harper’s shoulders slumped as the weight lifted from them.  “Not kids,” she muttered in clarification but shrank when Blake gave her an emphatic look.  “I know it’s ridiculous.  Trust me when I say I’m way more upset with myself than you could possibly be.”

“Wait a minute.  So, that night at Chance’s Bar when you and Blue were dancing?”  Blake started to make her way around the coffee table.

“No, that wasn’t-”

“Oh my gosh!  Have you two been seeing each other this whole time you’ve been back and keeping it from me?” Blake asked, her voice starting to rise again. 

“No, nothing like that-”

“You’ve got to be kidding me!  I mean, what did you think, I wouldn’t want you to be happy just because I’m going through a hard time right now with the divorce, and Martin’s new ‘fiancé,’ and all that?” She motioned the air-quotes of ‘fiancé’ with a momentary sneer.

By now, Blake had made it around to Harper and took her by the arms, squeezing them like she wanted to shake her.

Harper reached out to grab Blake by the waist.  “Blake, listen to me!  It’s nothing like that.  Blue still hates me for the way I left all those years ago.  Nothing is going on between us now.  I promise you, for goodness’ sake!”

It was quiet for several moments as Blake searched Harper’s eyes to see that she was telling the truth.

“Well, I mean, it wouldn’t be the worst thing in the world to see you and my brother together,” Blake admitted calmly.

Harper shook her head.  “That’s all long over.  Like I said, he hates me now.  And I can’t even blame him.  But he’s not the only reason I can’t stay.  I need to move on, too.  For me.   I need to find some direction and purpose for myself.” 

I need healing, too, she thought.  Healing she wasn’t going to find here where she would always be stuck in the past and reminded of everything she lost.

Blake smiled with understanding and pulled Harper in for a tight hug.  Harper hugged her back, getting the validation she needed to close this chapter and finally move on.

“Well, I hope wherever you end up, that it’s something that makes you happy,” Blake said over Harper’s shoulder.  “And you’d better keep in touch!”

Harper laughed, pulling away and wiping away a stray tear that had escaped down her cheek.  “I promise, I will.  You know that.”

Seeming satisfied, Blake smiled.  “Okay.”  She took a deep breath and sighed loudly.  “Well, I guess I’d better go get in the shower.  Are you going to be okay, or should I stay?” Blake asked.

“You’re going out again?” Harper asked, pleasantly surprised.

Blake’s smile exploded across her face and she nodded. 

“Wow … it must be getting serious with this mystery guy, then, huh?”

Blake grimaced with cautious hope.  “Yeah …” She smiled.  “I guess we shall see!”