Total pages in book: 59
Estimated words: 60131 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 301(@200wpm)___ 241(@250wpm)___ 200(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 60131 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 301(@200wpm)___ 241(@250wpm)___ 200(@300wpm)
Panicking, I swung the stroller to the side and turned around so my back faced them. I pulled shades over my face and kept my head down.
“Harlow?” He stepped closer. “Harlow, is that you?”
“No, sir.” I shook my head. “You have me confused with someone else.”
“It is you, Harlow!” Lauren laughed. “Will you look at that? We came here to surprise you this weekend, and we run into you early.”
“I don’t who you people are, Miss.” I decided to cling to my act a tad bit longer. “I’ve never seen you before a day in my life.”
“Okay, hon.” Lauren pushed the shades off my face, giving me a warm smile. “You know, it’s a good thing you fell in love with something other than acting, because you still have a lot of work to do in that department.”
“Tell me about it.” I stood to give them a hug, but William began to cry.
“Oh no, hold on,” I said, instinctively pulling a napkin from my pocket.
I dabbed his lips and handed him Binky Bunny Number Seven.
“See?” I smiled at him. “You never have to wait too long for it. I always keep it around.”
My parents exchanged glances.
Shit.
“Whose kids are these?” Lauren asked.
“Sasha’s.” I threw her under the bus. “I’m helping her out while she finishes another book.”
“Sasha has kids?” my dad asked. “Since when?”
“Since, well, they’re not hers per se. The kids are…”
My heart raced so loudly that I was certain they could hear it.
“No, well, the kids belong to a man who is uh…”
“Nan-eeee.” William yelled at the worst possible time. “My naannn-eeee!”
“Aw!” My mom stooped down and pinched his cheek. “Is he trying to say his name? Is it Manny?”
“Nan-eeee,” He cooed again.
“I think he’s trying to say, Nathan, Lauren.” My dad couldn’t help pinching his cheek, too. “Na-thannn?”
“Hol-lowww.” Charlotte decided to heighten the stakes by attempting to say my name. “Hol-loww.”
“Is the baby girl trying to say Harlow?” Lauren gushed. “Or is that her name?”
“Hollow is her name. Weird choice, I know.”
“Don’t tell me Sasha took on a daycare job to do research for her book.” Lauren shook her head. “She could’ve called me.”
That lie could work. Take the bait, Harlow. Now.
“Sasha would never do something like that.” My dad beat me to it. “She doesn’t have the patience. Is she here with you, Harlow?”
The walls around me moved closer, squeezing me on all sides, pressuring me to burst and spew my lies.
“Hello.” Pierce suddenly stepped next to me. “Are you friends of Harlow’s?”
“We’re a lot more than friends.” Lauren extended her hand. “We’re her parents. And you are?”
“Are you blind, honey?” My dad extended his hand next. “He’s Pierce Dawson, the owner of the Brooklyn Jets. He owns RockCreek, too. We bought stock in his company last week.”
“I appreciate that,” Pierce said, looking at me like he expected me to join this lively conversation.
I stared straight ahead.
This wasn’t how I pictured coming clean about everything, but I had no choice.
“How do you two know each other?” “Did you just meet?” My dad and Lauren spoke over each other.
“These are my children,” Pierce said, “and Harlow is my girlfriend.”
“What?” They spoke in unison, staring at me in shock.
“He's not my boyfriend.” I was stunned he’d said that. “He’s just telling a joke.”
“I am?” He raised his eyebrow.
“Yes. You know that you're my…”
“You're not with Eric anymore, Harlow?” my dad asked.
“She better not be.” Pierce slid an arm around my waist and pulled me against his chest, kissing me like we were alone, biting down hard on my bottom lip for denying his existence.
He stared into my eyes while his mouth tamed mine, silently telling me he didn’t appreciate my lie. At all.
He let me go before I lost my breath.
“It’s a pleasure to meet you two ahead of schedule,” he said, addressing my parents like that kiss never happened.
“Likewise,” “Um, yeah,” they spoke in unison.
“Would you like to join us for the rest of our walk?” he asked. “Harlow was showing me her favorite places on the trail.”
They nodded enthusiastically.
Although I managed to show off a few spots that the twins and I loved, my parents were far too starstruck to focus on anything other than Pierce.
They didn’t let more than a few silent seconds pass without peppering him with a new question.
He answered each one patiently, and when we reached the end, he called his favorite hotel and booked them into the penthouse suite.
I sat on the pool's edge, watching Olivia’s butterfly lesson.
Pierce moved next to me, handing me a water bottle.
“I can't believe you kissed me like that in front of my parents,” I said. “I’m still mad about that.”
“Then you shouldn’t have tried acting like you weren’t mine.”
“That kiss was very inappropriate.”
“You liked it.”
I loved it. “Now, they’re going to bombard me with texts and berate me for not telling them sooner. They’ll tell everyone at our church, our neighbors, and anyone they meet on the street.”