Chapter 52

I barely sleep a wink after seeing Harper fucking that woman on the living room couch. Even after Jasper and I make some noise of our own, I only get an hour's sleep before waking up with it on my mind. I’m not jealous or anything, but I am curious why he feels the need to hide this from us. We’re not his parents. We’re not going to tell him that he’s not allowed to have a girl over. Hell, he can do whatever he wants. I just wish he wasn’t secretive about it.

It’s been a few days, and no one has brought it up in conversation. I know he heard Jasper and me because we made a point to leave the door cracked, but I don’t think it’s crossed his mind that we saw him. I'm sure that if I ask Jasper his opinion on what I should do, he will tell me to mind my business or wait for Harper to bring it up. Since I’ve been working on minding my business, I don’t want to mess up now. As much as I want to know all the juicy details about Harper and his lady friend, I will keep all my questions to myself.

In the meantime, I keep myself occupied with baby stuff. I officially finish my registry, something I should’ve done forever ago but kept putting off. My mom had to call and remind me for the hundredth time so people could start buying us gifts. I don’t have close family like cousins, uncles, or aunts, so I don’t know who she expects to buy gifts. The lack of family that my mom and I are close to is a little sad. I know people pulled away when they couldn’t handle being around my mom, but it hurts that they ditched me as well, as if I was part of the problem. I was just a kid and didn’t deserve to have everyone abandon me too. I have to find out through social media who has gotten married or had a baby. It took social media for me to even find out that one of my cousins died. No one called or wrote. We didn’t get to go to the funeral.

I don’t want my baby growing up ever feeling rejected by anyone. She’s innocent in this world, and I’ll defend her with my life against anyone who tries to break her before she gets a chance to understand.

As far as Jasper’s extended family members, all of them are rich and only come around on Christmas and Thanksgiving because Davina doesn’t take no for an answer when it comes to attending dinners. As pushy as she is, their whole family accepted me right off the back, making me feel like I actually had a tribe, even just for the holidays.

I’ve asked my mom several times about reaching out to them, but she always makes an ugly face about it, telling me that the phone works both ways. She says that I’m not the one who needs to make the first move since I never did anything wrong in the first place. My mom hates how our family used her as an excuse not to call on my birthdays or major milestones. When I questioned whether they even remembered any of those things, I was surprised to hear that despite being a drunk, my mom still sent invites to everyone. Hearing that hurt a lot, but I tried to understand where they were coming from. My mom was a mess, and the mess didn’t stop at birthday parties or graduations. The morning of my high school graduation, my mom spilled champagne all over my gown when she barged into the room wasted before 8 am. Thankfully, Jasper was able to get it dry cleaned in time.

Despite all the pain, family still remains essential in my heart. Hopefully, one day someone will reach out.

I’m not going to hold my breath waiting for that to happen, though. I have a family, even if they aren’t blood or haven’t known me all my life. I love those who love me. I support those who support me. With that being said, I should probably talk to Harper about his late-night visitor. I can imagine the poor girl gets tired of sneaking in late at night when she doesn’t have to. I swear Harper makes bonehead choices sometimes.

Home by myself, I wait for the guys to come in from work. I anxiously cook dinner, hoping that this conversation goes well. I don’t want Harper to feel like I’m butting in on his business or pushing him to talk about something he doesn’t want to talk about.

The moment I hear them pull into the driveway, I quickly choke down my water before pretending like I’m busy putting two dishes into the washer.

“Eden,” Jasper calls.

“In the kitchen.”

I close the washer and turn it on with no detergent pod or any other dishes.

“I didn’t even hear you two pull up,” I lie as they both sit on the bar stools.

“I’m starving. Let’s eat.” Harper rubs his hands together.

“In a minute. I want to talk to you about something.”

Jasper gives me a look, knowing exactly what I’m about to bring up. Harper gives me a glimpse of worry, probably wondering what the hell he did wrong now.

“Okay,” he mumbles, taking a deep breath to prepare himself for the unknown.

“I saw you and your therapist having sex in the living room the other night.”

Harper’s neck turns red with embarrassment, and he shakes his head.

“I’m so sorry. I didn’t mean for you to find out like that.”

Frowning, I feel confused.

“Why are you apologizing? You’re not in trouble.”

“I’m not?”

“Harper, you’re not 15, sneaking some girl into the house. You’re a grown man. All you had to do was tell us that you were seeing her.”

Jasper and I watch Harper let out a sigh of relief as he chuckles to himself.

“Man, you two don’t know how stressed I’ve been these past two weeks.”

“Two weeks?!” I step back. “You’ve been sneaking her in here for two weeks?!”

“Just every other night, though.”

I roll my eyes, smacking him with a hand towel.

“Are you mental?! You are a grown man making a grown woman sneak into your house. Does she even get to come through the front door, or do you make her climb through a window?” I laugh as Jasper hides his amusement, eating baby potatoes out of the tray on the counter.

“Dude, you are dumb.” Jasper shakes his head.

“I didn’t know how to come out and say that I was seeing her. I didn’t want to say anything until I knew what it was. We’ve been pretty casual, but things are getting serious. I really like her.”

“Then like her enough to invite her over before 10 at night. She’s helping you get better, so treat her better. Jasper and I don’t care if she stays the night or whatever. We want you to be happy.” I shrug.

Harper gives me a soft look, and in his eyes, I can see he really appreciates my approval, not that he needed it. I knew one day someone would catch Harper’s eye. I’m happy that he’s opening himself up to someone new.

“That means a lot, Eden. Thank you. Lauren will be relieved.”

“I bet. Now she can come fuck you in the morning.” I smile.

“Oh, that’s already happened. You and Jasper were gone one morning. She fucked me on the weight bench. It was magical.”

“I hope you cleaned that thing. I’ve been using it,” Jasper finally adds his two cents.

“Maybe. Maybe not. That’s what showers are for, brother.”

Eww. I really hope he washed it.

With someone new in Harper’s life, I hope they treat each other well. Who knows, maybe Lauren will become part of the family too.