Page 12 of Stopping Short

Harper

My gaze keeps ping ponging back and forth between Evan and Jackson. I don’t know what happened between them, but I’ve never seen Jackson as angry as he is right now.

He’s not a violent person. I’ve never seen him throw a punch or even get angry enough to do that. He’s normally the one calming everyone else down.

Yet right now, he looks seconds away from murdering someone.

“Your little friend is jealous and decided to punch me. Dude has anger issues,” Evan hisses, glaring at Jackson.

I frown as I slowly turn my gaze to my best friend. Why would he ever be jealous of Evan? That doesn’t even make sense.

“Oh, please! There’s no part of you I'm jealous of.” Jackson rolls his eyes as he steps around Evan. “I’m out of here. It was a mistake for me to even come.”

My stomach falls and I feel like I'm going to be sick. Why does he think it was a mistake for him to come? I’ve been looking forward to seeing him for days and yet he regrets coming?

I want to reach out to him and stop him from leaving, but I don’t want him and Evan to get into another fight. I think it’s better if he leaves and I’ll go find him when I'm done here.

“Why did he punch you, Evan?” I stare down at my pathetic excuse for a boyfriend, I refuse to call him my fiancé. Right now, I’m wondering what I ever saw in him. He’s been nothing but rude since Jackson showed up here and that’s not the type of person I want to be with.

“I told you, he’s jealous.”

“Jackson doesn’t get jealous. Try again.”

“I'm not joking, Harper. He was jealous.”

“Of what?” I let out a humorless laugh, more than done with him tonight. He’s been super possessive and I don’t like it.

“Excuse me?” He growls, narrowing his eyes on me.

“He’s a major league baseball player. He could have any woman in this place.” I motion around the bar. “Why would he be jealous of you? What could possibly make my best friend get so angry at my fiancé?” I over-enunciate the word, hating that I'm even uttering it.

“I'm sorry, what?” Some girl blinks at me before turning her attention to Evan. “You’re engaged? Are you kidding me? You were just kissing me!”

“She’s lying!” Evan’s terrified gaze meets mine. “Jackson must’ve put her up to this. I’ve never even met this woman before. Why would I want her when I have you?”

“Are you an idiot? If I had known Jackson McLaren was here, don’t you think I would’ve been trying to kiss him instead?” She rolls her eyes before turning towards me. “Your fiancé is a lying piece of crap. He was kissing me. He told me he was single. Jackson saw him and called him out. Do yourself a favor and walk away from this one. Go chase Jackson and live your happily ever after with a good man.”

She flips her hair over her shoulder and makes sure to step on Evan’s stomach with her heels as she leaves. He lets out a grunt and winces.

“Harper! Don’t listen to her!” Evan scrambles to get off the ground. He reaches for me and I take a step back.

“Don’t touch me, Evan. I think-”

“No! Don’t break up with me. We can make this work. I'm sorry and I’ll never do anything like this ever again. We belong together!”

My mind drifts back to the night of my surprise party and the events that took place.

When Jennifer and I return to the party, I do my best to mingle with my friends and avoid Evan and his family. I'm sure his mom will think I'm being rude, but right now, I'm in survival mode.

If I approach his family, there’s no telling what will be said or how I'm going to respond. I know his mom isn’t a huge fan of me to begin with so it could go either way. I'm not sure his dad even knows I exist. The man is always too focused on work to really pay attention to anything going on around him.

It’s so odd to me. My dad pays attention to every little thing I do. He cares about me and wants to help me in any way possible. I'm lucky to have him, even if he met Mom in the worst of situations. He saved both of us once upon a time. Gave us a better life. A safe life. He even protected us from my biological father.

Jackson’s dad is the same way. Scott stepped up when Jackson’s biological father wanted nothing to do with him. He never treated Jackson like he wasn’t his and he changed Jackson’s life because of that.

“Sweetheart, come say hi to my parents.” Evan smiles at my friends as he says, “Excuse us.”

He takes my hand in his, practically dragging me across the room. If I thought I could dig my heels into the ground and avoid going over there, I would. Anything to stay away from the conversation that’s about to ensue.