What do I have to do to convince this girl that I love her more than anything? Tears suddenly clouded my vision, and my voice cracked as they spilled over. “It is, Harper. I love you so damn much, why can’t you see that?”

Her wide eyes started watering as well, and her jaw started quivering. The next thing I knew, she was out of my arms and walking away. “I have to go; I’m sorry.”

“Harper, please. Please don’t just walk away. Talk to me, baby.” She didn’t stop and didn’t look back at me. “Princess, please stop walking.” Nothing; she kept her head down and continued away from me, and I was terrified that if I let her go, I’d never get her back. “Harper, please talk to me!”

She turned suddenly, but I didn’t stop walking until I was directly in front of her.

“I will,” she promised. “We will talk, but right now I have to go.” This time she cupped my face to wipe away my tears.

“Promise?” When she nodded, I whispered, “I love you,” before kissing the inside of her wrist and watching as she stepped away from me. I was so focused on Harper I didn’t notice anyone else was there until Bree touched my arm. My eyes flashed between the two of them, and I tensed up for their reaction at saying that out loud in front of my sister. But they both just smiled at me, and my body relaxed until I looked around and noticed we’d caught other people’s attention. Ducking my head, once again I quickly walked away from the girl I loved.

“YOU LIKE IT?”

Brad smiled as he looked in the double mirror to see the ink I’d just finished on his back. “Yeah man, Sarah will love it.”

I put ointment on the tattoo and covered it before Brad pulled his shirt back on and hopped up onto the table. I wanted to make some comment about how Brad was whipped for getting Sarah’s name on the back of his shoulder, but Brian had already done the piece on my arm that had “Princess” hidden in it. So I didn’t have much room to talk.

Jeff walked up to my station and threw a soda at Brad and me before opening up his own and sitting on my counter. It was a slow night in the shop, and Brian was the only one with an appointment . . . and it was his brother.

“We going surfing tomorrow?” Brad asked before taking a long drink.

“Yep. Do you know if Brandon’s going?”

Brad shrugged his shoulders. “I swear, you two switched places, you’re getting back to yourself, and Brandon’s disappeared, well . . . except for lunch the other day.”

“Yeah, but he left as soon as I sat down.” And Brad was so wrong. I wasn’t getting back to myself, I was just hoping that every day was the day I would finally get to take Harper in my arms again. But with each passing day, that hope had slowly started to fade.

“You’re not still fighting, are you? I mean neither of you have Harper, so there’s no point.” My expression deadpanned, and I shot a warning glare at Brad, who raised his hands in surrender and smirked. “Hey, man, you know I’m still pulling for you. I want you to be happy. But it’s the truth.”

I rolled my neck and sighed deeply. “We haven’t fought since he went back home over winter break. But we’ve only talked once since he got back, and that was the morning Princess fainted.”

“Well, I wouldn’t talk to you either if you had f**ked my girl,” Jeff huffed, and dodged my empty soda bottle. “Well, I wouldn’t!”

I’d f**ked plenty of girls. And what Princess and I had could never be considered a f**k. “He doesn’t know.”

“Yeah he does!” Brian called out from his station, never looking up from his brother’s calf. “Hell, even when you two fought all the time, he was still in here getting work done. Now your boy’s peaced out. Your girl dumped him, and he’s avoiding you now more than ever? Trust me, bro, he knows.”

“I doubt it.” Brad said at the same time I shook my head, and said, “There’s no effing way. He’d beat the shit out of me if he knew.”

“Exactly,” Brad agreed, and pointed his empty bottle at me. “You shoulda seen the way he went after Chase. Not saying Chase didn’t deserve it, but he was beyond pissed. And that was before anything happened.”

“He knows,” Jeff disagreed. “Otherwise, he wouldn’t be avoiding you.”

“He’s avoiding everyone.” I tightened my hold on the back of the chair I was leaning against. My heart had started racing with the possibility of Brandon’s knowing what had happened between Princess and me. I quickly glanced around the shop to make sure we were the only ones in there, and my gaze settled on her name on my arm.

“I just don’t get why you’re still waiting for her,” Jeff said. “You’ve been waiting for months, and now she breaks up with her boyfriend and . . . how long has that even been?”

I gritted my teeth as I answered, “Over a month and a half.” And no . . . I hadn’t been keeping track . . .

“Month and a half,” he continued. “and she barely talks to you. Just get over the girl already.”

“He loves her!” Brian called from his station, and I snorted a laugh. He’d listened to me bitch and whine about Princess for over half a year, and he still backed me up in my feelings for her.

“Whatever!” Jeff said exasperatedly. “It’s been a month and a half since she said they’d ‘talk,’ and that still has yet to happen.”