The Only Exception

I take that back. Having Carley around is absolutely terrible.

Harper and I can’t cuddle. We can’t hold hands or kiss or make out or do anything! Because when we do try to Carley is there to tease us or shout at us to stop making so much noise so that it completely ruins the mood. Once she even walked in on us and started hollering with laughter.

She just kills the mood.

And it’s not like we can at my house. Obviously we can’t. Going some place else would just be weird and I’m sure Harper doesn’t want to do anything in his car. He, like most men, treats his car like a precious jewel. No shit is to get on the car.

Not only that but Carley really can be a bitch at times. I’ve been telling myself it’s because she’s pregnant and her back and feet probably hurt but by the sounds of it she was a bitch before too.

Falling back onto the couch, I curl into Harper’s side and bury my face in his chest. He runs his hand up and down my side and presses a kiss to my forehead. “Tired?”

I grunt. “I hate school.”

“Stop complaining. You’ll miss it once you graduate,” he says and I can’t even count how many times someone has said that to me. It’s not that I don’t believe them. I’m sure working and paying bills sucks but right now I just want to complain about school.

Complaining comes with being human.

“Whatever, old man.” I shout at the pinch delivered to my side. Growling, I punch Harper in the gut and he laughs. Grabbing my fist, he uses the grip on me to pull me in for a kiss. I sigh and reach up to stroke his cheek.

Our tongues meet and glide over the other, circling around and tangling with one another. We both know what will make the other moan and take great advantage of it. Harper’s hand is gliding up my top, his fingers brushing my skin so gently that it makes my entire body break out in shivers.

And the moment his hand comes back down to my ass to take it in his hand, someone clears their throat. Harper and I pull apart to look over the couch to see Carley in the doorway with a bag of groceries that she had run to get. Both of us stare at her, panting slightly from the make out.

Her smile is so large that it makes me wonder how her face isn’t breaking. Laughing loudly, she shakes her head and says, “Keep going if you want to. I don’t mind.”

“Sick woman,” Harper grumbles and I pull away to sit beside him. The both of us can hear her rummaging through the kitchen, putting whatever she got away.

I shake my head and sit up. Harper watches me get off the couch. I reach out to take his hands and he lets me. Pulling him up, I smile and suggest going out to eat, just the two of us. Harper smirks. “You want to go on a date?”

“I didn’t say that.”

“That’s pretty much what you suggested.”

“Do you want it to be?”

“Yes.”

The heat rises to my cheeks. Turning so that I’m not facing him, I shrug. “I guess it can be a date.”

“Cool,” Harper leans in quickly, pressing a kiss to my cheek. I smile and watch him leave the room to go get his car keys off Carley. There’s a few moments of arguing until he finally gets them and the two of us leave.

In the car we play Muse and I dance in my seat, singing along. Harper is beside me, smiling and occasionally looking at me with an amused glint in his eyes. I grin and continue until we reach Nina’s diner where the two of us step out to walk inside.

“Roy!” Two thin arms throw themselves around me and the only reason we didn’t fall backwards was because Harper managed to catch us. I laugh and hug Nina as she rocks us back and forth. “Sweet heart, I haven’t seen you in forever.”

“Yeah, sorry I haven’t come up to visit,” I apologize with a shy grin. She shakes her head and looks behind me at Harper. The two say hello and Nina takes us to our seats where she takes our orders and skips off to the other customers.

“This is a date?” I tease, taking a sip from my soda.

Harper rolls his eyes. “I am not driving an hour to go out to eat. This is good enough. Deal with it.”

I laugh and scoot over in our booth so that we’re side by side. Reaching under the table for his hand, I grasp it in my own and sigh, “No…I’m ok with this. As long as I’m with you it’s great.”

Harper smiles and presses a kiss to my temple. I flush as he whispers against it, “Yeah…same here.”

Nina brings us our food and by the smile on her lips I’m sure she knows about us. She didn’t seem to mind or say anything mean about it. Actually she winked at us before leaving to talk with other customers. Her doing that made me heave a sigh of relief. It’s nice knowing that she’s ok with it.

Looking beside me, I watch Harper take a bite of his chicken. He sees me eyeing it and leans over. My cheeks are probably the color of fire hydrants when he feeds it to me. Chewing slowly, I look away, bashfully and mumble, “What are we, newlyweds?”

Harper cackles and rubs his thumb across the back of my hand. “You liked it.”

“That’s totally off topic.”

“Mm.” He continues eating with me blushing like an idiot beside him. For the rest of the evening we sit together talking to one another, flirting with each other without having Carley bust into the room to tease us about it.

For the rest of the night I couldn’t keep myself from smiling because being with Harper makes me feel like I’m on cloud nine.