“No, sweetie. She beat me daily. That is when she wasn’t stoned out of her mind.” I patted the spot beside of me on the sofa when Harper’s face paled.

After only a small hesitation, she moved and sat beside of me. “I…I’m sorry.”

“Don’t be. That part of my life was over when she overdosed.” And that was when my real life began on the road with my guys—my family, if not by blood then by choice. “There are different types of child abuse, though. And I think you were just as much a victim as I was.”

Harper shook her head. “No, my life was perfect compared to yours…”

“So you enjoyed being called ugly?” I rolled my eyes at her. “Verbal abuse leaves wounds too, sweetheart.” She clenched her jaw and I sighed, not wanting to argue with her. “So tell me about it. Tell me how it was growing up with that hag out in the dining room.”

She was quiet for so long that I started to wonder if she was even going to talk to me, but then she grimaced. “Monica and my dad divorced when I was young. Neither of them really took an interest in me, not that I cared. Less than a year later, she married my stepdad. He had more money than my dad…but Cecil was sweet. He cared about me. Still does.”

“That’s great. I’m glad you have him. Shane’s told me about him and the few times that you guys have gone out together.”

Violet eyes flashed with surprise. “Really?”

“Of course. Shane is always talking about you. I’m seriously getting tired of hearing all about Harper Jones.” I was only half joking because, really, I couldn’t call Shane without having to hear about the girl.

“I knew Ariana even before my mom married her dad. Our mothers were best friends. I was being compared to her from birth, actually. But when she became my stepsister it got worse. Then she started the modeling and life went from bearable to not so great in the blink of an eye. Of course puberty sucked ass.” She ran a hand through her hair. “I had horrible skin, thick glasses, and braces. Really, I was hideous.”

I couldn’t contain my snort. “That’s just teenage years. They suck for us all, babe.”

“Yeah, well it’s hard when you’re surrounded by perfect models and the attitude that goes with them,” Harper informed me, and I tried to see it through her eyes. I had never really had a girl as a friend until I had met Layla, but I knew that teenaged girls were nightmares from the one year I’d spent in high school before I’d gone to live with the guys. Girls were truly evil. I could only imagine the horror of being surrounded by those types of girls that also got paid for their looks.

All of that on top of being told by the one person that should have been supportive but was nothing but negative would have given any girl a complex.

“Isn’t your best friend one of those girls though?” Shane and Lana both had told me that Dallas was an ex model.

A small smile teased the corners of Harper’s Cupid’s bow mouth. “Yeah, but Dallas isn’t like them. She never wanted to be a model. Her mom is even more of a nightmare than my own. She forced Dallas into beauty pageants back in Texas until she was discovered and her mom signed her life over to a modeling agency until she turned twenty-one.”

“That sucks.”

“It hurt Dallas a lot. She always dreamed of being a nurse. She’s really caring under all that attitude.”

“I believe you.” I had actually really liked the other girl, her tattoos and piercings only drawing me to her more.

For a good twenty minutes I sat and talked to Harper. Then Shane started texting me, and I figured it was time to go out and let him work things out with this girl of his. I stood but Harper remained seated. “Come on, let’s go out and have some dessert,” I urged her. “I know you have a weakness for lemon cake.”

She gave me a small smile that didn’t quite reach her eyes. “You go. I just need another minute or two.”

I shook my head. “He really is sorry, Harper. Shane cares about you and would never willingly hurt you.”

Her jaw clenched and she didn’t answer, but I wasn’t going to get in the middle. Not this time. I had learned my lesson with Drake and Lana…

When I returned to Shane and Nik it was to find that Lady Tremaine and the ugly stepsister look alike were long gone. One look at Shane told me that he wasn’t doing too great. His face was pale, his eyes glazed with a mixture of tears and alcohol. I sat down beside him and grasped his hands.

“Talk to me.”

“I’ve fucked up. I played a game with my relationship with Harper and lost.” He tossed back the last of what looked like bourbon in his glass.

I couldn’t disagree with him. I’d seen for myself how upset Harper was, but that didn’t mean he lost her. Just as I’d seen how upset she was, I’d seen a little deeper than the other girl had liked. Miss Harper Jones was in love with one of my guys.

Harper

I waited until the door was closed behind Emmie and then started counting. Slowly I reached one hundred and grabbed my purse.

Tonight had been a disaster!

All I wanted was to go home and hide under my covers. I felt like I was eleven years old all over again, wanting to hide from my mother and stepsister and the disdain I knew they felt for me. I had no idea why my mother hated me so much that she felt she had to constantly beat me down with her mean, vile words. Ariana was different. I knew all her reasons for hating me, and I hated her right back. Even if at one point in our lives I had hoped that we could be friends.

I was thankful that the bathrooms were close to an exit that most of the servers used as their entrance to work. I rushed outside and down the little alley to the street, my arm already raised to flag down a cab. A small part of me felt like I was being devious, sneaking out on Shane the way I was without so much as a goodbye, but I didn’t think I could handle seeing him right then.

All day I had been on cloud nine. Half in love with a guy that treated me like I was the only thing that mattered to him. A job that I had only ever dreamed about waiting for me to step up and grasp with both hands. Now… Now I felt like a kicked puppy, that same feeling that I was always left with after seeing my mother. Only this time it was intensified by a thousand because Shane had set me up for that pain.

From the moment I had seen Monica and Ariana sitting at our table I had shut down and completely tuned Shane out. I was aware when he spoke, when he so much as moved beside me. But what he said had been lost in my numb mind. He had broken something inside me that I hadn’t even known was so fragile, something I hadn’t even been aware I had given him.