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FOURTEEN | HAZELNUT
Harper grinned at me as Grace and I filed out from the back room. I smoothed down my apron, wanting something to do with my hands. I smiled back at him nervously, glancing at his soft, brown eyes for only a second before my own eyes started darting around the room, trying to find Cyrus.
Being unable to spot him filled me with conflicting emotions. Was it good or bad, better or worse, that I couldn’t see him easily?
I decided that, for the time being, at least, I would push him out of my mind. He was just a customer, and Harper, sweet, gentle Harper, was sat at the bar, leaning heavily across the counter and waiting for me to say something to him.
“Hi,” I said.
Harper frowned, standing immediately and reaching for me. “Are you okay, Cals?”
“She’s been like this all day,” Grace chipped in, shaking her head at me.
&n
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The stadium in Beerbridge had been built on an old apple orchard, which explained why their team, Beerbridge Town F.C., was nicknamed the Apples. However, I didn’t think it explained why half the stadium was filled with middle aged men wearing cartoon apples with gaudy, beaming faces on their heads.I’d played a lot of sports in my time, and football had been one that I’d enjoyed. I’d never understood the appeal of watching it, though. I wanted to be an active participant, rather than dressing myself up like an idiot and shouting from the sidelines. I’d been to a few university home games to watch Harper (he’d played for the Seconds), but that was more to be a supportive girlfriend than out of any real interest in watching the sport itself.Unfortunately for us, we needed to fit in with the heaving crowd. And that meant buying apple heads of our own.“I feel ridiculous,” Me
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I froze. But it was not just fear that flooded me; it was relief, too, as cold as ice water and just as refreshing too. Someone other than my Dads and the others hunters knew, and the heady part, the thing that freed me, was that I hadn’t told him. I hadn’t broken their trust. He just… knew. But how?My second response was to lie, to protect myself and my team. “A hunter?” I repeated, curling my lip up into a bemused smirk.He rolled his eyes at me. “Don’t pretend.”I sighed. “Fine, okay, yeah.” I gave in too easily, simply because I didn’t want to have to hide it. My whole issue with Harper came from my omission of the truth in our relationship, and now here we were, sleeping in separate beds while I went off on trysts with another man. A man who knew who I was, far better than I’d anticipated. “How do you know, exactly?”
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