All Chapters of Caught Between The REID Brothers : Chapter 51 - Chapter 60

Harper's POVIt started with the coffee, I was at the campus coffee cart, running a calculation on how badly I needed caffeine against how late you were going to be if the person in front of you ordered something complicated. The person in front of me ordered something very complicated."The caramel oat thing with the extra shot and the sugar free vanilla takes four minutes," a voice said beside me. "I've timed it."I looked sideways. Ashton was two feet away,looking at the menu board."Why have you timed it?" I asked."Because I'm here every Thursday at this time and that specific order happens every Thursday at this time and if I'm not mentally prepared for the four minutes I make poor decisions about whether to leave."The person in front of me finished ordering the complicated thing and moved aside and I stepped up and ordered and then stood to the side to wait and Ashton ordered after me, a black coffee, nothing added, and came to stand beside me."Do you have serious classes tod

Harper's POV"Are you sure about the watch?" Jade asked, sitting on my bed watching me wrap it for the third time because the first two attempts looked like something a distressed raccoon had packaged."He's been wearing that broken one since freshman year," I said. "The one where the second hand just stops randomly and he taps it back into place like that's a normal thing to do with a watch.""So buy him a battery.""Jade, please don't start,”"I'm just saying a watch is a statement gift.""It's a congratulatory gift," I said. "He's going to win tonight and I wanted to get him something that actually meant something, I have been distant lately and I want him to know I'm still his best friend,”"And you've had it engraved.""On the back, just his initials and the date."She reserved her words even though she had a lot of thoughts and was choosing which ones were worth the conversation. "Does he know you're coming to the game?""I don't know, but he told me a few days back and I accept

Ashton's POVI woke up earlier than I intended the next day. I was on my second coffee before the sun fully rose.Harper was still asleep on the couch. I could see the top of her head from the kitchen, the brown curls that had completely given up from the night before, and the blanket pulled up to her chin.I drank my coffee and looked at the wall and had the most honest conversation I had allowed myself since any of this started.I had said something last night. Out loud, to a half asleep girl on my couch, I had expected to wake up this morning and want to take it back and I didn't.The other thing was that I had no idea whether she had heard it.My phone buzzed on the counter. Cole's name appeared on my screen.I looked at it and put it face down.It buzzed again, but it was a text this time. I read the preview without picking it up, *where did you disappear to last night, your car wasn't in the lot this morning*I didn't bother to respond because from the couch, I heard a sound fro

Harper's POVThe text came in time because I was still awake and reading, lying on my bed with my notes spread across the duvet, I had intended to study but I had instead spent forty minutes staring at the ceiling thinking about my night with Ashton.*I miss you. Can we hang out this week?* That was Ethan's text, I read with twice and it wasn't like my heart didn't sink the first time I read it.I put the phone face down on the mattress and went back to staring at the ceiling.The thing about Ethan's texts was that they always had a reason. Two years of conditioning didn't dissolve because of a stadium corridor and a brown paper wrapped watch, my brain knew all of that but unfortunately my chest had a mind of its own.I put the notes on the floor, turned off the light. I did not answer the text."He texted me," I told Ashton in the morning.I had fully decided to tell him, because the alternative was carrying it around all day and I had already carried it all night and I was tired of

Harper's POVI went back to my dorm after and I couldn't stop beaming."You have a visitor."Jade said it from the doorway and broke my flashbacks.I looked up from my laptop. "Who?""Tall, football shoulders, holding flowers for the second time this month." She leaned against the frame. "Your brother's keeper is downstairs.""Ethan is not my—""I know what he is," she said. "I'm just telling you he's there."I closed my laptop.."Did he say what he wanted?""He said he wanted to talk." She paused. "He looked nervous, which I will admit I found mildly interesting because I have never seen him look nervous around you.”I sat there for a second. "Tell him I'll be down in five minutes," I said.Jade disappeared, I stayed on my bed for the full five minutes doing nothing except staring at the wall and having a very brief and very direct internal conversation with myself about what I was and was not going to do in this interaction.I was not going to be the version of me that dissolved the