All Chapters of Curvy and Off-limits: Chapter 61 - Chapter 70

Harper's POVMom texted me Saturday morning asking if I wanted to come shopping with her, some new boutique downtown she'd been wanting to check out. I almost said no out of habit before deciding I didn't actually have a good reason to.We hadn't done this in years. Not since before Dad died, back when money still stretched far enough for the occasional trip to the mall just for fun instead of pure necessity. I climbed into her car that morning feeling strange about the whole thinh like I was stepping into some old memory that didn't quite fit right anymore.She looked different lately. I noticed it in pieces over the past few months without fully putting the whole picture together until I sat beside her in the car, sunlight catching her face at an angle that made the change obvious. She looked rested. Younger, somehow, in a way that had nothing to do with the makeup or the expensive clothes Theodore's money had made possible. Something in her whole posture had softened, the tight w

Harper's POVZuri texted me at six with three words that pretty much decided my whole night. Zuri: Getting ready. Come.I didn't even ask where. I just showed up at Blair's dorm an hour later already changed into the one dress I owned that actually made me feel good in my own skin. I found the two of them halfway through a bottle of something pink and sparkly, music blasting from Zuri's speaker while she attempted to do Blair's eyeliner with unsteady hands."You're here." Zuri looked up grinning wide. "Perfect timing. Blair looks like a raccoon right now and I need a second opinion before we fix it.""You did that on purpose." Blair squinted at herself in the mirror. "This is sabotage.""It's art. You wouldn't understand."I laughed, dropping my bag on the bed.Zuri immediately pulled me in for a hug, tight and warm, smelling like the same coconut perfume from the party a few weeks back. "Okay, drink first then we fix Blair's face then we go have the best night of your entire semeste

Harper's POVThe group chat had been chaotic since noon, everyone arguing about which alley to go to and what time actually counted as on time. Hayes insisted seven meant seven while Cole argued that seven meant anywhere between seven and seven thirty depending on how the day was going. By the time we actually all showed up, it was closer to eight and somehow nobody seemed bothered by that at all.Blair and I got there first, claiming a lane near the back where the music wasn't quite as deafening, and within ten minutes the rest of them trickled in one by one. Zuri arrived loud as always, already narrating her own entrance like she deserved a soundtrack. Cole showed up with an armful of snacks he'd apparently bought without asking anyone if they wanted them. Mason came in grinning, already talking trash about how he was going to destroy all of us. And then Hayes and Declan walked in together, mid conversation about something that had them both laughing and the second Hayes spotted

Harper’s POVThe gym at Kings Manor is ridiculous and I have never gotten over it. I am talking full equipment, floor to ceiling mirrors, a separate room for boxing that Declan pretends I do not know about. Theodore told me he built it two years ago because he decided he wanted to start lifting weights in his fifties, used it for three weeks and then never touched it again. Now it is basically ours.Well. Ours and whoever else decides to show up.I got there before Declan, which almost never happens. He is always early, always already mid workout by the time I drag myself downstairs, always making some comment about how I take forever to get ready. But today I beat him. I was on the treadmill, earbuds in, working through my warmup, when the door opened behind me.I assumed it was him. It was not him.Hayes walked in like he owned the place, which he kind of does in the sense that his family is also stupid rich and he has been friends with Declan since they were kids. He was wearing s

Harper’s POVI picked up a shift at the cafe because I needed the money and because sitting around Kings Manor waiting for Declan to look at me was slowly driving me insane.The break had been too long. Three weeks of Theodore's family dinners and Zuri's study sessions and pretending I did not notice Declan's eyes on me across every room we entered. I needed normal. I needed something that belonged to me and not to the Kings family or Westwood or any of the chaos that had become my life.So I texted Marisol and told her I was coming back. Marisol has been working at the cafe for two years, same as me. She is thirty-four, has two kids and is the kind of person who minds her own business unless you ask her not to. We are not close exactly but we are the same kind of tired and that counts for something. She was happy to see me."Look who finally remembered she has a job." She said pulling me into a quick hug behind the counter. "Thought you got too rich for us.""Never." I tied my apron