Harley snaps his head back, meeting my eyes again, both of them watching me but neither saying a word as they stare at me with stark faces. I glance down at my hands a moment, taking a few deep breaths. I know I need to be truthful, but the doubt is seriously starting to get the better of me. But, again, this is that moment. It’s now or never. So, I lift my head, meeting Harley’s eyes. “It was all a lie until Wednesday night when I realized something.” I pause to swallow my nerves, exhaling a trembling breath full of self-doubt before continuing, “I’m actually in love with Harley. And I have been for a long time.”

Silence ensues as my heart sways unsteadily from side to side in my chest, like a pendulum, literally hanging in the balance as I watch Harley, waiting for a response, or at least some kind of reaction. But he remains indifferent, not giving anything away, just staring at me, breathing hard.

“So, you both lied to me?” Nash breaks the silence, his eyes moving between Harley and me, flashing with an anger I naively hadn’t been expecting. Of course he’s angry. He has every damn right to be.

“I’m sorry, Nash. I—” I try, but he cuts me off.

“You mean to tell me,” he yells, glaring at me while thumbing back toward the house, “you just let me say what I fuckin’ said to you … You let me feel what I felt all week … You let me doubt my entire relationship with the woman I’m about to marry, and this whole time it was all a damn lie?”

I avert my eyes because the betrayal in his is far too painful to withstand. Swallowing the lump at the back of my throat, I nod once, looking down to the ground.

He scoffs to himself. “I don’t even know you no more, Murph.” At those cutting words, I look up, finding him shaking his head at me before turning to Harley and pointing a finger in his best friend’s chest. “And you? You let a lie come between us?”

Harley exhales a hard breath, tearing his gaze from me, looking at Nash with a hard stare, not saying a word, his jaw clenching so tight.

“I can’t believe you two!” Nash yells, looking at us both in exasperation before turning and storming toward the road.

“Nash, stop!” I yell pleadingly, taking a step toward him. “Where are you going?”

“I can’t even stand to look at either of y’all!” he yells over his shoulder.

“Nash, man, wait,” Harley yells. “I’ll drive you back to Harrington’s.”

“I’d rather fuckin’ walk!” he shoots back, his hoarse voice echoing throughout the quiet street.

Harley and I remain frozen on the front lawn, watching as Nash walks off into the darkness, his shadowy figure eventually disappearing around the corner and into the night. The air between us suddenly turns thick and palpable with an overwhelming tension, and as I turn to look at him I’m surprised to see he’s already watching me with an unexpected and confusing emotion in his eyes. He lifts a hand, scratching the stubble shadowed over his jaw before pulling his bottom lip between his thumb and forefinger, staring at me the whole time in a look of deep deliberation.