Separately Together

Chapter Twenty-Four: 2/2

Harley, Dixon, Gale, and I are all sitting around a dinner table. "All of this is great," Gale comments as he spoons another bite of food into his mouth.

"Thank you." I nod my head in acknowledgment. My ankle was healing up nicely, but I was still in a boot so that I didn't injure it again, it was still weak right now. Harley and I haven't talked about what happened between us, but I was littered with hickeys that I notice Gale looking at every once in a while, Dixon too even though she is less noticeable.

I even notice Harley glancing at them from time to time, his gaze looking regretful but possessive all at the same time. I knew he doesn't condone what we did a few days ago if anything he thinks it was a mistake, which it was but I couldn't convince myself that it was anything other than heaven and that I should be embarrassed about it. It just felt so natural in his arms, it felt like home, and I don't want to be anywhere else.

"Can I go out with friends tomorrow night?" It was a Friday again and next Monday I would be going back to work. I think that Harley was going to have Jared fill in as my keeper, I stop myself from eye-rolling.

"What friends?"

"No."

Harley and I say at the same time and both glance at each other with curious gazes. Why was he so quick to say no, she was a fifteen-year-old girl, and she was allowed to have friends. He doesn't remember what he was doing at that age, or perhaps he does and that's why he doesn't want her to go out.

Dixon scowls at her brother playfully before answering my question. "I made a few friends at school. Willow, she said she was your cousin. I don't remember ever meeting her, but she says we played together a couple of times when we were little." I forgot the two were the same age, it hadn't accrued to me that they could be in the same grade. Willow was a good kid, but she was known to get into some trouble now and again.

"You two have played together a couple of times but it was many many years ago." I'm surprised that Willow even remembers that. They were only five or six then.

"Then there is Ansley, I think her last name is Landry." She says taking a bite of her food between sentences.

"All girls?" Harley asks successfully.

"I'm not a whore, Harley." Dixon rolls her eyes.

"Language, Dixon." He bites out giving her an apprehensive look letting her know that he didn't approve of the attitude.

"I don't see a problem with it, it's a good thing that you're making friends," I said eyeing the two waiting on them to break out in a fight any minute.

Those two act like each other but in their own little ways.

"As long as it's only girls and your home by ten, in addition, Gale will come with," Harley says before spooning in some food seeming to be done with the conversation.

"If it's only girls why does Gale get to go?" Dixon challenged his rule. I look at Gale to see his eyes the both of them now, his plate forgotten. He seemed awkward almost like he didn't want to be in this conversation.

"Because Gale knows if he lays one finger on you I'd beat the s-." I stand up from the table, making my chair squeak on purpose to stop Harley from finishing that sentence.

Gale didn't need to hear him say that when he hasn't done anything wrong even if it was just in reference.

"Gale wants to help me with these dishes." Gale glances at me and hops up out of his chair quickly leaving behind the two bickering siblings. I've never met someone that gave Harley more of a challenging time than me, but he has met his match.