The next morning, everyone except the parents were at the table.
A large buffet of countless dishes, from pancakes to butter scones to eggs and toast with milk and fruit juice. All in small edible servings enough for one to finish and eat the other options without getting full almost immediately.
Hope patted her palms agaisnt her thighs simultaneously as she stared down at her plate with pancakes. Feeling the nervousness eat at her as she waited for Harley to even arrive yet.
He wasn’t as early as he always was and yet it had been nearly five minutes since they called them for breakfast.
Penelope, Lily and their brother decided to begin eating instead, since they were practically starving off.
The door into the dinning room suddenly opened softly and Harley stepped in with an apologetic smile on his face. He closed the door behind him with a soft kick of the door before walking towards the table.
Hope sucked in a deep breath as she watched him walk towards them. She clenched onto her dress under the table as she escorted him with her eyes until he sat next to Gabriel who stared up at him curiosly.
“did you sleep last night?” Gabriel asked as he noticed Harleysr dark undereyes and slightly puffy lower lids. He shifted his gaze from his plate towards Gabriel and simply smiled at him.
“I slept late.” He simply said and clasped his hands together. “all the thinking has me starving already.” He grinned out as he reached over for the plate of milk scones. He picked a few and grabbed another plate of cookies.
“Wow. I forgot you’re a sugar addict.” Lilian pouted her lips as she watched him grab a plate of cupcakes, practically filling up his place with nothing but sweet foods. “lucky bastard.”
“Sorry if I irritate you.” Harley chuckled out as he reached for another plate, this time of cream biscuits when Penelope reached out and smacked his hand away, surprising him since she never really stopped him from eating sweets before.
“Keep eating too much sugar and you’ll end up dying this afternoon.” She hissed as she watched Harley furrow his brows in confusuon.
“oh, I didn’t know I irritate you too. But we have a really heavy duty today. We have to visit alpha Valentine’s pack and it will take three days to get there. I’ll practically be eating bread for three whole days and won’t have anything sweet to eat.” Harley whined as he leaned back into his seat and crossed his arms on his chest. “let me eat as much as I want.”
“It’s only three days.” Penelope rolled her eyes as she spoke. “plua you’re not leaving today. It’s tomorrow.”
“Is it about the food storage?” Gabriel asked as he glanced at Harley who nodded his head on agreement.
“We’re running too low on food storage for our pack. So Valentine’s pack has enough supplies for trade.” Harley explained as he shut his eyes and waved his hand around a bit. “but there problem is, his holding up a competition in those three days to choose a new alpha. So we have to deal with the new alpha and not him. So we don’t know whether he’s going to accept the trade or not.”
Hope stared in awe at the calm and cool attitude Harley was in. Almost as though he was the way he used to be before the feelings were pouted into her life. As though he was the best friend she remembered.
“Wow, you guys have a lot to do huh?” Gabriel chuckled as he grabbed a cookie from Harley’s plate, getting him to gasp out in shock.
“Can’t you ask for the plate of cookies!” Harley hissed out as he snatched the plate from Gabriel who still got himself a stolen cookie.
“Yours is much closer.” He chuckled out as Harley glared at him, getting Penelope to raise her brows in surprise.
She glanced towards Hope who coincidentally glanced at her as well. They both shrugged their shoulders at Harley’s sudden normal behavior.
As much as Hope knows, Harley never liked leaving an issue unsolved before. So she knew he would have asked he first thing in the morning just to clear out his suspiciousions.
But he was acting like it never happened.
After they finished off their breakfast plates, Penelope, Lily and Gabriel excused themselves and left the table since they also had things to do. While Hope and Harley got out of the mansion to finally start their busy day.
Hope stood next to Harley who was currently tapping away on the tablet, almost as though his full concentration was on the tablet alone. She stood there for a while, watching him as she struggled to say anything. Whether to ask or just let it be.
“You’ve been staring an awful lot, Hope.” Harley chuckled lowly as he glanced towards her with a small smile. “are you okay?”
“I should be asking you.” She shrugged her shoulders as she pressed her lips together. Staring at him nervously.
“I’m… okay.” He nodded slowly. “I mean, I didn’t feel sick when I woke up. I don’t have a fever, well obviously because I don’t usually catch a cold at all.” He chuckled out and turned his gaze to the laptop. “by the way, the way to Valentine’s pack might get chilly, you might want to have a jersey with you for the nights.” He pointed out and sighed as he held the tablet to her. “all we need to do today is pack up for the journey ahead. We’ll travel with some guards and and few of Ace’s men and of course Ace himself. This will maximize our security since their werewolf sizes are slightly bigger, gives us advantage in strength. Plus it’s pretty obvious they are strong.” He nodded to himself as he stared ahead. “What do you think?”
“um…” she batted her eyelids in confusion as she furrowed her brows. “Harley… before we get to these… duties… we should talk about last night…” she cleared her throat as she clenched her fists while staring into his eyes. He slowly looked away and glanced towards the ground for a minute before chuckling a little and glancing at him.
“Oh, is it because you spent your whole day with Ace and you missed your best friend that bad?” he chuckled out. “I missed you too, but since Ronan and you are divorced, I can’t keep you on a leash when you like someone. So as a best friend, I’ll support you and Ace. But if he hurts you I’ll have to hurt him back to be fair.” He grinned out with a wink before snatching the tablet from he hands as she remained shocked.
This wasn’t what she meant.
He was completely dodging the entire situation and seemed to be skipping all of the awkwardness between them.
“B-But… aren’t you…” she stammered as she glanced at he ground confused. “you said you wouldn’t support me of it had to do with another guy.”
“Why would I say that?” he asked with an awkward chuckle.