Invisible to My First Love (Harper and Maddox) novel Chapter 139

Maddox

The second I dropped off Harper and drove away from the restaurant, something in my chest twisted. It felt wrong to leave her there like that.

I drove for about three minutes when the feeling in my chest got so strong that I had to pull over. I sat still, gripping the steering wheel like it had answers to my questions. What the hell did Dean want from her? Why did he want to see her alone?

She said she wasn’t attracted to him and I believed her, but as for him, I didn’t.

As I wondered what her mood might have been like at that moment while at that table with him, my phone vibrated. I considered ignoring it, but it was my father, which was the only reason that I picked up.

“Hey, Dad.” I forced myself to stay calm.

“Have you heard from your sister?” he asked, sounding a bit tense.

“No.” I gritted my teeth.

“What about Grayson? I haven’t spoken to him all day. I had some work for him.”

“I haven’t heard from him either,” I said, trying not to snap.

My mind wasn’t there. It was with Harper, sitting across from Dean as he stared into her eyes.

My dad kept speculating and worrying so much that I just stared at the windshield, barely listening to him.

“I’ll call you if I hear anything,” I cut in.

“Good. It’s so unlike them to just go silent this way.”

As soon as he hung up, I put down the phone and quickly turned the car around. I decided at that moment that I was going back to that location where I’d left Harper. I didn’t care how it looked or if I was overreacting. I just didn’t want to leave her alone with him.

I made it to the restaurant just a few minutes later and parked right across the road and turned off my engine. I leaned against my seat, my heart racing like I was waiting for something to happen.

I stared at the entrance like I could pull her out from inside just with my mind.

While I could’ve easily gone inside, I didn’t want to freak her out. The last thing I needed was for her to think I was so jealous that I was doing too much.

I was so focused on the entrance that when the door swung open and I spotted her, I straightened instantly. She wasn’t walking. She looked like she was fleeing. Her steps were too fast as her eyes darted around like she couldn’t breathe. She then looked across the road and saw me, her eyes widening with a mixture of relief and

unease.

When I spotted Dean rushing after her, something snapped inside of me and I stepped out of the car.

Before I could think about anything else, I stepped onto the busy road without looking at the oncoming traffic as the horns blasted. I didn’t care. All I saw was Harper’s face. She was shocked, upset, overwhelmed and then there was Dean’s hand reaching for her.

She looked back and said something I couldn’t hear, but it looked like she had just snapped at him. He shouldn’t have upset her like that.

I walked right past a moving truck, hearing its tyres screech but never stopping. My eyes were only focused

on one target.

When I made it to the other side, Harper tried to get in the way, asking if I was crazy because of what I’d just done on the road, but I headed straight for Dean, my fist connecting with his jaw so hard that he dropped to the pavement in one satisfying fall.

She gasped behind me as he groaned.

I looked down at him, my voice harsh with a fury that I couldn’t hide. “What the fuck did you do to her?”

I was just seconds away from grabbing him by the collar and slamming him into the pavement when Harper stepped in front of me.

“Wait!” she said quickly. “Please, take it easy. It’s not what it looks like.”

My eyes narrowed. “You’re covering for him? He-”

“He didn’t do anything.” Her voice cut through my anger. “It’s just something he said.”

My heart still pounded hard as I still wasn’t convinced. I just wanted to grab him by the collar, but her eyes pulled me in and held me still.

“And what did he say?” I asked through clenched teeth.

“He mentioned that I might be his sister.”

“What?”

My eyes widened as I looked at her, then at Dean, who was still on the ground, rubbing his jaw while staring up at me with something between pain and insult on his face.

All that rage I felt crashed into confusion so fast that I didn’t know how to feel.

Dean stood up slowly as he winced. He didn’t even look at me, just at Harper and she was looking right at him

too.

“I just need time to take it all in,” she said.

He nodded with understanding, his expression, gentle until he looked my way. It went cold. Yeah, he hated me at that moment and I knew I deserved it, but I still wasn’t going to apologize.

As he walked away, I couldn’t help but stare at him, replaying everything I just did. I felt like an overprotective

idiot.

My mind was still racing when Harper suddenly grabbed my face with both hands, forcing my gaze down to

hers.

“Are you crazy?” she asked. “How could you just walk past the moving truck? You could’ve gotten hurt or something.”

I exhaled slowly, tucking her hair behind her ear. “I wasn’t thinking straight,” I admitted. “When I saw you trying to get away from him, I just wanted to protect you.”

Her expression softened a little, but I didn’t wait for her to speak because I wasn’t done yet. I kissed her forehead, my lips lingering there for a few seconds.

When I pulled back and looked down at her, she was blushing hard, not even able to look into my eyes. I reached for her hand, intertwined our fingers and led the way back across the road.

“Come on,” I said gently. “I can’t wait to hear all about what happened in that restaurant.”

Even though she tried to sound like her usual bubbly self as she told me the details, I could see it in her eyes that she was far from it.

Just as I was about to open the car door for her, she said, “Dean’s last name isn’t Johnson. It’s Beauregard.”

I paused as soon as I heard that last name. “What?”

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