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checkbook out of the kitchen junk drawer and handed it to her. “There’s almost two hundred dollars in the account. Don’t pay more than you have to, but get the power turned back on.” She reluctantly agreed. She couldn’t live off of him forever. He didn’t care, but it mattered to her.
    “I’m going to pay you back.”
    “ And I know a way you can do it.”
    “Really?” She knew it wasn’t as dirty as it sounded. Adam didn’t exchange sex for anything, but she wouldn’t put it past him to make her return the empties Walter gave them to refund for the deposit.
    “ And it’s not the smelly cans.” It was like he read her mind. “Make me a promise and we’re even.”
    Promises weren’t really her thing.
    “What is it?” She expected it to be something about their relationship, which hadn’t always been monogamous on her part.
    “I want you to promise me you’re going to that appointment with Bennett this morning.”
    “What kind of promise is that? I already told you I was.”
    “I know what you said , but I know how often you change your mind. I’m non-negotiable on this one, Harm. Promise me.”
    Harmony wrapped her arms around him, summoning her sincerest smile. “I promise.”
    But a promise wasn’t repayment, not by a long shot.
    “There. Now we’re even.” He bent down and kissed her, his breath fresh with toothpaste. His hands slid down over her hips and his breathing slowed as the kiss lingered.
    Something stirred between them, an urge Harmony was all too familiar with—the screwed up need to give him more than a promise in exchange for his help so she’d feel less indebted. She pulled him closer, the softness of her body conforming to the hard, straight line of his, and kissed him more deeply.
    “Harm, not now.”
    “Please?” She trailed her hands down either side of his spine, scratching him just hard enough to wind him up. “It’ll be quick. I promise. ” She didn’t intend to take “no” for an answer. She traced his jugular with her tongue and crusher her breasts against him.
    “You drive me crazy,” he growled, each word punctuated by the smack of a kiss. He cradled her ass and exhaled defeat. “All right. You win.”
    He ran his hands down her legs, tugging off her pants and underwear in a swift, fluid motion before lifting her onto the counter. She ignored the cold, hard surface against her skin, positioning herself so her hips lined up with his. He swept her hair back from her face and kissed her.
    In that moment, nothing mattered. Not the appointment with Bennett or her train wreck of a mother.
    “I love you,” he said, easing into her.
    She locked her legs around him and closed her eyes. “I know you do.”
    She loved him, too, in her own broken way.

CHAPTER NINE
     
    Brea sat on the stairs outside the lunchroom, finishing the short story that wasn’t due for another three days. She was hungry, but she didn’t feel right eating without Harmony. One of the perks of being a senior was that the monitors were more lenient about where upper classmen ate.
    The s tairs were reserved for weird girls: Brea Miller, party of one .
    B urnouts ate at the picnic tables outside, unconvincingly pretending they weren’t getting high.
    Jocks dominated the ‘popular’ cafeteria tables and Rachael was in their entourage.
    Brea couldn’t stay far enough away from her.
    “Hey.” The deep-voiced greeting sounded distant, not meant for her, and so she ignored it. “Brea?” Her head snapped up. Jaxon stood less than a foot in front of her.
    A hint of blond scruff, slightly lighter than his hair—cut long on top and side-swept across his forehead—obscured the deep cleft in his chin that was the only thing hard about his otherwise gentle face. He wore a pair of loose-fitting indigo jeans and a blue and white button-down rolled up at the sleeves bearing the moose logo that had Harmony perpetually referring to him as “Abercrombie”.
    She closed her c omposition