Chapter Eighteen #2
“Definitely not. If you’re okay with it, I’d love to plan to take a few days off work later this year and come up for a visit?” Charlie said, reluctant to not have another plan to get together before they parted. Now that she’d reconnected with them, she was afraid to let it slip.
“That would be great, sweetheart,” her dad said. “And you’re more than welcome too, Harper.”
“Thank you, Patrick. I appreciate the offer.”
Charlie couldn’t dwell on the fact that Harper didn’t accept because her mom was pulling her into a hug. “I’m so glad you came and met us. I’ve missed you so much.”
“Me too, Mom.” Charlie’s eyes started to fill again, and she squeezed her mom harder, wishing she could rewind the last seven years and do things differently. “I am so happy we spent today together. I only wish we had more time.”
“We have plenty of time to make up for it.” Her mom squeezed her one last time before the skies opened up. She gave her dad a quick hug, and they all nearly ran to their cars as the first few droplets hit them in the face.
“How are you feeling?” Harper said once they were all settled, and Charlie started the engine.
“Good,” she said and realized how true it was.
“Great. Thank you so much for coming. Having you here made this much less scary. I was afraid that my parents hated me for all these years, but they have just as much guilt as I do. Which I despise. I mean, it was all my fault, but they don’t hate me, even though I still hate myself.
” The heaviness of that emotion was still there, but after spending hours with her parents, it felt a lot lighter.
Harper turned toward her. “Your parents definitely don’t hate you, and I’m pretty sure they would hate to know that you blame yourself for it all.
You reached out, and now you’ve reconnected, and they seemed so happy to see you.
I could see it across their faces all afternoon.
” She took Charlie’s hand and squeezed. “They just want you to be happy.”
“Thank you.” She kissed Harper gently. “Now, let’s get out of here before this storm gets any worse.” Charlie pulled out onto the highway and had to crank her wipers up to high within seconds, even though she was only doing thirty-five. “Well, that theory didn’t pan out,” she said and laughed.
“Yeah, this is intense. I wonder where it came from.”
A clap of thunder boomed around them and sounded like it was directly on top of them. Franky let out a whine. “I forgot how much she hates storms,” Charlie said.
“Yeah, I wish I’d known this was going to happen, and I would’ve brought her meds.” Harper leaned between the front seats to love on her. “It’s okay, baby girl.”
Charlie’s stomach dropped when they hit a puddle she couldn’t see because of the rain, and the car hydroplaned. “Holy shit.”
“Maybe I won’t try to give Franky comfort in this exact moment,” Harper said and faced forward again. “This is really bad.”
Charlie’s fingers tightened on the wheel, and she consciously relaxed them, knowing being tense wouldn’t help her control the car any better.
“It really is. Fuck.” The car got a little loose again.
“We’re barely off Key Largo, but I’m not sure it’s safe to drive in this. Especially as it gets darker.”
A bolt of lightning raced across the sky in front of them, and the crack of thunder was so loud that it shook the car.
Harper said, “Let me check the radar and see how long this is going to last. Maybe we need to just pull into a parking lot for a bit? Sometimes these storms blow out as quickly as they blow in.” The car was silent for a minute, other than the rain pelting the roof and regular cracks of thunder, but eventually Harper said, “Yeah, maybe we should just stay the night somewhere. It looks like it’s going to be like this for hours.
There has to be a hotel somewhere close that has vacancy and will accept dogs. I’ll look.”
A gust of wind blew the car, and Charlie’s heart raced. She’d slowed to a crawl, but the storm was still terrifying. Thankfully, she saw a neon vacancy sign just off the road in front of them. She signaled and pulled off.
“Oh great,” Harper said. “Because I was striking out on Orbitz. Nothing has vacancy until we get to Islamorada, and that’s still fifteen miles away.”
Charlie unbuckled her seat belt and moved to get out, even though she really didn’t want to get soaked when Harper stopped her with a hand on her arm. “Why don’t you stay here with Franky and see if you and she can both breathe and calm down?”
“Why do you think I need to calm down?” Charlie said, a little offended.
Harper laughed. “Look at your hands.”
Charlie looked at her hands and realized they were shaking against the wheel despite her white-knuckled grip. “Oh.”
“You did a masterful job driving us here in this mess. I’ll take care of this. One sec, okay?”
Charlie nodded, secretly relieved, and Harper jumped out and ran to the office. Charlie prayed she had success and that they allowed dogs. She wasn’t sure if she had it in her to drive any farther, given the atrocious storm. She did enjoy watching Harper’s ass as she ran, though.
Once Harper was safely inside, Charlie turned to pet Franky, who was lying on the back seat shaking. “I’m so sorry, sweet girl. We didn’t know it was going to storm like this.” She leaned as far into the back as the front seats would allow to pet her.
Harper soon jumped back in the car and said, “It would be really great if you kept an umbrella in this car.”
“Sorry,” Charlie said as she came back to the front.
“But I never needed one before. I either parked in an indoor garage or the valet would escort me with an umbrella from my car to the building.” Realizing how that sounded, she continued, “But I also just didn’t go out much in the rain.
I mean, it’s not like someone escorted me from my car at the grocery store.
I’m sorry, I guess that’s just more evidence of my exasperatingly lavish former lifestyle. ”
Harper squeezed her knee and winked. “Yeah, I can definitely see why you needed to get away from that lavishness.”
Charlie rolled her eyes but didn’t respond.
“Anyway, I have good news, and I have bad news. What do you want to hear first?” she said.