41. Harper
CHAPTER 41
Harper
I couldn’t find my phone.
It was just my luck. Of course on a day when it felt like things were spiraling out of control, I’d lose my phone.
Stupid mirror curse.
Although I shouldn’t have been surprised. I’d lost my phone approximately eight hundred thirty-four times since I’d broken that dang mirror.
I’d decided to stop looking and just head to Paul and Marlene’s house. The SPS guys had waited long enough, and I could go back to the bakery with Garrett later to find it. No sense in making them hang around while I searched. I was so frazzled.
Besides, I had a feeling it would be sitting out in plain sight the next day. Things like that happened to me sometimes. I figured the bad luck curse had a dark sense of humor.
Stan and Russell walked me to my car after I locked up. Even with them there, I felt weirdly exposed. Like someone was watching.
“Thanks for everything.” I opened my car door and tossed my purse inside .
“It’s not a problem,” Russell said. “Thanks for all the goodies.”
“Of course. It’s the least I could do.”
In addition to the boxes I’d prepared just for them, I’d loaded them up with the day’s leftover cookies and cupcakes for the SPS meeting they were having that evening.
“You sure you’ll be okay getting home?” Stan asked.
“Oh yeah. I’m heading up to Paul and Marlene Haven’s. Garrett is meeting me there.”
“All right. Night, Harper.”
“Have a great evening.”
I got in my car and immediately locked the doors. Twisting around, I checked the back seat, just to make sure.
Sugar cookies, I really was being paranoid. No one was hiding in my car.
I was pretty sure I remembered the way to Paul and Marlene’s, but I missed having my GPS. Stupid lost phone. I left the bakery and drove through town, my eyes flicking to the rearview mirror over and over. Tension made the back of my neck prickle. I didn’t see anyone back there, even at a distance. Just a handful of other cars coming and going, like a normal evening in Tilikum. Nothing suss, as Owen would say.
But I was still nervous.
Had someone really broken into the house and taken a coaster? What a weird thing to do. But what if Garrett was right, and someone was taunting me?
He was overworked. Hadn’t been sleeping enough. Worried about his job, about me, the baby, Owen, probably a million other things he hadn’t shared with me. He carried the weight of the world on his broad shoulders.
Was it getting to him? Did he need more than a few days off?
Or was he right and something was happening to us? Something that was starting to spiral out of control ?
I didn’t know what to think.
My stomach gurgled. That had been happening off and on for the past several days, as if my body couldn’t decide if it was hungry or not. At least I hadn’t been plagued with morning sickness. That was something.
A disturbing thought crept into my mind as I drove. Had I left an oven on?
I’d been so distracted looking for my phone, I hadn’t triple checked everything the way I usually did before I locked up for the night. Stan and Russell had been waiting for me, and I’d felt pressured to hurry. In my rush to leave, had I left it on?
In fact, had I left the blackberry almond thumbprints in the oven?
Sugar cookies, my entire afternoon felt like a blur. I distinctly remembered putting the batch of blackberry almond thumbprints into the oven. But I couldn’t remember if I’d taken them out.
I had to have. Maybe I’d wrapped them to save for the next day when I’d add the blackberry filling.
I found my way to the turn up Paul and Marlene’s long driveway. The log home was so cozy, even from the outside. The sight of it was comforting. I parked next to a truck, but Garrett wasn’t there yet. That was mildly disappointing. I was craving the warmth and safety of his embrace.
Feeling slightly less nervous than I’d been the first time I visited Garrett’s parents, I went to the front door and knocked. He’d just walked right in, but I didn’t feel like I had come-in-without-knocking privileges.
Owen opened the door dressed in a gray hoodie, the basketball shorts his only concession to the summer weather.
His smile warmed my heart. “Hey. I didn’t know you were coming over.”
“Your dad asked me to meet him here. ”
“Cool.” He stepped aside so I could go in. “I was just getting a snack with Uncle Theo.”
I followed him inside. “A snack sounds good.”
He paused and glanced at me over his shoulder. “You aren’t going to tell me I’ll spoil my dinner?”
“Didn’t even occur to me. But I’m pregnant. I can snack all day and still eat a full meal.”
He chuckled. “Cool.”
“Has your dad called or anything? I lost my phone, so I don’t know if he’s tried to call me.”
“No, but I can text him and let him know you’re here.” He pulled his phone out of his pocket and started typing.
“Thanks.”
Eyes on his phone, he walked into the dining room. The table was strewn with a random assortment of snack foods—healthy and unhealthy alike. Bags of chips, a bowl of nuts, bananas—plus several discarded banana peels—oranges, a plate of cookies, a block of cheese with a knife sticking out of the top, pepperoni slices, and an open bag of beef jerky.
Theo stood next to the table and I got the impression he’d been wandering around the perimeter, grazing as he went.
“Hey, Harper,” he said.
“A snack? This is a feast.”
Owen pocketed his phone. “We were doing football drills.”
“I guess you worked up an appetite.”
“He’s in a bulking phase,” Theo said around a mouthful of food.
“What do you know.” I put my hands on my belly. “Me too.”
“Help yourself,” Theo said.
Marlene came in and greeted me with a warm smile and a hug. She started to say something, then did a double take at the snack smorgasbord.
“What’s all this? ”
“Don’t worry, Mom, I brought most of it.” Theo grabbed a bag of chips and tore it open. “Well, some of it. I think we ate most of your bananas.”
“You’ll spoil his dinner,” she said, gesturing toward Owen.
Owen looked at me as if to say, see?
“He’s a growing boy,” Theo said. “Besides, I kicked his butt outside. He’ll be a bottomless pit for the rest of the day. Trust me.”
“Boys,” she said on a sigh. “They never quite grow up.”
“Who doesn’t grow up?” Paul shouldered his way in and nudged Theo out of the way so he could grab the beef jerky.
“Boys.”
He grunted and grabbed the knife holding the block of cheese. He held it up for a second, scrutinizing it, then took the entire thing with him into another room.
“Paul,” Marlene said, following him.
Owen took out his phone again, looked, and stuck it back in a pocket.
“No answer?”
He shook his head. “He’s probably just busy. Happens a lot when he’s working.”
That was true. Although he wasn’t supposed to be working.
“The good news is, he’s taking a few days off.” I grabbed an orange and started peeling, releasing the scent of citrus into the air. “So that will be nice.”
“Why? Is he okay?”
“I think he’s pretty tired.”
Owen shoved his hands in his front pocket, but didn’t say anything. I knew what that meant. He was worried about his dad.
Theo met my eyes and we seemed to understand each other. He grabbed a second bag of chips and slipped out of the room .
“Hey.” I moved closer and rubbed a few circles across Owen’s back. “Are you okay?”
“He thinks I’m still too young to understand what’s going on. But I’m not. I hear what people say.”
“What have you heard?”
“That he’s losing it.”
“He’s not losing it. Who said that?”
He shrugged. “I don’t know. People.”
“It’s probably hard to have a dad who’s a cop, isn’t it?”
“When I was little, I just thought it was cool. But what if something happens to him?” He turned toward me, meeting my eyes. “I don’t have anyone else.”
Tears sprang to my eyes and a lump rose in my throat. “I don’t want to even think about something happening to him either. But you’re not alone. You have this big, amazing family. And, you know, you maybe have me?”
He practically dove at me, wrapping his arms around me in a tight hug. It was one of the most beautiful, overwhelming, heart-melting things I’d ever experienced. I held him for a long moment, cherishing every second.
I loved this kid so much.
Sugar cookies, I really did. I loved him.
He let go and stepped back. I tried to play it as cool as I could, but I couldn’t hide the fact that my eyes were misty.
“I’m glad it’s you.” His voice was quiet and he kept his eyes on the table. “Dad could have ended up with someone like… well, like my mom. I don’t think he would have, but it would have sucked. You don’t suck.”
I burst out laughing and a few tears trailed down my cheeks. “I’m glad you don’t think I suck.” I swiped beneath my eyes.
A sense of unease was growing in the pit of my stomach. I wanted to believe what I’d said. That Garrett wasn’t losing it and he was going to be fine. But the prickle on the back of my neck wouldn’t go away .
Still, I felt like I needed to be reassuring. “I’m sure he’s okay. He knows what he’s doing.”
“Yeah.”
Theo popped his head back in the room. I gave him a quick nod and he grabbed an orange.
“Chips and fruit?” I asked. “Are you bulking too?”
“It’s called balance, Harper.”
I laughed.
And chips did sound good.
“Harper, would you like something a little healthier?” Marlene came in with a bowl of blackberries. “I guess they did put out some fruit, but I have these from Gram Bailey’s garden. They’re early for the season, but still delicious.”
“Blackberries,” I said under my breath. The cookies. Were they burning in the oven, about to set the entire building on fire? How quickly could the fire department get there if the alarm went off? It had been so fast last time, but that had been un lucky. We hadn’t needed them and it had been so embarrassing.
The bad luck curse meant I probably had left the cookies in there. I’d locked the bakery with a batch of cookies in a hot oven, ready to burn. And if the curse was going to go out with a bang, that would definitely be one way to do it. Burning down my aunt’s bakery would certainly be the worst bad luck the curse had dealt me so far.
Garrett wanted me to stay at his parents’. But I had to make sure.
“Owen, do you want to run to the bakery with me?”
“Sure. Why?”
“I have a terrible feeling I left an oven on. With cookies in it.”
“That’s not good.”
“No, it’s not.” I turned to Marlene. “Those look delicious, but I need to go make sure I didn’t make a terrible mistake before I left. It’s been a very weird day and I kind of have a problem with bad luck. I wouldn’t be surprised if the entire place is filled with smoke and the alarm short-circuited and won’t go off. Or something. If Garrett gets here before we’re back, tell him we’re on our way. In and out, it should only take a few minutes.”
“Unless it’s on fire. Then we might be longer,” Owen said.
“Right. That’s going to be a bigger problem. Make sure you have your phone. If we see smoke in the distance, we’re calling it in.”
He patted his pocket. “Got it.”
“All right,” Marlene said. “But drive careful.”
“I will. Thank you!”
Owen and I headed out to my car. As I drove, I crossed my fingers and toes, hoping I wasn’t about to walk into a disaster.