Ghostly Wrecks (A Harper Harlow Mystery Book 6)

by Hart, Lily Harper

  “And don’t you forget it.” Zander wagged his finger to keep Jared’s attention on him. “You love Harper almost as much as I love her. I don’t doubt that.”

  Jared shifted on his cushion. “I … .”

  “I also know you’re not going to admit it to me until you tell her how you feel,” Zander added. “Tonight is not the night, by the way. Even if you’re desperate to make her feel better and think saying the magic words will smooth her rough edges, she’ll always wonder if you only said it to end a fight so … don’t.”

  Jared ran a hand through his dark hair as he narrowed his eyes. “I would never cheat on Harper. Taking her out of the equation, though, I would never cheat on any woman because it’s not part of my internal makeup. I would break up with her first.”

  “I know.”

  “Are you telling me that Harper thinks I’m going to break up with her?”

  Zander shook his head, his hair messily sliding past his eyebrows. “Harper knows that you’re loyal and wouldn’t cheat on her. That doesn’t mean it’s easy for Harper to swallow the fact that Tina is throwing herself at you.”

  “I hardly think … .”

  Zander made an obnoxious throat-clearing sound to cut off Jared. “If you’re about to stand up for Tina, you might want to check that impulse. That’s half the reason you’re in this predicament.”

  “And what kind of predicament am I in?”

  “The kind that has the woman you love upset and probably led to her crying herself to sleep out of frustration as much as hurt,” Zander replied, causing Jared’s heart to roll. “She loves you as much as you love her. She’s also a proud individual. She won’t admit she’s jealous because she thinks it goes against her nature.”

  “Just like cheating goes against my nature?”

  “Pretty much,” Zander answered, bobbing his head. “Harper has never been with anyone she cared about enough for jealousy to get in the way. I’m a jealous person by nature so I spend half my life being jealous. Harper doesn’t, though, so she’s just as angry with herself as she is with you.”

  “I haven’t been flirting with Tina.” Jared had no idea why he felt the need to argue the point, but he couldn’t stop himself. “I swear it.”

  “Yeah, but have you made sure she isn’t flirting with you?” Zander asked. “I need you to think about it really carefully. You’re a nice guy so your first inclination would be to respond to Tina’s overtures with firm friendship. That’s enough in your book.

  “Tina Dobson, on the other hand, is the type of woman who needs things explained to her,” he continued. “She needs you to be mean because she’s not going to back down unless you are brutally honest with her. It doesn’t help matters that she said awful things to Harper and you let it slide.”

  Jared balked. “I didn’t let it slide.”

  “Did you tell her to shut her hole?”

  “Well, no, but … .”

  “You just sat there like a lump,” Zander finished. “Harper is proud of what she does, but I think she worries she’ll somehow damage you because you work in a field where people will laugh at her rather than embrace her abilities. It’s not often visible at the surface because most people in Whisper Cove adore her, but it was probably on display last night because a lot of state police representatives were at the restaurant.”

  “I … didn’t think about that.” Jared shot a worried look toward Harper’s closed bedroom door. “I hurt her feelings and didn’t even realize I did it.”

  “I’m not sure she realized that you did it,” Zander clarified. “She simply knows that she’s upset and part of it is due to the fact that she’s jealous. She’s mad at herself for being jealous and you because … well … she doesn’t rightly know why.”

  “Thankfully we have you to explain it to us.” Jared patted Zander’s knee and pushed himself to a standing position. “I’m tired, but I’ll talk to her in the morning. I’ll fix this. I promise.”

  “I know you will.” Zander turned himself toward his bedroom. “I’m making omelets for breakfast. That should help smooth things along.”

  “I’m looking forward to it.”

  “I’m looking forward to seeing Harper smile in the morning,” Zander said pointedly. “Make sure that she does.”

  “That’s all I want to see, too. Trust me.”

  HARPER TOSSED and turned before falling asleep but the moment Jared joined her in bed she settled, instinctively rolling so she faced him and resting her head on his shoulder without waking. Jared wrapped his arms around her back and drifted off almost immediately, discarding his worry and falling into her warmth.

  Harper woke before Jared, jolting a bit and taking a moment to study his strong features in the early morning sun. He was ridiculously handsome. No man should be as handsome as Jared Monroe, she decided. Zander was handsome, too – and he told anyone who listened – but Jared’s attractiveness was on another level that Zander couldn’t touch.

  She basked in his warmth for a bit, running her fingers over his bare chest. In the bright light of day she felt unbelievably silly for acting as she had the previous night. It wasn’t Jared’s fault that Tina had a crush on him, after all. Anyone who met Jared would be silly not to have a crush on him. He was beautiful, kind, smart … he was everything.

  “What are you thinking?” Jared murmured, tightening his grip on Harper as she jumped.

  “I’m thinking that I thought you were asleep.” Harper was embarrassed to be caught staring.

  Jared forced his eyes open and focused on her, smiling when he caught sight of the messy hair and Scooby-Doo pajama bottoms. “You were staring … and thinking so hard I could practically hear the gears in your mind working.”

  “I was … kind of doing that,” Harper hedged, mortified. “I don’t understand how that woke you, though. You should still be asleep. What time did you get in?”

  “About three.”

  “How are Chad and Jessica Reiter?”

  “They’re both going to be fine,” Jared replied. “I checked in with Hayley, but she was out and Chad and Jessica won’t be available for questioning until today so I decided that waiting at the hospital was a waste of time.”

  “You only got a few hours of sleep, though.” Harper shifted her eyes to the bedside clock. “Four hours. You need more. I shouldn’t have woken you.”

  “I would have it no other way.” Jared refused to let Harper go even as she struggled to put a bit of distance between them. “Are you still angry with me?”

  “I was never angry,” Harper sputtered, annoyed with herself as much as Jared. “Why would you think I was angry?”

  “Because you didn’t hug me goodbye … or give me a kiss,” Jared replied, not missing a beat. “You always kiss me goodbye. You always hug me, too. Those are my two favorite things. Heck, if you hadn’t been really angry, I would’ve had to force you to leave in the first place. You wouldn’t have voluntarily done it.”

  Was that true? Harper hated to admit it, but he was right. “I shouldn’t have left you the way I did. That wasn’t fair. I’m ashamed of my actions.”

  Jared studied her profile with somber eyes, making her feel uncomfortable until he ultimately cracked a smile that caused Harper’s heart to skip a beat. “I think we can forego the flogging this morning … unless you want to flog me and turn it into a game, that is.”

  Harper’s smile tipped down into a frown. “You’re kind of a pig sometimes.”

  “Yes, but you’re going to forgive it this morning because I really am tired.” Jared used the hand not wrapped around Harper’s waist to clear the hair from her face. “I’m sorry for last night. I shouldn’t have let Tina go at you the way she did.”

  Harper stilled. “I … don’t know what you mean.”

  “Let’s not start out the morning with evasiveness,” Jared suggested. “I’m not going to apologize for you being jealous because I don’t believe I did anything to encourage that. I know I didn’t do anything to enc
ourage Tina.”

  “I didn’t say you did.” Harper scowled. “Stupid, thickheaded man.”

  Jared smirked at her drawn countenance. “You’re so stinking cute. Anyway, I might not have encouraged Tina, but I also didn’t do enough to discourage her. I promise that will be happening the next time I see her.”

  Harper scratched her cheek, tilting her head to the side, considering. “If you don’t believe you did anything wrong … .”

  “I didn’t say that,” Jared interjected, catching Harper off guard. “I said that I wasn’t apologizing for you being jealous. I don’t want you apologizing for that either. I find it mildly flattering.”

  “That’s such a man thing to say,” Harper groused.

  “Yeah, well, blame my penis.”

  Harper snickered despite her annoyance. “I’ll consider it.”

  “Good.” Jared stroked the back of Harper’s head, hoping the motion would soothe her because he wasn’t in the mood to get up quite yet and if she climbed out of bed he would have no choice but to follow. “I am apologizing for not saying something to Tina when she went on and on about the ghost business. I didn’t realize that would upset you the way it did.”

  “It didn’t upset me.”

  “I think it did more than you want to admit and I didn’t notice it so that’s on me,” Jared argued. “I’m also sorry I didn’t force you to hug and kiss me, perhaps even make up before you left the hospital. You didn’t do it because you were angry. Tina threw herself at me. I will be handling that situation next time I see her, too. I will be instituting a no-touching zone around me right away.”

  Harper pursed her lips, amused by his earnest nature. “Does it apply to me?”

  “Does what apply to you?”

  “The no-touching zone?”

  “Oh.” Jared realized what he said when it was too late to take it back. “You have special dispensation to live in the no-touching zone. You’re the only one I want touching me. In fact, if you want to touch me twenty-four hours a day, that would be perfectly fine. Er, wait. That came out wrong.”

  Harper couldn’t contain her laughter. “It came out just right,” she countered. “I would love to touch you twenty-four hours a day.” As if to prove her point, she rolled so she was almost completely on top of him and rested her head on his chest, planting her ear in the spot above his heart. “I’m sorry.”

  “Don’t apologize.” Jared rubbed the back of her neck. “No one did anything to be sorry about.”

  “You apologized first.”

  “Yes, well, fine.” Jared blew out a weary sigh. “We’re both sorry and we’ve made up. We’ve made up, right? I can’t take this dragging out. I need to be on even footing with you.”

  “We’ve made up.” Harper snuggled closer. “You haven’t told me much about the Reiters, though. I’m assuming you’ll be working on that all day.”

  “I will be,” Jared confirmed. “I’m hoping you will be, too.”

  “Me?” Harper didn’t bother to hide her surprise. “Why me?”

  “Because Hayley Reiter bonded with you and she kept asking for you after you left,” Jared replied, causing guilt to roll into a ball and plop in the middle of Harper’s stomach.

  “I shouldn’t have left her.”

  “No one realized how attached Hayley was and they gave her a sedative to sleep,” Jared countered. “I have to question her today. I thought you might want to come with me to put her at ease.”

  “You usually don’t invite me to work with you.”

  “That’s not true in the least.”

  “You usually don’t invite me to work with you unless there’s a ghost involved,” Harper clarified. “There’s no ghost … at least not yet.”

  “That doesn’t mean I don’t value your instincts,” Jared offered. “I want you with me if you have the time.”

  “I have the time.”

  “Good.”

  The duo lapsed into comfortable silence, Harper breaking it first.

  “We haven’t completely made up yet,” she pointed out. “You never got to play your pirate game last night.”

  Jared playfully squeezed her rear end. “Do you want me to find the booty?”

  “I want you to shiver my timbers.”

  Jared’s smile was so bright it lit up his entire face, chasing away the fatigue as he rolled to pin Harper to the mattress. Sleep was something – and he definitely needed more – but Harper could fix almost anything that ached within him. “Consider it done.”

  “Now this is the best way to start a day.”

  “I couldn’t agree more.”

  5

  Five

  Harper slipped her hand into Jared’s as they walked toward the hospital after breakfast, earning a speculative look as he gladly accepted the simple gesture and happily squeezed her fingers in response.

  “We’re okay, right?” Jared was serious as he locked gazes with his blonde.

  Harper nodded. “We’re okay. I mean … I’m okay. Are you okay?”

  The corners of Jared’s mouth tipped up as he slowed his pace. “I’m fine, Heart. I wasn’t the one who got my feelings hurt, though. That’s why I asked the question of you.”

  Harper balked. “I didn’t get my feelings hurt. I … well … I never get my feelings hurt. Ask Zander. That’s not a thing for me.”

  Jared cocked an amused eyebrow. “I think everyone gets their feelings hurt at one time or another. It’s human nature.”

  “Oh, really?” Harper wrinkled her nose. “When have you ever gotten your feelings hurt?”

  “When you didn’t kiss and hug me goodbye last night,” Jared replied, not missing a beat. “I thought it meant you didn’t care any longer.”

  Harper made a disgusted face, sneering at Jared’s overblown theatrics. “You did not.”

  Jared chuckled at her mock outrage. “Okay, I knew you still cared. That doesn’t mean I wasn’t upset, because I was. For the record, I always want my kiss and hug.”

  Harper cast Jared a sidelong look as he held open the glass door and ushered her inside. “It takes a strong man to admit something like that.”

  “That’s me. I’m a strong man.”

  “You are.”

  Jared’s grin was easy, self-deprecating. “A strong man who goes to mush when his favorite blonde hugs and kisses him,” he added. “A strong man who wants to cry when that same blonde withholds affection.”

  Harper grinned and impulsively threw her arms around his neck, giving him the hug he missed the night before as she kissed his cheek. “I’ll never do it again,” she whispered, causing gooseflesh to break out on his arms as she exhaled on his sensitive neck.

  “If we didn’t have a very serious situation going on, I would totally call in sick and drag you back to bed,” Jared admitted, rubbing his thumb over her cheek. “I require a better kiss than that to make up for the one I missed out on last night.”

  “I gave you that this morning.”

  “Yes, but that was for both of us,” Jared clarified. “I need something that’s just for me.”

  “What if I buy you lunch when we’re done?” Harper suggested. “I know you’re going to want to go back to the scene and it’s right in front of Jason’s restaurant – and we never got our nice seafood meal last night, after all – so I figured we could make up for it today.”

  “It sounds as if we’re going to be doing a lot of making up.” Jared stroked the back of Harper’s head as he stared into her eyes. “I like your idea, but there will be more making up this evening. I’m giving you fair warning.”

  Harper giggled at his stern expression. “I can handle that. You need to catch up on your sleep, too, though. You look tired.”

  “I look handsome and ready to be the pirate of your dreams,” Jared corrected, pointing to his left. “They’re this way. The hospital put them in three rooms that are close together.”

  Harper sobered as she let Jared lead her through the hallway. Unlike the previous nigh
t when it was buzzing with activity, the small hospital was quiet and almost peaceful in the aftermath of the storm. “Did you get to talk to the parents at all last night?”

  Jared shook his head. “No. They were both out.”

  “Do you plan on taking me with you when you question them?”

  “I … what do you think?” Jared knew Harper boasted good instincts and he was keen to go with her lead, especially if it meant she would relax and truly let go of her unease.

  “I think I want to see Hayley,” Harper admitted. “I think you should go in as a solitary professional who isn’t abnormally attached to his magnificent girlfriend the first time you question the parents. Most police officers don’t take their girlfriends with them when they question people.”

  “Most people don’t have girlfriends as pretty as I do.” Jared’s smile was charming and lazy. “I get what you’re saying, though. You visit Hayley and see what she has to say, just hang around with her if she has nothing to add. I will question the parents. Then we’ll have lunch, compare notes, and see what we come up with. How does that sound?”

  Harper beamed. “Like the perfect way to start the day.”

  “We already started the day in the perfect way when I shivered your timbers,” Jared teased, kissing the tip of her nose. “I’m not sure it gets better than that. We can certainly try, though. I’m always up for a challenge.”

  JESSICA REITER sat at her husband’s side, a hospital robe clutched tightly around her as she stared at his bruised face. His eyes were open, although he looked as if he’d seen better days, and Jared did his best to look non-threatening as he stepped into the room.

  “Mr. and Mrs. Reiter, my name is Jared Monroe. I’m with the Whisper Cove Police Department.”

  “I remember you.” Jessica took on a far-off gaze as she tilted her head to the side and studied Jared with somber eyes. “You found me on the beach last night. You got me into the ambulance.”

  Jared pursed his lips as he nodded, inclining his chin toward a chair and silently asking if he could sit. Jessica immediately waved her hand to encourage him.

  “I remember you weren’t alone,” Jessica mused, shoving a strand of her dark hair behind her ear. “You had a woman with you when you first hit the beach. I remember seeing you and trying to call out but then you disappeared before eventually coming back alone. The woman … she was tall … and fair … and she went with Hayley.”