Harper bit her lip and shook her head.
“I told myself you and Zander would make fun of me for calling you so soon,” Jared explained. “So I didn’t call. I had dinner alone in front of the television after my mother went to sleep. I sat there and wondered what you were doing. I pictured you and Zander getting in your pajamas and watching some … chick flick or something. Don’t ever tell him I said that, by the way. He’ll accuse me of stereotyping him and that’s the last thing I want because I’m going to need him on my side.
“So then I woke up the next morning and I was going to call you before I even got out of bed,” he continued. “I worried it was too early, so I had breakfast. Then I told myself you were probably working a job and I would call you after dinner. I didn’t do that, though, because then I started wondering why you hadn’t called me.
“I spent the next three hours obsessing about what you were doing and why you hadn’t called me,” Jared said. “By the time I went to bed I was ticked off because you hadn’t bothered to check in and see how my mother was doing. When I woke up the next morning the whole thing started all over again. The truth is … well … I didn’t call you because I flipped myself out. Are you happy?”
Despite herself, Harper couldn’t help the feeling of warmth that rolled over her. “I am. Thank you.”
Jared scowled. “Is that it? Does that mean we’ve made up?”
Harper shook her head, her blond hair glinting as the descending sun bounced off it. “I’m not ready to forgive you yet. You really hurt my feelings.”
“You don’t want to take any responsibility for this?”
“It wasn’t my place to call you,” Harper replied. “Your mother was injured and sick. I would never call in case you were in the hospital and I accidentally woke her … or if you were talking to a doctor and I interrupted. It was your place to call.”
“And this is simply because my mother was sick and not some twisted gender roles thing, right?”
Harper narrowed her eyes into dangerous blue slits. “What are you saying? Are you saying I’m a needy chick who expects you to do all the work in this relationship?”
“Hah!” Jared hopped up and down, pointing. “You just called it a relationship. From now on, when someone calls me your boyfriend, that means you have to admit I’m your boyfriend.”
“No way,” Harper protested. “A boyfriend calls.”
“I’ve apologized for not calling,” Jared growled. “I regret it. If I could go back in time … you know what? If I could go back in time I would get my mother a different rug so she wouldn’t slip and fall and hurt herself. That way we could’ve gone out on a real date and not been separated for ten days. That’s what I would’ve done.”
“Oh, well … .” Harper flapped her hands. “It’s hard to stay angry with you when you’re so hot and sweet. Stop it!”
Jared chuckled. “Fine. If you want to stay angry, stay angry.” He reached out and grabbed Harper’s hand, linking their fingers. “I’m not going to stay angry, so good luck pretending you’re mad at me. I’m going to keep my mouth shut and watch you work. I’ll be right here … holding your hand.”
“That won’t make this difficult or anything,” Harper huffed.
Jared didn’t respond, instead focusing on the high ridges of her cheekbones as they searched the area. Her face was beautiful, her eyes bright and inquisitive. He liked watching her work, even if she was less than thrilled with the manner in which he watched her. He couldn’t help but be fascinated by every little thing she did. He realized Mel was right on several fronts. He was already a goner where she was concerned.
“Did you hear me?”
“Huh?” Jared shifted his attention to Harper. “What?”
“Why do you keep forgetting me?” Harper complained.
“I didn’t forget you. I was thinking.”
“About what?” Harper asked, rolling her neck until it cracked.
“I was thinking you’re probably the most beautiful woman I’ve seen in real life,” Jared responded, guileless.
“I … um … oh … well … .” Harper was at a loss for words. That just made her more adorable in Jared’s book.
“You two are just too cute for school.”
Harper jumped at the new voice, clutching Jared’s hand and causing him to crash back to reality. She swiveled, fixing Derek Thompson with a surprised look. “Derek.”
“He’s here?” Jared asked, moving closer to her.
Harper nodded. “Derek, do you know who I am?”
“You’re the dippy blond chick who thinks she talks to ghosts and hangs around with Mel’s gay nephew,” Derek replied, causing Harper to frown.
“You know you’re dead, right?” Harper asked. “If I’m so dippy, how come I’m talking to you?”
Jared fought the mad urge to laugh as he listened to her hold a conversation with thin air. In his head he knew she was talking to someone, but it bothered him that he couldn’t share the experience with her.
Derek shrugged. “I guess that’s a pretty good question,” he said, glancing around. “Where did everyone go?”
“Everyone who?” Harper asked. “Were you here with other people?”
“When?”
Harper bit her tongue to keep from lashing out. It wasn’t Derek’s fault that he was confused. “Let’s take it from the top,” she suggested. “What’s the last thing you remember?”
“You were about to start groping Mel’s new partner in the park when you were supposed to be finding me,” Derek replied, not missing a beat.
“We were not about to start groping one another!”
This time Jared couldn’t swallow his chuckle in time to keep it from escaping. Harper refused to acknowledge him, or the surreal nature of the situation.
“Oh, puh-leez,” Derek intoned. “I’m not an idiot. You two were two seconds from smooching.”
“Whatever,” Harper muttered. “We weren’t going to smooch.”
“We already did that for ten minutes on the street,” Jared added. Even though he couldn’t see Derek he felt like being involved in the conversation.
“Thanks for that,” Harper said dryly.
“You’re welcome.”
Harper inhaled deeply, calming herself. They were there on a mission and she couldn’t lose track of that. “Do you know what happened to you last night, Derek?”
“I … .” Derek cocked his head to the side, furrowing his brow as he racked his brain. “I can’t remember much of anything,” he admitted after a few seconds. “It’s like my head is mush.” He chuckled harshly at his own joke. “Technically I guess my head did end up being mush, didn’t it?”
“Do you remember leaving your house last night? Your parents didn’t know you were out. Did you sneak out?”
“I didn’t have to sneak out,” Derek replied. “My parents didn’t keep tabs on me. My dad was watching television when I left and Mom was in bed reading a book.”
“Did you go straight to the park?”
“I … don’t know.”
“What do you remember?”
“I just said I don’t know! Are you deaf?”
Derek was frustrated and shaken. Harper didn’t blame him. She held her hands up in a placating manner. “It’s okay, Derek. This is all still new to you. Maybe if you take some time and think about things you’ll remember what happened.”
“Yeah, and then everything will be great,” Derek said, his eyes flashing. “You know what? I was right from the start. You are dippy.”
“I didn’t say things would be great,” Harper clarified. “I just said … .”
Derek cut her off. “I’m out of here. I don’t want to hang around with the strange chick who can talk to ghosts.”
“Derek!” He was already gone.
“What happened?” Jared asked.
“I forgot how much I hated teenagers,” Harper lamented.
“That bad, huh?”
“He’s not coming back tonig
ht,” Harper said. “He’s petulant, pouty, and has attitude.”
Jared reached over and gathered her hand again, squeezing it. “You tried.”
“I don’t think that’s enough,” Harper admitted. “He’s here for a reason. If he died by accident, he probably would’ve already passed over on his own. That means something happened to him.”
“You think he was murdered, don’t you?”
“I don’t know what else to think.”
Jared lifted Harper’s hand and pressed a kiss to her palm. “Come on. I’ll take you home. You need another night to be mad at me so we can make up completely tomorrow. The sooner you go to sleep, the sooner we’ll be happy again.”
Harper arched a challenging eyebrow. “You’re awfully sure of yourself.”
“Just wait until tomorrow,” Jared said, his smile wolfish. “You’re going to be awfully sure of me, too.”
“Oh, finally, something to look forward to.” Harper reluctantly let Jared lead her back toward his vehicle, casting one more glance over her shoulder in the hope she would see Derek. He wasn’t there, though.
“I’m going to give you so many things to look forward to you’re going to lose count,” Jared promised.
“Like what?”
“I’m going to make a list before I go to bed.”
“Well, I do like a planner,” Harper teased, giving in to the banter. “If I do decide to forgive you tomorrow, you need to cook a huge dinner for Zander. He wants steak and wine that doesn’t come from a box.”
“I think I can handle that.”
Eight
“So the ghost couldn’t tell you anything?” Eric asked Harper the next morning, keeping close to her as she walked up a gravel driveway in the direction of a riverfront cabin. “That sucks.”
Harper forced a smile. Eric wasn’t her first choice of scouting partners – mostly because his crush was becoming increasingly distracting and she was desperate to find a way to force him to look elsewhere for a love interest without hurting his feelings – but Zander was stuck in the office doing spreadsheets and she was still leery about taking Molly out on too many assignments. “He seemed upset,” she explained. “I’m hoping he’ll come around when he settles into his new reality a little more. Unfortunately, if he doesn’t want help, I can’t force him to show up and talk to me.”
“You’d think he’d want to talk to you,” Eric said. “You’re the only one around who he can talk to. That pretty much makes you his best friend right now. Or … at least it should.”
“He’s at that age where you think you know everything and the realization that you actually know nothing is a blow.”
“I guess. You’d still think he would be nicer to his best shot of moving on to a better place,” Eric said. “So, um … how did things go with Jared?”
Harper internally cringed at the question. “They were fine.”
“Fine?”
“Fine,” Harper repeated. She cleared her throat and decided to change the subject before she had to listen to another diatribe about Jared being a douchebag. “Eric, what do you think about Molly?”
Eric stiffened. “What do you mean?”
Harper realized the reason behind the shift in his demeanor right away. “I’m not going to pressure you to date her,” she said, her voice soft. “I think Zander is doing that enough for everybody. I want to know what you think about how she’s been acting since her ordeal.”
“Oh,” Eric said, exhaling heavily. “I don’t know what to think about that.” He followed Harper as she circled to the side of the cottage. “What are we doing here again?”
“The cottage is up for sale and it’s a great parcel,” Harper replied. “Unfortunately strange things keep happening and the real estate agent is convinced it’s haunted. I’m trying to ascertain if that’s true before we quote her a price on clearing it.”
“Do you think she’s making it up?”
“I think sometimes people see things that aren’t there,” Harper replied. “I want to make sure that something is really haunting this place before we talk about a plan of action. If there is something here, we should be able to find it pretty quickly. It’s a small place – only three bedrooms – and since it’s close to the river, there’s no basement.”
“That makes sense,” Eric said. “It’s good you brought me along in case things get dangerous.”
Harper bit her tongue to keep from laughing. Eric was a good guy – a whiz with the computer equipment – but he’d never been in the thick of things when a ghost got out of hand. “I agree. So, back to Molly … .”
“Oh, right,” Eric said. “I don’t know what to think about her right now. Ever since it happened she’s been … unpredictable.”
“You see her more than I do,” Harper reminded him. “Be specific.”
“You’re not going to fire her, are you?” Eric asked, his face earnest. “She’s young and she says stupid things, but … I don’t want you to fire her.”
Harper was floored. “Do you really think I would fire her because she’s going through a rough time after being drugged, kidnapped, and almost killed?”
“No,” Eric replied hurriedly. “It’s just … she’s sad, and I’m worried you think that’s going to get in the way of her doing her job. It won’t. She needs a little more time and then she’ll get over it.”
Harper stilled. “What do you mean she’s sad?”
“Haven’t you looked at her recently?”
“I look at her every chance I get,” Harper replied. “I’m worried sick about her. I don’t want to push her, so I sit there and stare at her and try to think of ways to help her.”
“That’s the exact wrong thing to do,” Eric said. “You need to treat her like you used to treat her. Make fun of her … tease her … tell her to shut up a time or two. That’s what she needs.”
Harper knit her eyebrows together. “Are you just saying that because you like being mean to her?”
“I don’t like being mean to her,” Eric protested. “She likes to argue, though. I like to argue, too. I’m giving her what she wants when I’m mean to her. No one has been arguing with her since she was hurt.”
“She was more than hurt. She was almost killed.”
“So were you and Zander, and you two were arguing the next day,” Eric pointed out. “You keep treating Molly as if she’s breakable. If you continue doing that, sooner or later she’s going to decide she’s broken.”
The statement was almost profound in its simplicity.
“I didn’t really think about that,” Harper admitted. “I thought she was dead. Collin told me she was dead. When Mel said they found her alive … I was so relieved.”
“I think that you and Zander know how to treat one another because you’re the same age and you’ve been friends forever,” Eric said. “Molly is younger, but all she really wants is to be treated like one of the group. Is there a reason you can’t treat her like one of the group?”
“I thought we were. You take care of the people in your group. We’ve been trying to take care of her.”
“No. You’ve been trying to coddle her,” Eric corrected. “You’ve been treating her as if she’s special and needs a mother, not a friend. You’re not her mother. She has a mother to coddle her. You need to be her friend and treat her like an equal. That’s all she really wants.”
Harper rubbed the back of her neck as she considered Eric’s words. “That’s a pretty keen observation.”
“I do my best,” Eric replied dryly.
“I think you’re smarter than we give you credit for sometimes,” Harper said.
“In that case … I don’t think you should date Jared because he’s going to hurt you again,” Eric said, causing Harper to swallow a groan.
“Let’s see if we can find a ghost, shall we?” Harper asked, veering away from Eric’s pointed statement as fast as humanly possible. “You check that side of the house and I’ll check this one.”
“I can�
�t see ghosts.”
“I … well … see if you can start,” Harper suggested.
“HOW did things go with Harper last night?” Mel asked, pulling into the parking lot of the local high school and killing his cruiser’s engine. “Did you two make up?”
“Kind of,” Jared replied, pushing open his door and climbing out.
Mel joined him on the pavement and fixed him with a dark look over the cruiser when they were both outside. “Kind of?”
“She’s being a pain,” Jared admitted. “She wants to make up and yet she’s digging her heels in. I can’t decide if it’s a woman thing or a Harper thing. She’s still kind of a mystery to me.”
Mel chuckled softly. “That’s a woman thing, son. Trust me. Harper isn’t some weird and wonderful creature where stuff like that is concerned. She’s not an anomaly. Did she give you any leeway?”
“Well, she told me to have a nice day outside of GHI, so I grabbed her and kissed the crap out her,” Jared said. “That went on for like ten minutes while Zander and the other two watched from inside and ate all the candy I bought her.”
Mel snorted. “That sounds about right. Then what happened?”
“Then I took her to the park so we could look for Derek’s ghost.”
“And?”
“And we had a big fight about why I didn’t call,” Jared replied. “I explained in excruciating detail what happened and she felt a little better. Then I held her hand and watched her work. She’s still not thrilled with me, but I told her she was going to have to forgive me today no matter what. I guess that means I’m going to have to make dinner for her and Zander – although I’d much rather have a private dinner than a threesome once she thinks I’m cute again.”
Jared glanced at Mel and found his partner glowering in his direction. “What?”
“I wasn’t asking for the down-and-dirty details of your pseudo date with Harper just now,” Mel said. “I was asking what you found when you went to the park in regards to Derek and his death.”
“Oh,” Jared said, realization dawning and causing his cheeks to burn. “Well, in that case, forget I told you all that mushy stuff about my night with Harper.”
“I wish I could forget it.”
Ghostly Issues (A Harper Harlow Mystery Book 2) Page 6
