I got it now. She had been left out. That had to really suck because she was an only child and was now being shoved aside.
“No, I don’t care about that either.”
“Harper, if that isn’t the problem then what is?”
I was starting to lose my patience. I wanted to be there to console her, but spit it out already. Just say what the problem is so I can fix it.
“I was on the phone with her and I decided that I was hungry. I made a sandwich and the tomato slipped out of the sandwich and down my shirt. My favorite white shirt. It’s completely ruined!” Harper started sobbing again.
What. The. Fuck. Had I come back to a different house? I had been gone, what, four hours? How did Harper go from my happy go lucky girlfriend to a sobbing mess on the ground over a tomato?
“Harper, seriously? It’s a shirt. Throw it in the wash and put something else on.”
Sh exploded off the ground. “It’s a shirt?! How can you be such a moron? It was my favorite shirt and now it’s ruined. Ruined! Don’t you see?”
I didn’t see. Not at all. Who was this batshit crazy woman? Why would she be flipping out over a stain on a shirt? And then it struck me.
“Harper, is it that time of the month?”
“Oh, that’s rich! I’m upset about something so automatically I must have my period. Fuck off, jackass.” She stormed out of the room and slammed the bedroom door. Looked like I would be sleeping on the couch tonight. Then she opened the door and yelled, “And you can forget about coming to bed tonight. Sleep on the couch and if you even think of coming near me, I’ll twist your balls until they turn blue, yank ‘em off, and shove ‘em down your throat!” She slammed the door again and I felt my balls crawl up inside my body, seeking protection.
Why did she always have to threaten my balls? Seriously, I had received more death threats from this woman in the four months I had known her than I had in my entire life. I walked back to the laundry room and looked at the stained shirt. I took out a bottle of Shout and sprayed it on the spot and then rubbed it in. While I let that sit, I threw in a load of laundry and unloaded my truck. I had been thinking I would need to do some groveling, so I brought home Mexican for her because it was her favorite. Turns out that I needed it more than I originally thought. I chuckled to myself at how quickly this day had gone from bad to worse. I laid out the food on the table and decided it would be against my best interests to knock on the door. I did what any rational man would do when confronted with a crazy woman, I texted her that dinner was on the table.
A few minutes later, Harper came walking out of the room and stopped when she saw what was on the table. She ran over to me and I flinched when she leapt towards me. She wrapped her arms around my neck and started kissing me. Seriously, this woman was bat shit crazy. She flew from one extreme to the other in a matter of minutes and I didn’t know how to handle her sometimes. I didn’t dare touch her as she laid kisses all over my face. I wasn’t sure what was going to happen next and I wasn’t sure I wanted to know. She pulled back and had a huge smile on her face. My body slumped in relief at her reaction.
“You’re the best, Jack. I can’t believe you knew exactly what would make me feel better. You are amazing!” I stood there in stunned silence contemplating how to react. It was almost like she was a scared kitten. Make one wrong move and your eyes get clawed out. She sat down at the table and started eating. I took a seat and started to eat also. We ate in silence and then I got up and cleared the table. I brought out the plans I had picked up and laid them out on the table.
“What are these?”
“These are the plans for the addition. I had an interior designer come and look at the layout and put together some ideas for what we could do with the room.” Harper looked over the plans and smiled up at me.
“Thank you so much. This is perfect.” And just like that, I had been forgiven.
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
Harper
It was the day before Thanksgiving and I was running around to get last minute stuff done. There had been a slight miscommunication between Agnes and I. I thought Agnes was bringing the turkey over this afternoon and Agnes thought I had bought a frozen turkey earlier in the week. So with only a few hours to spare in my busy schedule, I ran out to the store for a fresh turkey. The first store I went to only had a frozen turkey and I didn’t think I could thaw it in time. The second store only had game hens left. So here I was at the last store searching for a fresh turkey. I made my way over to the meat department and found one fresh turkey left. I was just picking it up when a little old lady put her hand on the turkey.
“Oh dear. Is that the last one? My Alfred just loves turkey for Thanksgiving. He’ll be absolutely heartbroken if I don’t bring one home to him.” I felt bad, but I really needed this turkey.
“I’m really sorry. I would give this to you, but I have a whole house full of people coming over tomorrow.” I started to put it in my cart when the little old lady spoke again.
“My Alfred and I have been together 65 years this Christmas. It may very well be our last Christmas together. The doctors have only given him a few months to live. Oh, you know doctors can be wrong, but I want to make every holiday count. I just want to have some good last memories with him.” She wiped a tear from her eye and I felt a pull at my heartstrings. I could figure something else out. I couldn’t take away this woman’s final Thanksgiving with her husband.
“Here. Why don’t you take this turkey.” I handed over the turkey and I was sure the turkey would sink the old lady if she was in the ocean.
“Oh my. What a dear you are. I know God is smiling down on you. Such an angel.” She turned away to put the turkey in the shopping cart. I started to look at what was left for buying. I could try to thaw a frozen turkey or I could buy a couple of turkey breasts and cook them. As I stood there deciding, I watched the little old lady hobble away and join a younger version of herself.
“Sucker. It works every time, dear. You just have to know how to pick ‘em. I bet I could have gotten a whole Thanksgiving dinner out of that one.” The little old lady told her daughter.
“That bitch!” I stormed over to the lady and yanked the turkey from her cart. “I’ll be taking my turkey back now. Next time you want to scam someone, wait until you’re out of earshot before you brag.” I started to turn around when the little old lady started to cry out.
“Help! Help! This woman just stole my turkey from my shopping cart.” I looked around and saw people sneering at me from all around the store. This was mortifying, but I wasn’t going to be scammed by someone playing the sympathy card.
“Nice try, lady. I’m not giving it back.” A store manager walked over to me and started to inquire about the disturbance.
“Excuse me, ma’am. Is there a problem?”
“Yes. This young gal just took my turkey that I planned to make for my poor dying husband.” She started to cry and I narrowed my eyes at her. Oh, she was good. I wasn’t about to be beaten though. Little old lady or not, I would win the battle.
“Actually, I had the turkey first and this lady told me this sob story about her husband, but when she turned around she was laughing it up with Bonnie over here about scamming me out of a turkey.”
“Hey, my name’s not Bonnie.”
“Well, you might as well be! Ya know Bonnie and Clyde? You’re the accomplice and she’s the brains.”
The store manager stepped in. “Look, I know things always get out of control at the holidays. Can we please work out an agreement over who is taking the turkey home? Let’s not cause a scene in the middle of the store.”
“It was my turkey first and I’m taking it home.”
I started to step away from the woman, but the little old lady grabbed tight to the turkey.
“No you will not. This turkey is for my dear husband.” She yanked the turkey back towards her body.
“Give me my turkey back you old hag!”
I yanked one final time and the
turkey slipped from the old lady’s grasp. However, I wasn’t prepared and I fell back a step and the turkey flew out of my arms. I heard a thunk and then something hit the floor. Cringing, I turned around to see a middle aged woman lying on the ground out cold. I stood there in shock. I had knocked out someone’s mother. With a turkey. Holy crap, I was going to hell.
The store manager called security and pretty soon, I was sitting in a back room being guarded until police arrived. What else could go wrong? I just wanted that damn turkey. Thank God it wasn’t a frozen turkey, I thought with a frown.
The police arrived and I explained my side of the story. They didn’t seem too forgiving though. They yanked me around and put me in cuffs. They were being kind of rough and I didn’t think this was the way it was supposed to go, but I wasn’t that well informed on the law. I did however have an in with a certain police officer.
“Please, call Sean. He’s my friend.”
“Yeah? What’s his last name?”
One of the officers looked at me like he really would release me if I could just answer the question. Damn it. Why hadn’t I ever thought to ask his last name?
“He’s Officer Sean…. Damn it. I don’t know his last name, but his best friend is my boyfriend, Jack Huntley.”
Officer number two stepped forward. “Hey, aren’t you the lady that assaulted a robber with a poster?”
I rolled my eyes. It seemed like everyone in town had heard that story. “Yes, that was me.”
“Yeah, we’re definitely taking this one in. History of assault and all. First a poster. Now a turkey. At least she keeps it interesting.” They dragged me off to the police car and shoved me into the back seat. The cuffs were digging into my wrists from how tight they cuffed me.
“Excuse me. Could you please loosen the cuffs a little? They’re digging into my wrists.”
“Oh, the princess wants us to loosen the cuffs. Why don’t you go back there and take care of that, Stanley. Then, go get her a cup of coffee to warm her up.”
They laughed at me and I glared back at them. I wanted so badly to say something, but I was smart enough to keep my mouth shut and wait for my phone call. I sat in holding at the police station for four hours before I was allowed to make a phone call. I called Jack and told him he needed to come down to the police station right away and bring Sean with. He was down there twenty minutes later and I could hear him yelling in the main area of the police station. I was still cuffed from earlier and I really had to pee. The door slammed open and I yelped in surprise, all while hoping my bladder would hold. Sean came storming into the room with anger all over his face.
“I’m so sorry, Sean. I swear I didn’t mean to hurt anyone. It was an accident. I was just trying to get a turkey for tomorrow.”
I was rambling and I knew it, but frankly, at this point I was lucky I wasn’t on the ground crying my eyes out. I had always been a trouble magnet, but never anything that involved the police. Now I had been involved with the police twice in less than six months. Sean walked over to me and knelt in front of me.
“Hey, Harper. It’s okay. I’m not mad at you. I’m pissed because they didn’t follow procedure. You should have had your phone call hours ago.” Then he seemed to notice that my arms were still behind my back. He exploded. “What the fuck?”
He pulled out a key and quickly took the cuffs off my wrists. I sighed as the blood started flowing more smoothly through my hands. Sean held my hands and started massaging them. He stopped for a minute and was staring at the cuts that were on my wrists from where the cuffs were digging in. He was taking deep breaths in and out, trying to control his temper. His jaw was clenched so tight, I was sure he would break a tooth.
“Let’s clean you up before Jack sees this and we have a murder on our hands.”
“Um, Sean? Can I use the bathroom really quick?”
“Sure, sweetheart. Door is right across from here.”
I quickly made my way to the bathroom and sighed in relief when I was done. When I came back into the room, there was a man waiting there for me. He had a medical bag and was pulling out items.
“Ms. Abbot, let me take a look at your wrists. Come sit down.” I walked over to the table and took a seat. “I’m James. I’m a medic and a friend of Sean’s. He asked me to come take a look at you.” I smiled at him.
“Thank you so much. I really appreciate it.” He cleaned up the scrapes around my wrists and put some ointment on them and wrapped some bandages around them. “Try to keep them on for a few hours, but then by tomorrow, take them off so the air can help dry it up.”
I turned to Sean as James left the room. “So, what is going to happen to me now?”
“Well, you, my dear, are free to go home. Jack is waiting for you in the lobby. Come on, I’ll walk you out.”
We started to leave when I remembered the lady from the store.
“Wait, what about that lady I knocked out with the turkey? Is she okay?”
“Yes, she’s fine. She wasn’t really out, more stunned. The daughter wanted you charged with assault with a deadly weapon, but when the woman came to her senses, she asked us to drop the charges. Said it was an accident and she didn’t want to ruin anyone’s Thanksgiving.”
“Wow. That was really sweet.”
Sean put a hand on my back and walked me out to the lobby. Jack had been pacing around, but when he saw me, he ran up to me and wrapped me in his arms. I had never been so relieved in my life. This had been a horrible day and I wanted to go home. When he saw the bandages around my wrists, he froze.
“What the fuck, Sean? You told me you would take care of her. Why does she have fucking bandages on her wrists?”
“Tweedle-dee and Tweedle-dum decided to wrap the cuffs on extra tight. They’re in getting an ass chewing from the boss.” Jack nodded and then brought his attention back to me.
“How are you, pretty girl?”
“I’m tired. Can we go home now?”
“Yeah, let’s go home.”
We had made it all the way out to the truck before I broke down in tears. I wasn’t normally a crier, but this day was horribly humiliating. I was cuffed and dragged downtown. They had thrown me in a cell and forgotten about me. I had wanted Jack so badly and he didn’t even know I was in trouble. The part that upset me the most was that I didn’t get what I needed for the feast tomorrow. I had planned everything perfectly and now we didn’t have everything we needed and my first Thanksgiving with Jack would be ruined. Jack pulled me into his arms and I felt his body vibrating in anger.
“Babe, I know that was scary, but it’s over now. Let’s go home and I’ll draw a hot bath for you. Okay?”
“I’m not crying because of that, you idiot. I didn’t get my shopping done and that was the last fresh turkey. Now I have no turkey to cook for Thanksgiving and half the ingredients I need for the other dishes are missing. Nobody is going to have anything to eat tomorrow. What are we gonna feed them?”
“I’ll take care of it, babe. Let’s just go home and then I’ll figure it out.”
He drove us home and I fell asleep on the way. I felt him lift me from the truck, but I was too tired to care. I hadn’t realized how much of a toll this would take on my body. One minute I was in the air and the next I was wrapped in the comfort of my bed, where I slept for another three hours. It was almost five o’clock at night when I woke. I got up from bed, feeling much better, and made my way down the hall. I heard voices talking and recognized one of them as Sean. I entered the living room and saw Sean and another officer standing there.
“Uh…. What’s going on? Am I in trouble again?” Sean smiled.
“No darlin’. We brought you a little present.” He hefted a bag up and pulled out a turkey. “We thought we’d return your deadly weapon to you.”
I would have been excited, but after all that happened, I just couldn’t find it in me to be happy. Still I put on a small smile for them.
“Thanks guys. That’s really great. I guess Thanksgivi
ng won’t be a total bust after all.”
I took the turkey from Sean, ignoring the concerned look on his face and went to stick it in the fridge. Then I went back to my room and crawled back into bed. I woke up in the middle of the night to feel Jack wrap himself around me.
“Baby, you can’t let today get you down. We’re still gonna have a great Thanksgiving.”
“I just wanted it to be perfect. I’ve never had a perfect Thanksgiving. Mom never cooked so we always ended up going to someone else’s house. Dad tried to make it really special for me, but mom always fought with him over something. She was always picking at him. They would end up arguing and we’d head home right after dinner. Kind of sucked all the fun out of Thanksgiving.” I paused thinking about what my perfect day would look like. “I just always imagined cooking in the kitchen with family and sitting down to a nice, big meal laughing at funny stories. Maybe next year.” I fell asleep to Jack rubbing my arms lightly. It had been a crappy day, but lying here with Jack made it all better.
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
Jack
I laid in bed staring at the ceiling. I had no idea this day meant so much to her. I knew she was excited, but not that this was all she had hoped for. I wasn’t going to let her down. After she fell asleep, I slid out of bed and headed downstairs to the kitchen. I had work to do.
Harper’s shopping list was in her purse, so I called the one woman that could help, my mom. She had heard about the incident today and was very upset on Harper’s behalf. I went through the list of things we still needed. Mom had a few of the items and we both started calling people looking for the rest of the ingredients. After an hour, Mom called and said she had secured all the items from her list and would be over at six the next morning to get started. More at peace with tomorrow, I went to bed with every intention of making tomorrow perfect for Harper.
The alarm blared at 5:30 and even though staying in bed sounded wonderful, I was excited to get the day started. Harper didn’t wake up with the alarm, so I shook her like a kid on Christmas morning.
Jack (For The Love Of A Good Woman Book 1) Page 10