Harper really was the most morally grounded person Charlie had ever met. It was such a switch from her former colleagues.
They chatted as they ate and for a couple more hours afterward as the sunny afternoon slipped into dusk, and storm clouds rolled in.
“The weather forecast hadn’t been calling for any storms today,” Harper said. “But I think we’re about to get wet.”
“The weather forecasting has turned to shit since everyone at the National Weather Service was fired,” her dad grumbled and made everyone laugh.
“We should probably get going anyway before it gets too dark. Your dad and I have a hotel room reserved in Homestead, and if we leave now, we should be able to get there before full dark. Neither of us likes driving at night these days. But let’s not wait another seven years before we do this again, huh?” her mom said.
“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 andsqueezed. “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 ahotel 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?”
