Page 49 of Seeing Harper

Travis wrinkled up his nose after Harper walked by, sniffing the air. “She smell a lot like Clay to you?” he whispered as he continued to sniff the air.

When Libby didn’t answer, Travis looked her way.

Libby was standing at the kitchen sink, looking at him through the 70s style cutout in the wall that allowed whoever was in the kitchen to converse with whoever was in the living room, and actually had a small countertop mounted at its edge with two bar stools tucked under it. She held her hands up at him as she made a face at him, dripping dish soap and bubbles down to elbows, asking him without words to look at her and remember who she was.

“Oh, yeah. You can’t smell it.”

“And I’d be alarmed if she didn’t! She’s been with him for two days.”

“Seems a little strong, though.”

“Travis… leave her alone,” Libby said, focusing on washing the pots she’d used to cook dinner in.

Down the hall Harper couldn’t help but hear her parents’ conversation and didn’t even stop at her bedroom. She went right to the bathroom and started the shower. After gathering every kind of floral scented body wash and moisturizer she had under her bathroom cabinet, she finally stepped into the steamy shower and washed her body twice before lathering again using a combination of the most heavily perfumed products she had. When she got out, she used the moisturizing lotions over her entire body, but then added another layer concentrating on her upper thighs, her stomach and lower back. The last thing she needed was her father or Summer noticing his scent was particularly heavy on her body.

By the time she was drying off, she heard Summer arrive and the crinkle of bags which indicated take out.

A few moments later Summer was tapping on the bathroom door. “I brought cheeseburgers, fries, onion rings, and chocolate shakes. I got like a dozen of everything. I figured it’d be enough for everybody.”

“That sounds amazing,” Harper said.

“Yep. I know. I’m wonderful. I’ll see you in the living room.”

It wasn’t long before Harper walked into the living room to find her parents and Summer, already enjoying the burgers.

“I told her she shouldn’t have worried about us,” Libby said.

“But since she went to the trouble, don’t mind if I do enjoy a couple,” Travis said. He was sitting there with two burgers and an order of fries on his plate as he sipped one of two chocolate shakes sitting in front of him.

Harper smiled as she went to her seat and Summer pushed several cheese burgers and onion ring orders her way, then pushed the drink carrier holding four more chocolate shakes at her. “Oh, yeah. This is what I need. And I even ate dinner already! Well, lunch, but it was really late, so dinner.”

“You’re behind if you only ate once today. You have to take better care of yourself, Harper. You are too active not to feed your body the calories it needs,” Travis said.

“I know, Dad. I usually try to make sure I eat right, but I just got distracted today trying to get everything done.”

He eyed her for a moment, and Libby just knew she was going to have to step in, but he surprised them. “Well, nobody can ever say you’re not a hard worker. You’re 1,000 percent at whatever you’re doing.”

Harper stopped chewing and looked up at Travis. “Thank you, Daddy. That really means a lot to me.”

“You’re welcome, baby. Now eat up. And we have some leftovers from dinner, too, if you want some in the middle of the night.”

Summer sniffed the air. “Chili?” she asked.

“You got it. And cornbread, too. Some shredded cheddar cheese in a zip lock in the fridge and sour cream to go with it, if you want it,” Libby said.

Summer looked at the burger in her hand, then at the kitchen as she weighed her options. “I think I’ll have the chili during the night.”

Then she looked over at Harper. “Wearing enough perfume there?”

“I can’t get the horse smell off me tonight. Deal with it,” Harper snapped.

“Touchy much,” Summer said.

“Eat your burger. I warned you I was tired and I’m not always my lovely self when I’m tired,” Harper said.

“That is true,” Summer said. “Let’s hurry up and eat and we can go get in bed and trade gossip until you fall asleep. You’ll be nicer in the morning.”

Libby smiled indulgently at the girls. “Sometimes I forget you two aren’t little girls anymore. You still have so many of the same habits.”