Page 85 of Seeing Harper

“This place? No reason for anything to change. You’ll have it to yourself instead of having to share it with me.”

Cruz thought about it, his head canting to the side a little. “You know, that might not be such a bad thing. I could get used to that.”

Clay laughed. “Just don’t say anything at all about my plans. Nobody knows except my father. I don’t want anything to get back to Harper until it’s all in place.”

“I’m wishing good things for you, but I really think you should do it all in a different order. It’s not even like you to proceed without taking your time and thinking about it.”

“I know, isn’t it exciting?!” Clay asked with a wink.

~~~

After sitting silently on a two and a half hour flight from Utah to Missouri, not acknowledging Joel at all — not even when he tried to share a snack or speak to her — Harper jumped up and made a break for the door the moment the plane came to a stop and the stewardess gave indication that they could begin disembarking.

“Harper!” Joel called out as she rushed to join the passengers already stepping through the door and onto the jet bridge. “We have the same ride home! Why are you running?!”

Harper ignored him and quickly put space and people between them. She ducked into the first bathroom she saw after leaving the gate and dropped her bags beside her as she leaned against the wall. She took out her phone and quickly sent a text to Summer.

“Hey, can you be at my house in about an hour and a half?”

She immediately got a reply.

“Yay! You’re back! On my way!”

Harper rolled her eyes and typed again.

“No, I'm not there yet. I will be in about an hour to an hour and a half. I need you to be parked outside my house,

near the road if possible with the car running. If they piss me off like I think they will. I’m staying with you.”

Like a true friend, Summer came through as she’d hoped she would.

“Uhh, confused, but okay. I’ll be there. Should I come armed? Maybe a shovel or two?”

Harper grinned to herself.

“Nope, just keep the engine running.”

Harper tucked her phone into her purse, picked up her carry on bag and her purse, and stepped out of the bathroom. She looked around to be sure that Joel wasn’t near and started walking down the concourse again, her eyes not even landing on the signs above her path after she located the route to the baggage claim, which is where her father would be waiting. When she rode the escalator down to the first level and baggage claim, the sirens were already sounding and the lights flashing to indicate baggage from a recently arrived plane was already preparing to be sent out along the conveyor to make its rounds of the very large room until it was all claimed by its owners. The second thing she noticed was her father standing with Joel, glancing around the room, presumably for her.

Naturally, her father noticed her first, his nose slightly lifted into the air in an attempt to catch her scent, had his head snapping toward the escalator more quickly than she’d anticipated. He smiled and stepped away from Joel to greet her as she reached floor level. Travis stepped back and gave her time to step clear of the escalator, then pulled her into his arms. “Welcome home, baby. How was your trip?”

“Exhausting,” she answered.

“Those shows are non-stop. I hope you picked up some good information for us, though,” Travis said.

“I did. Lots of brochures, some ideas of my own of which route is the best possibility for us, but of course, it will all be your decision.”

“Appreciate you going for me.”

Harper nodded, as she took a step past him to move closer to the conveyor to look for her bags.

“Joel beat you here after the plane landed. We were wondering where you got to. He said you got off first,” Travis said.

Harper turned her gaze on her father. The one that clearly said, ‘Seriously? You know why I got off first, and yet here you stand with him’, but to her credit, she didn’t voice it. Instead, she stared directly at her father when she answered. “I had to pee.”

“Oh! Okay,” Travis said, chuckling. “A little TMI, but okay.”

Travis watched his daughter, obviously still peeved; and Joel, who seemed hesitant to confront her and wondered if he had misread the information he’d received from both of them regarding the encounter that set this whole situation off.