Seventeen Days (35 page)

Well, that's better. For a minute there, I was thinking about leaving her on the side of the highway. Okay, not literally but, close. 

“I was freaking out for a minute there, Red. You had me thinking I wasn’t half as important to you as you are to me. You have me worried there for a second. I’m sorry for entertaining those thoughts.” 

“No apologies needed. I may have said it like that to get a reaction out of you, anyway. So I’m the one who’s sorry. Forgive me?” Batting her eyelashes at me, she purses her lips in a pout. Damn, she’s cute. How could I stay mad at her? Especially since I wasn’t mad in the first place. 

“Dammit, we’re a pair. I’m not forgiving you, because like you said, there’s nothing to forgive. Now, let’s go in this store and grab what we need. The sooner we do, the sooner we can eat. I’m fucking hungry.” 

Parking the truck, we make our way into the store. She leaves my side once we enter to go grab whatever it is she needs. She still has my hat on.
Fuck she looks cute.
It’s the second time in the last few minutes I’ve thought the word cute, but she’s not cute. She’s sexy. Sexy as all get out. I’m the luckiest bastard in the world. 

Tossing a few fresh veggies into the buggy, I see someone I don’t want to see. 

Jess. 

Great, exactly what I don’t need. Morgan had to leave to grab her things right when we got here, didn’t she? Why couldn’t she have stayed by my side? Quickly pushing the buggy the other way, out of Jess’s path, I’m praying she didn’t see me. 

“Harrison?” 

“Oh, hey, Jess.” Shit, she saw me.
Hurry up, Red.
Grabbing my phone, I send her a quick text asking her to hurry and save me. 

Me: Save Me. SOS in the produce.

Red: Huh? What do you mean?

Me: Ex lady friend. HELP!

Red: Be there in a minute. ;)

Phew, she’s on her way. Guess I won’t have to be tortured for too long. 

“How have you been?” 

“Busy. But wonderful. Things are great with Morgan. She’s here, you’ll probably get to meet her.” And she’s going to mark her territory. Be warned. 

“Oh, so you’re still seeing that girl?” 

“Told you over the phone awhile back she wasn’t going anywhere. She’s my future.” As the words leave my lips, she rounds the corner with her arms full of pregnancy tests.
What in the actual fuck?
 

“Do you think we should try more than one kind, Harrison?” she asks while tossing a few into the buggy. “Oh, hello, I’m sorry, I’m so rude, didn’t see Harrison had a friend here. I’m Morgan.” She reaches her hand out to shake Jess’s. 

“It’s always better to try more than one, we want to be positive.” 

“Um. Nice to meet you too,” Jess says at the same time I reply to her. But she doesn’t extend her hand out to shake Morgan’s in return. 

“Okay, well we should be hurrying along. My aunt is expecting us for dinner and as you can see we have a few tests to take. Nice running into you, bye.”

She grabs ahold of the buggy and pushes it away. “Come on, Harrison, we don’t want to leave Aunt Savannah waiting. She’s already on pins and needles waiting to know if the test we already took was correct.” 

I can’t help it, I bust out laughing before we clear the aisle. The expression on Jess’s face was priceless. Fucking priceless. 

“Marry me, Red. Fucking marry me. You’re perfect.” As soon as the words leave my mouth, I knew I shouldn't have given a voice to them. Now wasn't the time or place. Hoping to play it off I quickly add, “...One day in the near future.” 

“Your urgent text messages gave me the pregnancy test idea. Since I was already in the aisle, I grabbed a ton of them and ran over as quickly as possible. We don’t actually need one. Um, but I do need to go back to the aisle, for other things.” She’s so cute when she rambles, hell who am I kidding, she’s cute period. She’s nervous, so I leave her to go back to the aisle alone. And there I go with the cute word, again. 

“Okay, babe, meet me over in the dairy section. I’ll grab eggs and whatnot and leave you to get whatever it is you need.” Knowing full well what she needs in that aisle but choosing not to say, she’s embarrassed enough. Bending, I place a kiss upon her cheek and leave her with the buggy. 

Did I actually ask her to marry me in the middle of a fucking grocery store? Yeah, I did.
Smooth, jackass.
Real fucking smooth. Making a pact with myself not to bring up the word marriage again until December, I grab the eggs, almond milk, ready-made pizza dough, and am browsing the cheese selections when she finds me. “Grab a bag of shredded mozzarella and we can call it good.” 

“Any mozzarella won’t do, we need provolone, and parmesan as well. The more cheese, the better in my book,” I reply with a confident smirk. 

“You’ve made your point more cheese is good. I grabbed a jar of sauce before coming to find you, and also fresh spinach, eggplant, tomatoes, and garlic cloves. The more veggies, the merrier.” 

Eggplant? No, not on my pizza. Not on my anything. Hopefully I can leave it in the buggy when we’re checking out and she’ll never notice. Or conveniently leave it off the pizza when I’m tossing it together. Never been a fan of eggplant anything. Spinach, I can stomach, but not eggplant. Have to draw the line somewhere. 

“Babe? Put the eggplant back.” I may have said it like a question at first but I didn’t give her sufficient time to answer before turning it into a statement. Eggplant and this dude do not mix. Ever.  

“No, I will not put the eggplant back. If you don’t want it on your pizza, you don’t have to have it on your pizza, but I want eggplant. Deal with it.” 

It appears my spitfire of a girl back in full force. Good, I haven’t seen her in a while, and I thought maybe she was left behind in Paris. She hasn’t been her feisty self-much lately. Wait, I take it back. She was feisty to Sienna the day she showed up at Savannah’s. What I ended up overhearing, anyway. She didn’t back down from the bitch. I’ve been debating on calling Julian lately and seeing if there’s any legal action that can be taken out on Sienna. But without losing Morgan’s confidence, I can’t do it. Her confidence in me means the world to me. Maybe if I get advice from an unknown third party? Seek legal advice from one of those random lawyers who advertise all over the radio or television. Fuck, anyone who could give me peace of mind. 

“Fine, get the eggplant. But I won’t be eating it. No can do, not even for you, sweetness.” 

“But you would eat anything else I asked you to?” she asks sweetly. 

Did I say I would? 

“No, I didn’t say that. At least, I don’t believe I did.” 

“Well, I could always go find Jess and tell her you're free tonight to take her out, if you like. Or maybe you could try a teeny tiny bite of eggplant on your pizza. Honestly, I didn’t plan on you trying it when I tossed it in the buggy, but now you’ve planted the idea in my head, and I shall make you try it. Muah-ha-ha-ha.” Reaching up, she grabs my face and plants a loud smack on my lips. “That’s my evil laugh, by the way,” she says as she saunters, yes saunters, away. 

Fuck … this woman. She’s amazing. 

“You should have seen her face, Aunt Savannah. I wish we could’ve taken a picture. Funniest. Thing. Ever. Now I want to run into a bunch of Harrison’s old conquests and pull pranks on them, if only to see the looks on their faces. Today may have been a tiring day, but the expression on her face made it all worth it. I don’t care if she tells the whole town I’m knocked up!” 

Smiling to myself, I continue slicing up veggies for our pizzas while Morgan fills in her aunt on our eventful trip to the store. Shit, Jess can post it as her Facebook status and I wouldn’t care. The world could think I was expecting a baby and I’d be happy about it. Eventually, I want to have a few children anyway, so why would I give a shit if people thought we were starting before we were married? 

“Oh! Harrison, before I forget, I saw on the weather about a big storm is coming in. Do you have a tour scheduled for the morning?” Savannah asks, her voice full of concern. 

“Yeah, but the last I checked the storm is going to pass over this part of the gulf, so we should be okay. We’ll check again before going out in the morning. No worries.” We’ve dealt with storms before, hurricanes even, so I’m sure Gentry and I will be good in the morning. Steve has the day off and Thad is still out sick. We have the one tour going out and that’s it. “Promise, ladies, we’ll double and triple check. Red, you can stay home in the morning, you caught everything up today, and I don’t want to be out on the water worrying about you in the office
if
it does indeed storm.” 

The mood in the place went from one of delight to somber in an instant. Red must not have seen the forthcoming weather reports. Shit. She’s never had to deal with a storm yet. Being on the gulf it’s a common thing around here and we depend on the morning weather reports, checking those right up to the minute before we leave. Checking them the entire time we’re out as well. A tourist catching a fish isn’t worth them losing their lives over. Money in my pocket isn’t worth it, either. Nothing is. I’ve never taken a risk with taking the boats out in inclement weather before, and I sure as hell wouldn’t start now. 

“Red?” 

“Yeah?”

“Don’t worry, babe. Not about the weather, and not about me. I’ve never taken a risk when it comes to the weather, and tomorrow won’t be any different. Ever heard the saying, ‘mackerel scales and mares tails cause tall ships to fly low sails’? It’s something we abide by once we’re out on the water, if the weather changes, paying attention to the clouds can tell us a lot about what is coming. Trust me, we’ll be careful. No unnecessary risks will be taken. Not tomorrow, or ever.”  I’m not worried about the storm. If it was a hurricane, I would have already called off the tour, stored the boats, boarded up the office windows, you name it, I’d have done it. Evacuated if it called for it. We don’t play with storms in these parts.

“Now, who’s ready for some pizza? These bad boys appear good to go. Let’s toss ‘em in the oven, ladies!” 

Before you ask, yes, I put eggplant on one of the pizzas. I’ll try it, for her. This one time. If I have to down a whole beer to get it down my throat, so be it. 

“Come on, Red, let’s go watch the sunset from the porch swing while these bake.” 

Setting the oven timer, grabbing a couple of beers from the fridge, we head outside to watch the sunset. “What's actually bothering you? The weather or something else?”  

“Nothing, really. The weather does bother me, but I trust you to know what’s best. You’ve been doing this for a while now, so you know what you’re doing. I’m only thinking. About my future and what I’d like to study. I’ve been thinking about going into business. Opening my own coffee-bookshop after college. I’m actually toying with the idea of asking Julian to buy the land next to your place. It’s a great spot.” 

   Holy crap. She wants to open up shop next to me?  I’m in love with the idea. We could build and expand the business together. The office could be attached to her shop.
How cool would it be?
 

“It’s a fantastic idea, babe. You should do it. If he doesn’t want to buy the land, I could see about buying it. I’m already expanding, so it would make sense for me to purchase the land. We don’t need it for the charter business, but I could get it for you for later, while it’s up for sale. I also happen to know the owners; they may sell it to me without using the realtor so that would save us money too.” 

She shouldn’t call Julian, fuck it, I can buy the land. Give it to her as a wedding present. “Tell you what, don’t ask him to buy it. I’ll see what I can do. If you want to buy it from me later on down the road, you can. I’ll snatch it up for you this week.” It’s hers, no matter what, she’ll never buy it from me. Never owe me for it. Her love is payment enough.  

Wonder if her going into business has anything to do with me or if it’s something she’s deep down always wanted to do? “If you like, I can help you pick out classes. When we go up to visit campus, we can stop into admissions as well. Get a class schedule, and I can show you where everything is. Unless you decide on a different university, you’d be prepared come spring semester.” 

“That’d be great. About the classes. The land, I’m going to run the idea by Julian first. See if he wants to invest in it. He may want to be a business partner if he likes my idea. And I have a name picked out. Would you like to hear it?” Wow, she honestly has given this more thought than I knew about. 

“Lay it on me, what’s the name you’re thinking of? And would you only sell coffee and books? Before today, I didn’t know you knew what you wanted to major in. Thought that was something you’d still had to decide on. You’ve mentioned business maybe once, back in Paris.” At least, that’s what I remember. 

“It was. Well, that’s not entirely true. Deep down, I’d always wanted my own little place. I never thought it was anything I could do, though. Sienna has always filled my head with lies. Always told me I’d amount to nothing so it’s what I choose to believe. Until the last few months when I started to stand up for myself, I believed her. Always thought I was destined to be nothing
but
used. It’s what I saw myself as, Harrison. A fucking pawn. Now, though?
Now
I see myself as so much more. It’s mostly because of you. Because of this place. Savannah. Dog. Mac. The sunsets and rises. Julian. But mostly because of a stormy-eyed jackass named Harrison who makes me believe in
more.
”