and he didn’t get up.
“Are you okay?” Tom asked when they were outside. “I don’t know what’s happening with you and Aiden, but clearly, his sister is making trouble again.”
“I don’t want to talk about it,” Harriet said as tears filled her eyes.
“Come on, now.” He put his arm around her shoulders, pulling her to him. “I didn’t mean to make you cry.”
“You didn’t,” she snuffled against his shoulder.
“Okay,” he said. “Can I do anything to make it better?”
Harriet swiped at her eyes with the heels of her hands and shook her head. Tom gently kissed her on the forehead.
“I’ve got to go,” he said. “Will you call me if you need anything? Even if it’s just a shoulder to cry on?”
Harriet nodded, part of her wishing it was Aiden kissing her, in spite of everything.
Tom put his fingers under her chin and tilted her face toward his.
“Do you promise?”
“Yes, I promise.”
“Okay, let me walk you to your car.” He turned her around, keeping his arm across her shoulders. “I’ll come by your booth at lunchtime, if that’s okay with you. Just to see how you’re doing.”
“I’d like that.”
When they reached her car, he pulled her into his arms for a hug and then turned and went back to his own car. Harriet watched until he’d gotten in and driven away.
Chapter 13
The stop at Tico’s Tacos, Jorge’s Mexican restaurant in downtown Foggy Point, had been uneventful. It had, however, meant that Harriet had to park farther back in the exhibition hall’s parking lot. She spotted Jenny when she got out of her car and had her hand half-raised to wave when she realized Jenny wasn’t alone. A man with matted hair and a tribal tattoo across half of his face was arguing with her.
Harriet continued around to the back of her car, where she could hear Jenny and the man without being seen, and slowly began loading the box of tortillas onto her fold-up handcart.
“Take it,” Jenny shouted and pushed a handful of what had to be money at him.
“Don’t think you can just shove a few bills at me and send me on my way,” he yelled back.
“Scream all you want, but this is all I have,” Jenny said and turned her back on him before striding to the entrance of the exhibit hall.
The man picked up a camouflage backpack and swung it onto his thin shoulders then limped off in the opposite direction.
Harriet locked her car and wheeled her box up to Jenny’s car. An assortment of bills littered the pavement on the driver’s side. She picked them up and stuffed them in her sweatshirt pocket.
“Thank you, honey,” Aunt Beth said when Harriet arrived at the food court with the box of tortillas. “Are you okay?”
“I could have done without running into Aiden this morning, but besides that, I just saw something weird in the parking lot.” She told her aunt what she’d witnessed.
“Are you going to say anything to her?” Beth asked.
“I picked up the money.” She reached into her pocket and pulled the money out, counting it as she straightened the bills and aligned them into a stack. “Geez, there’s two hundred-forty dollars here.” She folded the bills and put them back in her pocket. “I’m going to give the money back to her and see what, if anything, she says about it. I’ll let you know if I learn anything interesting.”
Aunt Beth glanced at her watch.
“You better get moving if you’re going to talk to her and get to your booth on time,”
“I’ll talk to you later,” Harriet said and strode off toward the exhibit hall.
“Hey, Jenny,” she said a few minutes later when she found her friend, fully decked out in her afro wig and sunglasses, standing beside her quilt.
“Oh, hi, Harriet, how are you doing this morning?”
“Wow, it’s like nothing ever happened here,” Harriet said, looking around.
“The show must go on, I guess,” Jenny said with a half-smile.
“Hey, when I was walking past your car, I found this money on the pavement beside the driver’s side door.” Harriet pulled the folded bills out of her pocket and tried to hand them to Jenny.
“That’s not mine,” She stepped back and held her hands up. “Someone else must have dropped it.” When she realized she was still holding her hands up she dropped them abruptly and then nervously smoothed the sides of her tunic.
“No problem,” Harriet said. “They must have a lost-and-found here. Maybe they can take care of it.”
“That sounds like a good idea,”