A Walk Along the Beach by Debbie Macomber Page 0,19
a showing and I could only imagine where she was hiding.
I made dinner and went to wake Harper. “Dinner’s ready,” I told her, gently placing my hand on her shoulder.
Stretching her arms over her head, she yawned and briefly looked up at me. “I’m tired. I want to skip dinner tonight.”
“You sure?” Normally Harper had a good appetite.
“I did a hard workout this afternoon and was up late on the phone with John last night. Let me sleep.”
John, if I remembered correctly, was a fellow climber. From the beginning I’d had my doubts about this mountain adventure of Harper’s. She was exhausted and she had yet to set foot anywhere close to Mount Rainier. “Sleep,” I whispered. She’d wake later and change into her pajamas and probably raid the refrigerator.
In the meantime, Snowball was AWOL. Hoping to lure her out from her hiding spot, I set a bowl of food on the kitchen floor. She was a no-show. Surely the kitten would be hungry by now. So much for Harper’s promise to take care of her.
Mumbling under my breath as I headed into my room, I found Snowball curled up and asleep on my pillow. How she’d managed to get all the way up to the bed was a mystery.
“So here you are,” I said, lifting her and gently petting her. “I have food out for you.” I carted her into the kitchen and placed her on the floor. Snowball found the bowl and quickly ate. When she’d finished her dinner, I carried her back to Harper.
“Harper,” I said softly, not wanting to startle her. “I have your cat.” I set Snowball down on the pillow next to my sister’s head. While half asleep, Harper smiled and gently tucked Snowball against her stomach. The kitten immediately curled up and took a nap.
Shaking my head, I left the two of them.
* * *
—
I didn’t talk to Harper until the following morning, when she stopped off at Bean There on her break between her fitness classes.
“Hello, Sleeping Beauty,” I said, and handed her a protein drink along with a vegan blueberry scone. There’d been evidence that morning of her kitchen raid sometime during the night.
“I know. Can you believe I slept nearly twelve hours?”
“Yes. I think these workouts are stretching you to the limit.” I didn’t want to claim they were too much for her, for fear of sounding like the mother she’d accused me of being.
“Hogwash,” Harper insisted. “I didn’t get enough sleep the night before and needed to catch up is all.”
“Whatever you say.” I wasn’t sure I believed her, and resisted rolling my eyes.
Seeing that Alice was dealing well with the customers, I grabbed a coffee and joined my sister. Lowering my voice, I said, “I happened to run into Sean last night.”
“And?” Harper arched her neatly trimmed eyebrows.
Hiding my smile would have been impossible. “He asked me out.”
A knowing smile quivered at her lips. “Told you.”
No use arguing. Besides, I didn’t want to. “You did.”
“Where’s he taking you?”
“He asked me what I wanted to do.” That had impressed me. “I suggested a walk along the beach.”
“What!” Harper cried, shaking her head as if I’d committed some terrible faux pas. “No way. After he kept you waiting all this time. The least you can do is ask him to take you to dinner.”
“Next time,” I said, amused at her outrage. “At the end of the day, I’m tired. I’d rather get to know him without all the fuss of us sitting in a crowded, noisy restaurant, trying to have a conversation.”
Harper considered my words before slowly shaking her head. “You and I are different people.”
I laughed. “You mean to say it’s taken you this long to realize that?”
My sister smiled. “Not really. If it was me, I’d have Sean wine and dine me and make sure he understood how fortunate he was that I was willing to spend time with him.”
That was Harper, all right. “But then you get ten men all wanting to date you to my one.”
She bit off the end of her scone. “You’re exaggerating.”
“Hardly.” We both knew I was right, and we both knew it wasn’t worth arguing over. Time to change the subject. “Where did you put you know who?” I asked, my voice a whisper. I figured she’d understand I was referring to Snowball.
Harper nearly spit out a bite of her scone. “You mean Snowball?” she asked, as if this was all one big joke.