“I do get it, Nick. Believe me, I do,” she answered in a soft voice.
The look he sent her was one filled with disbelief. How could she know what he’d been through? How he’d suffered? How he had blamed himself for not dropping Miles at school that morning?
“I-I think it’s time that I headed home,” she said, jumping to her feet and grabbing her cape and purse. Her movements were full of purpose, as if she couldn’t wait to get away from him.
“Harlow,” he said, fumbling for a way to say he was sorry. He had snapped at her simply for trying to be a sounding board.
She turned back toward him. “Get some rest, Nick. I think you need to be alone right now.” He could hear the discomfort in her voice. All because of him.
The thing was, Nick didn’t want to be by himself. He’d done way too much of that over the past few years. But he’d made Harlow uncomfortable and she couldn’t wait to leave his home. Before he could think of a way to get her to stay, Nick heard the click of the front door closing behind Harlow. She was gone.
Nick let out a groan. Harlow didn’t deserve what he had just dished out. All of his anger should have been focused on Frank Baker and a justice system that didn’t adequately punish perpetrators. Harlow had just been in the direct line of fire this evening.
He’d screwed things up tonight, not just with Harlow, but with his son as well.How in the world am I going to make things right?
***
The next morning, Harlow woke up unsettled after a restless night of tossing and turning. The events of last night were still crystal-clear in her mind. She’d seen a side of Nick that had been in direct contrast to the man she knew. In those tense moments back at his house, Harlow hadn’t recognized Nick. His laid-back personality was a hallmark of his character. But after seeing Frank Baker, he’d been agitated and seething with fury.
Of all people, Harlow should understand. Hadn’t she harbored similar feelings after the false allegations lodged against her father and his fatal car wreck? The official cause of his death had been ruled accidental, but Harlow’s mother had always been convinced he’d driven off the road on purpose. She and Malcolm had grown up believing their father had killed himself due to being branded a pariah in Chestnut Ridge. At this point, Harlow didn’t know what to think. Could her mother have been wrong? Deep in her heart, she’d always resisted the notion that her father had deliberately crashed his car. Not for a second had she ever believed that the honorable man who’d raised her could have been a thief.
Once she’d arrived home last night she had called Malcolm. Harlow had been in need of a pick-me-up after the tense conversation with Nick. She kept asking herself if she’d mishandled the situation by saying the wrong things.
“What’s wrong? I can hear it in your voice. Something’s up,” Malcolm had asked. “How was the trick-or-treating with Nick?”
A little sigh slipped past her lips. “It was the perfect night until Nick spotted the drunk driver who killed his wife. He was released from prison early and was actually handing out candy at a house,” Harlow explained. She’d shivered just recalling the incident.
Malcolm let out a shocked sound on the other end. “That’s horrific. Not only that she was the victim of a drunk-driving accident, but that Nick had to see the perp in Mistletoe.” He let out a low whistle. “I can’t blame him for losing his cool.”
She let out a tutting sound. “I really feel for him. I’m hoping he isn’t tempted to take matters into his own hands.”
Harlow hated to imagine Nick acting as a vigilante. The very idea of it was terrifying. She was beginning to care a lot about Nick, even if her head was telling her to put the brakes on.What if his anger got the best of him?
No, he would never take things that far.Nick was a strong man who wouldn’t jeopardize his life with Miles by committing an act of violence. She felt pretty certain he would be able to take the high road, even if he was tempted to do otherwise.
“From the sounds of it, Nick has a good handle on things,” Malcolm responded. “He was probably just blowing off steam. Who can blame him?”
“I know. It brought up a lot of memories, Malcolm,” she confessed. Hearing about Kara’s accident dredged up her own painful past. All these years later, and Harlow still wasn’t sure if her family had ever dealt with their traumas. Everything had been buried after they packed up and left Chestnut Ridge.
“That’s not surprising,” her brother said. “I’m not sure we ever came to terms with what happened. To this day, we don’t really have closure.”
Harlow knew she hadn’t. So much mystery had been shrouded around their father’s fatal accident. Just before he died, he had been accused of embezzling from his medical practice. As a result of the allegations, they’d all been treated as outcasts in their hometown. He’d gone into a deep depression after being suspended by his practice, and when the accident had taken place, their mother was certain he’d veered his vehicle off the road on purpose. With their lives in ruins, their mother had packed them up and left Chestnut Ridge in their rearview mirror. It wasn’t until years later that the true culprit had been caught and prosecuted. However, it had been much too late to give her father his dignity and reputation back.
Lately, Harlow had begun to wonder if their mother had been wrong. In her own grief, and still reeling from the allegations against her husband, she might have come to the wrong conclusion. Harlow’s own accident had shown her how easily one could veer off a slick road. Maybe her father’s death hadn’t been deliberate. Perhaps the official cause of death had been accurate.
Closure.Malcolm was right. Harlow still carried around the weight of her childhood and the way her family had been treated like dirt in Chestnut Ridge. She’d been telling Nick the truth when she had told him she understood his pain. Like Nick, Harlow had been through trauma and she knew how easy it was to get consumed by it. Her past experiences were the very reason she couldn’t allow herself to believe in happily ever after. In her experience, nothing good ever lasted for long.
And now she had to put her game face on as she started her day at Paws.Good thing she loved her job.
Throughout her career, Harlow had always had a nice rapport with her clients and the pets. Harlow had an innate love for animals that went all the way back to childhood. She had been the kid who’d tended to every broken-winged bird in the neighborhood. Not much had changed in that regard. Harlow still enjoyed patching up ailing animals.
This morning she had a new patient, a rabbit named Vera. Her owner, Stella’s little sister, Tess, was waiting in the exam room with her mother. Harlow hadn’t known Tess back in the day due to the large gap in ages between Tess and her older sisters. When Stella was a college co-ed at Spelman, Tess had been a baby. But, thanks to Stella’s stories and hanging out with the tween on Halloween, Harlow had a good grasp on Tess’s personality. It was obvious that she ran the Marshall roost and had her family wrapped around her little pinky finger.
Tess was a boss and didn’t hesitate to spout her opinion on everything and anything.
“Hi, Harlow. It’s nice to see you again,” Mrs. Marshall said as Harlow walked into the room. With her bright smile and silver-tipped hair, Stella’s mother was a beauty.
“Hey, Doc Harlow,” Tess said in a chirpy voice. The young girl was beautiful, with warm brown skin, a button nose, and braided hair.Maybe that was how she got away with bloody murder, Harlow thought with a chuckle. According to Stella, Tess was a human wrecking ball at times with her sharp wit and candor.
