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The girls and horses walked one way. Nick and I ambled in the other. Silence hovered over us until Nick reached out to finger the hem of my leather jacket.
Despite myself, I jerked away. This jacket was the only item of my mother’s I still owned. The rest of her possessions had long since been sold...by Nick, without my permission. This one thing I intended to keep.
“How much do you need?” I demanded. Only after I spoke did I realize my voice had been louder than intended. If Harper possessed wolf ears, she would have heard my opening.
Harper didn’t possess wolf ears, though. All she had was a no-good, alcoholic father and me.
Speaking of the no-good alcoholic, Nick stepped closer until his fumes enveloped me. “A couple of grand. No, make that ten grand.”
“Ten thousand dollars?” Breath hiccuped out of me.
“You make it sound like a few bucks is an imposition. We’re family, aren’t we? Family gives and family takes.”
I knew better, but I let myself get drawn into the argument anyway. “Family gives and family takes? The taking part I get, but what have you given lately?”
Nick waited a solid second, as if he knew he possessed the trump card and wanted to relish his moment of victory. When he spoke, I realized he was right.
“Harper.” His eyes narrowed. “I give you Harper. I sign the papers and let her attend a hoity-toity boarding school, don’t I? I stay out of your way for weekly visits. I ignore the fact you’re an animal, a threat to her safety. Seems like I give a lot.”
He was right and I had no rebuttal. Instead, I picked up my pace, heading toward the picnic tables. Nick would follow. He always did.
Sure enough, the reek of cheap liquor caught up with me before the rest of the visiting families came into view. Nick’s taller form cast a shadow across my face as we stepped out of the trees side by side.
“I could yank her out of school today you know.” His words were ice picks in my spine. “Take her home with me.”
Home to the beer cans, the late nights, the gambling debts piling up. Harper worked hard at Highlands. She didn’t deserve being forced into unpaid maid service.
“How about I pay whoever you owe?” I suggested. Because that was when Nick came to me for extra beyond his usual weekly stipend. When he gambled too much and IOUs were called in all at once.
I’d learned the hard way that it was safer to deal with his creditors directly. Then the debt was sure to be cancelled. Otherwise, my hard-earned money slid down the black hole of another binge.
Unfortunately, Nick’s scent morphed into bitter anger. “I’m not a child. I won’t be treated like one.”
I’d pushed it too far. And we’d spent too long discussing the issue too, because Harper was now entering the picnic area from the opposite direction.
Boarding schools must have staff members to take care of horses for the students. Whatever the reason, my sister was unencumbered as she waved at us. She’d be within human earshot within seconds.
Nick didn’t budge. “Well?”
“Give me a week,” I told him, “and you’ll get your cash.”
***
THE REST OF OUR VISIT went nearly as badly as the first half. Harper pretended not to be disappointed by the lack of salt packets. “I forgot,” I lied when she dug through the sack and came up empty.
“They’re salty enough,” Ms. Stiff Upper Lip lied back.
Nick, of course, was always good for lowering the mood yet further. He glowered as Clara and Harper competed to see who could stuff more soggy fries in their mouths. But, for once, my kid sister was having too much fun to focus on her parent’s moodiness. So, yeah, that part didn’t suck.
Since Harper didn’t seem bothered, I didn’t exert myself to tease Nick into good humor. Instead, I leaned on the picnic table and reveled in the fact that Harper was hanging out with someone who looked more like a friend than a colleague.
This was a major change from her first year at Highlands. For two terms, I’d watched and worried as my sister nurtured acquaintances, ensuring she’d have a warm body to spend vacations with if her father failed to step up to the plate.
But now Harper appeared to relinquishing thoughts of the future. She was laughing and being silly like a child. That felt unbelievably good.
The thought of vacations, though, reminded me of something I’d meant to discuss with her. “Break is week after next, right?” I asked.
“Next week,” Harper countered. Her face shuttered, my fault this time instead of Nick’s. “It starts Friday at 5 pm. But, I mean, if you guys are busy, I can stay here. Clara does.”
Clara did because her mother was the headmistress. “It’s like a mausoleum,” the other girl countered. “Dark. Cold. Dinners in the cafeteria with Mum.”
Harper’s eyes smiled even if her mouth didn’t. “I like your mother.”
“She’s a termagant.”
Whatever that meant. Highlands students definitely liked their big words.
“She’s fair,” Harper countered. “And...she’s directly behind you.”
So, yeah, that was uncomfortable. The headmistress peered down her nose at her daughter before turning to face me. “Your tuition payment is overdue.”
I hated discussing this in front of the kids. But the headmistress clung to silence until I muttered, “I’m on the monthly payment plan....”
“And late.” Then, turning to Nick, she added, “Meanwhile, you haven’t signed the parental agreement for this semester. That, at least, is easily remedied.” As she spoke, she whipped out a sheaf of papers, as if she expected Nick to jot down his signature right there at the picnic table.
Which, knowing my stepfather, was probably a good idea. He wasn’t the best at follow-through unless it involved accepting a round of drinks....
But Nick didn’t seem to be in any hurry to grab the papers. Instead, his eyes slid to me as he spoke to the headmistress. “I forgot my pen.”
“I have one.” Clara was either deeply oblivious to the mood or very, very good at pretending. Either way, she dug into her backpack and came up with a glittery, sparkly thing that I supposed could have been called a pen.
“Naw.” Nick waved away the writing utensil. “I’ll sign it when I bring Harper back from vacation.”
“I’ll expect full payment of this and next month’s tuition payment at the exact same time,” the headmistress agreed before sweeping away.
The coldness of her reaction seemed to take all of the autumn sunshine with her. No wonder the four of us sat there in stunned silence for a solid minute before Clara dipped back into the insulated bag for another soggy fry. “Don’t mind Mum. She has to be a hard-nose or no one would ever pay her.”
I nodded, accepting the fact that it was likely just as awkward for Clara to be the daughter of the headmistress as it was for Harper to have an alcoholic father and a sister who had trouble dealing with bills on time. I cleared my throat. “Anyway, about break, I’d love to have you both come stay with me. Girl time. We’ll paint our toenails. Binge on ice cream....”
Nick opened his mouth to interrupt and I raised both eyebrows. A reminder of our agreement. He’d get his cash. In exchange, I’d get Harper for spring break.
And...Nick nodded. Closed his mouth without anything vile spewing out of it.
Gradually, the sun emerged from behind the clouds. Clara and Harper regaled us with chemistry-lab mishaps and crushes on actors.
And, on the way home, I stopped by the bank to deposit Marina’s check.