I debated for another moment. But where was the harm in texting her? And if anyone was going to be properly excited for me, it was Harper. She knew just what I had gone through over in Kuwait, and the other night, she’d been surprisingly perceptive when she asked me about how it felt to come back to the States.
I sent her the message.
A few minutes later, my phone buzzed. Wow, congrats! was the first message. Let me buy you a drink tonight to celebrate?
I blinked down at the second message, feeling surprised. I’d asked her out for a second night of drinks, but even though she’d agreed to it, I had expected to have to work harder to get her to agree to a time and a place. And I hadn’t wanted to push things just yet because I was afraid that I’d press too hard and make her bolt.
But she seemed eager to see me again, and I was glad for that. Even if it meant that I had to wonder if she thought she and I were going somewhere, that this was going to become a thing.
I didn’t know how to warn her off. As long as we continued to skirt around the topic of Ava, though, things would be all right. Wouldn’t they?
She didn’t seem to mind the way things were, at least. She hadn’t asked me to meet her daughter or anything like that. I hadn’t asked about the girl, and Harper had offered up very little information about her daughter the other night when we’d met for drinks. She seemed just as reluctant as I was to talk about the little girl.
I wondered about that. But maybe it was just her motherly instincts kicking in. I wondered if she knew that her daughter shouldn’t be anywhere near me.
Either way, I could use a friend. It was good to be back to our easy camaraderie from before.
I texted her back, letting her know that I would pick her up after I got off work that evening and asking if that was okay. She agreed almost immediately.
I slipped my phone back into my pocket, feeling happier than I’d expected I would be.
And I knew what that meant. My reintegration group had talked about this one. If I found myself feeling happier than I had any right to be, I needed to take a step back, to examine things, to make sure I was happy for the right reasons.
I knew that in this case, I probably wasn’t happy for the right reasons. The right reasons would be that I was meeting up with a friend for drinks, that I was already advancing my career there, that things were going well for me. The right reasons would center around me.
Instead, I just couldn’t stop thinking about how happy I was to see Harper again. All my feelings of happiness were centered around her.
Was that such a horrible thing, though? I didn’t think so. As long as I was happy about something.
I tried to be extra thorough with my work that afternoon, knowing that George was probably watching me, that he had been the whole time I was there. By the end of the day, I was feeling pretty good about everything. I went into George’s office before I left.
“I still need to read through all the paperwork, but—yes,” I told him. “I’d love to be your partner with the new school.” I had some reservations about it, but really, I loved the idea of continuing to give to the military and the police force, in whatever way I could. And if George could use my talents, then that was great.
George grinned and shook my head. “I’m glad to have you on board,” he said. “I’m going to talk to the bank about using some of my retirement funds for the startup money. I’ve been meaning to do that for a while.”
“What sort of time frame are we looking at here?” I asked.
“Well, it’ll need to be a little while,” George said. “We need to find the right location for the school and acquire the pups. Plus, we’ll need to hire someone else to replace you over here if you’re going to be working over there with me.” He wrinkled his nose. “Seems like we only just got through with the hiring process with you.” He winked, and I had to laugh.
I had to admit; I was pretty excited about all of this. I couldn’t wait to talk more about it with Harper.
I whistled to myself as I headed home to change. Things were really starting to look up.
15
Harper
I brought Ace out to one of my favorite restaurants. It was partly a selfish move: it was a good seafood place, but they didn’t have many kids’ options or things that Ava would even consider eating, so I basically never got to eat here anymore. I knew that it was his celebration, but he didn’t seem to mind.
“God, I missed good seafood,” Ace said as he took a bite of his Cajun catfish dish. He grinned over at me. “Missed the ocean actually. I know that’s silly since it’s not like I grew up near the ocean or anything. But it was just so dusty and dry all the time in Kuwait that I just really got to thinking that, damn, I’d love to come back and find a place near the ocean.”
“Is that why you picked Boston?” I asked, glad to have finally figured out that next piece of the puzzle.
Ace shrugged. “Yeah, I guess so,” he said. He still di
dn’t look fully convinced, though, and I wanted to press him for more. But I’d let him keep his secrets, at least for now.
I had a secret of my own, of course.