“Not yet, but it’s only been three days.” Only three days. A lifetime. Every hour that ticked off without her regaining consciousness increased the grim reality of her never waking.
Libby fell to her knees next to Jack London and untied the ribbon in her hair. Ben and Ryan played tag, squealing when the cold water lapped at their legs. Jack didn’t run after the boys but stayed with Libby as if he sensed her need. She tied the pink ribbon in Jack’s fur, giving him a hornlike ponytail on top of his head.
“Jack is so good with Libby. Was he trained as a therapy dog?” Harper pulled Bennett to a stop so they wouldn’t interrupt girl and dog.
Bennett dug his toes into the sand, his gaze down. Harper turned to face him without letting go of his hand, bending down to catch his eye.
“No. I got him as a puppy at a shelter,” he said. “A SEAL friend suggested I get a dog after I got out. With everything that happened, I was having a … rough time.”
While he wasn’t throwing a door open on the past, a tiny window cracked. He was at least acknowledging something traumatic had happened. She had promised herself and him she wouldn’t push him. She planned to keep that promise no matter how many questions threatened to launch. She kept silent.
“I dismissed the idea of a dog at first. I could barely take care of myself. But then I was driving and saw a sign for a shelter. My truck ended up in the parking lot. I sat there awhile. Maybe more than a while,” he said on a small laugh.
“Eventually, I went in and almost turned around. It was overwhelming. I walked down a long row of cages stacked on top of one another and filled with dogs. At the end a big puppy was lying there with his chin on his paws. Not barking or whining. He looked at me like he knew me and was waiting for me.” His laugh bordered on uncomfortable. “That makes me sound crazy, doesn’t it?”
“You sound like you stumbled across something you didn’t know you needed.” As soon as the words were out of her mouth, she recognized them as her truth as well as his. A frisson of energy coursed through her. Could he tell?
“I guess so. I adopted him that day. The people at the shelter said that he’d been passed over for weeks because no one wanted a dog his size. He was scheduled to be put down the next day. If I hadn’t walked in…”
“But you did.” She’d learned the futility of what-ifs even though in the dark of night she fell into the bad habit.
“We both got lucky.” He let go of her hand and joined Libby. Jack gave his hand a lick as soon as he was within reach.
Harper hung back. What made luck good or bad? And could it change? Maybe something that classified as bad luck at the time later took on the cast of good luck because that pivotal moment changed the course of a life forever in ways no one could foresee.
Ben ran over to her and wrapped himself around her legs. She squatted down and hugged him. He was wet and grainy with sand, but she didn’t care. If luck existed, then he was the best kind.
He was gone again in a flash, chasing Ryan along the high-tide line. Bennett pulled a tennis ball out of a pocket in his cargo pants and handed it to Libby. Jack spotted the ball and bounced around, panting and excited.
“Want to throw it for Jack? He’s gotten chubby this winter and needs to run,” Bennett said.
A childish joy crossed her face as she took the ball, Jack on her heels.
“Ryan doesn’t seem fazed by Sophie and Darren and Allison, but I worry about Libby. She’s too perceptive and internalizes her feelings.”
“She’ll survive.” Bennett’s voice contained a certainty she didn’t share. “Most of us do.”
Surely survival wasn’t all anyone could hope for. Harper had survived, but now that she’d had a taste of happiness, she craved more.
“I want her to do more than survive; I want her to be happy.” She stared at Bennett, wondering what was going on behind his dark, secretive eyes. “Don’t you want more than to just survive? Don’t you want to be happy?”
“Not sure what that means.” He stroked her cheek with the backs of his fingers. “Happiness has always been elusive. Like an exclusive club I was barred from by accident of birth.”
She wrapped her hand around his wrist and nuzzled into his palm, laying a kiss on his life line. “You’ve never been happy?”
“I was happy with Sarge, I suppose. But he died.” He hesitated, looking out over the vast ocean and not at her. His voice dropped to a whisper. “And with you. You make me happy. So much so, it scares me.”
She held still even as she wanted to throw herself into his arms to kiss away the years of loneliness etched on his bones. Her heart danced a jig even as his word choice pulled the plug on the triumphant music. “Scares” was a far cry from “amazes” or “exhilarates” but better than “makes me feel doomed.”
“You make me happy, too. After Noah, I wasn’t sure if it was possible.”
Troubles shadowed his eyes. His hand tightened around her nape as if she were a flight risk, yet he didn’t speak.
Her phone buzzed in her pocket. Every time it had rung over the weekend, her stomach flipped like an Olympic gymnast on speed. She fumbled it out of her pocket. Allison’s name stared back at her.
A tremble affected her voice. “H-hello?”
“She’s awake. And she knows me. She’s going to be okay.” Allison was laugh-crying. “Can you bring the kids back?”
Bone-melting relief had her leaning into Bennett. His arm came around her. “Of course. As soon as I can get us packed up.”
“Thank you, Harper. For everything. I’ll be waiting.” Allison disconnected.
Harper didn’t hesitate this time but fell into Bennett’s chest, borrowing from his strength. “Sophie’s awake.”
“Thank God.” He rubbed his chin alongside her temple, her senses heightened from the shot of fear.
“Allison wants to see the kids.”
“I’ll drive.”
She pulled back. “Are you sure? I thought you had to work tomorrow?”
“I’ll call Andrew in to open the store. You’re more important.”
She buried her face in his neck so he wouldn’t see how much his declaration meant.
“You ready to tell Libby and Ryan?” he asked while rubbing circles on her back.
“Yep.” At least this was one tragedy she could spare the kids. Maybe Sophie’s recovery would spur the mending of Darren and Allison’s marriage.
When they heard the good news, Ryan whooped and ran circles around Harper and Bennett while Libby only smiled, but she skipped next to Jack London on the way back to the house.
The next hour was a flurry of activity as everyone showered off the salt and sand and gathered up items that had migrated all over the house.
Harper’s mom gave each kid an enveloping hug along with a paper-bag lunch. She pressed a larger bag into Harper’s hands. Harper rolled her eyes toward Bennett, who stooped to give her mom a kiss on the cheek. “Thanks, Gail.”
Her mom patted his arm. “I put in an extra oatmeal cookie for you, Bennett. Don’t let Harper steal it.”
“Hey!” Harper’s protest lacked heat. Seeing her mom and Bennett interact settled a warm fist around her heart.
Ben blocked the door, his bottom lip pouched out. “I wanna come, too.”
Harper dropped to one knee to put them at eye level. “We’re going to the hospital, pumpkin. It won’t be any fun.”
“You’re always leaving me behind with Yaya.”
Harper sent a panicked look toward Bennett and her mom. She couldn’t even argue the point, because since meeting Bennett and working to get the coffee business off the ground she had been leaving Ben more often. Guilt sprouted like a pervasive weed that was impossible to eradicate.
Bennett knelt next to her. “Someone has to take care of Jack London while we’re gone. I was counting on you, big guy.”
“You want me to feed him?” Ben’s voice lost some of its waver.
“Feed him, walk him, and”—Bennett leaned closer and whispered, “pick up his poop.”
Ben made an eww noise, but the hint of a smile snuck back on his face. “I can do that.”