“No ‘feel’ about it. It would be a fact. I’d be a failure.”
She didn’t know how to respond or alleviate fears of the future she battled on a daily basis as well. What if she flunked out of UNC? What if she had to move home and battle the flaky credit card machine at the ice-cream shop for the rest of her life?
“Do you miss your family?” she asked.
“As insane as they make me and as much as I wanted to leave … Yes. So much I’ve thought about quitting and heading home. Dad wants me to take over the farm.” He made a scoffing sound and ran a hand over his head as if it was an old habit to ruffle his now-phantom hair. “I don’t know why I’m telling you all this considering we just met, but I can’t talk about it to them.” He thumbed over his shoulder toward the beach. “Okay guys, and we might even be friends, but we’re also competing for SEAL spots. Sometimes, the testosterone is too much even for me.”
“I don’t mind if you tell me stuff.” Again, she answered not from politeness’ sake but with the truth. His searing blue eyes demanded that of her.
“What about you?” he asked.
“What about me?”
“How old are you?”
“Eighteen. I’m heading to UNC in the fall.”
“Wow, that’s cool. What are you going to major in?”
“Business, I think. Maybe minor in marketing.” She gripped the handlebars of her bike a little tighter. “I’m scared about going off, too. Scared about flunking out. I can’t imagine coming back here and living with my mom.”
“You two don’t get along?”
“No, we get along fine. Better than fine, actually, but she’s very protective. And a little controlling.”
“Where does she work?’
“Mom is Kitty Hawk’s librarian.” She rolled her eyes as she added, “My full name is Harper Lee Frazier.”
Noah’s laugh burst from his chest, startling a squirrel up the nearest tree. She found herself laughing with him even though living with the name for eighteen years had thinned her skin against teasing. She had dropped the “Lee” on all her UNC forms.
“That’s awesome. I love it.” He cast still-smiling eyes in her direction. “It suits you, by the way.”
“I’m afraid to ask how considering she wrote an American classic and then turned into a recluse with like fifty cats.”
“Harper Lee had fifty cats? Geez.”
She giggled at his exaggerated grimace. “I totally made that up. But doesn’t she strike you as the cat lady poster child?”
“Maybe, but she claimed a slice of glory. She’ll never be forgotten.”
Harper tilted her head to study him. Was Noah Wilcox after a different type of glory? She didn’t ask, only pointed and said simply, “My house.”
“Hard to get used to seeing all these places on stilts. You ride out storms here or move inland?”
“Unless an evacuation order is issued, we stay.” She didn’t add that her mom took on storms the way she took on life. Balls-to-the-wall defiant, but with more than her fair share of humor. Her mom was a Character with a capital C. The kind Harper Lee would have written about.
“You didn’t mention your dad. Does he live here, too?”
“Messy divorce when I was two. He sends child support, but that’s about it.” Her daddy issues weren’t on the table for discussion. “I have a feeling you left a big family behind. Younger sisters?”
“Four of them. How’d you know?”
She wouldn’t tell him it was in the polite, protective way he treated her from positioning himself on the street side of the sidewalk to the way he glanced at her under his lashes as if she was special.
“Lucky guess,” she said lightly.
She trailed to a stop across the street from her house under the shade of an oak. The air was oppressive, too far inland to benefit from the water-cooled breezes.
He faced her, feet braced shoulder-width apart, hands clasped behind his back. “Can I see you again, Harper Lee?”
“For what?”
“Dinner? A sunset walk on the beach or the bay if you’d rather. Doesn’t matter to me.” His earnestness struck her as sincere.
“That’s nice, but I guess I meant why? You’re leaving.”
“For now, but there’s a good chance after training I’ll be stationed at Virginia Beach.”
“But I’m leaving for UNC in August.”
He didn’t break eye contact with her. “Okay, so logistics aside, I like you. This afternoon after I left the ice-cream shop, I couldn’t stop thinking about you. You’re … different.”
She been told that enough by the boys at her high school to know it was true. Yet Noah said it like it was a compliment and not an insult. “Nothing can come of us hanging out.”
“Maybe not, but I’d still like to see you again.” In a more cajoling tone, he said, “Come on, dinner’s on me. Nicest place along the Outer Banks if you want.”
His choice of words jolted her. “Maybe not.” Not “definitely not.” She weighed her options. Never seeing Noah again wasn’t one of them. Even if it was only one more time.
“How about tonight?” Her impulsiveness surprised her. She was more of a pro and con list maker, but urgency stripped away her usual caution.
“Tonight?” Shock drew out the word and emphasized his accent.
Had she been too forward? Her experience—or lack thereof—didn’t provide clues. Unable to tolerate a rejection face-to-face, she bounced her bike over the curb, checking for traffic even though her street was deserted compared to the crowds only a few blocks away.
“You’re probably going out and partying with your buddies. I totally get it.”
“Not anymore I’m not.” He jogged backward until they were eye to eye. “I’m taking out the prettiest girl in Kitty Hawk.”
She wasn’t, but the way he was looking at her made her feel like she might be within shouting distance. Then, his expression fell and so did her answering smile.
“What is it?” Fear that she’d done something wrong made her voice pitch high.
“I only brought shorts.”
Relief sent a laugh skittering out of her. “As long as you pair them with a shirt with sleeves, that’s dressing up around here in the summer.”
She reached the steps leading to her front door, leaned the bike against the rail, and faced him with nothing in between them for the first time. He was a good six inches taller than she was and grew more handsome the longer she stared into his smile-crinkled blue eyes.
“What time should I pick you up? Does seven give you enough time?”
It was almost six already and she needed to shower and straighten her unruly hair, but a shot of anticipation had her saying, “Seven would be perfect.”
He backed away as she took the first few steps to her front door sideways so she could keep him in sight. He reached the shady sidewalk, raised a hand, then turned and jogged away. He moved like an athlete. Maybe he’d played football if he was a Georgia country boy.
She didn’t have to wonder. She could ask him tonight. A blistering happiness swept through her, and she stayed planted until he disappeared. Sweat trickled down her neck in the hot sun. Once he’d disappeared, the spell he’d cast over her waned, and ordinary worries interjected.
She’d just met him. His career choice was another strike against him. Not that the military wasn’t a noble calling, but only heartache would result in getting attached to someone who was up and leaving in a week.
The logical arguments against a date buzzed like no-see-ums, but she waved them away. Nothing could dull Harper’s smile, even though no one could see.
Chapter 3
Present Day
Milk-tinged morning breath and a light poke at her right cheek woke Harper. She opened her eyes and startled back into her pillow. Sophie was nose-to-nose, a blur of messy curls and one big blue eye.
“I was worried you were under an evil witch’s spell like Sleeping Beauty,” she whispered.
“If I was then you broke it,” Harper whispered back, forcing the laugh that bubbled up back down. The little girl was so serious, Harper didn’t want her to think she was making fun of her.
“Do you want pancakes?”
“Is your mom up?”
“She’s in the kitchen.”