Page 68 of Harley

I wanted to tear their faces off and drown them both. How could they have been so greedy they did this to Aspen and Archer? For cash? God damned money? My fingers clenched in Harley’s cut, and I wished I had my hands around their throat. There was no excuse for this. None. I’d never been a vengeful person until now.

“Let Aspen sleep,” Doc Gibbons ordered. “Allow her to rest as much as she needs. I’ll come every morning and evening to check on her until I’m happy Aspen’s recuperating properly.”

“Thank you, Doc,” Harley said, and I repeated his words.

“We’ll show you out,” Phoe offered, motioning to Drake.

Harley turned to me after they left. “What now? Does Archer want to see the kid’s area?”

“Ask,” I urged. Archer needed to get used to Harley being around.

“Archer, would you like to play in a ball pit or go bowling?” Harley asked.

Archer ignored him.

Harley looked at me.

“Archer’s overloading. Let’s just sit here and keep an eye on him. He’s happy where he is for now,” I said.

Harley nodded, and we moved over to the window seat, where I curled up between Harley’s muscled thighs. He wrapped his arms around me, shoved a cushion behind his head, and leaned back. A smile crossed my face as, within minutes, Harley was snoring lightly. Archer looked over in our direction with a frown. I kept looking out the window and let Archer study us. After half an hour, Archer returned to playing with his car and the bus.

Harley

All said and done, it wasn’t as bad as I thought, but in other ways, it was worse. Archer had a couple of meltdowns when his routine was skewered, and we finally managed to get everything running smoothly. Oakley had given us his food menus, and that was all organised.

It had been explained to Archer that he needed to visit the mall for clothing. However, he said he wouldn’t go until he was ready. Therefore, I was surprised to find Archer three days later sitting at the bottom of the stairs.

“Are you okay?”

“Uncle Harley, I had breakfast. Today is Thursday, so I ate pancakes with bananas and strawberries. Mrs Ames has packed my blueberries for my morning snack and has made me lunch. I have a chicken salad wrap, a bag of chicken chips, an apple, and two apple juice drinks. And two chocolate cupcakes,” Archer replied, looking at the entrance doors.

“Okay,” I said, wondering where he was going.

“Time to go to the mall.”

“Did you and Auntie Oak plan this?” I asked, thinking I’d missed out on something.

“No. I have decided today we must go. I have woken up every morning, and today is the right day. Today is,” Archer stated. He stood up, and I bit my lip.

“Let me call Auntie Oak.”

“Yes. Hurry up. Or it won’t be the right time or day,” Archer stated.

Within minutes, Oakley flew down the stairs, yanking on a coat. I was pleased to see she barely winced anymore. Her feet had healed wonderfully. There were some scars, but nothing major. Each night and morning, I massaged cream into them to help heal the scarring.

“Let’s go to the mall,” Oakley cried.

Archer followed me out, keeping Oakley between us, and we headed to the garage. Once there, Archer picked which car he wanted to travel in, and we drove to a mall. Usually, I would have hit Windfells, but Oakley stressed it needed to be a mall.

Once there, Archer looked at the list of shops and pointed to the ones he’d like to visit. And thus, begun my lesson in shopping with a boy with autism.

Archer would have been happy with thirty tops and bottoms, all identical. Oakley, Thank God, had shopped with Archer plenty of times and knew how to handle him.

Then we had trouble finding somewhere for lunch. As soon as it was near the hour, we headed upstairs. Most of the restaurants refused to let Archer eat his own food. Archer was nearing a meltdown as we had only two minutes left when the Mexican place allowed him to eat. Archer placed his food on the table, and we ordered, and I made sure to leave a damn generous tip and a great review.

Disaster averted, Archer ate his meal and waited for us. As soon as I had paid, he was up and ready to finish shopping. I’d already made two runs back to the SUV to drop bags.

Archer diligently made notes on a notebook he carried and was marking down what he’d bought. Once we’d finished clothing stores, Archer marched to a shoe store and picked three pairs of trainers, a pair of boots, and slippers.

---