Page 30 of Rome for the Holidays
Harper would go to every one of Ryker’s games, happy to show her support for him and his team.
And she, Jackie and Jenna would have spa nights where they would paint each other’s nails, get special masks to wear and watch a movie that Jackie couldn’t wait to show her.
Those nights were some of her favorites. Joey even joined them one, wearing a mask and letting them paint his toenails.
Harper loved how patient Joey was, and how he never pushed to be part of her life, knowing she was wary around men, but because he didn’t push, she only liked him more for that.
She would sit with Jackie and Joey and listen to Joey talk about his favorite things for hours. It made her happy that she was part of their family.
Harper worked hard to graduate high school early. She was tired of the people there. No one talked to her, not even a lot of the teachers, and though she didn’t get bullied, she was tired of being invisible and wanted to move on to a place where she didn’t feel as if she had to hide.
She was proud of herself for that. For doing all she could to leave the place that made her so unhappy. Now that she finally knew what it meant to be happy, she refused to give it up by going to that school any longer.
She spent so much time at the library, teaching herself what she needed to know, that taking extra classes wasn’t hard for her.
Jackie asked what she wanted to do, and Harper knew she wanted to study Italian and either become a librarian, or study old documents. She wanted to know what was written out there in some documents in different museums.
It would make her happy being surrounded by art, old parchment full of ideas from people long past. What a dream life that would be.
She knew it was her calling in life. It was the place she felt the happiest. One of her teachers at school showed her photograph after photograph of some of the ideas DaVinci himself had written on.
It was amazing and she fell in love with it at once.
Jackie helped her sign up for classes at their local college, wanting to make sure that she was taking the right things for what she wanted to learn, and when school started, took Harper shopping for new clothes.
Harper had always turned Jackie down before when she wanted to buy her things, not knowing how to even go shopping.
Her mother had never allowed it, and Harper didn’t want to be a bother, but Jackie had gone out after the first week of Harper living at their house and had bought a bunch of Christmas presents for her, including an entire new wardrobe that Harper had fallen in love with.
She would always be grateful to Jackie.
On the first day, Harper was nervous, but she knew it would be great.
One, she finally felt confident in herself and not stuttering, and two, Vin was proud of her.
She held her head high for that reason alone.
Over the next two years, they wrote back and forth and were no closer to meeting.
She was a little heartbroken but understood Vin was busy in life, and she didn’t want to push.
Plus, she hadn’t saved enough money to pay for a plane ticket as Jackie thought it would be best to go to school and not work yet.
She knew they would meet. Sooner, rather than later.
One day, after his letter asking if they could speak on the phone, she worried at first, but then stopped.
She had worked hard on her stutter, and didn’t do it nearly as often, because she had no reason to be constantly nervous.
Her mother was in jail, her past catching up to her. Things had become known about her mother once she was arrested, and she would be put away for a long time.
Harper refused to see her, and Jackie and Joey followed her decision.
Alfonso had pulled through and was also in prison. He had a rap sheet a mile long, and Harper didn’t have to worry about him getting out anytime soon.
After Harper wrote back to Vin, telling him that she wanted to speak to him, and letting him know how she felt about him, she sent it.
She was nervous about what his reaction would be, and she waited for two weeks with nothing.
