Page 7 of Bookworm
As I stared, mesmerized by the page, I heard Daphne gasp. “No!” she cried. “Jules!”
Before I realized what was happening, Jules was squatting right over Mr. Darcy’s face… peeing.
Peeing on my seven thousand dollar investment.
It’s a good thing I loved that damn cat as much as I did.
Chapter Two
I’d always been impulsive, something my dad loved to remind me of whenever we had our weekly Facetime phone calls.
But the truth was, I hadn’t been that impulsive, wild girl in years. Truly, not since the summer we moved to Maple Grove.
I mean, sure, I still had moments of acting on impulse when I was in high school. But, it was more:Order the triple decker ice cream fudge sundaevs.Drink myself into a stupor and begin an insane business plan that includes moving back to my hometown.
My little puddle jumper plane landed in Manchester, NH after an extremely long flight that included three different layovers and getting poor Jules through two different country’s customs.
In my carry-on, I kept all the rare books with me, not letting them out of my sight for even a second.
Unfortunately, thanks to Jules’ bladder, the soiled copy of Pride and Prejudice reeked of cat piss.
And therefore, so didI.
I got every dirty look imaginable from people on that plane.
Yep, that was me. The crazy cat pee lady.
Maple Grove was only about an hour away from Dartmouth, but I assured my father that I didn’t need a ride. The university had arranged for someone to pick me up and apparently I had negotiated housing as part of my fee.
Drunk Harper is a badass boss bitch.
While I don’t recommend making multi-thousand dollar purchases while intoxicated, I had to hand it to myself… this time almost seemed to work out.
As long as I can get the ammonia smell from Jules’ pee out of the paper fibers of this book. Otherwise, I was totally and completely screwed.
I inhaled deeply as I stepped out into the cool, early spring air of New Hampshire. I’d almost forgotten that smell that I loved so much. England always had this dampness in the air, but New Hampshire was crisp, even as the sun was up and starting to warm the chill out of the dying winter air.
Exhaling a relieved sigh that I’d finally made it, I set Jules’ cat carrier on top of my rolling luggage and pushed them gently curbside of the pickup area, waiting and looking for any sign of someone from Dartmouth. I had no idea how I was supposed to recognize them.
“Harper!” a voice called out to me from somewhere to my left. I swiveled around to look and six cars down, I could just barely make out a man waving from beside an Audi.
I waved back and grabbed my bags, rolling them toward his car.
I wasn’t sure what to expect, but there was something so incredibly casual about the way he just shouted out to me. I couldn’t see his face anymore, because he’d walked to the back of the Audi to open the trunk.
As I got closer and closer, I could see the dark dusting of hair on his forearms, peeking out from beneath the light blue cashmere sweater pushed up to his elbows.
A head of dark hair curled around his ears, but was cropped short at his neckline. A blazer was draped across the backseat with suede elbow patches.
He popped out from the back of the car, hopping onto the sidewalk. “Harper,” he said, blue eyes bright. “My God. It’s good to see you.”
I froze midstep and my heart, my poor aching heart fluttered against my ribcage.
“Adam?!” I hissed.
It couldn’t be. I was hallucinating, right?
“What… what are you doing here?” I managed to ask, despite the frog lodged in my throat.
