Harkham's Choice (Harkham's Series Book 2) (27 page)

“Well, good luck to you both. I won’t expect a wedding invitation, but I’ll make sure to keep anybody else from bothering you. I’d love to see you graduate, Adam. I know it’ll mean a lot to you.”

“It will.” He smiled.

“Okay—I’ll go now. See you at school, but from afar, of course.”

“What about the money?” Mari asked.

“Keep it. We want you to have Samara’s blood money. We couldn’t keep it in good conscience. We all wish we’d never taken her bribes to torture you both.” Tara waved and left.

Mari leaned over and picked it up, her mouth hanging open.

She counted it through. Holy hell.

“How did Samara have this kind of money?” Her voice shook.

“How much is it?”

“Fifteen hundred.” Mari’s eyes were drying out as she failed to blink.

His jaw dropped, and she stood there, stewing. If she’d had this a week ago, she could’ve done some things differently on that trip.

“Let’s use it for our wedding,” she said, pushing thoughts aside of ever wanting to use this money on anything other than Adam.

“Okay. My dad will like that, too. If we tell him.” Adam smiled at her.

“We should definitely tell him.” She paused, grinning back. “Because secrets
arrrre
what . . . ?” She drew it out, waiting for him to fill in the end of the sentence.

“For sweaty bald men who hide in alleyways?”

She laughed and swatted at his arm. He pulled her into a hug.

“No, you silly man. And I have no idea where
that
thought came from.” She kissed his nose. “Secrets are for fruit-of-the-loons, and I don’t see any of those around here, so that means we’re telling.”

“Yep. Rotten-fruit girl would want us to, and I think it’ll be good for her.” He rubbed his moist nose on hers.

She giggled. “Why would Tara care? It’s not like she’s ever going to speak to us again—not after this.”

“Because now she’s with the good guys. And the good guys always root for the other good people—and that’s us.”

She couldn’t stop smiling.

Oh, Adam. If only it was that simple . . .

* * *

“Mari, please, come in,” Amelia said, welcoming her into the office.

Adam bounced out the door and kissed Mari real quick before taking his spot in the waiting area.

“Thanks,” Mari said, walking straight pass Dr. Harkham’s sign hanging on the door with her name and credentials on it.

She took one last glance at the room before sitting down. It sure was homey for a doctor’s office.

“You too, Jeremiah,” Amelia said, waving in a scrawny, moppy, light brown-haired kid about ten years old to join them.

Mari stood to the side. She was unsure where to stand and what to do. Should she sit in the seat where she was last time? Or was he going to occupy that spot?

The boy smiled at Mari as he made his way in and plopped right down into the seat she had stayed away from.

Amelia shut the door.

“Dr. Harkham, I’m hungry,” Jeremiah said.

“I’ve got an apple I’ll give you in five minutes. I want you to talk to my good friend Mari here, for a minute. Can you do that for me?” Amelia asked.

“I guess. Is she nice?” Jeremiah eyed Mari.

Mari waved.

“She’s very nice. She’s going to marry case number one.” Amelia turned back to her. “Mari, meet case number three.”

Mari’s mind immediately wondered where case number two was.

“He’s too far away—number two moved across the country,” Amelia said, answering her unspoken question. “Plus, he was kind of antisocial. You would have had a hard time talking to him.”

Mari turned her focus back to Jeremiah.

Amelia went behind her desk and came back with a plastic container full of metal pieces.

She handed it to Jeremiah. He set it in his lap and clapped.

The lid flew off, and he began working with some of the different, odd, metal shapes.

“Jeremiah loves talking to people, but he has to keep his hands busy while he’s doing it or he can get too aggressive. He’s been known to bite and pull hair if he feels he’s not receiving their full undivided attention. Sometimes he has . . . misunderstandings. So, he knows when he comes here, I’ll have a new set of metal ring brain teaser puzzles for him,” Amelia explained.

“But you said he was only going to be in here with us for five minutes,” Mari pointed out.

“Oh, he’ll be done way before that,” Amelia said, “so you better talk quick. Anything you want to ask him that you think might be pertinent to your situation with Adam would be good.”

“Where do I start? He’s a little kid—Adam’s a man.” Mari watched in fascination as he solved each one systematically, and within a matter of seconds.

“Maybe ask him how his family deals with him—what he hopes his future will be like?” Amelia suggested.

Mari took a few cautious steps forward. “Hi, Jeremiah, I’m Mari. I’m planning to marry Dr. Harkham’s case number one. He’s super smart like you, and he’s wonderful, always surprising me all the time with how loving he is.” Mari’s hand reached out, and she ran her hand across his head.

He looked up at her and smiled for a fraction of a second with a look of trust in his eyes and then went back to his metal puzzle in his hands.

“He’s nice. I’ve met Adam before. He likes it when I talk to him about my trains.” Jeremiah flipped his head back a few times in a row. It was clear he had a little tick. Either that, or his bangs were bugging him pretty badly.

She wasn’t sure which, since he had one of those overgrown bowl haircuts that were so popular for a while when she was a little kid.

“I’d love to hear about your trains sometime. Can you tell me right now, though, what happens when you get upset?” she asked, her voice gentle.

“I don’t know, I can’t ever remember. It’s like I’m nothing.” He grabbed greedily at the next puzzle and shifted it around. It was entirely too easy for him because with a few flips of his fingers, it was solved. “My mom says I ram my head into stuff, and she has to hold me down. One time I threw myself into a pool, and I almost drowned.”

“Do you see or hear numbers in your head?” she asked, petting his hair. It seemed wrong not to touch him.

“No. I hear and see dinosaur sounds. I like trains and dinosaurs. I study them. Ask me anything about the Utahraptor, or the Deinonychus, or the Archaeopteryx. That last one is where birds come from. Or you can even ask about the La Brea tar pits. I saw those once. They smelled like slimy, black yuck-tasting food, but they were still great.”

“You’re brilliant,” Mari said in awe.

“Don’t interrupt me. I won’t like you if you do it again,” he said, his fingers flexing, then curling. He set the box down. “I have a lot to say. I think you know that now.” She nodded, so he went on. “Can you finish your questions fast, because I’m done with the puzzles.”

“Will you stay and talk to me some more if I hold your hand?” she asked.

“No. But I can do that if I can sit in your lap and snuggle with you,” he offered.

She nodded. He hopped up out of the chair. As soon as she sat down, he was on her lap, purring like a little kitten.

“You’re kind of like a human version of a Maiasaura. Those are peaceful mommy dinosaurs, and they take good care of their young, making sturdy, happy nests for their eggs and babies to live in.” He sniffed her. “You smell like a flower, though. The good kind.”

He rubbed his finger repeatedly on the bottom button of her shirt.

“Well, thank you. I try to smell good for myself and for Adam. I think he likes the way I smell, too.”

“I can see why,” Jeremiah said, looking up into her eyes for a second.

“Can I ask you another question?”

“Yes, smell good while you do it, okay?”

She chuckled. “I’ll try.” She smiled with a sigh, and then asked, “What’s the best thing your mom ever did to calm you down when you’ve gotten upset?”

“She kissed me. It was small and on my forehead, but it made the roaring animals stop. It was like she told them to leave, and they listened. Maybe they thought she was a Giganotosaurus. They’re really big and the boss of ‘em all.”

Mari’s eyes grew wide. “That’s it? Just a peck on the head?”

He nodded, tugged at the button and grunted like he was upset it was sticking to her shirt.

“Did she get hurt when she did it?” Her voice was like a cloud passing through—innocuous and a bit of fluffy stuff.

“Yeah. It was bad of me. I hit her on accident, but she said it was worth it because I calmed down right away, and it didn’t take her hours to talk me out of where I was,” he said, still yanking on that button. “Is there anything else you want to know?”

“I’m sure there will be down the road—but no more that I can think of right now. Would it be okay if I come over sometime and have some ice cream with you, if you’re allowed to have sugar?”

“I’m not allowed, but on my birthday, my mom makes me ice cream with agave nectar. It’s really good.” He slipped off her lap, stared at the button once more like it flew straight out of the tar pits and joined them here for his excavation and study.

She popped it off, handed it to him and resisted mussing his hair. He was nearly as adorable as Adam.

“I’m going to glue this to my favorite train. It’ll help me remember you.” He smiled and kept his eyes on the new treasure in his palm.

“Why is it important to remember me? You barely met me.” Mari stared at him in wonder.

“Because . . .” he shrugged with his left shoulder “. . . Adam told me one day I’d find a girl I’d want to marry, and she’d love me how I am. He found you, and it helps me remember I’ll find my own Mari—the girl who smells like flowers and acts like nice mommy dinosaurs.”

He went to the door, opened it without saying goodbye to Amelia, but blew Mari a kiss before disappearing.

“My Lord,” Mari said through a sigh.

“I know. See why I love my job so much?” Amelia replied.

Mari understood completely. How much room was there left in her heart? It seemed Adam had taken it over, but little Jeremiah squeezed his way in and demanded to have a corner as well.

It was exhausting, but so worth it.

“I do.” Mari nodded. “I did want to tell you, though—If his parents haven’t bought him a dog or some sort of docile pet, they might want to think about it . . . Adam’s been so attached to Choppy and doing even better than ever with that little dog around.”

“I’ll make sure I pass that on to Jeremiah’s parents.”

“Good.” Mari couldn’t help but beam at her. Everything simply felt good being in here. There was so much to say, but Mari had a feeling Dr. Harkham was already on top of everything since she was always a step ahead.

“Now . . . Tell me of your wedding plans,” Dr. Harkham began their private session. “I wanna hear all about it, since I was already told about the fantastic invitation you created. I was beyond impressed you made them yourself.”

Mari sighed as her heart filled with warmth and sunshine. “There’s not much to tell, but I’m hoping you’ll attend.”

“I wouldn’t miss it.” Amelia folded her hands and placed them over her right knee with her right leg crossed over her left.

Mari knew it was true. Dr. Harkham was almost as much a part of the Latham family as she was. One big, mish-mashed, misshapen family that worked well somehow. Maybe she was the dinosaur and Amelia the train to their family’s collection they’d been missing? Everybody needed more of those—especially when they smelled like flowers and were as fabulous as Dr. Harkham, smiling and welcoming to everyone who came through her doors.

“And we wouldn’t dare have a wedding without you,” Mari said. “That would be a bigger slap in the face to his dad than us running away and eloping in Vegas.”

Dr. Harkham laughed and her eyes twinkled.

Yep—that sneaky woman knew everything. Even the things she shouldn’t.

Chapter 15

The months moved steadily by. Graduation was looming, and Adam kept trying to contact his mother.

There was never a reply. He grew kind of whiny and petulant a few days before.

Progress in finding Samara was just as bad. Her boyfriend Daniel contacted them a few times about her, but nothing ever resulted from the information he gave them. Samara never showed up.

Mari worried Adam would have a number episode with all this stress, but he never did.

He kept Choppy at his side all the time when he was home, until it was time for bed.

Mari actually welcomed him being distracted with his pet. She was making wedding plans like mad, even though it was going to be a really simple affair in their backyard.

Dustin grumbled about how the dog kept ripping out plants he’d put in for the wedding.

Mari laughed and said it was fine. She really didn’t care if there were flowers or not. Adam was the only thing that mattered.

She’d picked up his ring yesterday, and he said he’d had hers for two weeks now. He refused to even describe what it looked like.