Zander shot his boyfriend a “you’ve got to be kidding me” look. “You would lose your mind if you didn’t have your daily Starbucks treat. It doesn’t get much more corporate than that.”
“I know.” Shawn turned sheepish. “I am a slave for Starbucks. I like a good mom-and-pop place, too. That general store we were in yesterday was absolutely charming.”
“Yes, I especially loved the Aqua Net,” Zander drawled.
If Becky found the banter strange, she didn’t show it. Instead, she merely giggled and played along. “I grew up in Midland. It’s not a huge city, but we have a theater and stores. I’m with Zander, though. I don’t think I would’ve made it if I grew up in a place this isolated.
“Oh, don’t get me wrong, I find it beautiful up here, and I’m hoping that I will be able to build a home up here if this all works out,” she continued. “I was kind of a restless teenager, though. I think I would’ve found trouble if I was forced to grow up here.”
“I think most teenagers would find trouble here,” Jared agreed. “Even when there’s stuff to do, though, teenagers manage to find trouble.”
“Right, you get to see that firsthand.” Becky gazed at him adoringly. “You put your life on the line every single day to protect the people of our great state.”
Jared squirmed under her steady gaze, the over-the-top statement causing him great discomfort. “I don’t often have to protect the populace from bored teenagers.”
“But it has happened,” Zander offered brightly. “Our Jared here is a fearsome wrangler of teenagers.”
“Oh, don’t say it like that,” Jared whined. “You put the inflection in a weird place and it sounds dirty. For the record, I do not enjoy wrangling teenagers in any form.”
Harper choked on a laugh and got a glare from her intended for the effort.
“That’s why I’m glad I’m not a teenager,” Becky offered solemnly. “I’m an adult.”
Her statement was so pointed, Harper had to bite back a sigh. Since she was getting nowhere on her ghost search, she decided to direct her full attention to Becky. At least it was something tangible to focus on. “How old are you, Becky?” she asked, hoping she came across as merely curious instead of informationally predatory.
“I’m twenty-three.” She looked proud. “Er, well, I will be in eight months.”
Harper nodded. “That’s a fun age. I remember being that young. Zander and I were just getting out of college and deciding what we wanted to do with our lives. Zander came up with the idea for GHI about that time. It took me a little bit of time to hop on the bandwagon with him, though.”
“Yes, you should’ve just embraced my genius,” Zander agreed. “That should be the general rule for everyone when dealing with me.”
Jared’s eye roll was withering. “Oh, geez.”
Harper refused to allow the two of them to redirect the conversation into a fight, and instead, kept her attention on Becky. “How did you hook up with Harris?”
“Oh, we’re not together like that.” Becky looked appropriately horrified at the notion. “He’s just my boss.”
Harper swallowed hard. “I didn’t think you were together or anything.” Briefly, she wondered why Becky would jump to that conclusion. Then she pushed the ugly possibilities out of her mind. The girl was clearly nervous, and almost singularly fixated on Jared. She probably didn’t realize what she was saying. “I was just asking how you ended up working for Harris.”
“Oh.” Becky almost looked relieved at the explanation. “Right. Duh.” She mimed smacking herself upside the head. “Harris was friends with my father. They went to school together and were close. When my father got sick — he died a few years ago, cancer — Harris stepped in to help around the house.
“He arranged for our neighbor’s sons to mow the yard and stuff,” she continued. “He had a brother who worked as a handyman, and he came over and fixed stuff. I started acting up a bit in college, partying a lot, and he showed up to take me out to dinner. He had a long talk with me about how my mother was going through a lot and couldn’t spend all of her time worrying about me. For some reason, it hit home and I cleaned up my act.”
“He sounds like he’s been good for your family,” Harper noted, internally chastising herself for always being so negative toward the man. Of course he had good qualities. Becky was proof of that.
“He has.” Becky bobbed her head, solemn. “I went to school and got a business degree, but I didn’t have much luck finding a job.”
“The market is brutal for college grads,” Shawn confirmed. “It’s tough to make your way through a world that demands experience for applicants. How are you supposed to get experience if no one will give it to you?”
“That’s it exactly.” Becky looked relieved that somebody understood her predicament. “I got a job working as a hostess at a restaurant near the college.”
“What college does Midland have?” Shawn queried, drawing his eyebrows together.
“Northwood,” Harper and Zander replied in unison.
“It’s a business college,” Zander added. “I took a few satellite classes there when Harp and I were in college. We lived in Mount Pleasant at the time, though. It was about thirty minutes away as long as traffic cooperated.”
“Ah.” Shawn nodded in understanding. “I guess I’ve never heard of the college before.”
“It’s small, but I think the students there are more serious,” Becky explained. “Not that students at other colleges aren’t serious. It’s just ... the classes at Northwood are more specific. There aren’t a lot of useless classes.”
“It sounds like it was a good fit for you,” Zander prodded.
“I liked it there. I could live at home. I got my degree and just assumed I would fall into a good job. That was really naïve of me, though. I worked as a hostess for
