Page 40 of Untouchable

5

Parker dreads their next appointment.

This only highlights how much he’s grown to enjoy his trips up the mountain to Harp’s cabin. He hadn’t realized that, sometime over the course of the last month, Thursday had become a beacon that guided him forward through his work schedule, a promise of something special he’d found, tucked away in the wilds.

He’s had an entire week to obsess about this, of course, and he’s identified where he went wrong. Harp is his client. Parker had forgotten that. In the thrill of seeing Harp finally open up to him, Parker had forgotten that their relationship wasn’t a two-way street. Harp could confide in him, if he wanted to, but Parker couldn’t confide in Harp. Harp wasn’t paying Parker to be his friend. He was paying him to fix his hip.

He is not my friend. He is not my friend. Parker repeats this to himself over and over on the drive up.

To Parker’s surprise, though, Harp is standing at the end of his driveway when Parker arrives. He flags Parker down and Parker stops, rolling down the window and gaping at him. "Parker, thank god you're early," Harp says, catching his breath. He doesn't wait for permission, just opens the passenger door and tumbles in.

"Bo ran off down this road,” he continues.”There's this stupid snare of trees he always heads to where he caught a rabbit once."

Parker stares at him, mouth slightly open.

"Come on," Harp urges. "It's Bo."

Parker’s first thought was that Harp was going to tell him to leave, but then suddenly Harp is in his car, pointing down the road. Parker’s brain finally catches up.

“Up here?” he says, driving past the turnoff into Harp’s driveway.

“Yup, right over that hill. Take a right at the fork,” Harp says. He glances around Parker’s car. “Jesus, I should have known the inside of your car would be spotless.”

Parker’s not quite sure if this is an insult or a compliment, but he smiles. With Harp, more and more, he’s finding that, despite Harp’s prickly demeanor, Harp is never intentionally cruel.

“How did he get out?” Parker asks, chewing his lip with concern. “Does he escape a lot?”

"He's a little fucking mongoose," Harp says, sitting on the edge of his seat and peering out, clearly searching out the shape of Bo’s brown furry body and finding nothing. "He slipped out when I was coming in through the front door. Little asshole. Degenerate, ungrateful..."

* * *

As they park,Harp realizes his hands are shaking.

There's no reason for him to be this upset about Bo getting loose.

Bo gets loose all the time, and this is always where he comes. But still... maybe this will be the time he's really gone. Harp would never forgive himself...

"Will you help me look for him?" Harp asks, his voice pleading.

“Yeah, of course,” Parker says immediately.

Parker reaches across the console of the car and squeezes Harp’s forearm. Harp almost pulls away because the movement is so unfamiliar. When was the last time that anyone touched him to comfort or reassure him?

“We’ll find him. He loves me, remember? He couldn’t possibly stay away.”

Parker hops out of the car. Harp realizes that the reassurance does make him feel better. When Parker says things, they don’t sound like empty platitudes—and he’s not doing his massage therapist voice, which is an abrupt relief.

He heaves off to follow Parker. It's nearly impossible to catch Bo when he's alone and Bo—dumb as he is—has a bad habit of taking on animals and machines that are bigger and more dangerous than he is. He's simply too harebrained to be roaming Storm Mountain free.

"Go that way and see if you see him. I'll meet you on the other side of those big pines—do you see?" Harp asks.

He knows he's intense when he's panicked. In this case, he doesn't care.

Parker nods and they fork away from each other off the road, stomping through tall, dry grass and gravel in between trees.

* * *

Parker yellsBo’s name so loudly his voice echoes back off of the mountains around them. A little prickle of panic runs down his spine. Bo is tiny and Storm Mountain is huge. It seems unlikely they’ll find him simply by happening to run into him. And Parker knows that Bo is nothing if not determined—if Bo gets the scent of something, he’ll be off and running as fast as his stubby little legs can take him. He’ll stop only when he reaches his quarry or his body gives out.

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