Young Squatters by Blair London Read Free Book Online Page A

around.
    Harper thought how confident and relaxed Bradford looked as he spoke to the policeman.  You would never dream they had done anything wrong due to his body language not giving anything away.
    The cop agreed, talking into his radio as he followed Bradford to the front steps.  Harper watched them come up the walk, and heard the door in the foyer open.
    As Harper watched Nora, she noticed the difference between Bradford and her.  Nora looked anything but relaxed and calm, although she had stopped screaming and had fixed her hair back into a neat bun, but that wasn’t surprising, really.  After all, Bradford had months of planning how he would behave when this situation arose.  Yet Nora had no idea what was happening, and her body language emphasized her frustration and confusion.
    Nora followed close behind him.  She looked like she was fuming anger, but she didn’t say anything.
    “This guy on the Internet told us we could live here.  Rent the place, you know.”  That was Bradford’s voice, and he came around the corner into the kitchen as he was speaking.  She turned around, leaning up against the counter.  He nodded to Harper and gave her a look that said, Stay cool, baby , and put his hand out to introduce her.  “This is my fiancée, Harper.  We’re expecting a baby.”
    They weren’t, but Bradford had said that would sound better, if they told the cops and neighbors they were expecting a baby; just a nice, friendly young couple trying to get a start in life.
    Harper recalled the conversation she had with Bradford about her being pregnant for this to work.
    “But does that mean I have to fake being sick and pretend I’m tired and sick every morning?” she had asked.
    Harper had been really panicking about faking being pregnant, and didn’t like the idea of having to look tired and sick every morning.  She was already ugly enough; she didn’t want to act even uglier.  She wanted to enjoy her future with Bradford in this house, and wanted to voice her concerns to him.
    “Ah, babe, come here,” Bradford had said to Harper before giving her a big hug and kiss, nuzzling her neck with his nose.
    “Of course you won’t have to make yourself look sick and tired.  Have you not heard of people breezing through their pregnancy looking healthy and not suffering from any morning sickness?”
    Harper had to admit she did recall watching someone in a soap opera having a healthy pregnancy, but she had thought that was just made up for the soap.  But Harper wasn’t going to admit that to Bradford.
    “Now you come to mention it, I have, babe.  Sorry, I just want to act my part and don’t want to get anything wrong.”
    Bradford reassured Harper she would be great, and the most she would have to do is not lift anything heavy due to thinking of the baby.  That was fine, because Bradford did most of the heavy lifting, anyway.  Apart from that, she needn’t worry about anything else.
    Harper remembered what Bradford had said and wanted to act like a newly pregnant mother.
    The policeman tipped his crew-cut head to Harper.  “Miss.”
    Harper put her hands on her flat belly.  “Hi, Officer. Is everything okay?”  Harper didn’t have to work hard to sound worried.  She was.  Couldn’t they go to jail for something like this?  Bradford gave her hand a squeeze before letting go of it.
    “Can I see your I.D., Miss?”
    “Sure, Officer.”  Harper picked up her Gucci bag—that had been a gift from Bradford, during the first month of their dating relationship—and took out her own driver’s license.  Like Bradford’s, it had the address of the Donnelly’s house on it.  She handed it to the officer.  “What’s the problem, Officer?  The owner said we could stay here.”  They’d mocked up emails between Bradford and a made-up owner that made it seem like they’d rented the house.  She thought they had covered everything, tied up every loose string, but her hands still grew