Being Harrison Bloom’s Girl

Chapter 2

Leigh managed to make it through about ten minutes before she gave up.

“All right, Mom,” said Leigh, placing her napkin aside after wiping her mouth carefully. “What’s going on? You’re obviously upset about something. Why don’t you tell us about it?”

Martha, elegant as always, looked affronted.

“Leigh, we do not talk about unpleasant things like that during dinner. That’s what your father’s study is for.”

“My study is not for the family fights,” rumbled Samuel, but he subsided quickly enough, after finding himself on the sharp end of a glance from his lovely, but definitely strong-minded, wife.

“Well, unless we talk about it, we’ll never get through the family dinner without wanting to eat and bolt, so let’s just talk about it, Mom. Please, I only have the weekend, and heaven only knows how long it will be before I can take another one off.”

“You work too hard, Leigh.”

Leigh grinned.

“And I know you too well to let you deflect like that, Mom. Tell me. Whatever it is, we’ll figure it out.”

Martha sighed and put the fork and knife aside precisely and carefully.

“I want you, both of you, to know that I don’t blame you for this. In fact, in a very strange way, I’m proud of you, Harrison, for being…relevant enough to make this a problem.”

Martha was choosing her words very carefully. That wasn’t usually a good sign. Martha only broke bad news so carefully.

Harrison, for one, had excellent reason to know that, since she’d been the one who had broken the news of his parents’ accident to him.

“Mom…”

Harrison interrupted by placing his hand on Martha’s.

“It’s all right. Whatever it is, I promise you I will take care of it.”

“Oh honey, you’re just the sweetest… Well, then, we’ve been having some trouble with reporters. They seem to find ways to sneak in, and they try to get interviews. Comments, they call it. I’d like to tell them what to do with their comments.”

Leigh frowned.

“That’s not fun, but a call to the cops would take care of that.”

“I set up that new security system. You’ve been remembering to turn it on, haven’t you?”

Martha sighed.

“Oh, for heaven’s sake, Martha. Somebody tried to break into the first floor last week. We’re pretty sure they were trying to get into your rooms. They tripped the alarm and it got a little ugly.”

Harrison tensed. Leigh saw it – everything about him went on high alert, like a predator scenting prey.

“When was this? Why didn’t you call me?”

Samuel shrugged.

“It was handled. The security company you chose is very thorough. We asked for privacy and confidentiality, and we got it.”

“You’ve been dealing with enough, Harrison. We didn’t want to worry either of you,” said Martha, her voice quiet.

Leigh didn’t know what to say.

“I’m sorry, Mom.”

“We’re both sorry. But we’ll take care of it. I promise, I will. I’ll make sure word gets out that the next reporter or photographer who tries anything will regret it in ways that will have repercussions outside of their professional lives.”

Leigh was startled.

“Harrison…”

But before Leigh could say anything, Samuel stepped in.

“I know where you’re coming from, Harrison, but the last thing I need are rumors that there’s some kind of a hit out on anybody coming near here. Let it go. It’s fine. There’s no harm done that cannot be easily undone. Martha will be fine soon enough. Besides, the security system worked. That was the point of it, wasn’t it?”

Harrison was still tense. Leigh could feel it. So she placed her hand on his leg and stroked, gently, sliding over the inside of his thigh. She felt him go rigid, but not the way he had been earlier.

If she’d wanted to distract him, she could hardly have chosen a better or more effective way.

“All right,” capitulated Harrison, though he obviously wasn’t very happy about it. He glanced at Leigh sharply, and she winked at him, needing to distract him.

“Good. Now that you’ve ruined the dinner, shall I bring dessert?”

Leigh smiled at her mother, and turned the wink on her.

“Oh, please, after my time on campus, you really think a security alarm going off would rattle me? Wait till I tell you what happened just last week…”

Leigh launched into an exaggerated and slightly plausible account of some of the more notable shenanigans on campus the week before, and soon, to her relief, she had everybody chuckling, relaxed again.

The rest of the evening went by without much incident, but there was that tension, again, when she and Harrison left together. Would her father ever get really used to the idea that she was with Harrison? Leigh wasn’t so sure.

Harrison was quiet on their way back, and Leigh didn’t try to break the silence, either. But Leigh could feel the tension building, and she hated every moment of it. She hated how she felt so jumpy by the time they got out of the car – Harrison never had to bother with things like parking the car himself – and she hated how they were so careful not to touch each other as they rode up in the private elevator that was only for Harrison and his guests’ use.

By the time they were inside, though, Leigh couldn’t stand the tension any longer.

“So, that didn’t go as badly as it might have.”

Harrison looked at her sharply.

“Not how I hoped the evening would go, but I suppose a lack of bloodshed seems like a good time to you, after your hair-raising adventures on campus.”

Leigh felt her own temper beginning to rise, and her eyes narrowed.

“Do you have a problem, Harrison?”

Harrison tugged his tie loose and threw it onto the couch.

“I don’t know, Leigh, do I have a problem? Do we have a problem? I’m not so sure anymore. I’m not sure of anything that’s going on with you anymore. If you were so keen on talking about your wonderful life in law school, why did you even bother to come back for the weekend?”

Leigh stared at him in open-mouthed shock.

“What on earth are you talking about? Do you have any idea what it’s like for me, to live in two worlds, to be pulled this way and that? To know that Mom is scared, that Daddy will always be angry, and whatever I do, I’ll fail everywhere?”