This Was Meant To Be

Chapter 8

“It’s too bad Leigh couldn’t make it. But she’s been so busy. Maybe she’s doing too much. Harrison, you should see your sister more often and cheer her up a bit. You look quite happy, really, have you finally taken up yoga like I’ve been telling you to?”

Harrison felt himself, mortifyingly, begin to blush.

Martha sure had packed a lot into that innocuous comment during dessert, which was, of course, incredible.

Samuel Wells looked over at Harrison and grinned.

“I’d like to see you doing yoga,” he rumbled, in his deep, amused voice.

Harrison fidgeted.

“No, I haven’t taken up yoga yet. But it’s definitely looking good on you, Martha. Maybe you should get Leigh to take up yoga, if you think she’s overworking herself.”

Samuel chuckled, a sound that came deep from his belly.

Harrison always felt better around Samuel’s calming presence, but he also knew that Leigh was his little girl. He really didn’t want to think about how he would feel about…

Well, he didn’t want to think about any of that when he was at the dinner table with Martha and Samuel.

“Oh, you know Leigh. She’s always on the go. Stopping long enough to breathe deeply and focus on everything around her is asking too much. But she sounded happy when she called. Busy, but happy. Did you know that she broke up with Carl?”

Harrison fidgeted, wondering what he was supposed to say.

Yes, and I’m dating her now.

Well, he didn’t think that would go over very well.

“I think it’s a woman,” said Samuel.

Martha squealed in joy.

“Harrison, are you finally seeing somebody? Are you going to bring a young lady home?”

Harrison nearly blushed and fidgeted.

“No, I… No, I mean… This is really wonderful,” said Harrison and shoveled food into his mouth to avoid answering.

If they noticed, they were gracious enough not to press him too much.

So he dodged the topic, steered conversation on to new and less dangerous subjects, and got more and more uncomfortable as the evening passed.

By the time he left, he was guilty on top of uncomfortable. They were both so happy that he seemed to be happy and less restless. He felt like he was lying to them, cheating them in some way.

Especially when Martha hugged him, and told him how lovely it was to see that light in his eyes again.

Obviously, he mused as he went back home, he and Leigh had something to talk about. They needed to figure out just how they were going to handle this.

Were they going to tell her parents, and the people who had become as good as his parents, that they were dating?

Harrison realized that he wanted to, deep inside. He had spent so much time waiting for things to work out between them that he didn’t want to waste more time keeping secrets.

But that was just him, being impatient. He had to give Leigh time to get used to what was obviously a huge change.

They had just gone on one real date. They’d met a couple of times for quick lunches, but those meetings hadn’t been dates.

They hadn’t been able to talk, and explore each other.

A quick kiss goodbye just wasn’t enough.

Impulsively, he called Leigh.

“Hey,” said Leigh’s voice, sounding just a bit breathless.

Harrison smiled as he heard her voice. She could make him smile.

Martha was right. She did make him happy.

“Leigh, still busy?”

He hoped she wasn’t.

“Not really. I just finished a lot of work. How was dinner?”

He noticed the hesitation in Leigh’s voice. Well, so he’d been right. She had chickened out.

He would be a gentleman and not let her know that he had noticed that.

“It was interesting. But I was a bit too nervous to have Martha’s excellent dessert. She packed some and sent it with me.”

He could see Leigh swallowing – he could just see it. She loved Martha’s chocolate fudge cake, which she’d baked for Harrison.

“Dessert?”

“She really knocked the chocolate fudge cake out of the park. She did that gooey version that she bakes in a tart shell, instead of having a biscuit base. You know the one.”

Oh, he knew that Leigh knew the one.

“You have some?”

Harrison bit back a chuckle. He had her now.

“I do. I was going to keep it for a midnight snack.”

“Why don’t you come over and share it with me?”

Harrison grinned. She’d walked right into that one.

“I thought you had lots of work,” he teased.

“I’m done. Work can wait. Bring me the damn dessert, Harrison. You know very well exactly what you’re doing.”

Now he did laugh. Yes, he did know.

“All right, Leigh. If you insist. Have you had dinner, or should I pick something up along the way?”

“No, just you. And dessert.”

Harrison hung up, feeling pretty satisfied with himself.

He needed some Leigh time, and it looked like he was going to get it.

Leigh grinned as she hung up. She’d been wondering how dinner had gone. She knew that Martha, for one, would notice that Harrison wasn’t broody as he could often be.

Leigh had been a bit guilty about not going, but she did have work. Slimy Willie was up to something – she was sure about it. And there was a pretty big case they were prepping for, which involved so many depositions that she was quite overworked, getting it all sorted out.

She was also supposed to be taking care of details, like chain of custody for evidence, and she had a feeling she was missing something, somewhere.

Everything seemed perfectly fine on the surface, but Leigh had always had good instincts, and they were warning her.

She had spent almost all day trying to figure out what was setting off her alarms, and had come up empty. She would have to try again.

She knew she’d been neglecting Harrison a bit, too. She knew what a mistake that was. After all, look what had happened when she had spent too much time on her career, instead of spending time with Carl!

No, that wasn’t fair. Harrison was not Carl, and Carl had been unreasonable. Harrison knew that work was important. If he had time now to do as he wished, it’s because he had invested so much time and effort into his career a few years ago.

He would never be as lacking in compassion and understanding as Carl had been.

Besides, he was bringing her dessert – her absolute favorite.

She was honestly a bit annoyed that her mom had made that when she wasn’t going to be there.

And the truth was that she had missed Harrison. She hadn’t been sleeping very well, and that was mostly because of Harrison.