This Was Meant To Be

Her parents would not understand. Or maybe they would, but it would leave them very torn and conflicted. What was the point of putting them through all of that when she and Harrison were just…

Well, what were they doing, anyway?

Leigh could feel herself beginning to tense up again.

“Hey, relax, Leigh. I didn’t tell them anything. We don’t have to tell them anything until you’re comfortable with it.”

Leigh nodded a bit too quickly.

“You’re right, we don’t. I’m glad you didn’t tell him anything. I mean, what’s the point of upsetting them for no reason? There’s no point opening up that whole can of worms.”

It was another indication that Leigh didn’t feel nearly as strongly about him as he did about her, for Harrison. But he reminded himself that he should be understanding. This was all a whole lot newer for Leigh than it was for him.

It had only been a week. He would never even consider taking a girl home to meet the Wellses after dating her for a week.

So it was absolutely irrational of him to want to tell the Wellses that he and Leigh were together, after just a few days of being together.

Even if he had been thinking about the idea of them being together for so much longer than that. For almost as long as he had considered the idea of taking a girl home, really.

But Leigh was right that they would be upset. They looked at him as a son. He knew that. They had never given him reason to doubt that.

If they realized that he definitely didn’t look at Leigh as a sister, well, it would upset their world a bit. More than a bit.

He could wait a while to do that, too.

“Anyway, there’s no point coming up with complications now, is there? We’ve just started dating. It’s still all a bit… I don’t know, it still takes some getting used to. What if we decide, in a couple of months, that it just isn’t working? It would really su*k to change everything and then realize that we can’t change things back. No, I think we’ve dealt with enough major changes for a while. Take things slow, I think. That should be the order of the day.”

Leigh sounded rather vehement. She knew that.

But she couldn’t bear the thought of hurting her parents. For once, Leigh had no idea how they might take it.

They wanted the best for both their children. She knew that. Logically, there was nothing stopping her and Harrison from being together.

But she knew that her parents might not feel too logical about things if she just sprung it on them.

Oblivious of the little battle being waged inside Harrison, she fed him dessert, and let it go, considering matters quite settled.