This Was Meant To Be

*****

“What!”

Leigh smiled at her dad, serenely.

“Daddy, I know it will take you some time to get used to the idea, but we are very happy together. I wouldn’t have told you about it unless I knew it mattered. It does matter, and we plan to stay together. So you should know. I’ll understand if you want us to stay away from you for a while, so you can think it over.”

Martha leaned closer to her.

“Leigh, he’s your brother!”

Leigh shook her head.

“No, he isn’t. He has been one of my closest friends, for all my life, but he was never my brother. Not even my stepbrother, really. He knows me better than anybody else in the world, Mom. You know how things ended with Carl. Would you ask me to give up the one person who knows me and understands me for the sake of some kind of propriety?”

“It’s not right,” said her father abruptly.

“But Daddy, I’m happy. You can’t change this. I want to believe that you wouldn’t want me to change this. I want to believe that you understand how this matters to me. I want to believe that my happiness means enough to you that you’ll see things from my point of view. And Harrison is happy, too. You saw him last time – you saw how happy he was. Have you ever seen him like that before?”

They hadn’t.

Leigh hadn’t expected that first time to go well, but it hadn’t gone as badly as it might have, she decided as she finally left, after an hour spent with her parents.

She dropped by Harrison’s place – which was beginning to seem more and more like her own, too, now, especially since she’d started bringing plants by and he had surprised her with free rein of his far larger terrace.

“Surprise,” she said, and he pulled her into his arms, kissing her long and softly.

“You’ve been up to something. I can feel it,” said Harrison, with a wry grin.

Life with Leigh was full of surprises.

She laughed.

“Well, remember how you handled my problem at work for me?”

He nodded.

“Well, I did something I know you wanted. Without asking you. But it’s something that had to come from me, so don’t be angry. I wanted it to be a surprise, because I thought you really wanted this.”

They sat down, and Harrison was wary.

“I told Mom and Dad.”

He stilled.

“They took it well, all things considered,” said Leigh, getting nervous.

“You told them?”

She nodded.

“Without me?”

She shrugged.

“Well, Dad would’ve punched you. You know that.”

That was possibly true, Harrison had to admit.

“Why did you tell them?”

Leigh smiled softly.

“Because I love you, and I don’t want any more secrets. I want no secrets, Harrison. I love you, and I want everybody to know that.”

Harrison’s hands were on hers, gripping hers so tightly that she wondered if he even knew how strong he was.

His grip loosened when she winced.

“Say that again,” he demanded.

“I love you,” she told him, and found herself wrapped in his arms, held so tightly that she thought he might never let her go.

“You love me,” he murmured, finally, against her cheek.

She smiled as she held on to him, too.

“Is it a good surprise?” she asked, her voice muffled against his neck.

She felt his breath tickling her as he laughed.

“Oh, it’s the best ever. But I think we should give them a few weeks to get used to the idea.”

Leigh pulled away and grinned.

“Mom looked like she might come to terms with it soon enough. Dad will take some more time. You know, it does help that you never called them mom and dad. Things would’ve been a bit more awkward if you had.”

Harrison grinned, but quickly turned serious.

“You do know that I’ll have to go and see Samuel soon, and possibly get punched in the face. I can’t even hit him back.”

Leigh shook her head.

“He won’t. They want you to be happy as much as they want me to be happy, Harrison. They will come to terms with it.”

*****

Over the next few weeks, so it turned out. Martha was the first to reach out, as Leigh had expected. The conversation started out stilted, but it wasn’t too bad.

Martha came into the city and met them both, and while it was a bit stiff, they soon loosened up.

“This isn’t as bad as I thought it would be. And both of you do look happy,” said Martha, finally.

Leigh smiled.

“You know, Mom, I remember overhearing a conversation between you and Harrison’s mom, a long time ago.”

Martha’s eyes misted as she recalled what Leigh was talking about. Leigh realized, immediately, that she had struck the right note.

“You said that it would be wonderful if Harrison and I ended up together. You said we’d fit well together.”

Martha nodded, a faraway look in her eyes.

“I know. I thought things changed too much after that. And mothers say things like that all the time. We want our children to be so happy that we plan entire happy lives for them. But we know that we can only do so much. We have to let our children do the living.”

“You’re letting us live, Martha. We’re choosing well. You knew it even then.”

Martha nodded slowly and a little sadly.

“It will take time for your father. More time. Maybe by Thanksgiving,” said Martha wistfully.

Leigh smiled.

“I’m sure Dad will come around by Thanksgiving, Mom. Don’t worry. We won’t give him a choice.”

When Martha saw Leigh and Harrison linking hands, she realized that maybe none of them had had a choice. It had seemed, all those years ago, as if Leigh and Harrison were two halves of a whole.

Now, it looked like they were two wholes who fit together perfectly, and they knew it.

Maybe she should just be happy that they had found each other, after everything. They deserved happiness, after all.

What more could she want for them?

“You should come home, Harrison. You haven’t been home in so long. You should come home.”