“You never struck me as the small-town kind of guy.”
“Ashland might seem like a small town, but there’s a lot of culture here.”
“I’m sure there is. But you seem more like a worldly kind of guy, the guy who likes to travel and see as much of the world as possible.”
“That I’ve also done. The company requires me to travel quite often.”
“And you’ve never wanted to live anywhere else?”
He’d pulled to a stop in front of his mother’s house. He stared forward for a moment, his hands wringing the steering wheel like he wanted to rip it off the car, or something. Then he looked at me and began to speak, but JT interrupted.
“Can we go inside? I’m starving.”
Harrison studied me for a moment longer, then nodded.
“Yeah, I’m hungry too.”
I waited as Harrison put JT back in his chair, then the three of us walked to the front door together. It was opened by a tall, distinguished man Harrison called Edward. It took me a minute, but I figured out he was the butler when he took our jackets and directed us quite stiffly to the sitting room.
“Harrison!”
Libby rushed up to her brother, high color on her cheeks. But before she could speak, another man, this one tall and dark with green eyes that were so much like Harrison’s that he could only be his brother. He was just an inch or so shorter, but his shoulders were just as wide. His jaw was thinner, accenting his high cheekbones. And he had a little bit of a sparkle in his eye when he came over to introduce himself.
“You,” he said, taking my hand before I could react, “are one of the most beautiful women I have ever seen.”
I blushed even as I watched him bend low over my hand and brush dry lips against my knuckles.
Wow, what a charmer!
“Randy,” Harrison said, his voice so cold that I could almost imagine seeing frost slip from between his lips.
The charmer turned to Harrison, a bit of bashfulness overcoming his handsome features.
“Hello, Harrison,” he said.
“What are you doing here?”
“Come to visit mother. Imagine my surprise when she told me you had a son.”
Harrison’s eyes narrowed, and there was so much tension in his expression that his face might shatter if he moved. It made me wonder what had happened between these two that had caused such bad blood.
“And this must be the son in question,” Randy said, turning to JT. “Hey, I’m your uncle.”
“Hi!”
JT took his hand, the smile on his face so wide I knew exactly what he was thinking. Our parents were only children, so we didn’t have aunts and uncles. JT was suddenly being given family like he’d never had before, and he was loving every moment of it.
Randy leaned close to JT and said, “So, when you get out of that chair, we’ll have to go do some uncle and nephew things, like hitting a few bars, picking up a few chicks.”
“Awesome,” JT said. “Can’t wait.”
Randy laughed as he straightened, but the laughter died as he glanced at Harrison.
“Don’t look so stressed, bro. I was just joking. I would never take a minor to a bar.”
But then he dropped a wink in JT’s direction.
This family was definitely more complex than I ever imagined. I was suddenly looking forward to this little get-together if only to see how the tension between Harrison and Randy worked itself out.
Chapter 24
Harrison
I hadn’t wanted to come to this dinner in the first place. The only reason I agreed was because Libby insisted. Libby said that it was the best way to ease JT into the family, to let him get to know everyone. But I was still trying to find a way to forgive my mother for what she’d done all those years ago. And now Randy showed up.
No one had seen Randy or heard from him in five years. And he chose now to show up. The only thing I could figure was that he needed money.
But, again, he always needed money.
I sat across from Penelope and Randy, watching him fall all over himself to impress her. And she seemed to be eating it all up. I wanted to pull her aside and warn her about him, tell her what a fuck-up he really was. Couldn’t she see how his hands were shaking or the holes in the soles of his shoes? I don’t know where he got that suit—probably from my mother—but it clearly wasn’t his. It didn’t fit right. The sleeves were too short and the pants too long.
“Harry,” Libby said.
I glanced at her and realized it probably wasn’t the first time she’d said my name.
“Stop staring at your girlfriend and talk to mom.”
“She’s not my girlfriend.”