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We would be fine.
THIRTY-NINE
TWO MONTHS LATER
Trevor
I followedHarper into the kitchen of her mom’s house, eager to help out with lunch in any way I could.
But, Harper insisted that I take a seat at the table with her mother while she finished up with the alfredo.
“Are you sure you got it yourself?” her mom asked.
“I’m sure. You two should catch up. You haven’t been in to see Trevor for a while, Mom, and he asks about you all the time. You should tell him how you’re doing yourself now that you have him here in front of you,” Harper suggested.
“Oh boy, now you’re trying to get me on home visits? I’m not sure I’ll have the energy for that running around in this town,” I joked.
“Just for today,” her mother said. “So, tell me how have you been doing? I get to hear a lot from Harper, but if you and her are getting serious, I feel I better get to know you on a different level rather than just my doctor.”
“Well, the fact that I am in love with your daughter ought to tell you that you are not just my patient.” I grinned. “Although, I am going to tell you that you are the best patient I have ever had. I’ve had some good ones come through, I’ll tell you, but I’ve only ever had one set me up on a blind date.”
“Aren’t you glad I did?” she asked.
“We were both skeptical at first,” Harper said. “But I sort of suspected you weren’t going to be coming to dinner when you set it up, so I was somewhat more prepared for what was going on than poor Trevor.”
“I feel like I recovered well enough, but I’m glad that you’re finally giving me that lunch you owe me. You said you were the one who wanted to ask me to dinner a few months ago, not that you were going to give me your daughter,” I teased.
“I figured I would sweeten the deal,” her mom said with a wink.
I grinned back at her. I could see a lot of Harper in her mother, or, should I say, I saw a lot of her mother in Harper. Either way, I was thrilled to be invited into this family the way I had been, and I was grateful to both of them. Both women were definitely enriching to my life, there was no doubt about that, and I wanted to be as big of a blessing in their world as they had been in mine.
But, that would take time.
I wasn’t in a rush any longer. I no longer felt that I had to have the answers to everything or something bad was going to happen. I didn’t feel like I was about to lose everything.
I felt that I was able to relax and take my time with this. I felt like me and Harper had reached a good place in our relationship, and it was only going to get better from here. I was sure about that.
Harper and her mother were definitely close. I knew that before I had even met Harper, but I could see it now that Harper was in the kitchen cooking, and her mother and I were at the table talking to her as she did. The conversation between mother and daughter was much closer to sounding like it was a conversation between sisters than it was a parent and child.
I was happy for both of them.
It made me think of Mrs. Elliot, and I hoped she had been that close with her husband while he had been alive. I still felt a pang of pity for her and the fact she was gone now and never was close to her children. But, that was also something that I could let go. She was happy now, and she didn’t need my pity or my sympathy.
“When are the two of you leaving for Greece?” her mother asked.
“Two weeks from Tuesday,” I told her. “Then we’re going to stay there for ten days before taking a couple more days to go through Ireland. Then we’re going to head back home.”
“That’s going to be amazing. I went all over Europe when I was younger, and I often told Harper she has to take the time to do it at some point in her life.”
“I just didn’t want to do it alone,” Harper said. “So I put it off and off. Now that I have someone who wants to go see the world with me, however, I’ll be a lot happier about going all the way across the world myself.”
“You’re going to love it,” her mom said.
“We will take tons of pictures and make sure to call you and let you know how things are going for us,” Harper told her mom as she brought the food out to the table.
“And you have a ride to the airport and everything?” her mother asked.
“Mom, you can’t take us anyway, so why are you asking?” Harper laughed.
