More of You

Chapter 26

Luke was exhausted. The morning had only gotten worse after he had helped Harper pack up her things. He had gone back to his office to think about the best way to handle the situation, the worst thing he could do was what he wanted to do, which was rush in and punch Troy. However, the mature responsible side of him knew that, while making him feel better, it would solve nothing.

There were a few silver linings to an otherwise very dark cloud. One was that the situation pushed Harper from the nest, and he was sure it wouldn't be long before Troy realized just how much work she did for the company. The other was that it had eased the tension between him and Harper. She couldn't argue that their relationship would cause a rift in the family, her sister's lie had done that already.

"Luke, we need to talk," Troy said as he entered his office and sat in the chair across from him.

Luke turned his chair to look at him, biting his tongue to keep from saying something he shouldn't. His going off half-cocked would only make things worse.

"I need you to pick up a few of the jobs that Harper was working on-"

"No, I have enough on my plate. You'll have to handle them, or hire someone else to handle them."

Troy's eyes narrowed at Luke's refusal. "I can fire you too, you know?"

"Go ahead, then you'll have to hire two people." Luke watched him sputter as he wrestled with the reality of Luke's statement. "You shot yourself in the foot, you believed Mindy and an ex-employee over Harper. It is probably one of the worst mistakes you have ever made. Now, not only do you not have an excellent employee, but you destroyed your relationship with your daughter."

"She had an affair with that Davies-"

"No, she didn't, Mindy did!" Luke stood up and reached for his bag, finished with the discussion.

"You have proof?" he demanded.

"I don't need it, I have Harper's word that she didn't." He looked at Troy's stubborn face. "You know what the sad thing about all of this is, besides the fact that you just fired your daughter in front of the entire office and humiliated her?"

Troy refused to look at him.

"As hard as I tried, Harper wouldn't even go out with me for fear of how it might affect the family and the business, and we love each other. Why on earth do you think that she would go out with Davies?" Luke left Troy with the final thought.

As he entered the hallway he noticed that Trudy and some of the other staff had gathered to listen to the conversation between Luke and Troy.

"How is Harper?" Trudy asked as she followed Luke down the hallway. "None of us believed for a minute that she dated Davies, we all know that Mindy is lying."

"Then why didn't any of you stand up for her?"

"Why didn't you?" Possum asked sourly

"I just did!" Luke had had enough of all their meddling, and he had his jobs to keep him busy all day. Most of which were a week behind schedule since he had been gone for two.

Now, as he pulled up in his driveway he was surprised to see Harper's car already there. She was sitting at the top of his steps waiting for him, and she looked sad but beautiful. Her hair was down an she was wearing a soft sundress.

"This is a nice surprise," he greeted as he climbed the steps and sat next to her, throwing his arm around her shoulders. "To what do I owe this honor?"

"I can't cook," she said in a sad little voice.

"No, you can't," he agreed.

"I invited you for dinner, but I can't cook," she clarified.