Chapter 34
Harm and Mac stopped by the apartment to get the camera; they had taken the video camera with them so Harm grabbed a blank tape. He grabbed his suit and a box from his top drawer. "I thought we'd go out for dinner, at DeLaRosa's after we see Andy and his friends off. Do you mind my showering over at your place? Otherwise give me ten minutes here." "We could save time and shower together at your place," Harm said grinning, knowing that Mac would not take him up on it.
"I think I can handle it, this one time, I'll take a quick shower—alone—and get dressed as well. How dressy, should I be?" Mac was already running through a few options for what to wear and with only ten minutes to get ready, she needed to know to narrow her choices down fast.
They went to her apartment, fortunately, the traffic lights were cooperating and they made good time. Mac took a quick shower, toweled off put her robe on, she then grabbed her travel bag and told Harm the shower was free and that he could change in there until she was ready for him to be in her room. She waited until she heard the water running before taking her robe off. She decided to wear a dress she had bought last fall in a boutique in Georgetown, but hadn't worn it yet. She'd bought it while Harm was employed with the CIA, and for months the dress had stayed in her closet with the price tag still attached. It was a black silk slip dress, with a black lace with red roses red roses in the bodice, the neckline was heart shaped, not cut too low, but showing enough décolletage to show off her femininity. It was scooped low in the back, but not too low.
She took the dress and everything else she needed for the evening and went into her guest bedroom. She quickly dressed and put her makeup on. She knew she didn't have a long time to do her hair and so decided she would just blow- dry it. She pulled her hair up in a barrette, which the same shade of red as her dress. Normally Mac just blow-dried her hair; tonight she wanted to do something special.
When she was decent, while putting on her necklace and earrings, she told Harm she was about ready to go. To her surprise, all he needed he was to finish tying his tie and retrieve his shoes, which he had taken off in the living room. Within a couple of minutes, they were out the door.
They reached the house where the teens were to congregate, and were happy to realize that all the teens weren't there yet. The other parents weren't dressed up as Harm and Mac, but the duo were underdressed compared to the teens. The boys's, excuse me, young men, were in black tuxedos, the girls, excuse me young women, were all in formal dresses. The last family arrived three moments after Harm and Mac, to his relief and Mac's amusement.
Not all the parents had met each other so the next few minutes were spent in introductions. Pictures were taken and videos as well. The limo the boys had pooled their money for arrived to take the teens to the restaurant that conveniently was adjacent to the location of the prom.
Harm and Mac left minutes after the prom goers had departed since their reservations for DeLaRosa's was in half an hour. Mac was pleasantly surprised when the maitre d escorted them to the balcony seating; which took advanced reservations, and a little pull. All of a sudden, she had butterflies in her stomach, not that it would spoil her appetite. Harm must have planned this evening for several weeks now, and getting the balcony on a holiday weekend, he must have called in a few markers.
When they arrived at their table, there was an ice bucket, with a cooling bottle of sparkling white grape juice. From a distance no one would be the wiser that it wasn't champagne, Mac appreciated that when she and Harm were dining alone or with Andy he did not drink alcohol out of respect for her.
Mac ordered a filet mignon with the wild rice pilaf that the restaurant had become renowned for in the six months it had been on the menu. The house salad dressing was raspberry vinaigrette. Harm surprised her by actually ordering the steak and shrimp. DeLaRosa's was unusual for upscale DC area restaurants, you could specify if you wanted more steak and less shrimp or vice verse. He asked for the petite steak and broiled, not fried shrimp. He also had the wild rice pilaf and house salad.
They talked about how things would be different with Mattie coming to live with Harm and Andy. It was a good thing they had just bought the house with four bedrooms. Harm planned to use the fourth bedroom as an office, since it was downstairs away from the other bedrooms. With the right furniture, it could work as a guest bedroom. Harm realized that his mother and Frank were likely to be the most frequent guests. They had never stayed with Harm in the past since he did not have the room. He thought it was possible they might prefer the privacy of a hotel.
Earlier, during the drive back to DC Harm checked with Tom to see if he would allow Mattie to travel, she would need it if she traveled with Andy to Tasmania or with the Burnett's to Europe. He knew there was just enough time for her to get a passport if she didn't already have one. Harm knew it was a good idea to keep Tom Johnson in the loop on matters dealing with Mattie. If Mattie didn't have a passport, and Harm had the feeling she didn't it would be expensive to expedite the process but it would be worth it for both teens to make the trip. It was a long flight and having someone to talk to would help. Andy could show Mattie around and introduce her to teens who spoke the same language but were from an entirely different country and mindset in some ways. It would give her a chance to see the world, and have freedom and adult supervision as well. The original plan had been for Andy to go for the summer. After Shannon was murdered, Harm revised it to three weeks as soon as the school year ended. Andy would spend two weeks with various friends and then a week in Sydney with his Uncle Mic. Harm called Tom Johnson from his cell phone, and left a message to call him the next afternoon.
Chapter 35
Harm contemplated furnishing the new house. He wanted to include Mac's things, but he wanted to be subtle about it. "Mac, I want your input when it comes to getting furnishing the house. There are pieces which will arrive in a few weeks, they were in Shannon's family for generations, I thought I was going to have to store them, but we'll be in the house by the date the ship is due at Norfolk. I realize Andy needs some of his childhood in this house, the pieces Andy and I chose, I know you'll like, you've commented that you've like similar pieces. I really like how you've decorated your apartment, and I really need a woman's point of view for Mattie's room. I probably should wait and get her opinion but I want it to be ready for her when she comes to live with us. You have better understanding of the teenaged female mind."
Mac responded to Harm, "I'd be happy to help you out. You might want to ask Mattie if she wants to bring furniture from her mother's house for her room. She might have some things she wants. Otherwise I suggest we get some basic things and make it clear that we will help her decorate it like she wants." She took his hand in hers. "A teenaged girl's room is very personal to her."
Harm seemed pensive to her and Mac realized he was coming to grips with the idea of being the parent of not one but two teenagers. Besides, he had just had a very eventful year. He had been in the brig accused of a murder he did not commit. He had had resigned his commission, fought terrorists, found himself unemployed, and joined the CIA. In Mac's opinion, the CIA was the last place on the planet for Harm to work at. Harm was wired differently, he may not have been a SEAL in name but he was in spirit, you don't leave men behind, you do what is right, even at the cost of your own life if necessary. It might be an idealistic point of view, but it was Harm's, Mac though to herself 'I think it's one of the reasons why it took us so long to get together, he sees the idealist point of view because of my history I can see the cynical point of view—even when the cynic is myself.' The months away from each other hurt Mac as well as Harm's seeming indifference to her.
Mac continued thinking about the goings on of the past few months.
It was only after the disastrous family court verdict Mac realized Harm needed a true friend. She'd seen despair occasionally on others but when she'd seen his face after court, and again at the Christmas eve service she had never seen anything like it on Harm's. He 'dsat in the rear of the chapel; it was only because he had been hemmed in that he hadn't been able to make a quick getaway he'd wanted.
She'd told him she needed a ride home, although Clayton Webb brought her to the service, he'd left early to attend his mothers Christmas party. Webb had finally recovered from his injuries he'd incurred in Paraguay and was leaving the day after Christmas for Tokyo. He'd resigned from the CIA, partly due to his health, partly because his mother requested it. His uncle had a firm which had an office in Tokyo Clayton would go to Tokyo as a company vice-president, and then take the reins from his uncle in a year and half when the older man planned to retire.
She'd seen the only real smile on Harm's face for several months, when she told him Clayton had left for Japan, and would very likely be out of their lives since he was no longer 'undersecretary of state'. She went with Harm to the Wall, giving him a lot of privacy, after several minutes he gestured for her to come over and stand with him. "Dad, I'm really glad Sarah is here tonight, I'm not doing too well, I thought I had an"... He choked back the threatening tears," a chance at being a dad, but like before, it wasn't meant to be. I don't know what to do dad. Sarah and I aren't as close as we used to be, but Dad; right now her being here is the only thing keeping me going." Mac now knew the reference to Mattie had also been meant Andy. With that, Mac steered Harm towards his car.
"Harm, I'm going to pull rank on you, even if we're off duty. I don't want you to spend Christmas by yourself," said Mac. "We don't need to be over to Bud and Harriet's until late tomorrow afternoon. We are going to stop by your loft and you get whatever you need for tonight and tomorrow. You are spending the night over at Casa McKenzie. I don't care if we spend all night talking or just sitting together staring at the fire in the fireplace. I had the guest room ready for Chloe, but her dad had leave, so she's staying home."
After reaching her apartment, they'd talked for only a little while, Harm normally was emotionally spent, on Christmas Eve, but this year he'd suffered another loss, which made this year worse, and Mac sensed he wanted to be alone. She literally shooed him off to bed in the guest room at about 11:30. "Harm, there is no way you will be able to move tomorrow if you fall asleep on the couch and stay there. I'll tell you now, AJ will want you to help him play with a couple of the presents I got him, and you'll be sorry if you don't get a decent amount of sleep. You'll feel better, trust me."
Christmas morning Harm had awakened before Mac. To repay her for her kindness and thoughtfulness the night before and to show her how much he appreciated that she made sure he wasn't alone he made her breakfast, served it to her in bed. As he was positioning the tray he told her that on Christmas mornings before his mom had remarried he'd made his mom breakfast in bed, of course back then the closest thing to something hot for breakfast had been the toast. Mac had been deeply touched; no one had ever made her breakfast in bed, just as a treat. Harm told her he was willing to talk, if she was willing to listen. After getting dressed for the day and everything was ready to go over the Roberts' they went into the living room and talked.
Christmas Day was the beginning of their relationship on a deeper level. Sure, they'd been best of friends, but this was a closer relationship. It wasn't physical, except for some wonderful hugs and kisses. Harm told her before they left for the Roberts' he didn't want to screw up their friendship by adding sex into the equation. "What I'm trying to say counselor, and saying it badly is, I want to do this right and if it means cold showers for the foreseeable future, then cold showers it is. I really want to wait for us to make love, until we make a legal commitment."
Mac was deeply touched to an even greater degree than she had been by his serving her breakfast in bed. In finally declaring his intentions he was honoring her, in a way no one she'd ever been with had. With happy tears in her eyes, she told him "I agree, we should wait, after eight years of friendship, I don't want to lose our friendship, we nearly did this past year and I don't want to go through that again."
It took nearly two months for them to officially start to date, mainly because both were too busy to date, either Mac or Harm out of town for several days at a stretch. They used emails to keep in contact with each other when out of town. The preparation for and the trial of the SecNav, in front of the world court, took up a great deal of their time and energy and while they ate together they kept it strictly business, at least until the end of the trial. The night before their return to the states, they went out for dinner. They started the dinner rehashing the trial and then wondered what had gotten into AJ Roberts head when he wandered away from his uncle. They both knew little AJ felt he needed more attention, and was having a severe case of new sibling jealousy. Since both Mac and Harm had grown up as only children, they could only guess what this was like. They both resolved to spend more time with their godson.
That night at the restaurant at the Hague Mac heard words she thought she might never hear. "Mac, I would like to start to see you. You know, for someone who makes his living being eloquent, I can't get the words out the way I want to. What I'm trying to say is I would like to start dating you, exclusively."
Harm and Mac had only been dating a few weeks when Harm's past—Andy and Shannon—had shown up. If they hadn't had a few frank talks before their arrival, it might have broken their relationship for good. Harm told Mac the night they started dating there was something from his past he hadn't shared with anyone but his mother, stepfather and grandmother. He told her Annie knew, but it was only because of the long-term friendship between Luke and Harm Annie had even been there during that time. None of the other women Harm had been in long term relationships were aware of his son.
Andy's presence kept Harm and Mac to their personal resolution of not consummating their relationship. Harm didn't want to be a hypocrite with Andy telling him one thing while doing the very thing he was advising. The Rabb men often went over to her apartment, it helped that she had cable and therefore the teen was able to watch shows that his father was unaware of Andy liked the Sci-fi channel as well as Spike. Mac teased Harm about his lack of knowledge about what was on TV. If Harm were at Mac's Andy, would often would stop there, after being out and ride home with his father. When Harm had to go away, he stayed in the spare bedroom at Mac's or with his friends the Douglas' if it was near a weekend.
Chapter 36
Delarosa's
Washington DC
Back to the present
Harm took Mac's hand interrupting her thoughts. "Would you like to dance before we have dessert?" he said. The restaurants piano was near the French doors to the patio. The pianist was playing a jazzy ballad and they swayed to the music. Harm was grateful, not for the first time, his mother had insisted on several years of dance lessons. Being so close to Sarah was intoxicating. The idea of spending forever with her filled him with longing. The music ended and they kept swaying to the music of their hearts, lingering on their own little dance floor.
"Sarah, when I decided to make you a major part of my life on Valentine's Day, when I asked you to see only me. I couldn't hope to have Andy in my life much less Mattie. Now I have them in my life, and my life is rich, but there is still a part of my life that is incomplete. That missing part is you. I need you Sarah to be in my life, to be the woman I love the rest of my life. I want to finish raising Andy and Mattie with you by my side, and to mother to any future children we might have together. I would like for us to create a little Sarah or little Harm, or whoever."
He then put his hand in his pocket and withdrew a ring. He then went down on one knee. "Sarah Marie McKenzie would you me the honor of completing my life and become my wife?" Mac was crying, she tried to say yes, but nothing was coming out. She could only smile. She nodded her head. Looking into his eyes, eyes reflecting a deep love she tried again. "Yes, I will marry you, Harmon Rabb, I love you. I want to be your wife." The moment she thought would never come had finally happened.
He then slid the ring on her finger; it was an emerald-cut one-carat ruby ring, with a half-carat diamond baguette on either side. The ruby was from his great-grandmother's ring. "The ruby was given to my great grandmother when she was engaged". The other stones are from Grandma Sarah's ring and Mom's ring. I had one of mom's artists who does jewelry design this from my description. That's why I've been talking to Lisa so much on the phone lately."
He stood up and they kissed, deeply. They danced for a few more minutes. "After this past year, there is no way Chegwidden could use admiral's privilege and have me stay at JAG. Your record is better and this way, it will be easy for me to put my twenty in and get out. Your chances are good you'll get your own command, and be a full colonel. When I resigned, I knew when I came back I'll likely top out at Captain, if I make that, and I want to be there with you. 'Wither thou goest' Mac."
Mac was smiling, not trusting herself to speak; her eyes were glistening like diamonds with tears that were welling up with joy. "Harm, I want to get married as soon as possible, we can wait on a honeymoon until August when you have leave."
Harm nodded in agreement. I want to married soon too. If we elope then Mom, Grandma, and Harriet will kill me, not necessarily in that order." He was a little contrite when he said this.
Mac chuckled. "I want Chaplain Turner to perform the ceremony; maybe he'll know what's available in June. I've always wanted to be a June bride. It's traditional and I like that idea. I want this wedding to be traditional, since both of us didn't have that the first time around."
"I like that, I think we should go now, and call your Uncle Matt and my mom."
"I like that, as long as we call from near the Wall. We need to let your dad know." He signaled the waiter and asked for the check.
Harm guided her through the French doors into the main room of the restaurant. "Congratulations" heard from many of the other patrons who'd seen the proposal take place. When they got to the Lexus Harm opened her car door, after she was sitting, before he closed her door he handed her his cell phone. He said "Call Leavenworth and see if you can get a hold of him" by the time he had walked around to the drivers side and sat down Mac was already talking to the assistant warden. Mac did not abuse the fact she had telephone access to the officials at Leavenworth. "Colonel Callahan, this is Lt. Colonel Sarah McKenzie and I'm calling to see if it's possible to talk with my uncle Matt O'Hara tonight…The reason…I just got engaged…Thank you I'll hold."
"That sounds promising." He leaned over and gave her a kiss. While they were on hold Harm set it up so he could use the phone hands free. This way he could hear Matt's response. Harm and Mac were not aware that one reason this was so easy was that the Admiral had called the superintendent at Leavenworth on Friday on another issue and AJ mentioned to him that Matt O'Hara's niece would be calling in the near future to announce her engagement. AJ asked the superintendent to allow to her talk with her uncle, who had been more of a father to her than her own father had. When the superintendent had heard the story of how O'Hara had been responsible for her turn-around as a teen and guided her into the corps the superintendent had acquiesced. He'd always admired Sarah McKenzie. In his opinion, she personified the woman marine and besides, O'Hara was a model prisoner. He e-mailed the captains who had the weekend shifts and told them to allow the call to go through.
"
Uncle Matt, its Sarah"
"What's going on? Are you all right? Have you heard from Deanne?" There were only two reasons his niece would use her pull to call on a Saturday evening.
"I have no idea where Mom is." Mac told her uncle, matter-of-factly, as far as she was concerned, until her mother made contact with her, her mother was not part of her life.
"Uncle Matt, the reason I'm calling is Harm asked me to marry him ten minutes ago."
Matt O'Hara smiled at the guard who was hearing the phone call. He thought to himself that it took those two long enough and if he had been out of prison; he'd have knocked some sense into them a few years ago. If that occurred, he might have a great-niece or nephew already. "That's great news Sarah; I won't be able to make it to your wedding, unless you two want to wait another eleven years."
Harm and Sarah looked at each other and burst out laughing. "No, I don't think we want to wait that long Uncle Matt. I do have an idea. Make an audio tape or if you can arrange it, a video, and we can play it so you can give me away. I'll call the superintendent on Monday and thank him."
"I'd be honored kiddo. I'll figure out what I want to say, and at worst I can write something and have Admiral Chegwidden say something. I gotta go, and you made my weekend. I love you Sarah."
"Bye Uncle Matt". She pressed the disconnect button ending the phone call. They then left the parking lot of DeLaRosa's and headed to the Mall where the Vietnam Memorial was.
They found a parking space and then walked over to the section of the wall where Harm Sr. was located. "Dad, I thought you should be the second to know. Mac's Uncle was first to know. We're engaged. I know Dad; we should be married for years now. My little brother got married before I'm going to and that's not all that happened today. Mattie is going to be living with us come the end of the month. This way she gets to say goodbye to her friends and to her father." Mac was listening to Harm and thinking to herself that no matter how bad a father Joe McKenzie had been, he was her father, she had silently told her dad the same thing Harm had, that she and Harm were finally, finally on the right track and were engaged. She listened to Harm talk quietly to his father. In a few minutes, they walked away from the wall. When they both had walked to the Lincoln Memorial, Harm took out his cell phone. "Frank, this is Harm, is Mom there? Yes, I'll wait, and Frank, I'd like you to stay on the line."
Three thousand miles away in LaJolla, California, Frank Burnett was smiling, the sound in his stepson's voice was joyful and it could only mean one thing. He walked from the bedroom, where he was changing into his suit; for a dinner out, into the room that Trish laughingly called her sewing room. Yes, it had an old sewing machine but the last time she had used the thing Harm had been in high school. Since it was Mothers Day weekend, she was missing her son and most of the photo albums were in this room, she was sitting on the couch in this room where most of the photo albums were looking at pictures from his senior year. Frank handed her the cordless telephone. "Harm is on the phone." He then guided his wife off the couch into their bedroom so he could use the speaker feature.
"Hi Harm, I didn't expect you to call tonight. Or are you calling tonight because you can't call tomorrow?"
"Mom, I wanted to call you tonight, I have something to tell you" Harm heard the speakerphone going on and knew Frank was listening, then heard his mother click off the cordless she was using. "Mom, I finally got my head out of the sand, and I asked Sarah.
Trish was excited but decided on playing dumb. "What did you ask Sarah?"
"Mo-om" he sounded like a put upon teenager, making the one syllable word last for three. Frank kept the laughter in but his eyes showed he thought it very funny. Back in DC, Mac wondered what Trish had said to get that reaction. "Mom, Frank, I asked Sarah to marry me, and she said yes!"
"That's the best news I've heard in years. Have you two set a date?" Harm and Mac could tell by her voice that she had tears running down her face. That and they heard Frank say to his wife 'take it' and then a very unladylike sniffle. They gave each a look of silent laughter they could picture the scene in LaJolla.
The scene was playing itself out in DC. Harm reached into his pants pocket and gave Mac his handkerchief. She dried her tears, her happy tears.
"No, but we want it soon. We'll get back to you."
"Harm, the fourth of July is on a Sunday, so why not the third?" Trish had glanced at the Navy calendar that was on her nightstand.
"That sounds good, let me ask Mac."
"Mac, mom has an idea for when the wedding should be, she reminded me the fourth is on a Sunday this year, so why not the third of July. This will give you and her enough time to plan a big wedding and we don't have to wait forever. I have time off in August and we can take our honeymoon then. We can get away for the weekend for our honeymoon."
"Harm that sounds good, even though I'd like to be a June bride but finding a place at this late date I'll settle for whenever we can get it. "
"Mom, that's a great idea, you'll be the first, or should I say, third, to know, when we decide." He disconnected the cell phone.
"Harm, we need to tell the Admiral, He's going to need to know." Mac knew this was putting a damper on the romance.
"Mac, I hope you don't mind, but I already talked with the admiral. After the past year I think its best if I transfer out of JAG, my chances for advancement much further than captain are pretty much shot. The admiral looked into a few options and I decided on one which should keep me in town and have some semblance of a family life. Its at the White House, I'll be a liaison with the government, and to quote the admiral, 'You can explain things from both the aviator point of view and the legal point of view.' I might have a new boss in a few months, depending on the outcome of the election, if I don't like this position, I'll stay until I have my twenty in and retire. That is a given. I'll be putting a kid through college soon and that's going to cost a pretty penny unless Mattie goes to one of the service academies. Shannon took care of Andy's schooling in her will, but four years is not enough time to get college tuition together if Mattie decides not to go to Annapolis. Besides, if we have a little child or two in the family by then I could be a stay at home dad, and work part time."
Mac started to protest that Harm had unilaterally decided he would leave JAG but then thought about it. The White House post would be a position that could advance his career; if he left, when his twenty years was up having a posting at the White House wouldn't hurt a resume and the contacts he would make would be very valuable. "Let's call him tomorrow afternoon."
They drove back in to Georgetown to drop Mac off at her apartment.
"We're going to have to wait a few weeks to work on the baby deal even though the time is now up." AJ's birthday had been on Friday and the party planned for the next Saturday. This baby deal starts on the honeymoon. She told him unequivocally.
"Its hard to believe it took us five years to get together." He kissed her and then kissed her again.
"I know, so much wasted time on both our counts," Mac said as she returned his kisses. They decided while they were still at The Hague, just starting to date they would keep it to kissing only, and she could tell Harm wanted to go further. "Yellow light Harm" and she stepped out of the embrace.
"It's going to be a long summer if the wedding ends up in August." Harm groaned. "I don't want to wait any longer than that."
"I'll let my building manager know that I'll be out by June 30th."
"Makes sense, where'll you stay, Mac?"
"I don't know yet, likely a hotel."
"I'd better go, I'm taking Andy for a drive tomorrow, it'll be his first mothers day without his mom and keeping busy will help."
Chapter 37
Andy arrived home shortly after midnight. The look on his fathers face told him the good news.
"Dad, congratulations, I know I haven't been around, but why did it take you two so long to get to this point? You two seem perfect for each other."
"Thanks Andy, why it took us so long is the million dollar question. Two stubborn people with baggage I suppose. So what do you want to do tomorrow, before we start packing?"
"I don't know, I do know the soon we get the packing done the less stressed you'll be."
Harm started to look affronted until he saw the twinkle in his son's eyes. "I guess I was wondering if you wanted to something special since it's the first Mothers day since your mom's gone."
"I think keeping busy will help with that, and seeing the things Mum got me will help."
Sunday May 9, 2004
Harm's apartment
North of Union Station
0830 local
Harm went for his run and on the way had stopped and got boxes. He hadn't moved for nearly ten years and knew he'd accumulated more than a few boxes of items in the intervening time. Fortunately, in his storage unit they had most of Andy's things still in boxes. He'd kept the boxes to several of his appliances and stereo equipment so that simplified things. While he was getting the boxes, he had reserved a truck to move his belongings.
Andy was eating breakfast when his father returned.
"We'll have to rough it for a few nights but I think we should try to pack as much as possible today." They started in Harm's bedroom, Harm kept back two summer uniforms and a couple of changes of clothing. He suggested Andy do the same, keep a couple of changes of clothing out and pack the rest. To keep the confusion low on what required for the week they put those into the bathroom. Andy was glad the bathroom was devoid of many feminine accoutrements, it had been embarrassing to deal with when he and his mother had shared a bathroom. "Hey, dad, I have a question? When Mattie comes to live with us, will we have to share a bathroom?"
Harm could see what his son was thinking. "Unless you want her to have the guestroom, yes, you will have to share a bathroom, but don't worry, Mattie's not a frou-frou type of girl, believe me." The look on his face gave Andy a feeling his father wasn't telling him the whole story. "Andy there were times when you shared a bathroom with your mother when you were on vacation, right?" Andy nodded his head "Girls have their products and I've learned the hard way, don't mess with them."
"So who was miss frou-frou?" he asked his dad with his eyebrows raised.
"Renee, end of story." Which told Andy a lot about his father's relationship with Renee without having said much, and having only briefly met the woman, he was glad his father had not been serious about her.
"Oh." Mac apparently was on the money on her description of the one-time inamorata of his father. The tone of his Andy's voice told Harm Andy had heard more than one person's side of the story.
They stripped the bed, packing the bedding. In one of their many trips, downstairs to storage Harm grabbed the sleeping bags. It would only be for one week.
They tackled the living room next, Harm was glad he had kept the boxes to the stereo and to the computer because it would make packing easier. Because Andy was using the computer for school, it would stay out until the morning of the move.
They kept the kitchen for last and they packed what was not going to be needed for the next week. To Andy's surprise, they were as done as they could be and still live there by four in the afternoon.
During the afternoon Harm asked Andy how he felt about Mattie going to Tasmania with him on his visit. Andy thought about it and decided that the long trip would either bond the two or they would hate each others guts. He had a paper due the next day so he declined Harm's invitation to go out for dinner. "You spent the entire day with me, spend the rest of it with your fiancée."