12
Harm slid gently and quietly out of bed. Catherine's invitation, or rather her instruction, to him to share her bed, he reflected, had been quite a surprise. She had almost been right about him not expecting to share a bed with her when they moved to their new home, but it wasn't that he had discounted the idea, it was more that he hadn't really considered it. He supposed that he'd thought, if he had thought about the matter at all - and he wasn't quite sure of that, either - that they were forming some sort of liaison de convenance. But from her words last night, it should seem that Catherine definitely had other ideas. True, she hadn't made any moves on him during the night, and for that he was grateful; even this morning he was still very uncertain as to how he would have reacted. Her nightdress was plain white cotton and had covered her neck to ankles and she had seemed to be more than content to just lie next to him, her head resting in its accustomed spot in the hollow of his shoulder and her hand resting lightly on his chest. Of course they'd both shifted during the night and he had awoken this morning to find himself lying on his side, as was Catherine, and with his chest pressed against her back and his arm resting on her waist, his hand lying against her baby bump.
He stood for a moment watching the still-sleeping Catherine and smiled at the way she had pulled one of the pillows down the bed to rest her swollen stomach against, or on… he couldn't quite decide which, but the sight of her sleeping peacefully made him smile and gave him a feeling of… well being, he supposed it was.
Moving as quietly as he could, he made his way to the bathroom, and investigating the closet there found a stack of clean towels, and with a grin, as he remembered Catherine's words from last night, he appropriated one of them for his temporary use, after all, as she'd said, they were in this thing together!
Showered and refreshed, although still unshaven, he finished dressing in the bathroom before heading for the kitchen to make tea for all three of them, and while the kettle boiled he rapped sharply on the door to Mattie's temporary bedroom, knocking and calling until he heard her respond, and then kept on knocking until a bleary-eyed and rumple-haired teenager opened the door and scowled at him.
"What?" she demanded in uncompromising tines.
"Time to get up, squirt," he smiled at her.
Mattie rubbed her eyes, hitched up her pyjama pants and squinted at her watch, "Harm! It's only six forty!" she protested in a wail.
"Wow! That late already, c'mon Mats, you need to get in and out of the shower before Catherine wants it. I'll get some toast on for breakfast while you're in there!"
Mattie gave him a glance that opened up a whole new level of his understanding of the phrase 'if looks could kill,' before she somewhat sulkily stomped past him on her way to the bathroom, leaving Harm slowly shaking his head and with a grin on his face as he turned back towards Catherine's room.
Harm lowered himself as gently and as smoothly as possible on the side of the bed and then leaned in to give Catherine a kiss on the cheek, while he smoothed her blonde hair with his free hand. Catherine murmured something inaudible and squirmed a little as she began to swim back up from the depths of sleep to the surface that was awake. Harm kissed her again, and then smiled as she turned onto her back and changed his target, capturing her lips in a gentle kiss.
Catherine's eyes fluttered open and after a second or two as she sought to focus, she saw Harm's smiling face close to hers. Just for a few seconds she saw past his barriers and through his eyes into his heart, and if what she saw was not love, but a deep affection, there was no reason why his affection shouldn't turn to love in time…and although her heart gave her a little pang, she fought back her tears and fears and smiled in return,"Good morning, sailor," she said in a hushed voice.
"Hullo, you," he smiled in return. "It's time to get up. Mattie's in the shower and there's a pot of tea waiting for your attention."
"Well…" Catherine drawled, "A girl could get used to this sort of treatment in the morning… I think I'll get you to stay over more often…"
"Or, maybe, you could stay over at my place once in a while…?" Harm left the question hanging.
Catherine smiled gently, "Yes… I like the sound of that…" and eyed Harm expectantly, feeling a rush of pleasure as he nodded and broadened his smile.
"Well, it's no use the pair of us just sitting here, grinning at each other like idiots," Catherine sighed. "If you've made tea, I suppose it ought to be drunk while it's still hot!" She struggled upright and swung her feet over the edge of the bed as Harm stood to give her room to manoeuvre and then stood hands out ready to take hers and help her to her feet.
In just under half an hour later Harm was shepherding Mattie into his SUV as he prepared to follow Catherine's Malibu Max to the Yorktown Swimming Club. "So, where are we going this time?" a still-grumpy teenager asked Harm.
"We're following Catherine to the swimming pool, and then she'll head off to work, while we head on down to Charlottesville." Harm said grinning at the pout of discontent on Mattie's face. "I still need to earn a living, he grinned, while you, young lady still have a business to run!" he added shrewdly.
"Yeah…" Mattie's voice lost it truculent edge and she turned an anxious face to Harm, "But for how much longer?"
"Well, Mattie, Catherine's going to draw up a legal document today, transferring ten per cent of the company to me, and the second that's done and completed, I'll pay into the company account the value of that ten percent. That should give you enough working capital to pay your immediate bills, and keep the utility company off your back. We'll also talk to the Albemarle County people, and explain what's happening, and ask them to give us a little more time to pay. And if Frank, agrees to buy in, then all our immediate problems will be solved…"
"Frank?" Mattie queried.
"Yeah, my step-dad. I spoke to him last night, remember?"
"Yeah, I remember," Mattie nodded, and then asked "Do you always call him Frank?"
Harm was surprised, "Yeah, of course I do. It's his name. What else would I call him?"
"Oh… I dunno… it's just… it just seems strange… I thought you'd call him… Oh, I dunno… maybe dad?"
Harm gave her a level look, "Mattie, my dad's dead and buried in Russia. Frank is mom's second husband, and a good man, a very good man. But he is not my dad."
Mattie nodded, "OK…" and then returning to the original topic of conversation, "But about the company?"
"Well, you may have to lay off a mechanic, and I suspect the crop-dusting pilots know that the season is coming to an end, so you could let all of them go too."
"That sucks!"
"Yeah it does. But Mattie, you're a good boss to work for, and those guys knew going in that there was no off-season work for them."
"Yeah… I s'pose. But what happens if I need a pilot?"
"Well, if the need doesn't clash with my duties, then I'm available, and if Beth - the woman that Catherine's going to speak with today about the manager's job - agrees to come on board, she's a pilot too - and is cleared to fly more types than I am - in fact it wouldn't surprise me if she wasn't cleared on that Cessna you've got under wraps. It'd be good to have that earning some money instead it just sitting there showing depreciation on the books!"
"Yeah, that wouldn't hurt," Mattie grinned as Harm pulled into the Yorktown Swimming Club parking lot.
xii-xii-xii-xii-xii
Mattie stood watching as Catherine and Harm exchanged a brief, but slightly more than formal good bye kiss before Harm helped Catherine into her car and stood watching as she accelerated out of the parking lot and turned right, heading for Langley.
"She's good." Mattie declared decisively as she came to stand next to Harm.
"Oh? In what way?" he asked, surprised by the apparent unconnected nature of her statement.
"In the water," Mattie explained, "She's a damn' good swimmer!"
"And how would you know that?" Harm teased her.
"Don't patronize me, buster," she warned him, although with a grin creasing her face as she looked up at him, "School swim team, remember?"
"Yeah, I remember," Harm nodded, his expression becoming thoughtful. "Tell you what, let's go look at the house, and then let's find somewhere that we - I - can grab a coffee and you can have a glass of milk."
Mattie gave him what could only be described as an old-fashioned look, and said, "Uh… believe it or not Harm, I'm fourteen, not four years old. I do drink coffee…"
Harm looked at her, not quite convinced. He hadn't started drinking coffee until he'd got to the academy, and there with the all nighters needed to complete the tough course of study on op the military aspects of the course, it had been a necessary evil, and hadn't he heard or read somewhere that coffee wasn't good for still-growing teenagers? He'd have to check that one out, but in the meantime…
"I don't think that's such a good idea, Mats. Let's stick to tea, milk or water for a while, hey?"
Mattie cast her eyes up to the heavens. She'd recognised what she had come to think of as Harm's mulish voice, and relinquished the battle, temporarily that is. Once she'd enrolled Catherine on her side the struggle would become much easier!
So, sighing in apparent defeat, Mattie climbed into the front seat of the SUV and buckled her seat belt. Nodding his head in satisfaction, Harm turned the key in the ignition and within seconds the SUV was on the road for Tyson's Corner and then Vienna.
Mattie had been determined to remain coolly unimpressed by the visit to what she hoped would be her new home, fully intending to answer questions as to how she liked it with a shrug and a 'yeah, it's OK, I guess'. The reality however was far different from the reaction she had planned. As Harm halted the SUV in front of the house, he said, "Well, squirt, this is it!"
Mattie took one look and gasped, "Oh, wow! It's freaking huge!"
"Well, not huge, Mattie, but big enough for our needs. Catherine and I both need an office, and then we need four bedrooms…"
"Four?" a puzzled Mattie interrupted.
"Yeah, there's you, and Catherine and I need somewhere to sleep, and then we need a nursery, and a guest room. Unless…" he grinned mischievously at Mattie.
"Unless what?" she demanded her senses on high alert.
"Unless you want to share with the baby, after all it shouldn't take more than six months for her to start sleeping right through the night. And of course you couldn't have a TV or music in the room, and then for first six months you'd have to get used to Catherine coming in two or three times a night to feed her and…"
"OK, OK, enough already! I get it!" Mattie dissolved into giggles, "We need a big house. Because there is no way, repeat, no way I am gonna share my room with a baby!" Then a sudden afterthought struck her. "Ummm… Harm? How many bathrooms has it got?"
"Believe it or not, Mattie, three and a half!" Harm grinned at the blissful smile that swept over Mattie's face.
"Uh huh, and how are they laid out? I mean are they all just one on each floor or what?"
"Well two of the main bedrooms have their own bathroom en-suite, that means there's a door leading directly from the bedroom to the bathroom; the main bathroom is on the second floor, and the half is down stairs off the lobby."
"Can I get dibs on one of the bedrooms with a bathroom?"
"Oh… I don't know, Mattie. We were kind of figuring to keep the other bed/bathroom combo as the guest room…" Harm carefully kept his face averted from Mattie until after he'd answered her.
"Oh… yeah, makes sense…" Mattie replied. She'd tried but failed to completely hide the disappointment in her voice, but as Harm turned to look at her, her face and body posture told him how much she'd anticipated having her own little enclave within the house.
"But, you know? You might be right, Mattie. You might need your own private bathroom. Catherine and I will think about it, and let you know before we move in, OK?"
"No… no... it's OK, Harm…" Mattie protested half-heartedly, but the sudden gleam in her eye told Harm a very different story.
xii-xii-xii-xii-xii
"So dear, how was your day?" Catherine asked from the comfort of the couch while Harm busied himself with pots, pans, chopping boards and knives.
Harm and Catherine had met at Kresge, where they had spent an hour with Esther, who couldn't quite conceal her disappointment that Mattie wasn't with them today.
Harm put down the knife he'd been using to julienne a couple of carrots and leaned on the work-top, grinning at Catherine's use of the old cliché. "It went pretty well, all the way from where we left you at Yorktown, right up until we got down to Charlottesville," he said heavily.
"What happened?" she asked anxiously as she struggled upright against the embrace of the couch. "
A pile of mail waiting for Mattie," Harm replied, "including a final demand or appear in court from the electricity company. I managed to persuade her to let me pay that one on my card, the cost to be deducted from the purchase sum of the ten percent.
"Well, I've got the papers for the transfer of stock drawn up, they just need yours and Mattie's signature, and then you will be part owner of Grace Aviation and Crop Dusting."
"M'mm… that's good. Quick work, thank you, but don't let this stuff sidetrack you from your real job, or you'll be looking for a new one!"
"No," Catherine said scornfully and then chuckled, "I'll just tell 'em I got all hormonal; and emotional, and they won't dare fire me - well at least, not while I'm still pregnant!"
"You, Catherine Gale, are" Harm told her as he wiggled a spatula in her direction, "a wicked woman!"
"Not at all she replied complacently," waiting until he'd turned his back before she stuck her tongue out at him, "just sticking to the letter of the law. After all," she continued, batting her eyelashes at him as he turned to face her, "I am a lawyer, you know!"
"Yeah, you are… which brings me to my next two sorry sagas…"
"Go on, " she encouraged him.
"Well, there was pretty nasty confrontation between Mattie and two of the mechanics. It seems that a couple of weeks ago, they needed to put in some overtime, which was agreed beforehand with Mattie, but whether because she didn't have the cash to hand, or whether she simply forgot, she didn't include it in their pay-packets for last week, and they got pretty hot under the collar."
Catherine winced, "Not nice…"
"No, it wasn't; Mattie and I calmed them down, and they finally agreed to wait until Friday this week for their pay. So I told Mattie to hold onto my flying wages and pay them instead. But what's really needed is for those farmers who owe her money to pay them. Any movement on that front?" he asked hopefully.
"Yeah, I sent out letters to the five biggest debtors today, warning them that were past due, and possibly facing legal action. So we'll just have to wait and see. Oh, and I spoke to Beth. Did you know something I didn't?" she finished with just a hint of suspicion in her voice.
"In what way?" he asked, as he tipped the prawns and sliced vegetables into the wok.
"Did you know she was getting aggravation from her… uh… partner about being away so much and being on some very hinky and dangerous missions?"
"No… I hadn't heard anything… I've barely been able to get hold of her since Webb had me canned. But I'm not surprised. Did you know that after the Philippines that Kershaw wanted Beth and me to go for field agent training? And… uh… do you know… uh… have you met Beth's partner?" he asked in turn.
"No I haven't met her partner, but do you mean do I know that she's gay? Yes, I knew, but I don't think it's public knowledge, not even at Langley. Oh, the guys who check out people for security clearances will know, but not everyone. And did I know about Kershaw's plans? Yeah I did, but Blaisdell said that it would be a waste of a pair of good pilots, field spooks could be found under almost every rock but navy-trained aviators were damn' difficult to come by, and that anyway you were both too distinctive looking to be able to merge into the background"
"H'mm… 'good pilots - navy-trained aviators' and 'too distinctive', hey?" Harm smiled smugly.
"Ease off on the ego trip, sailor!" Cathy warned him with a smile, "Because the latest on-dit has friend Webb claiming that he canned you to save your life, because you were volunteering for too many missions and taking too many risks."
"Why… that sneaking, lying, two-faced weasel! I ought to break his nose! It wouldn't be the first time a JAG's done it for him!"
"Easy, tiger," Catherine cautioned him, as he served the rice and stir-fry onto a couple of plates and carried them over to the coffee table.
"Well, I owe him… If it hadn't been for him co-opting Mac into that FUBAR of an Op in Paraguay, I wouldn't have had to resign from the navy to go and rescue her."
"Her? Not them?" Catherine asked swallowing a mouthful of prawn and rice.
"Hell, no. You know company policy - you screw up, you die. And as far as I'm concerned, Webb screwed up down there - big time! I could have quite happily have left him there. Just for putting Mac in danger, if for nothing else, but," he sighed, "there was Mac and Gunny, and then once I saw the condition he was in…"
"Yeah, he was pretty bad, even when he got back to Langley," Catherine agreed sombrely, "Hey, but look on the bright side, if you hadn't left the navy, joined the company, left the company…"
"Ah-ah, I didn't leave the company, I was fired!" Harm corrected her
"Alright if you hadn't been fired from the company, I probably wouldn't have come to dinner at your place that night, and you wouldn't have gone crop-dusting and found Mattie. So you see, Webb isn't all that bad. Is he?" Catherine asked brightly in an attempt to lighten the mood.
"Well, when you put it like that, then as far as Mattie is concerned, then I guess maybe not," Harm conceded reluctantly. "But I like to think that we would still have found each other". He picked up the carafe of cider and offered to top up Catherine's glass, filling his own for good measure as well, "But I'd still like to punch him out again, even if only for old times' sake," he added wistfully.
Catherine smiled and shook her head, "And you said that I was bad!" she mock-scolded him.
"No, I said you were a wicked woman," he smilingly corrected her.
Catherine smiled in recognition of his amendment and by mutual, if unspoken consent, they let their conversation lapse while they devoted their attention to their meal while it still retained some vestiges of warmth.
After they had eaten Catherine made to get up from the couch, and in response to Harm's raised eyebrow said, "I can't leave you with all the dishes to do every time!"
"Yes you can, and you will," he told her sternly, standing and folding his arms across his chest and keeping his eyes fixed firmly on hers, "I have spoken!" he declaimed with an air of authority.
It was no longer a question of whether Catherine would or would not get up from the couch, it was simply that she collapsed into giggles at his absurdity and was incapable of getting to her feet. "I… I'm… sorry!" she gasped through her laughter, "But you… sounded… so ridic… ridiculous! And if… I wet myself… and... and your…. couch… then it will… be all your… fau… fault for making… me laugh!"
Harm left her to her giggles, turning quickly so that she wouldn't see the grin on his face. If having her laugh at him was the price he had to pay for keeping her comfortable, then it was a price he was more than happy to pay.
The kitchen policed to his satisfaction he brewed two fresh mugs of rose hip and raspberry tea and returned to the couch to find Catherine browsing through some brochures he'd left lying on the lower shelf of the coffee table. "Ah… yeah… I was going to mention those," he said somewhat sheepishly.
"You were?" Catherine seemed mildly surprised.
"Yeah. I mean if we are going to look after Mattie, then all the decisions we make about her ought to be shared decisions, right?"
"Y…e…s, I agree."
"Well, there can't be many decisions that are more important than deciding where she goes to school, right? We know she likes to swim - by the way she said she was very impressed with you this morning - and that she plays volleyball. She says she's OK at math and sciences, but doesn't like English, especially English Lit."
"So?"
"So we need to find a school that will play to her strengths, and encourage her to overcome her weaknesses!"
"Agreed… again!"
"So I was looking at Madison High… "
Catherine looked through the Madison High School brochure, nodding her head as she read and then held out her hand "Harm… pen, please?"
Harm reached across and grabbed a pen off the desk and watched fascinated as Catherine read through the brochure again, making ticks here and crosses there until she'd finished reading. She then totaled both sets of marks, and laying the brochure down she looked levelly at Harm. "OK, the plusses outnumber the minuses by more than two to one, but there are still a lot of things there that concern me…"
"OK, so tell me about them," Harm suggested as he lay back against the squabs and lifting his arm to allow Catherine to snuggle in.
For a while the two of them argued backwards and forwards about the merits of three of the better High Schools in the area, Madison, Falls Church and George C Marshall. As they wrangled back and forth, both pairs of eyes began to get heavy and Catherine at last yawned openly.
Harm looked at his watch, and said, "Crap! Look at the damn' time! You need to be getting home and to bed! I'm an ass for keeping you talking so late!"
"M'mm…" Catherine seemed to agree, but made no move, except to snuggle in closer and play with one of his shirt buttons. "On the other hand…"
"Yes?" Harm raised an eyebrow.
"I do have an overnight bag in the trunk," Catherine suggested indicating her car keys sitting on the corner of the table, "and it's got my swim-suit in it too," she added.
Harm grinned down into her face as she carefully kept her eyes from making contact with his. "And I suppose you'd like me to go and get it for you?" he suggested.
"Well, it would save me making the trip, Catherine replied with a shy smile, "and seeing how you were so adamant about me not helping with the dishes, it seems…"
"Yeah, yeah," Harm replied indulgently, "I get the message!" He levered himself to his feet, and disappeared into the bedroom where he could be heard opening and closing closet doors, to reappear with a folded bath sheet draped over one arm. "Here, help yourself to the shower while I'm gone, if you want. I'll play baggage handler for you!"
xii-xii-xii-xii-xii
"While you were swimming, I was thinking," Harm confided to Catherine the following morning as they made their way across the swimming club parking lot to their cars.
"This early in the morning?" Catherine laughed up at him.
"Yes, I was thinking this early in the morning, and precisely because it is this early in the morning. Yesterday, if you can remember that long ago, we were all up at an ungodly hour of the night so that we could all rotate through your bathroom. This morning, with just the two of us… it all went so smoothly, like clockwork, like a well-oiled machine."
"And your point is…?" Catherine glanced quizzically at him.
"Well… the new house… You know we thought of having the second bedroom/bathroom en-suite kept as a guest room?"
"Uh huh."
"Well it strikes me as a bit selfish, especially with a teenager in the house with God knows what sort of bathroom rituals. Wouldn't it be better all round if Mattie…" he said diffidently.
"Had the second bedroom? Of course it would!" Catherine emphatically interrupted him.
"But… I thought you wanted to keep that room for guests," Harm faltered.
"Umm… no… It was you who said it ought to be the guest room…"
"Yeah, well, but you agreed so quickly that I thought you wanted..."
"I thought you thought I thought you thought?" Catherine teased him.
Harm felt the colour mount to his cheeks, "Yeah, well…" he mumbled.
"We have got to get out of this habit, before it becomes one," Catherine said, stopping and turning to face him. She took both his hands in hers. "We have got to get over this walking around each other on egg-shells. Just because we had an unconventional relationship to start with, it doesn't mean that we can't be honest with each other, about what we want, about what we feel. Look, we've already come a long way, too far to let a minor disagreement about who gets what room derail us, agreed?"
Harm looked at her thoughtfully. She was right. He and Catherine had reached a stage of intimacy that had taken months to reach with some of his past girlfriends, and which despite all his past yearnings to the contrary he had never been able to reach with Mac.
Catherine stood looking up into his eyes, patiently waiting for her answer, but she had already learned that Harm needed time to process his thoughts and feelings, and that no matter how glib he might be while presenting arguments to courts-martial panels, when it came to his private life, he needed to weigh up his options before he spoke.
"Yes… we have come a long way, and for that Catherine Gale, thank you. And I agree it's time we started talking directly to each other… but like I've said before, I'm kinda clumsy when it comes to personal things, and I don't want to hurt you, not even accidentally, so I tend to beat around the bush a bit, like I'm feeling out the ground before I take a full step…?"
"Understood…" Catherine stood biting her lip for a few seconds, "but until we can be completely honest and open with each other, we're going to risk misunderstandings… like the one we've just had about that damned bedroom… so let's try and be open and above board, and if we bump heads along the way, I'll try not to hold it against you, if you'll do the same for me, OK?"
"Catherine Gale, how did that dumbass ever walk out of your life? But I'm glad he did, because he let you walk into mine!"
Catherine felt warmth grow in her chest at Harm's words. He had always been kind, gentle and considerate. And she realised that he was the type of man who believed that actions spoke louder than words, and by his actions he had already shown that he cared for her, but this was one of the few occasions when he had let his guard down and told her how he felt about her, and because she realised how rare those moment s were likely to be, she resolved to remember each and every precious one of them.
Catherine stood on tip-toe, still holding Harm's hands and raised her face to his. Taking the hint, he bowed his head to hers and landed a soft gentle kiss on her lips. Satisfied, Catherine settled back on her heels, and smiled up at him. "I have got to fly; otherwise I'm going to be late! Don't forget, I'll see you at Kresge at seventeen hundred, and then at nineteen hundred it's Lamaze night!"
"So, I guess it's take out night tonight?" Harm said as she started to turn towards her car.
"Yes, it is! How about pizza?" she laughed.
"You have been spending way too much time around Mattie!" he accused her with a grin as he watched her slide behind the steering wheel of her car.
Harm stood and watched as she rolled out of the parking lot, and then shaking his head he headed for the Lexus, he had a lot to do between now and Monday, and time was running out!
xii-xii-xii-xii-xii
Harm stood behind Catherine as the elevator rose swiftly and silently to the second floor of her apartment building, his go-bag hanging by its strap from his shoulder as he his arms supported Catherine around her waist and his hands cradling her bump held firmly in position by her own. The swishing of the door as it opened broke the mini-tableau and Catherine ferreted in her purse for her keys and then let them both into the apartment.
No sooner had the door shut behind them than Catherine kicked off her shoes with a sigh of relief and dropping her purse onto the side table by the door, before she lowered herself onto the couch. Harm grinned and resolved that once again Catherine was in for a foot rub this evening, and if he timed it right, it would be well after dinner, so that she could get herself to bed while still feeling relaxed. He fished his cell 'phone out of his pocket and scrolled down through the stored numbers until he came to Pietro's Pizza Palazzo, Catherine's favourite pizza,
"If that's the call for pizza, Harm," Catherine called from the couch, "Order two, we have company coming!"
Harm nodded, holding up a hand to acknowledge the instruction as he spoke to the restaurant, and then folding his phone shut, he made his way to the fridge and pulled out two bottles of water. Carrying them both across to the couch he sat down next to Catherine, and twisting the cap of on bottle, he passed it to her, "Company?" he queried, "You've kept that one quiet."
"Umm," Catherine took a sip of the water and smile din gratitude, "Yeah, I didn't want you fretting all evening. I spoke to Beth again today, or rather she called me back. She's interested in the job, but wants to know more about it, so she and her partner should be here in about…" Catherine looked at her watch, "about fifteen minutes…"
"Just in time for dinner!" Harm grinned, "Pietro's promised delivery sometime between fifteen and thirty minutes. Should I put some plates on to warm?"
"Oh, yes please, and there's a bottle of red in the right-hand cabinet, as well as fruit juice and cider in the fridge."
"Well I'd best get some glasses out too. Cutlery or paper napkins?"
"Harm! It's pizza. The classic finger food! Of course napkins!" Catherine laughed at him.
"Yes'm, napkins it is!"
Harm fussed around the table for a few minutes, ensuring that everything was ready for the arrival of both guests and food, before he sat down again on the couch, leaning back into the corner and looking along its length at Catherine, comfortably settled in her usual nest of cushions.
"So, you intrepid aviator," Catherine said lightly, "Apart from scaring the last leaves off the trees, what else have you been up to today?"
"I didn't do much leaf scaring today. Gave Mattie a hand around the hangar for the morning, then we dismissed all hands for the day and I went to see her mom's house. It used to be a farmhouse back in the day, two storeys plus a loft and a basement, an old barn, the land's long gone, sold off by her great-grandparents, she thinks, but there's half-maybe three quarters of an acre around the house and barn. Both buildings could do with a bit of renovation, the barn more than the house. I... uh talked to Mattie about what might happen to the house if Frank takes up the mortgage and she comes to live with us. It took a whiles, but I convinced her that we should offer it as rent-free accommodation to Beth, or whoever we can get as a manager, that way we can keep the wage bill down, and whoever comes in as manager will have less tax to pay to the IRS. It was a bit of a struggle, but I finally got her to agree to it."
Catherine nodded her appreciation of Harm's reasoning, "Anything else?"
"Yeah we talked about schools. She's still not too happy with the idea, but I convinced her in the end - I think - that she does need to go back to school and then onto college. We went through the brochures and we decided to try in order of preference, Falls Church High, George Mason, and George Marshall."
Catherine again nodded, "Yeah, the order is slightly different, but those were the three we thought would be best. Are you sure you can get her into Falls Church, isn't that a dedicated school for Falls Church?"
"No, it's not," Harm disagreed with her. "It is a dedicated school, but despite its name and street address, it's not in Falls Church, and is dedicated to Vienna. But that was easily settled, and I'll try and register her there tomorrow, to start after the Christmas holidays. She wasn't too happy, but I did, as I say, make her see sense. It wasn't quite so easy, though, getting her to agree to my other idea!" He grinned at the memory of the spirited discussion he and the teenager had had that afternoon.
"Oh, what was that?"
"From Monday, I'm not going to be able to race down to Charlottesville every day, so I got Mattie to agree - eventually - that a neighbour of hers, a Mrs Pearson would keep a temporary eye on her for me, and make sure she eats something other than pizza a couple of nights during the week. We, of course," he smiled at Catherine, "Still get the chance to spoil her at weekends!"
"No, we mustn't spoil..."
Whatever Catherine had been about to say was interrupted by the door intercom buzzer. Harm got to his feet and crossed to the door and pressed the 'Speak' button, "Hullo?"
There was a moment's silence and then a familiar and well-liked voice asked hesitantly, "Harm?"
"Yes, it's me, in the flesh!" Harm pressed the 'Door Open' button and grinned, "Come on up - the price is right!"
A couple of minutes later came a light rap on the door, and Catherine, who had been helped to her feet by Harm opened the door to admit Beth O'Neill and a slightly taller, slightly slimmer blonde woman, maybe a year or two younger than the brunette, who smiled somewhat uncertainly as Beth and Harm hugged each other in greeting and Beth then turned to Catherine, extending a hand in greeting, "Miss Gale, good evening."
Catherine took the proffered hand, but said, "It's Catherine, please. Won't you both come and sit down and make yourself comfortable."
Beth smiled, but hesitated before moving, "Catherine, Harm, this is Gina, my partner." Her voice carried a slight edge of challenge, as she made the introduction. Harm made to speak, but before he could, Catherine said easily, "Hi, Gina, I'm Catherine Gale, and this is my partner, Harmon Rabb. Welcome to my home."
A few minutes of flurry followed as Harm took coats and Beth and Gina settled themselves, while Harm, took drink orders, and no sooner had he sat down again than the door intercom buzzed to announce the arrival of dinner.
Harm disappeared for a few minutes, returning with two large pizza boxes, which he placed on the table, and retrieving the warmed plates, he set the table and called for everyone to come and eat.
Dinner was accompanied by a Beth's introduction of Gina as a free-lance illustrator of children's books, and a brief rendering of her history starting with her childhood in Maine and finishing with her graduation from Alcorn State University at Vicksburg.
Dinner finished, Beth insisted on helping Harm while Catherine and Gina retired to the living area and continued to talk about life as a student a long way from home. An experience Catherine shared through leaving home in Missouri to attend Michigan State before going to Duke in order to attend law school.
Consequently it was nearly an hour after their arrival that Beth and Harm sat with their partners, and Beth said, "OK, fill me in on the details of this job offer..."