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.

"So, after my long hard day, you want me to cook?"

"Only if you want to eat." She leaned her head on his shoulder and sighed.

"There's something else, isn't there?" He gave her a squeeze.

"I need a place to stay for awhile." She looked up at him. "Mindy's been calling so have my parents, and I don't doubt that they have all stopped by my apartment."

"It won't take them long to find you here," Luke told her.

"I know, but I figure it will take them a day or two, which will give me time..."

"Time for what?" he looked down at her.

"Time to calm down and try to forgive them."

They sat in silence listening to the cicadas in the trees.

"Come on, I'm hungry," Luke said as he tugged her hand.

As they entered the house they were greeted by Lucky, who was pleased to see them both. Primarily, because she had to go out. Luke opened the door and she ran onto the porch and down the back steps.

"Aren't you worried about her running away?" Harper asked concerned.

"No, she's fenced in the back and her puppies are here," he said as he threw his stuff onto the couch and headed to the kitchen. "Speaking of which, you can have the joy that is puppy clean up duty. They probably left us lots of little presents. Make sure you look them all over, your puppy is particularly good at crawling through the worst of it."

"Probably because he's a boy and doesn't care about keeping clean," Harper grunted as she took the paper towels and clean up spray that Luke handed her. As she approached the puppies she was happy to see that most of what they had done was on the newspaper that Luke had put down, but there was still some scrubbing that she had to do.

Lucky joined her a few minutes later and it calmed her to sit in the middle of all of their furry little bodies while they climbed all over her.

"They're getting big!" Harper called as she lifted one to cuddle.

"I know, they're ready to start finding homes, that's something that you can add to your to-do list."

"But I'll get to keep Tank and Lucky right?"

"Tank? Is that what you're going to call him?"

Harper watched him as his squat little body plowed through two of his sisters. "Yes, I think it suits him." Harper stood up and joined Luke in the kitchen, watching him as he put some ground beef in the microwave to defrost.

"Can I help?" she asked.

"No, why don't you fill me in one what you did today?"

"Not a lot. I thought about things," she shrugged taking the beer Luke offered her.

"Like what?" he asked, throwing his beer cap in the trashcan, making it in one go.

"Why did you keep Lucky, and why are you letting me keep Tank?" she asked. Not meeting his eyes.

"That's what you thought about all day?" He raised his eyebrows in disbelief.

"It was one of the things." She looked up at him timidly.

"Because I love you Harper, and you love Lucky and Tank, and you were so desperate that they shouldn't go anywhere else that I couldn't let them. I did it for you." His eyes met hers. Why should he try to hide it, it was the truth.

"But it was also for them, right?" she insisted, not wanting to admit to the weight of his statement.

"No, it was for you. Lucky and I have a mutual understanding. I give and she takes, she trolls the neighborhood, gets knocked-up, then takes some more."

Lucky barked from the sun room.

"Shut-up!" Luke called. "It's the truth!"

They stared at each other in silence and Luke's gaze fell to Harper's mouth. It had only been a week, but he missed her kisses.

"Harper-" he wasn't sure what he was about to say because his phone rang interrupting him. He reached for it with a sigh.

"Hello Maureen," he greeted as he took another swig of his beer.

"Luke have you heard from Harper? I'm worried sick! No one has heard from her all day and she's not at her apartment."

"Yes, she's fine," Luke assured her.

"What happened?"

"Troy knows, you should speak to him about it," Luke insisted.

"He won't talk to me," she started to cry. "Mindy is upset-"

"Good she should be!" Luke ground out. "Harper needs some time, I'll tell her to call you when she's ready to talk."

"Please, tell her I love her. Is she staying with you?"

"So that you don't worry, yes, but she wants some time to think,"

"I understand."

"Goodnight Maureen," Luke ended the call.

"Thank you," Harper said, her eyes downcast.

"I'm going to go take a shower before I get started on dinner." He left her sitting at the island in the kitchen, looking at her beer bottle as she peeled the label off it.

He had no clue how he was going to survive a night with Harper in his home. He was going to have to call on every ounce of self-control that he had to keep his hands to himself. It would be in poor taste to make a move on her after the day she had had.