The Long Day Is Over

Harper was nervous. More nervous than she was sure she had ever probably been.

It was nearly five o'clock, she was sitting in the passenger seat of Brad's vehicle at the airport waiting for their parents to arrive. Harper had been surprised when they had sprung the visit on them, and she was just plain nervous to see them. She knew at some point Brad would open his big mouth and spill the beans about Roman so Harper knew she had to tell them, she would rather be the one to do it than her younger brother.

She supposed she had to tell them at some point, might as well make it today.

Harper got out of the car when she saw them approaching with one bag each, and she hugged her mother tightly as her father and Brad put their bags in the trunk. When Harper pulled back from the hug Maureen held her in place to take a good look at her before she said, "It's so nice to see you."

Harper smiled and nodded, "I've missed you guys, sorry I haven't called much."

Shaking her head Maureen leaned over and kissed her forehead and assured her, "It's okay, you're very busy. I assume, and hope, that everything's going well?"

Harper nodded her head, "Yeah, everything's good. I've been working lots, getting as much studying and practice in before matches are revealed and residency starts."

"What, you're too good to give your old man a hug? I knew California made you weird." Harper laughed and approached Joe, giving him a one-armed hug and rolling her eyes as he messed up her hair.

She told him, "It's nice to see you."

Before he could respond Brad told them, "We can do the love fest later, we're gonna be late."

"Late for what?" Joe asked with a raised eyebrow.

Brad rolled his eyes and made a motion to the car as he said, "I'll tell you in the car, just get in so we can leave."

Harper laughed at her brother's expense and she got into the backseat with her mother as her father climbed into the front seat. Once Brad had safely navigated his way out of the airport mess Maureen asked him, "So what's with the big rush?"

Brad explained, "Well, I made a reservation at a restaurant, to take you guys out for dinner but then your flight got delayed but I figured we could still make it there by six."

"You made us a reservation?" Maureen asked him in surprise.

Harper, trying to poke fun at her brother, asked him, "You're buying us dinner?"

"I never said I was buying your dinner Harpoon." Brad retorted back with, and Harper rolled her eyes.

She exclaimed, "Will you people stop calling me that."

Joe turned slightly in his seat to face Harper in the back seat and he asked her, "Speaking of, how is everyone? John, James... Steven?"

Harper let out a small laugh before she told her dad, "Dude, just deal with it. Steven and I are never gonna date."

Joe sighed, rolling his eyes with dramatics Harper could say with certainly she had most definitely gotten from her father and then she caught Brad's eyes in the rear view. He was about to open his big, dumb mouth, and she didn't have the chance to stop him before he told them, "Ask Harper about her boyfriend."

Both of her parents turned to her in surprise and Harper narrowed her eyes at Brad and told him, "You promised you were gonna let me tell them!"

He shrugged and before he could fire back Maureen looked at Harper and asked with a smile, "What boyfriend?"

With a sigh, Harper told them, "I met a guy, through John and Bristol."

"In New York?" Maureen asked, unable to hide the excitement toward the idea of her only daughter dating someone so close to home.

Harper hated to burst her bubble by shaking her head and telling her, "Uhm... Nashville actually."

"John knows people in Nashville?" Joe asked her in surprise.

"Harper and Roman sittin' in a tree, K-I-S-S-I-" When Brad started singing Harper reached out and smacked him hard upside the head. He rubbed his head and practically yelled, "I am driving! You almost killed us all!"

"The night is still young." Harper told him in annoyance as he grinned at her when he came to a stop at a red light.

Maureen tapped Harper's jean clad thigh and asked her, "So, tell us about him."

Brad grinned and spoke in his best 'girly' impression, "Well his name is Roman, and he's like suuuuper cute, could totally be a model with his pretty eyes and nice hair."

Harper rolled her eyes and informed Brad, "You're an idiot."

"You wouldn't be the first person to tell me that this week alone." He told her with a grin, and she wasn't surprised.

Maureen tapped her leg again impatiently and it made Harper laugh. Finally, she told her, "Well his name is Roman, and yes he's cute. He plays for the Preds."

"A hockey player?" Joe asked her in surprise. He had thought the last person on the planet Harper would ever get involved with was a hockey player, much to his own chagrin, he had always liked Steven.

Harper nodded her head, "While I was visiting John and Bristol a while ago the Preds were in town, and we were going to dinner after the game with James, you remember him?"

Maureen nodded with a smile, truthfully she had always thought maybe something might develop between those two, at least she thought that had a higher chance of happening than Harper and Steven. She told Harper, "Cute, nice eyes, super polite... I remember him."

Harper rolled her eyes and told Maureen, "Stop being a cougar."

She laughed and pinched Harper's thigh, telling her, "Stop avoiding the conversation kid."

Harper sighed dramatically and finished telling them, "Well James dragged a few of his teammates out with us and Roman was one of them. I don't know, he was nice and polite and we exchanged numbers."

Brad jumped in to throw Harper even further under the bus by telling their parents, "And then miss 'I don't have time to visit my old, decrepit parents, over here decided to borrow my car and drive out to San Jose and LA to see him."

Joe looked at Brad and told him, "First off, all we are not old, second don't make me take you out back later for the use of decrepit. Don't think I didn't hear that."

Brad grinned, "Well, I wasn't sure if you had your hearing aids in or not."

Harper let out a small laugh, and then she told her parents, "He invited me to their games there, and since it was such a short drive and I had the time off with a lot of convincing from John and Bristol I decided to go."

"And then she had him come visit while I was out of town. You know, I really think we need to monitor her phone use, put bars on her windows, maybe lock her away in a tower somewhere." Brad joked, and Joe let out a laugh as Harper reached between the seat and the headrest and yanked hard on his hair. He let out a yell and told her, "Seriously, I'm driving here."

"So? You're like a grandpa when you drive anyway. We're never gonna make it to the restaurant on time if you don't step on it a little. Come on Mario, let's go." Harper joked, laughing when he narrowed his eyes and bumped his speed up by a few miles only.

“So… you visited him, he visited you… come on, you have to tell me the whole story here.” Maureen pushed Harper a little further, and Harper shrugged her shoulders.

“And… I don’t know. I guess we’re dating now? I mean, we are. I don’t know, it’s all very complicated.” Harper stuttered through an explanation. She didn’t know how to explain to her parents about the long distance relationship she didn’t even understand herself yet.

Brad told them, “So they’re gonna live happily ever after and have a bunch of ginger babies with no souls.”

Harper narrowed her eyes at him and asked, “If I had no soul I would have had nothing to keep me from beating the crap out of you every day of our lives. Rethink that statement.”

He rolled his eyes and told her, “It is scientifically proven.”

Harper was relieved when he pulled into the parking lot of the restaurant they were eating at, and she got out of the car immediately, forging ahead of everyone and into the restaurant. She gave their last name to the hostess and led the pack through the restaurant and to their booth, where she tucked into the inside before her mother could sit down beside her.

While they looked over the menu Joe asked Harper, “So… this guy… he’s uh… a good one?”

“Yes, he’s a good one. I’m sorry I’ve ruined your dream of me and Steven, but I’m sure you’ll really like Roman.” Harper assured him, and Joe smiled gently at the thought.

That was when Maureen leaned over and nudged Harper with her elbow, asking her, “Show me what he looks like?”

Harper rolled her eyes but she pulled her phone out of her pocket and scrolled through her camera roll, explaining any little story that had to go with the picture, mostly of she and Roman from when he had come to visit her a few weeks previous. She made sure to leave out the one he had snapped somehow, and very skillfully, as he leaned in to kiss her. It wasn’t parent-appropriate.

Maureen stated, “He’s very cute.”

Harper nodded her head, “He is.”

Joe asked her, “So when do we get to meet him?”

Her cheeks flushed, “Jesus, I’ve barely known him for like two months. Way too soon for that.”

“Well, I’m assuming that he probably doesn’t have a lot of downtime during the season, so maybe this summer?” Joe asked her, and Harper shrugged. How could she predict that they would even be together by then? That was at least five months away, especially if they stayed on track to make playoffs and that was a long time to do long distance like they were doing.

“We’ll see.”

There was a lot of catching up through dinner, Harper telling her parents about work and how things were going in her professional life since her personal life had already been aired out, and Brad showed them pictures he had taken on all of his recent work trips. They were waiting for Brad to pay for their dinner when he turned around and walked toward them with a confused look on his face.

“I am so not doing dishes if you can’t pay.” Harper joked.

His brows crunched even more and he told her, “It was already paid for.”

He handed her the receipt, which had a female’s writing on the back but it was definitely a message for her.

I guess now I owe Tavares a favor, but I hope your dinner was nice, tell your parents I said hello and have a good visit with him. – Roman.

Maureen, who had been reading the message over Harper’s shoulder smiled and told her, “I like him already.”

Harper, still too shocked by the whole thing, simply continued to stare at the back of the receipt even while walking out to the vehicle. When she got into the car and continued to stare at it Brad told her, “Space case, relax. He did a nice thing, the note’s not gonna disappear if you take your eyes off of it.”

“Shut up.” Harper told him, folding the receipt in half and tucking it carefully into her pocket, she wanted to remember to call him later. She wanted to text John and ask why he was giving away information about her whereabouts but she couldn’t help but smile and be grateful that he had. Sure, paying for their meal when he had never even met her parents certainly wasn’t necessary, but the thought that went into doing that made Harper’s heart warm.

Once they were back at their apartment, and everyone was comfortable in the living room, Brad finally asked their parents, “So… what’s the point of this visit? Not that we don’t love to have you here, but… you know, it’s almost Christmas. You guys never visit in December.”

Harper’s interest was piqued when Maureen and Joe looked over at each other, and she sat on the couch and waited while they tried to decide how to say whatever it was that they had come here to say. Finally, Maureen spoke, and she told them, “We’ve been… trying to think of a way to tell you all this for a while but it never seemed like the right time; with Ben finishing his residency, and you getting ready to start yours, and you and your exciting new job… We thought waiting might be better.”

“Tell us what?” Harper asked, brow slightly raised in questioning.

Again they looked at each other, before Joe said, “Now that you’re all grown and on your own, doing your own things and making your own lives your mother and I have decided that it’s time to finally do something that we’ve been talking about for a while.”

Before either Harper or Brad could ask for clarification Maureen shocked them both when she told them, “Your father and I have separated.”

“Wait… what?” Brad asked eyebrow raised.

“I don’t understand…” Harper started and then she stopped herself. She didn’t know how to finish her sentence. She didn’t know much of anything, it was like her entire thought process had been reset, and vocabulary seemed like a thing she had forgotten how to use.

“We’ve been separated for over a year, your father has been renting a condo, and I’m thinking about moving back to Texas.” Maureen told them, and Harper got up from the couch immediately upon hearing this. Maureen reached out to grab her hand but Harper pulled away from her touch and rolled her eyes when she said, “Honey we didn’t want to hurt you guys, this was a decision we made because we wanted to let you all get settled in your lives.”

“What lives? My entire life feels like it’s been a lie now. You’ve been separated for over a year? So.. every visit, every holiday… it’s all been one big sham? What, you moved back in together for a few days just so we wouldn’t find out?” Harper asked them, her voice raised slightly.

She was aware of Brad reaching out to grab her hand but again she yanked herself away from his touch as her mother said, “We’ve been talking about this for years since you graduated high school but we finally decided it was time a few years ago. We thought not telling you guys right away was for the best at the time.”

“Yeah, because finding out you’ve been lying to us for years was great." Harper rolled her eyes when Maureen shot her an apologetic look. She crossed her arms over her chest and told them both, "I cannot believe that you never told us. I just... unbelievable."

She didn't speak another word to anyone, just headed down the hall and closed her bedroom door behind her. She sat down on her bed, and pulled out her phone, she was so angry and so caught off guard that she needed to vent to someone, and it seemed only right to vent to Bristol.

My parents are getting a divorce, they've kept it a secret for years and I just acted like a two-year-old about it but I'm too embarrassed to go out there and apologize.

It wasn't until she got a message back that she realized she hadn't actually opened she and Bristol's text conversation, but rather Roman's. She hadn't wanted to bother him with this, because it wasn't as if he knew her parents, and really, after knowing each other for two months this wasn't something she had wanted to unload onto him.

She was surprised by his response.

I'm sorry, but for the record, if they kept it a secret for years they probably didn't expect a great response. I'm sure it wasn't as bad as you thought, and even if it was it's gonna be fine. Just talk to them tomorrow, when you've had time to process, you know? I can't imagine that they're gonna fault you for needing some time to let it sink in.

For not the first time since he had come into her life, Harper wondered what she had done to deserve someone like Roman.