Glass Towers: Surrendered (21 page)

I laugh, “Mom you are asking the wrong person!” I hold my phone up, “Besides, I just got confirmation that Clarke is on her way. I am guessing she will be here in less than a half hour.”

“Oh, good then I will just wait to get dressed for the evening. When will the birthday boy be back?”

“I don’t know. That is a good question. He should be back in time for his family to arrive at 7 PM.”

“Okay, well I think I will head back to my room and rest for a bit until it’s time to get ready.”

I nod as she gives me a quick peck and leaves the room.

Just as I predicted, about twenty five minutes later Clarke arrives. Let the games begin.

“Oh my God Dani, this house is just sexy!” She is standing in the middle of the formal living room with her approving eyes darting around, taking it all in. “It’s as if you had decorated this place, wow!”

“Yes, Harrison is consistent in his taste.”

“I do know what I like.”

I whirl around to see Harrison standing behind me in the doorway. My heart skips a beat for a second, while I take in the beautiful man standing before me. Sometimes I can’t believe he is mine.

“Ah, there’s the birthday boy!” Clarke clucks while Harrison walks toward us.

“Welcome Simone. I am glad to see you arrived in tact, a little ahead of schedule, if I’m not mistaken.”

“The photographer got the stomach flu, so the shoot was cancelled. I have to go back in January.”

“I see. Well, bad for the photographer, but good for us. My love, why don’t you show Simone to her room so she can freshen up. I’ll meet you in our room.”

Clarke wiggles her eyebrows at me. I elbow her, “Oh stop!”

I kiss Harrison on the cheek. “Glad you are home birthday boy.”

He grabs me and whispers in my ear, “Meet me in our bed and show me how glad you are.” He smirks and then disappears into the entryway and up the stairs to our wing.

Clarke snorts. “Damn Danners, I am so glad he has a brother!”

I ignore her last comment and proceed up the stairs to her wing. I forgot which room was hers, so I had to open a couple doors to find the one prepared for her. Once in the room, we notice all of her luggage has been unpacked and her suitcases are already stowed away.

She squeals. “Danners, this is just fucking incredible! I am best friends with the wife of a mogul! Yay for me!!” She twirls around the middle of the room like a five year old with a full skirt on.

I just stand there shaking my head for a second. “You’re such a goof! I’m glad you are here. I am super nervous about meeting his parents tonight!”

“Oh hell, Danners, his parents will love you. Stop worrying about it; otherwise, that is all they will see is this nervous woman, not the person who Harrison fell for.”

I laugh, “Since when are you so insightful?”

“I can pull out some insight from time to time.” She wanders around the pretty room decorated in a traditional French color palette of yellow, blue and white. It is cheery and bright, a perfect match for my effervescent friend.

I look at the clock on the wall above the bedside table lamp and notice that I only have a little over an hour to pull myself together. “I’m going to find Harrison and start getting ready. My mom wanted your input on what to wear. She is down the hall in the last room on the right. Can you go down and help her?”

“Of course, Danners, I will do that after I am done snooping around my digs here. By the way, what is the manner of dress for this party anyway? Casual, formal, or dressy?”

“That’s the trouble. I am not sure. I guess that since Harrison is always so formal about things, we should dress up. So, no jeans.”

“Done. So, what time should I come down and where is a map or floor plan for this place? I am sure that I am going to get lost, so maybe I should enable the GPS on my phone.”

I laugh. “Just go back down the stairs and through the archway to the right of the large mirror. We are having his party in the great room, or maybe a better way to describe it is the less-formal living room. Be sure to be down there a little before seven when his parents are arriving, oh and Garrin too.”

She squeals. “Can’t wait to see that hunk of a man! Rawr!”

I roll my eyes at her, “Ok, I’m out of here see you in a little bit and don’t forget my mom.”

I find Harrison lounging on our bed in nothing but a black towel, rather than his customary white towel. God, he is a sight to behold. His body has the remnants of a tan from our trip to the Caymans. He lies across the bed seductively. I walk over to the bed, retrieve a wrapped package from the nightstand, and climb onto the bed next to him. I hand him the brightly colored gift.

He takes it from me. “What’s this?”

“It’s your birthday present, Mr. Towers.”

“Hmm, I thought that my birthday present was you wrapped in that red bow. ”

I feel my face turning crimson, “Well, yes that too. Go ahead and open.”

He gets a puzzled look on his face, “Shouldn’t I wait until the party? Or is this something to go with the red bow?’

I feel my body getting warm and wet at the thought of how we spent the beginning of our day. “Go ahead and open now.”

He looks from me to the package before sitting up and tearing into the package. Once he tosses the paper aside, the Ray Ban box is revealed. A wide grin spans Harrison’s face. “Oh,
mi amore
, my favorite glasses!” He says, as he pulls them out of their case and puts them on.

“I wanted to replace the ones you lost on our trip! I found them online. Now, let’s lose this towel and have a little fun with those sunglasses. I know! You can play policeman and frisk me. He is no longer smiling, but licking those lips of his. He flips me onto my back and begins to read me my rights while removing my clothes.

A little over an hour later, we head down to get his party started. I settled on a form-fitting v-neck, emerald green sweater dress with high-heeled black boots. The butterflies in my stomach are wreaking havoc on my nerves. I don’t understand why I am so nervous about meeting his family. I almost wonder if it is really that or if something is eating at me. I don’t have time to figure it out. As soon as we reached the foyer, the front door opens and his parents enter. “
Bonjour, Bonjour!”
His parents are saying in unison. Harrison heads over to the door, and I follow behind. He gives his parents each kisses on both sides of their faces. His mom stops and stares at me, then turns to her son. “Harrison, she is lovely, just as you said!”

He whirls around, reaches back to grab my hand, and pulls me to stand beside him. “
Mère,Père
, meet my beautiful bride, Danielle.”

I step forward and reach out my hand. They both look at my outreached hand and then pull me in for kisses on the cheeks. I am so taken aback, but at the same time I am so relieved. They are warm and genuine people, not at all the scary in-laws that I had imagined.

The maid takes their coats and Harrison ushers us all into the great room. I see my parents and Simone are seated, enjoying some wine and appetizers. They all stand up as we enter the room. Harrison looks around and then looks back to me. He mouths, “thank you”. I mouth back, “I love you.” He seems to be happy with the decorating efforts.

“Mel and Donna Austen” he motions to my parents then to his, “these are my parents, Julian and Yvonne Towers.” Both sets of our parents rush forward to express their greetings. Harrison’s mother is about 5’3, medium build, with beautiful white hair cut into a sleek bob, medium blue eyes and an amazing smile, just like Harrison. So, that is where he gets his megawatt grin. His father is very handsome. Mr. Towers has graying hair and is about 6 feet tall with crystal blue eyes. Well, now that I have seen his parents, I can see where his looks come from. What a strikingly handsome couple.

I am pulled back from my musings, when I hear an “ahem” come from behind Harrison.

He smiles and turns to Simone. “I have not forgotten you.
Mère,Père
, this is Danielle’s best friend, Simone Clarke.”

Harrison’s parents pull Simone into another round of cheek kissing. She is used to this, as her big Italian family does the same thing with bear hugs to boot. “I’m pleased to meet you. By the way, you can call me Clarke.” They look at each other and then his mom shrugs her shoulders.

I notice that  my mom looks lovely in a navy and cream tweed skirt and a cream cashmere cowl neck sweater. Her hair is neatly styled and her makeup is soft and appropriate. I am proud of the beautiful woman whom I get to call my mom.

As we all head to sit down, we can hear that someone is being let in the front door. It must be Garrin. As he enters the room, I can feel the atmosphere change. Harrison’s mother seems to stiffen a little at the sight of Garrin. I observe that his father seems to not be affected. Well, I suppose this is all going to take some time and getting used to for them. For the rest of us, it’s party time. Clarke is instantly by Garrin’s side, and I don’t believe she will leave it the remainder of the night. Harrison’s father informs us that the other family
member who were to join us had something come up and would not be making it. Harrison announces that we will see them soon enough. We all enjoy several rounds of wine. My head begins to feel a bit fuzzy. I am relieved when the cook comes in to announce that dinner is ready.

We take our seats, with Harrison at one end of the table and his father at the other end. I sit to the right of Harrison next to Harrison’s mom The cooks serves up an amazing dinner, and the conversation remains light hearted. Everyone seems to be having a wonderful time.

Harrison turns to me and Clarke. He motions to Garrin, “We thought it would be fun to take you ladies to Mont Tremblant resort for a few days of fun in the snow.”

I turn to look at Clarke just as her eyes grow wide and she squeals with delight. “Oh, I am so glad I packed that snow bunny outfit after all. I almost left it behind.”

Harrison turns to me, “I know you prefer sand over snow, but it will be fun and worth going. I promise!”

“Anywhere you are, is worth going.” He smiles at me in a way that warms my core. I can’t stop my body from its naughty responses to him.

Harrison’s mother speaks up, “I would like to invite you ladies to a luncheon tomorrow at the country club that I  will be hosting. We are doing a toy drive to distribute to local shelters for the holiday. I will send a car around 11:00 to pick you up. It will be a chance to introduce Danielle to some of my friends.”

My mother looks very pleased. “That sounds lovely. Yvonne, we would love to join you.” She says while nodding at me. I smile in agreement. I shoot a look across the table to Clarke to make sure she is agreeing too. She seems to be absorbed in a side conversation with Garrin. I don’t think she even heard.

I decide to take the reins and suggest that we do the cake. As we are about to light the candles, I hear the doorbell ring. I look around the room and nobody else seems to have noticed. Harrison’s father leads us in the traditional birthday song, and Harrison blows out the candles. We are all clapping as the maid enters the room from the foyer with a large package in her hands. She walks over to Harrison and says something in French. He responds to her, and she nods, leaving the room. He sets the package off to the side, and we proceed to eat the delicious ice cream cake roll. After the dishes have been cleared, we all take seats on the sofas in the family room. Harrison sits down and proceeds to open the package that was just delivered. He begins to rip the brown paper wrapping away from what appears to be a large picture frame. Harrison’s face falls into a scowl. “What is it Harrison?” He gets up swiftly from his seat and heads to the foyer with the frame in his hand. I hear him yell something in French before returning to the family room. The maid comes scurrying into the room with a startled look on her old face. She and Harrison have an animated, but tense, conversation by the archway. She leaves the room in a hurry, and Harrison turns back to face us. He turns the picture around so we can see. The room is filled with silence at first, but the silence is followed by a collective gasp. I feel the blood drain from my face when I realize what I am seeing.

Harrison is holding a picture frame filled with a collage of pictures of him and Marion. I stand up and walk over to the picture for closer inspection, as the others inch closer as well. It appears that the pictures span over the course of several decades, starting in childhood. The large picture in the middle is the one that appeared in the local paper showing them as newly engaged back in September. The picture next to that is the same picture I saw of them in the photo album that I found in the New York penthouse. It’s the picture in which she is holding her hand up, with the ring on her finger. There is a piece of paper pasted toward the bottom of the collage. It is hand written and says:

Harrison and Marion, married, December 31, 2011.

I start to feel faint, so I turn away. My mom is instantly by my side with her arm around me.

I hear Clarke blurt out, “What a fucking lunatic!!” Then I see her cover her mouth and blush as soon as she realizes what she had said.

Harrison’s father speaks, “Harrison, I will need to take this to the board. I think with everything that has happened in the last few days, we might just have enough to take further action now.”