Heidiway Hills

***

There was a smile on Harrison’s face when Heidi entered the room.  His back was to her, but he had caught the scent of her perfume earlier when he walked past her in the lobby, and knew it was her.

“Have a seat, Heidi,” he said in a deep baritone that Heidi thought sounded familiar, but it was a voice she couldn’t place.

Harrison turned toward her and it was then that she remembered the profile.  Her blood froze in her veins as he turned to face her.  It all came back in a flash – the dark eyes, the face that could show kindness or cruelty depending upon the man’s many moods, the lips that were thick and soft when the two of them had kissed so many years ago, and the slender body that had filled out to form the broad physique of a grown man.  He was sexy in a raw, edgy sort of way, but the desire to be refined had never been a part of him, though he craved respect.  Heidi was one of very few people who knew who the man was deep inside, a scared little boy who had been forced to grow up too fast, but the man he had become was a mystery to her.

“Harrison?”

“It’s been awhile, hasn’t it?”

The smirk on Harrison’s face would be forever etched on her mind.

“I didn’t know you…”

“You didn’t know I was in charge of this enterprise, did you?”

“No.  It doesn’t seem to fit you.”

“I could say the same for you.  You didn’t seem like the Florence Nightengale type when I knew you.”

“People change, Harrison.”

“That’s where you’re wrong, Heidi.  People don’t change all that much.”

“And you’re an expert on human behavior?”

“Growing up with an alcoholic father and a mother who enabled his… well… behavior makes me an expert on a lot of things.”

Heidi looked down at the floor.  She couldn’t remember the number of times she had witnessed the beatings Harrison received at the hands of his father.  There were too many to count.  She shook her head as if to rid her mind of the memories.