She Lays Down [h.s.]

Seventeen

Their kissing doesn't last for very long because they both know that Ember's in the room, but it was a nice little moment and Mary's incredibly happy that he decided to drop by to see them. Harry's grinning as he removes his hands and opens the cage door, slipping his hand inside to gently pet the dog that's been anxiously awaiting his food.

"Are you free Wednesday evening?"

She grins as she scoops some food into the bowl, "Depends, are you asking me on a date?"

Harry laughs as they move down the line of cages and repeat the process of getting the animals fed. "Of course I am! I can't just ask you over a text message, what do you think this is? The twenty-first century?"

Mary's laugh is much louder and it echoes off the walls as she shakes her head, "With you? Never. Yes, I'm free Wednesday evening, but I've got Ember. I can't ask my parents to watch her because my mother is still angry with me for letting you yell at her, Alec is out of the question because she's very upset with him from the last time, and Arabella works nights and I hate to take away her summer before college."

He figured that her mother wasn't going to be very friendly after that incident, but it's been two weeks since that happened and she's her daughter, he didn't think she would still be mad at her. "She's still mad about that? I went over with flowers and apologized the next day, you know."

Mary smiles, she knows that he did that because her mother called her and told her all about it and how she still thinks that he's rude and disrespectful for yelling at her like that. She's a stubborn woman and she's still mad that Mary let him do that and that he had the audacity to step into family business in the first place.

"You don't know my mother, she's very stubborn, even after someone's apologized." Which, also explains why Claire is the same way. Mary's apologized to her more than once and in more than one way in these last two weeks and she still won't talk to her.

Harry hums because it clicks that Claire is the same way. "Ah, right. Well, pertaining to our date that I've already planned, I can ask my sister? Isobel and Ember are friends; we can just tell them that it's sleepover."

She likes the idea, but she also knows that his sister has a baby and she might not want to watch another child. "Yes, but she just had Jason and I don't feel right adding another child to her already busy household."

"Mary, I already asked her and she said that it was more than alright. Her husband's going to be home to help and she likes it when Isobel makes new friends, especially if said new friend might end up being part of the family someday."

The thought of being with Harry long enough to get married makes her smile. It's a little scary because she's only ever been with Alec, but she knows that what he's talking about won't happen right away because he wants her to be comfortable and he doesn't want to make her feel like they're rushing things between them.

Her cheeks flush a little because he's already planned all of this out in advance, even though he wasn't sure that she was going to be free on Wednesday evening.

"Look at you, on top of everything except the date. I guess I have nothing to worry about except looking nice and showing up on time."

Harry chuckles as he opens another cage door, "You always look nice, Mary. The time doesn't matter as long as you show up, I know that you're a busy woman and I respect that."

Time's gone faster than either of them thought and they've gone through all of the cages already. Mary's smiling because he's so sweet and respectful and because she always seems to lose track of time whenever he's around.

"So, how are you feeling about the whole 'mum' thing?"

Recently, Ember's been calling her mom instead of mommy and it's something that he knows is a big change for Mary because it happened to Alice and she wasn't too happy with it for a little while.