“Yeah, yeah,” Lauren conceded, “Make fun if you will. True, I like to eat neatly. But at the root of that sentiment is that I like to eat!”
As they were finishing up the slices, Sam finally made a quick appearance at the table, snatching a few cherry tomatoes off of the top of the big bowl of communal salad and munching on them.
“That guy is unreal!” she enthused in an amazed voice.
“Are you winning, Sam?” Karina asked.
“No way, he's wiping the floor with me!” Sam responded cheerfully.
“And...you're OK with that?” Karina followed up carefully. Normally Sam, an athlete whose talent and competitive spirit had catapulted her to the Olympics, was not a happy camper if she wasn't winning. But she seemed in fine spirits.
“Oh, yeah, it's the weirdest thing,” Sam confirmed, “It's like he's...magic or something. He blew my putt putt score out of the water. Like...it wasn't even close! And I'm the best in Hope Falls, by far! And he's never even played mini-golf before. And he's, like, phenomenal at every single arcade game! How is that even possible?
“I don't even feel like I'm competing with the guy, really,” she concluded, “How can you compete with Kyle Austen Reed? I'm really just sort of watching in amazement at this point. Anyway. Gotta get back. It's Skeeball time!”
Lauren said, “We're leaving in a few minutes, Sam...”
Sam shrugged, “Yeah, go ahead. We're gonna stay and play. We'll figure out a ride.”
And with that, she was off, jogging back into the cacophonous forest of arcade games.
As the rest of the group wandered out into the parking lot, Ryan pulled Karina to the side a few inches, “Hey, do you need a ride home?”
Just at that moment, Karina heard the chime of an incoming text message, “Hold that thought, loverboy,” she said with a sideways smile.
Looking at the screen of her phone, her brow scrunched up in consternation.
“What is it?” Ryan asked worriedly.
“Oh, probably nothing,” Karina said, annoyance and worry shading her voice in equal measures, “My grandmother just texted me that she wants to see me right away.”
“I'll take you,” Ryan volunteered.
“Oh, no,” Karina said quickly, then, seeing his hurt expression, rushed to explain, “It's just – it's hard for her to get used to new people. Amanda and Lauren will take me in the van, I'm sure.”
Ryan nodded, and was suddenly seized with an overwhelming urge not to let her go before he knew exactly when he would see her again.
“Do you want to go ice skating with me tomorrow?” he blurted out.
She smiled, a little surprised by the sudden shift in topic, “Ice skating, huh? You're big on date locations that begin with the word 'ice' aren't ya?”
He began to flush with embarrassment, and she quickly put in, “I'd love to!”
He smiled, showing off the dimple that was so prominent and so endearing every time he cracked that smile. God, Karina thought, if it's that easy to put that beautiful smile on his face, and by extension that scrumptious dimple, I'll accept dates with him all day, every day.
“Pick you up at 11,” he said happily, leaning down and quickly brushing her lips with his.
She was electrified. She sighed. She loved the fact that Ryan, with just the tiniest word, the tiniest glance, or the tiniest phrase, could absolutely set her body and soul on fire.
Chapter 18
Barely twenty minutes later, Karina burst through the front door of her grandmother's house, her fingers fumbling with the key due to the sheer stress caused by her grandmother's text. Renata was not one to either summon Karina without a good reason, and she certainly wasn't one to use text message technology. On the drive over the combination of the summons and the way that it had arrived via text had set her nerves jangling.
She rushed into the living room, Amanda and Lauren behind her, and found her grandmother sitting stiffly on the couch.
“Grandmother! What's wrong? Why did you text me?”
Renata barely inclined her head to acknowledge Karina's entrance, or her inquiry.
“Grandmother?!” Karina repeated her panic growing.
Renata responded with only a stiff, “Your friends can wait outside.”
Karina glanced back at Amanda and Lauren, puzzled, to tell them not to worry about that, but all she saw were their retreating backs as they headed out the front door. Although she knew all of her friends loved her grandmother, there was no question that she also scared them. Karina rolled her eyes and muttered, “Wimps.”
She turned back to her grandmother.
“That was kind of rude, grandmother. They probably feel bad, now,” Karina said, in a tone that was respectful but showed the slightest hint of reproof.
Renata did not address this at all, but merely said bluntly, “I suppose you've seen the video.”
Oh, God, the video, Karina thought to herself crossly. I suppose I don't need to ask which video, there's only one video that anyone can seem to talk about lately.
“I've seen it,” she replied neutrally.
“When is it being taken down?”
Karina was taken aback, “What do you mean? It's not getting taken down.”
“You need to contact your lawyer and have it taken down immediately.”
Karina felt herself becoming annoyed, “I don't need to do anything of the sort. Why do you even care?”
“It's stealing from you. People are watching it, but you're not making any money from it.”
Karina shook her head, “I don't care. Anyway, I make the majority of my money touring...”
“It's bad for your career.”
“Even if that were true, I don't really like my career all that much, so that would be fine with me. But it doesn't even matter, because...the video being bad for my career? How? In what universe? It's exposure, it's letting people see a different side of my artistry, it's great exposure for Ryan...”
“There it is!” Renata cut in, pointing her finger at Karina in an accusation, “This is about that boy!”
Renata got up and began pacing. Karina was confused.
“Is that what's really bothering you? You don't like Ryan for some reason?”
“You are NOT to see that boy!” Renata shot back explosively.
This took Karina aback, she stumbled backwards, feeling the words hit her like a physical blow.
Her first instinct was to jump in and defend Ryan, and her right to have a relationship with him. After all, she was an adult, and capable of making her own decisions. Even putting that aside, Ryan was wonderful, and Karina didn't like hearing him talked about like this, even from her well-loved and much-respected grandmother.
But Karina's cooler head prevailed, and she realized that a much smarter strategy would be to just put off that conflict with Renata until it absolutely could not be put off any longer. After all, right now she was not even 100% certain where her relationship with Ryan would end up. Why pick a giant fight with Renata if she and Ryan weren't even meant to be?
Karina took a deep breath and said, “Look, grandmother. I don't know what you think is going on, but I'm not seeing Ryan. It was a performance, that's all.”
Renata snorted, “Oh, please, give me a small amount of credit. I know about your little 'ice cream date.' Don't lie to my face.”
“Yes, we had ice cream, but it's not like we're going steady or something. It's not like he's my boyfriend. I'm concentrating on me right now. My music, my life, my future. That's what I am focusing on.”
“I am not blind, nor am I stupid, Karina. I see what is going on and I forbid it,” Renata's voice was as firm as steel, and left no room for interpretation or argument.
Karina sighed, “Is this all you wanted to talk about, Grandmother? Because Amanda has to be up early in the morning, so we have to go.”
Renata looked directly into Karina's eyes and said, in no uncertain terms, “I forbid it, Karina Blackstone.”
Karin
a shook her head in exasperation and kissed her grandmother on the cheek before exiting the house. She sighed to herself. Now what the hell was that about?
--- ~ ---
Ryan stumbled blindly into his bedroom and fell face down onto his bed. Between his sleepless night, working all day in the cafe, then basketball followed up by mini golf, and the majority of that powered by the human adrenaline rush that was Karina Blackstone...he truly understood, for the first time in his life, why utterly exhausted people described themselves as feeling like 'the walking dead.' He truly did feel like he was only capable of the blocky shuffling of a zombie, and his brain felt about as useful as that of a mindless zombie, as well.
It vaguely occurred to him that he should probably undress, he should probably turn down and climb under the covers...he should probably at the very least take off his tennis shoes, for God's sake. However, as he drifted off further into sleep, these things seemed of very little importance, and he found he could not possibly muster the will to rouse himself enough to do them.
Instead, he fell fast asleep where he landed, face down and fully dressed on top of his comforter, his sneaker-clad feet hanging off of the end of the bed.
He was jolted awake a short ten minutes later by the insistent buzzing of his cell phone. He flipped over and sat up in one smooth movement, planting his feet on the floor and scrambling desperately to get his bearings.
The phone buzzed again and brought him back down to earth. He plucked it out of his pocket and looked at the face. He didn't recognize the number, but did see that it was the same area code as Karina's cell phone. Realizing that the call must either be from her or have something to do with her, he pressed the button and answered immediately.
“Hello?” he said curiously.
“Ryan Perkins?” asked an unfamiliar male voice on the other end of the line.
“Yes,” he replied, puzzled.
“Davis Johannson here,” the voice said jovially, but with a definite air of someone who expected that name to mean something to people. It meant nothing to Ryan.
“Hello,” Ryan greeted him neutrally.
There was a pause on the line, and then Davis prompted him, “From Spintown Records...?”
Ryan recognized the label as the one Karina was on, but had no idea what they might want from him.
“Pleased to meet you, Mr. Johannson,” Ryan said politely.
Davis laughed heartily, but there didn't seem to be any real mirth behind it, “Oh, that patented Midwestern, straightforward charm! I love it!”
Ryan tried to interject, “I'm not technically from...”
But Davis was barreling ahead as if he were not even aware of Ryan, “Listen, kid, we've seen your video with Karina and we'd like to have a face to face. Does tomorrow at four work? Can you make it to LA in the morning?”
“I have plans tomorrow,” Ryan responded without even thinking. Then, as his brain caught up with the conversation, he asked disbelievingly, “Wait, did you say LA?”
“Day after tomorrow then?” Davis asked in clipped, hurried tones. Everything about his voice telegraphed that he was a busy man with important things to do.
Ryan tried to keep up, but he was confused, “I don't understand what this is about...is this something to do with Karina?”
Davis laughed again, shortly, “This is about you, kid. We liked what we saw in the video.”
Ryan shook his head to clear away the spiderwebs of sleep that still clung to the edges of his consciousness, “Look, I think you have the wrong idea about me. I'm not a professional musician...I just played that one time at the festival.”
Davis dismissed this objection out of hand, “You're definitely a musician. Leave the 'professional' part to Spintown, that's what we do. So, day after tomorrow, then?”
Ryan realized that he should be ecstatic at this opportunity just dropping out of the sky and into his lap, he should be doing cartwheels. But he just couldn't seem to wrap his mind around it, and he didn't like the feeling of being pushed or rushed.
“Look, Mr. Johansson, I really appreciate what you're saying but I'm going to need to look at my schedule and get back to you,” Ryan replied, although what he was really thinking was that he would need to talk to Karina and then get back to him. She would have a better idea than he what credence he should give these people and what they said to him.
“Well, don't delay,” Davis said quickly, “This is a fast-paced business, and you have buzz right now. We'll want to capitalize on that.”
“By the end of the week,” Ryan promised.
“Talk to you then,” Davis shot back, and just that quickly, he was gone. Ryan could see him in his imagination, pressing the button to disconnect the line and yelling to an assistant to roll in his next call, and bring him goddamn espresso, he'd asked for it ten minutes ago.
He dropped his head into his hands. He didn't mean to sound rude or ungrateful, but this was all happening really quickly, and he felt a bit out of control, a little confused and overwhelmed. Ryan wasn't used to those emotions.
Out of necessity if nothing else, Ryan always had a plan. Sure, Karina made him feel out of control, but he definitely had a plan. It was 'Operation Show Karina Blackstone That Ryan Perkins Is Worth Settling Down With.' So, even there, in the most unpredictable facet of his life, he had some measure of planning and control.
Besides, he thought with a small smile, with her I feel out of control in a good way. He undressed and crawled under the covers, laying back against the pillows and drifting off to sleep thinking of nothing but 11 am tomorrow morning, when he would have his next opportunity to continue putting his plan into action.
--- ~ ---
Karina had just put on a pot of coffee and was relishing the invigorating aroma when she heard a knock on her front door that she had come to recognize.
She sighed and dropped her head to the counter. Seriously, what did a girl have to do to get some solitude around here?
She trudged slowly towards the door, and when the insistent knock came again, she called loudly, “Coming!”
She opened the front door, and Sam happily bopped into the entryway.
“Took you long enough!” she called behind her as she made a beeline for the kitchen, “Mmmmm....smells good!”
“Sam, what a surprise to see you here,” Karina said dryly as she trailed her friend back into the kitchen.
“I just wanted to stop by and see how you were doing,” Sam said with concerned eyes, “Amanda said you were sooo quiet on the way home from Renata's. And Lauren said you seemed really up in your head. I thought maybe you could use a sounding board.”
Instantly, Karina felt guilt and shame wash over her like a cold shower. Yes, it was true, Sam's frequent unannounced visits were wearing her patience thin, but she meant well. She just wanted to make sure that Karina was OK. Karina chided herself for being so self-centered. She really needed to start appreciating the people around her.
Just as Karina's internal voice began to wrap up its self-righteous lecture and Karina was feeling about two inches tall, Sam shrugged and continued, “Besides, I'm just so BORED, you know? What do people do all day when they live by themselves? I've always been with people all the time. I used to dream about having free time when I was in perpetual training, like I'd daydream about it, just unscheduled time to do anything I wanted. I mean, even that phrase...anything I wanted...I used to roll it around on my tongue and just love every aspect of it, even the way it sounded and felt on my tongue. Not bound to do anything that anyone else told me to do, but deciding for myself what I would do with my time. Honestly, it sounded as close to heaven as I could imagine.
But now that I have it in spades, I realize that I was seriously overselling myself on the appeal. I see that now. Man, but back then? I used to fantasize about having free time more than I fantasized about sex!”
She looked stricken, as if something had just occurred to her, “Oh, No! What if sex turns out to be as overrated as solitude?”
Karina laughed, “It's not, trust me.”
Sam accepted that easily and continued to chatter, “Anyway, I now realize that my training and traveling schedule was so regimented that I never really had time to develop any interests or hobbies.”
“How sad for me,” Karina said flatly, under her breath.
Sam stuck her tongue out, causing Karina to break into a wide smile. Even if she didn't always welcome it at 6 am, she had to admit that Sam had a positive and cheerful energy that was difficult to resist.
Karina suggested, “Why don't you read that book that Lauren assigned us for book club? I have a feeling heads are going to roll if we have one more of those without even mentioning the book. And now she has Amy on her side, so....”
“Done!” Sam shot back, “Plus I prepared two pages of discussion questions and talking points, which you obviously haven't read. Next?”
Karina wracked her brain, “Lauren was talking about needing to study for her California Real Estate Licensing exam. Why don't you see if she needs any help?”
Sam gave Karina an incredulous glance and said, “Come on now. It's like you're not even trying. First off, Lauren's not exactly the study buddy type, I'd just drive her nuts. Not to mention, I know nothing about real estate. Hey, by the way, have you checked out the video lately? It has over 5 million views now!”
Karina smacked her forehead, “Not that video! It's all anyone wants to talk about!”
Sam gave Karina a 'No Shit, Sherlock' look and said, “Um, yeah...cause...it's amazing?”
“Even my grandmother's in on it now, although she has a slightly different take on it than you do,” Karina said miserably.
“Oh, yeah!” Sam said, snapped back to feeling sympathy for her friend's dark mood after leaving Renata's house the day before, “Is that what she was mad at you about?”
Karina nodded sadly, “She told me I was – and I quote – forbidden to see Ryan. What the hell? I'm an adult! She's not the boss of me!”
Sam started to respond, but Karina cut her off, “Shut up, I know how it sounded...”
Sweet Harmonies Page 20
