“Well he’s got one now,” Harmony laughed. “And maybe even bigger soon. I don’t know if they’re trying yet, but I was out with Cass a few days ago in the mall, and when we walked past this little baby clothes store, I swear she looked like she wanted to go in.”
“Really,” Eva said quietly, resting her elbows on the kitchen bar and leaning forward as Harmony hopped up to sit on the counter. “I thought I saw her freeze up last week when we were cleaning up for Mac and Cameron to come home and we saw some of Logan’s old baby pictures. I thought maybe she was down because you know Cass doesn’t have anything like that of her own, but maybe she and Drew are thinking about trying …”
“Wouldn’t that be sweet, Mom?” Harmony asked, a dreamy smile on her face. “Cass and Drew with a little baby?”
“I’d love to see all my children with little babies someday,” Eva answered, lowering her eyes, her voice wistful. “I have to say though, I really thought I’d see Michael with children by now.”
Harmony laughed, sliding down from the counter and catching her mother’s elbow, leading her through the apartment as they talked. “I think you’re still more broken up over his divorce than he is. And I still can’t figure out what he ever saw in that tramp.”
“Honey, don’t talk like that. You know what he says, she was his damsel in distress. Broken down, not a lot of money, and a mean ex after her all the time? Michael can never resist a girl in trouble, you know your brother.”
“I just wish he could find a girl who isn’t like that though. He was always the hero – it would be nice to see him with a girl that can stand on her own two feet. Maybe someone just a little more independent.”
“Hmm,” Eva murmured, stepping over to open the closet in what would be Harmony’s new bedroom. “I hope he finds a nice girl that’ll let herself need him a little bit though, enough for him to feel important. I really think Michael needs that.”
“Don’t we all,” Harmony muttered, wondering – not for the first time – what it would be like to live alone. “But Mom, I think Michael’s finally looking happy again. I have no idea what he’s so happy about lately, but I know he’s been talking to Cass’s sister, Renee, an awful lot since he met her at Cass and Drew’s wedding. They’ve gotten to be friends.”
“Well, honey, friends isn’t quite the same thing, you know,” Eva said dryly, moving out of the bedroom and into the bathroom. Her voice echoed louder in the smaller space as she opened and closed the cabinets under the sink. “This bathroom is pretty small, Harmony. Are you sure it’ll fit all your stuff?”
Rolling her eyes, Harmony left the bedroom and stood in the bathroom doorway, leaning one slender shoulder against the door. “It’ll be fine. I’m planning to live here alone, remember? If I need more room, I can just let my makeup spill out into the living room.” She listened, grinning, as her mother sighed impatiently before going on. “And I know that being friends isn’t the same thing, I just mean that I think someone like Renee would be a good fit for him.”
“Maybe you’re right. But then, if they’ve stopped at friends, that may be all they ever become.”
“Ha! That’s not what happened with you and Dad,” Harmony retorted, grinning happily.
“Adam and I … well, it wasn’t easy for us either, Harmony. It wasn’t as simple as it all sounds, and Adam took his time figuring out what he wanted. That was a hard time for both of us.”
“I know, I just mean that just because Michael and Renee have become friends, that doesn’t mean that’s it for them. Being friends is supposed to be a good thing before getting involved with someone, isn’t it?”
“Well, yes it is,” Eva conceded, sighing as she signaled for Harmony to move away from the bathroom and let her out. They walked back to the kitchen together, gathering their handbags and keys. “For now though, don’t be too worried about those two. If they’re meant to be, they’ll work it out, and they don’t need any meddling from us. Besides, we’ve got to figure out how we’ll get you moved in here.”
“You know, Mom, I could hire a truck.”
“Well, that’s useless when we’ve got all these men in the family, silly girl,” Eva laughed. “I’ll make them come along and help your father this weekend.”
“Yeah. I guess I should go hunt down some other furniture too, stuff for in the living room. I need dishes, tons of stuff. I hope it doesn’t eat too much of my savings,” Harmony muttered, looking around the apartment one last time before she and Eva stepped out into the hallway.
“Well, about that,” Eva said quietly, stepping back to watch as her daughter locked the door to her first apartment. “I think there’s a way for you to get whatever you need, without it taking anything from your savings. If you’re very careful.”
“Oh, yeah? Careful huh? Like carefully sitting on the floor because I have no couch?” Harmony asked jokingly, dropping her keys into her handbag. Receiving no answer, she looped her bag over her forearm and turned to face her mother, raising an eyebrow in question.
“Well, your father and I, um ... we’ve sort of … set up accounts for you and your siblings, accounts meant to help you get set up when you leave home.”
“Wait – what exactly are you saying?”
Eva looped her arm through Harmony’s elbow as they started down the hall together, slipping the fingers of her other hand into the pocket of her jeans. When she brought them out again, she held a simple plastic ATM card, which she gave to Harmony. “This is an account that your father and I have been adding to over the years, for you. Kind of a modern version of your ‘hope chest,’” Eva said. “Only, you get to pick your own stuff.”
“An account? Mom, how much money is this? How did you guys do this?” Harmony asked, her steps halting a few feet from the elevator.
“There’s a little over nineteen thousand,” Eva said, laughing when she saw her daughter’s pale blue eyes widen comically. “Don’t get crazy, it’s enough to cover furniture, linens, some groceries to get you stocked and started. It’s not riches, Harmony. We just put money away when we could over the years.”
“Um, Mom?” Harmony murmured, flipping the card between her fingers and stuffing it quickly into her pocket. “Riches? Yeah, it kind of is. Come on, I’m buying lunch!”
Chapter Four
Five days later, Harmony sat alone on a brand new couch, an icy soda leaking sweat into the folds of a paper towel, folded to protect the shining finish on her brand new coffee table. The apartment was full, but it still needed work before it would really feel like home.
“Are you sure you don’t want me to come help you put things together?” Whitney asked, her voice drifting through Harmony’s speakerphone to filter into the living room. “I won’t know where you want everything, but I can make the bed and hang the shower curtain. I can come do the little stuff like that, if you want.”
“Thanks, Whit,” Harmony answered, shaking her head. Balanced on a stepladder and struggling to lift her living room curtain over her head, she reached as high as she could to slip the curtain hook over the rod. “I’ve got this, though. Honestly, I’m having fun putting things out, watching this empty little place turn into somewhere I can call mine. It’s slow going, but it’s good for me. We’re still on for dinner here in a day or two, though, right? When I’ve got everything set up?”
“Absolutely,” Whitney laughed. “And I have to tell you, your kids miss you at the gym. When I told them you’d be back to teach classes again in a few days, they started screeching like little banshees.”
“Banshees?” Harmony snorted. “I doubt they were that excited.”
“They were, I swear! They said you shouldn’t be allowed to take vacation because I don’t let them do any of the ‘dangerous tricks.’ And that was the exact phrase they used.”
Harmony laughed, slipping the last hook over the curtain rod just in time to catch herself against the wall and stop herself from toppling to the floor. “Well, tell them I miss them too, and I’ll be back
soon. Were we right about Bethany? Did she have the baby?”
“She did, but I don’t really know much. Xander doesn’t stick around when he picks Laney up from class, and when he drops her off, I’m too busy keeping track of everyone to really talk to him.”
“What about Laney?” Harmony asked, rolling her eyes toward the phone. “She doesn’t say anything?”
“Nope, not a word. She’s been so excited to be hanging out with Xander that she’s barely mentioned her mom at all,” Whitney laughed. “And I think he’s bigger and hotter every time I see him.”
“Whitney,” Harmony said sternly. “I am not approaching that guy. No. Way.”
“Alright, stubborn. Listen, I gotta go Harmony, my dad’s calling.”
“Okay, no problem. I’ll talk to you later,” Harmony answered. Settling the box of dishes she’d just lifted from the floor on the kitchen bar, she swiped her fingertip over the screen of her phone to end the call, sighing as she lifted a knife from the counter. A quick swish of the wrist, and the taped top of the box was opened; Harmony couldn’t hold back the grin as she reached into the box, lifting out her red, square plates. She squealed, turning to open the dishwasher, and loaded the plates carefully into the plate slots.
“I still don’t know why you want me to wash them first, Mom,” Harmony muttered to herself, turning on her heel to retrieve the dessert plates from the box. Adding them to the dishwasher, she turned back and reached for the square bowls, smiling as she stood back and looked at her handiwork. “And you’re not even here to lecture me about how they’re packed in dust by workers with dirty hands. Still, I’ll wash them. Hmm, my very own dishes,” she said, grinning helplessly. “My very own place.” Still smiling, she lifted boxes of glasses and silverware, adding whatever she could fit into the dishwasher before dropping a soap packet in and starting it up.
“Might be nice if someone was here though,” she whispered softly, turning to take in all that was still left to do. She stood for a while, wondering if she should call Whitney back and ask her to come over, thinking that it would be nice to have some company in the silence of the apartment.
Before long though, she decided to pull through on her own, reasoning that she would need to get used to being alone in her space. With a sigh, she kept going, hanging pictures and organizing books, emptying the dishwasher and putting everything away before loading it again with her newly purchased cooking utensils and bakeware.
By the end of the night, most of the new things were organized and put away. Curtains were hung in all the windows, the furniture was arranged the way Harmony wanted it, and all that remained was to work with her family the next day to get her bedroom and other personal items moved over from her parents’ house.
Finally, she’d done as much as she could, and the need for sleep made her eyelids heavy and her movements sluggish. She poured her long-forgotten soda down the sink, throwing the empty can into the garbage before settling in on her new couch for the night.
The night passed peacefully, but a grunt and a crash woke Harmony in the morning, followed by rapid knocking on the door of her apartment. “Open up, Harm,” Michael shouted, his voice muffled by the weight of the door.
Scrambling up from the couch, Harmony passed her fingers through her hair, stopping to glance at herself in the mirror next to the door before flipping the lock and turning the handle. “You guys are early,” she muttered, looking sleepily up into the grinning faces of her brothers.
“Well, we’re here, woman, so move your fanny,” Evan laughed, pressing slightly on the mattress he and Michael had been steering down the hallway. “I bet you’ll be glad to have this back tonight, huh?”
“Definitely,” Harmony said, rubbing her eyes with the heels of her palms as she backed away to let her brothers through the door. “I slept okay on the couch, but I definitely don’t want that to be a regular nightly event.” Drew followed behind Michael and Evan, balancing the headboard of Harmony’s bed over one shoulder, ducking to fit the heavy piece under the doorframe. He grinned as he passed her, ruffling her hair as he followed Michael and Evan to Harmony’s mostly-empty bedroom.
“Sleeping in, are you?” her father laughed, walking in behind Drew. Adam wasn’t a tall man, but he was sturdily built and youthful for his age, his brown eyes sparkling. Settling Michael’s toolbox on the floor, he threw his arm around Harmony’s shoulders and drew her close to his side. “How was your first night in your new place?” he asked.
“I think my phone must have died during the night,” Harmony answered, snaking her slender arms around her father’s back. “I forgot my charger in the Xterra and didn’t want to go down and get it. And Dad, I’ve slept away from home before,” she laughed. ”It’s not like it was a new experience.”
“Yeah, I know” Adam said. “But you’ve never moved out before, so that’s different. You did a good job getting things set up in here though. The place looks very ... you.”
“Thanks, Dad. How’s Mom?” Harmony asked, resting her head briefly on her father’s shoulder before stepping away to brush her hair.
“Mom’s just fine, and Mom’s got breakfast!” Eva’s voice drifted through the open door from the hallway just before she appeared, her arms laden with paper bags. Logan was with her, a drink carrier from a local coffee shop in each hand, each carrier full.
“Hey kid,” Harmony said, leaving her hairbrush on the table to step forward and ruffle the boy’s hair. Taking the coffee carriers from his hands, she carried them to the bar, listening as her father took some of the food bags from Eva. “Where are your parents, Logan?”
Logan looked up, smiling at Eva as she pressed a cold smoothie into his hands. “Well, my dad says he’ll meet us on the next trip, and Cameron – um, my mom – she had a wedding to do today. She said for me to tell you she’d come by later this week though, and that she has a plant for you or something.” Lowering his eyes, he sipped from the smoothie, turning to thank Adam for his breakfast.
Before long, they were all together, surrounding the small bar in Harmony’s kitchen, sharing breakfast and coffee together. “Well, we won’t be having family dinners here, will we?” Drew teased, elbowing Harmony playfully as he wiggled around, pretending to fight for space.
“Probably not,” Harmony said quietly. “But it’ll do for me, for now. Until I figure out what I’m doing with my life.”
Adam and Eva exchanged a look; Drew averted his eyes, making a show of drinking thirstily from his coffee. But Michael met her eyes over the bar, his breakfast sandwich only inches from his mouth. With a sigh, he settled the sandwich on the bar and said, “I know how you feel, but you’re still young, little sister. And it’ll work out, I promise. Sometimes, we just have to face the idea that something we want is out of our reach, and we have to learn to reach for something else instead.”
“And what are you reaching for, Michael?” Harmony asked him softly.
“Your breakfast, if you don’t hurry up and eat it,” he said with a wink. Adam laughed, nodding slightly to his oldest son. Michael returned the nod, and Eva quickly steered everyone back to work. Within the next hour, Harmony was alone again, smoothing the sheets over the bed her brothers had put together for her. Throwing the pillows neatly together at the head of the bed, she sighed, thinking of what Michael had said.
Humming softly to herself, she moved through the apartment, unpacking and organizing the things her family had brought from Adam and Eva’s house. “I’ve never been so lost,” she sang, her voice whispery in the lonely quiet of the apartment. “I’ve never felt so all alone.” Lifting her spare phone charger from a box of makeup and toiletries, she moved to the living room to plug her phone in, her voice gaining power and volume as she continued to sing. “But I know that this is only –“
Interrupted by a knock on the door, Harmony cleared her throat and walked over to open the door.
“Hey, kid, how’s the new place?” Mac asked, smiling at her from the hallway. Stepping back,
she waved him into the apartment, reaching to take one of the boxes he’d been juggling. His dark hair was a little longer than usual, his cheeks covered in thick stubble.
“It’s good, I like it. But I wasn’t expecting anyone back yet, Mac. You race them over here on your motorcycle or something?” Harmony laughed.
“No, I was at the house already when they got back, so all I had to do was load some stuff up and come over. My bike’s at home, though; I brought Michael’s car over here, and he’s riding with Drew.”
“Oh. Was there much left to move?” Harmony asked, settling the box on the floor in front of the couch. Lowering herself onto the cushions, she opened the box, surprised to find a purple throw blanket with creamy white flowers scattered in a haphazard pattern over the fabric. “Mac, this isn’t mine,” she said, looking up to find him grinning.
“I know. Cameron saw it while we were on our honeymoon and it made her think of you, though, so we brought it back. You like it?”
Wrestling Harmony (The Kingsley Series) Page 3
