“Very cool,” he answered. “But I’m still impressed.” With a wink, Xander turned back to the screen as the movie began to play.
It wasn’t until the movie ended that Harmony noticed the weight of Xander’s arm around her shoulders. Surprised to find her cheek pressed into the curve of his shoulder, she sat up and pulled away, only to find him smiling down at her playfully. “You definitely know how to not watch an action flick,” he said, his voice a little gruff with disuse.
Smiling reluctantly, Harmony swatted his shoulder. “Well, I usually do better at actually staying awake, silly. I do actually like them most of the time, too – I guess this morning’s shopfest wore me out more than I thought.”
“Apparently,” he answered, curling his arm to pull her close again. “But the movie’s over and the theater’s clearing out, so we should probably move soon.”
“Yeah, you might be right. I think that’ll be easier if we actually get up, though.” Pressing her hand against his chest, Harmony sat up and stretched her arms over her head, yawning. “It was a good little nap, anyway,” she said.
“Still sleepy?”
“Yeah,” she answered, squinting her eyes as the theater lights slowly moved back to their full brightness. “I’ll be okay once we get back outside though. The sun will wake me up.”
“Well, in that case, you wanna go walking down the strip? We won’t have that summer sun for much longer,” Xander offered, popping the lid from his empty soda cup and dropping Harmony’s cup inside.
Nodding, Harmony took the cups and tucked them into the now-empty popcorn bucket. “Sure, that sounds nice.” Dropping the bucket into the garbage as they passed, Harmony grinned when she felt the familiar weight of Xander’s hand on her back, slipping down and around to cradle the side of her hip.
It was yet another change slowly making its way through her life, through her personality. She’d never been a fan of touchy-feely relationships before, and had even been annoyed to see other people engaging in public displays of affection. But suddenly, she liked the way Xander couldn’t seem to stop touching her, the way he seemed to crave her presence and the simple connection of being close to her. She liked the way he texted or called when he was thinking of her, just to let her know she was on his mind.
Now that she knew what she’d been missing, she was making a point to enjoy every moment of the good in her life – instead of wasting her life dreading the worst that could happen. “Maybe we can go into some of the shops while we walk; you can help me find cool guy stuff for my brothers for Christmas,” she said quietly smiling up at him as they walked out of the theater and into the bright sun of the parking lot. “I have my parents done already, and something for my sister’s son, but that’s pretty much it so far.”
“I’ll help you, on one condition,” he joked back. “Help me find girly stuff for Laney. She’s old enough now that I can’t get away with buying coloring books and hair bows anymore.”
“You’re on,” Harmony laughed. They passed the afternoon ducking in and out of shops, with Xander laughing as Harmony modeled giant sunglasses – and Harmony giggling uncontrollably as Xander paraded through a toddler store with a pink sequined fedora propped on his head. Once Xander had bought the fedora and a matching pair of fingerless gloves for Laney’s Christmas gift, they were off to another store, tasting candies and various fudge and chocolate samples.
“I am going to have to run a thousand miles to burn off all the junk I ate with you today,” Harmony joked, as they stood in line to buy a package of striped peanut butter fudge for Cameron. “I think hanging out with you is bad for my figure.”
“Well, how about I make it up to you?” Xander asked, stepping closer to whisper the question in her ear. Harmony’s body thrummed with the rumble of his voice, the tickle of his breath rushing by her ear. Turning, she looked up at him, the smile fading from her lips, her eyes widening as she noticed the heat in his face.
“Make it up to me?” she asked him, stepping back slightly.
“Yep,” he answered with a grin, pretending not to notice her sudden stiffness. “I’ll take you out for dinner. Health food, I promise.”
“You’re on,” she laughed. “And then I won’t have to be ashamed at work when I can’t fit into those tiny little shorts anymore.”
Xander laughed, reaching out to take Harmony’s shopping bag from the cashier as Harmony stuffed the receipt for her purchase into her pocket. “Well, firstly, you have a long way to go before you stop looking gorgeous to me. Secondly, the costume designer would just make bigger shorts. And thirdly, one day’s splurge won’t ruin your body, I promise. See? It hasn’t ruined mine.“ Winking, he patted the fabric of his t-shirt – loosely covering a stomach that she knew was flat and perfectly chiseled – before he took her hand and led her away from the shop.
By the time they’d walked the rest of the street mall and wandered back to their cars at the theater, Xander’s hands were full of shopping bags and there were still plenty left for Harmony to carry. It didn’t take long to separate their purchases into their own vehicles, joking and laughing over the things they’d bought for various members of their families.
“Want to just ride to dinner in my truck so you don’t have to drive?” Xander asked her, stepping back as she closed the hatchback of the Xterra.
“Sure, sounds like a good idea,” she answered. The small restaurant he drove them to was lost on a back road on the edge of the city, in the rich area of town where most residents were fans of the organic health-food craze.
“Healthy enough?” Xander joked, parking his truck in front of the stark white building. The style was like a very modern storefront, though the restaurant was set away from the road and surrounded by a grassy field that dissolved into a stand of trees behind the building. Outside, a sign waited cheerfully near the door, greeting them with modern script and a simple introduction.
“’Welcome to the Rabbit’s Den’,” Harmony read, stopping to look more closely at the sign. “’Home of the overgrown side salad.’ Are they kidding with that?” she asked.
“Not at all,” Xander laughed. “It’s basically a vegetarian soup and salad bar without any of the usual bad stuff, and everything you eat in here is locally grown and produced organically. Kinda stuffy since I don’t care about any of that stuff, but then, the food is awesome. I come here all the time and they’re always busy.”
“I’m surprised, since the place is hiding so far back from the main roads. How’d you find this place?” Harmony followed Xander away from the entrance sign, smiling as he opened the door and stood back to wave her through.
“Bethany, my sister … this was her husband’s favorite place to go out,” Xander answered. “With him gone, she would come anyway sometimes, and if I was in town I’d come with her and Laney. Now that I’m mostly back to being home for now, I come here probably once a week.”
“Oh. Wow, it looks really super modern in here,” Harmony breathed, following Xander as he led her to a table. A waitress took their drink orders, leaving clear glass plates and heavy stainless silverware behind for them. Harmony looked around, marveling at the shining stainless steel buffet stations, the straight lines, the understated and overly simple décor.
“I guess you could call it modern if you want to be nice. It’s a little cold for some people, though,” Xander answered. “I prefer that old school, homey touch, usually. Still, the food here is undeniable for freshness and taste, and the service is great, too. Wanna walk up with me?”
Harmony nodded and they each took plates from the stack on the end of the table, wandering through the buffet, each adding something to their plates occasionally. Once they were back at the table together, Xander looked over Harmony’s plate and smiled. “Well you weren’t kidding when you said you were making up for this afternoon’s treats, were you?”
“Well, Xander, I’m a star now,” she teased poking a spinach leaf with her fork. “I have to be careful with what I eat. It’s
like gymnastics again, I guess, but more popular in some ways and most people aren’t really there for my … talent. So I have to keep watch. It’s not as simple for girls, you know.”
“Simple?”
“Yeah, watching your figure. I mean, with you, if you gain five pounds or so, no one can really tell, and it probably just would be muscle anyway. But girls get soft if they aren’t careful.”
Xander laughed, working his fork around his plate to mix in the dressing on his salad. “Believe me; you have no reason to be careful with that body. The worst case diet scenario for a little thing like you is that you’ll get maybe a little curvier, maybe somewhat softer, and then you’ll appeal to an entirely new audience. That’s not really a bad thing.”
“And what about my current audience?”
“Your current audience? I’m pretty sure you can trust that your current audience will still be watching,” he answered, winking flirtatiously.
“Is that so?”
“Oh yeah. It’s 100 percent ‘so,’” Xander laughed.
Chapter Twenty-Five
“Harmony Jane, I think I have a right to know about this boy,” Adam lectured, turning away to hide the smile threatening to sneak over his lips. He’d never been a terribly stern father, though he had somehow managed to earn the full respect of all five of his children. His sense of humor did make lecturing difficult, though.
“Daddy, there isn’t anything to tell, it’s not like he’s proposed to me or anything. We just go out together sometimes,” Harmony giggled, rolling her eyes in Eva’s direction. Eva lowered her face, hiding a smile behind the back of her hand as she pretended to swipe at her nose. Her eyes shimmered with suppressed laughter, crinkles forming in the corners of her pale green eyes.
“Just go out together,” Adam muttered, opening a cabinet door and pulling a coffee mug down from the shelf. “And work together. All that time together, it’s enough to make a father curious, Harmony.”
“Alright. Let’s see … I can give you a play-by-play of the last date,” Harmony offered, laughing when her father simply snorted in response. “The last day I saw him, we worked together at the training center. He worked with another guy, and I worked with Lauren – Oh, Daddy, that’s Minx. The leopard girl?”
“Mmhmm,” Adam murmured, measuring coffee beans into a grinder.
Sighing, Harmony grinned and shook her head. “Okay so anyway, after that, we ate with everybody else who was there, and then he took me to this place where there’s this huge swinging bridge that goes over the river.”
“Oh, well that’s certainly interesting,” Eva said, beaming at her husband as he settled a mug of steaming coffee in front of her. Wrapping her hands around the mug, she turned back to their daughter as Adam took the seat beside her. “What was it like?”
“In a word? Scary,” Harmony answered. “But I had a great time. The bridge was long though, so it was really kind of swinging as we got into the middle.”
“Sounds dangerous to me,” Adam said.
“The guides all swear it’s perfectly safe, Dad, I promise. The planks were sturdy and the ropes were strong. On the other side though, there’s this huge reward for being brave enough to cross.”
“Cross what?” Evan mumbled, wandering sleepily into the kitchen.
“A bridge,” Harmony started.
“Mmhmm, to get to the other side,” Evan muttered, opening the refrigerator and bending to look inside.
“Anyway,” Harmony went on, turning back to her parents. “On the other side, you’re basically on the top of this low-level mountain. It’s not terribly impressive in itself, but the view – you can see everything for miles around and it’s just the most beautiful thing.”
“Oh that sounds lovely,” Eva said, wrapping long, elegant fingers around the warmth of her coffee mug. Bringing it close to her face, she inhaled the strong scent of the coffee, smiling.
“Lovely until you have to walk back,” Adam retorted, raising his coffee in salute to his wife. “Scared to death, and the only reward for walking back is that you get to go home alive.”
“Daddy, come on,” Harmony laughed. “It was fun!”
“Alright, then,” Adam conceded. “Is this boy good to you then?”
“I’m not finished!” Holding her hands up in a defensive posture, Harmony waited for her father to nod quietly, signaling for her to finish her story. “So after we walked the bridge, it was getting pretty late and there was a little drive back so we stopped by this little takeout place and got Caesar salad wraps for dinner.”
“A salad wrap?” Evan asked. He’d taken a place against the kitchen island, leaning back against the countertop, his muscular arms crossed over a chest that grew more and more broad as he approached adulthood.
“Yeah, basically it’s a salad dressed up like a burrito,” Harmony laughed. “Jeez, Ev, don’t you ever eat anything healthy?”
“No need to mess with a perfectly good burrito,” he grumbled. “Sounds like a cheesy date, though.”
“Oh, it gets better,” Harmony teased. “He passed this little park on the way back to where I’d left my car, and he pulled over there.”
“And then what?” Adam asked, scowling.
“Well, then this biker gang came up from behind the slide, and after I said I wasn’t into gangbangs, they asked if Xander and I wanted to play hopscotch, Dad,” Harmony teased, rolling her eyes. “Silly guy. We sat in the parking lot in the back of his truck and just talked for a while. Watched the sun go down over the lake that’s behind the park.”
“Oh, God, gag me,” Evan said, making gag noises as he stumbled theatrically from the kitchen.
Harmony laughed, shaking her head. “I think that’s why you’re still single, my brother!” she called. “Not a romantic bone in your body!”
“And then I’m sure he dropped you off like a gentleman,” Adam grumbled, his thumb stroking the back of Eva’s hand, the obvious sign of affection making Harmony smile. “Didn’t he?”
“Well, he drove me back to the parking garage at work, where we’d left my car. And then, Dad, get ready for this, okay? Brace yourself. Are you ready?” Waiting for her father to scowl in her direction, Harmony gave the most dreamy expression she could muster and said, “And then, and then, he kissed me.”
Adam snorted again. “I think it’s time I leave the room too, if there’s more to this story.” Tipping his coffee mug, Adam finished his drink and settled the mug gently back on the table.
“There is more,” Harmony laughed. “And it’s completely scandalous. I bet you’ll just die of shame when you hear what happened next.”
“Oooh, I’ll die of anticipation if you don’t stop teasing your father and tell me what happened next,” Eva murmured, smiling excitedly. She turned to her husband, still smiling as she said, “Come now, Adam. Let her have her romance. We had one, didn’t we? And I want that for the children, too, for them to feel what we felt way back then.”
“Way back nothing,” Adam winked, his dark eyes lighting again with humor. “I still feel it just the same, babe.”
“Argh, now I’m gagging!” Harmony giggled. “Anyway, he opened the door to my car and waited until he knew it would start and run before sending me home. See? A perfect gentleman.”
“And did he –“
“Text to make sure I got home? Of course he did, Dad,” Harmony grinned. “See, nothing scandalous. He really is just a regular nice guy. And I’ve told you everything.”
Except that she was afraid she might be falling in love …
Chapter Twenty-Six
“So, have you guys been spotted out in the streets yet?” Whitney asked, lounging back on the couch in Harmony’s living room.
“What do you mean?” Harmony looked up, pausing as she twisted the cap from a bottle of electric blue nail polish.
“Well, I knew who he was, pretty much the second I saw him.”
“Did not,” Harmony laughed. “It took a little while to figure out who he
was.”
“Yeah, but I knew his face, and that was mostly just because I’ve seen him on commercials for AWG and stuff like that. I assume other people recognize him sometimes, too, don’t they? People who watch the shows?”
“I don’t think that’s much of an issue for him when he’s here. He’s been working here for the smaller roster since everything happened with Bethany and the baby, but she’s doing well now and so is the baby, so he’ll be moved back to the larger roster soon and then he’ll be on the road more. When they start moving him around again, then I’m likely to be traveling a lot and I think we’re more likely to be recognized when we’re traveling. He says some places don’t seem to notice you, but other places are more into the show and then you get recognized everywhere.”
Wrestling Harmony (The Kingsley Series) Page 18
