“But you didn’t expect him to get it?” Whitney asked, moving to the island bar and propping her hip against one of the bar stools.
“Not really. Like I said, it’s not like it happened to me,” Harmony answered, turning toward the sink and using her elbow to lift the lever and open the spigot. She washed her hands quickly, turning off the water and drying her hands before reaching to open the bottles she’d left on the counter.
“Yeah, but the effects of it played out in front of you,” Whitney said. “You watched her turn into someone else; even I saw how much she pulled away after what happened. And I know how much it affected your family. It’s understandable that it would have had some affect on you too, because you looked up to her. She was like your idol. I know it affected the boys, too.”
Pouring lemon juice onto the chicken in the bowl, Harmony look up, nodding before turning her eyes back to her work. “It definitely did. It makes them more respectful of women, more gentle as people than they maybe would have been. Mom always says that Cameron is half of why Drew is a cop, and I have always thought that that’s why Michael always goes for the troubled girls.”
“Well, they couldn’t save Cameron, I guess, so they want to save everyone else,” Whitney said, taking the now-closed bottle of lemon juice and replacing it in the fridge. “Maybe that strengthens them. Gives them some hope.”
“Maybe.” Shaking the bowl slightly to coat the chicken, Harmony added pepper and several other seasonings to the mix, giving the bowl another shake before stepping back to allow Whitney to cover the bowl. “Fridge, please,” she said, using her elbow to turn the sink water on again.
Sighing, Whitney turned to place the bowl on the shelf in the refrigerator. “But Xander seemed to get it?”
Harmony smiled again, her face softening as she remembered. “He did. He told me some stuff about his past too, so it was a really good talk.” Moving to the small pantry closet, Harmony pulled out several large potatoes and carried them back to the counter as Whitney took a soapy dishrag and cleaned the workspace.
“I’m glad it’s going well with him,” Whitney said quietly. “He really does seem like a good guy, Harmony. And good for you, I think. Healing.”
“Well, he has his own things to heal from,” Harmony murmured, washing the potatoes in the sink and scrubbing them with a sturdy brush. Holding up one of the shiny, clean potatoes, she looked at Whitney. “Mashed or scalloped?” she asked.
“Mmm, scalloped,” Whitney answered, turning to open the refrigerator. “I’ll make the cheese sauce if you slice ‘em. And what kind of thing is Xander healing from?”
“Same thing we all are, in one way or another,” Harmony answered vaguely, wanting to protect Xander’s privacy. “He’s had his heart broken, too. There’s a little baking dish in the drawer down there; will you grab it for me?”
Nodding, Whitney bent to pull the casserole dish from the drawer beneath the oven. “I’m glad he was able to open up to you,” she said, spraying the dish with cooking spray before setting it in front of Harmony. “I imagine fame can make it hard for people like him to open up.”
“I don’t know if it’s the fame, really,” Harmony answered, arranging potato slices in the casserole dish. “Sometimes it’s just about being able to be vulnerable again.”
“And do you think he’s there yet?” Whitney asked, heating thick cream on the stove and slowly adding shredded cheese, stirring carefully as the mixture thickened.
“Well,” Harmony grinned, adding the last potato slices to the bowl and moving it closer to where Whitney was working. “He was plenty willing to be vulnerable last night. And this morning, too.”
Chapter Thirty-Three
“It’s just a little stint for now, to work me back onto the main roster, but it means I’ll be gone for a couple of days,” Xander finished, looking down at Harmony to gauge her reaction to his news.
“Okay,” she answered quietly, absorbing the shock of what he’d just told her. “I just don’t get why they’ve decided to play it like this. I mean, the Dragon and Minx, together again? What for?”
He tightened his arm around her shoulders, pulling her close to his side. They’d had dinner at his house, and then settled in on his couch to watch movies together. He’d been acting strange the entire evening; he’d been unsure of his words and sometimes seemed to be keeping his distance. It had taken Harmony some time to coax him into talking, but finally, he’d broken the news of a plot change with AWG.
“Well, Diane says that the polls are saying it seems too easy, the way the Dragon left Minx and picked up right away with you. She says the funny thing is that no one wants Minx to stay with the Dragon, but they can’t see that I’d just leave her for a new girl who’s inexperienced and not yet a star. And they want to give you some time to develop some fire. They want your character angry.”
“So they want you to play us both?” Harmony asked, fighting to conceal her growing sense of insecurity. There was a fine line between art and life – a fine line between the acting that they did at work and the reality that they lived when they left the arena. And with this new change in circumstances, Harmony was beginning to understand why Xander’s ex-girlfriend had been so unsure of her standing with him.
“I guess it is; it looks like the Dragon is gonna spend some time being a player. Believe me, I’m not happy about it either, and neither is Lauren. She liked the idea of Minx moving on from the Dragon, and she was looking forward to building a solo career that didn’t hang on my character. She’s really kind of pissed.”
Harmony sat up, pulling away from him as she turned to face him on the couch. “And you?”
Sliding the pads of his fingertips lightly down the curve of her cheek, Xander smiled. “I’m not thrilled with the change at all, Harm; I think even before we were dating, you and I had a better natural chemistry. We always have, and being together outside of work is only likely to enrich that. And I told Diane that, too.”
“What does she say?”
He smiled. “She says you have too much potential to be tied to my arm, and that you’re a natural and she wants to do some more training on your own.” He watched her lower her eyes, pursing her lips slightly as she avoided his gaze. “But I told her I don’t think you want that just yet. I told her how nervous you get, and asked her to just slow things down.”
“And then?” Harmony asked, her eyes still focused on her hands, tangled in her lap.
“And then,” Xander said, reaching out to take her hands. “That’s when she said that she could tell you need some time to develop on a smaller scale, and that’s why they’re doing it this way. To give you more training time here, to ease you into the travel and the main roster a little slower. But the flip side of it is that it’ll build the feud between you and Minx, so it sets both of you up for when they’re ready to move you on your own.”
“I see.” What he was saying made sense, of course. Harmony was a new talent with AWG, mostly inexperienced in the entertainment business. She’d never seen the kind of public exposure that she’d be getting as a member of the main active roster; she wasn’t ready for the publicity yet, for the red carpet obligations, or for the kind of public recognition that she’d be getting once she was moved to the main roster. Still, she didn’t like the idea of sitting at home, going through the motions of her training while her boyfriend traveled the country with busty female wrestlers who knew his world so much better than she did.
“What’s wrong?” he asked, his free hand brushing her hair back from her shoulder, his fingers buried in the softness of her hair. “I talked to you,” he said gently. “Now it’s your turn. Talk to me.”
“Is it stupid for this to bother me a little?” Harmony whispered, still avoiding his gaze.
“Does it? Really?” Sliding closer, Xander settled her hand on his knee and slipped the fingers of his other hand from her hair, reaching out to grasp her chin instead. He lifted her face, urging her to look at him; once she had, he
simply arched his eyebrows and waited for her to speak.
Harmony sighed. “Okay, yeah … maybe just a little. That’s why you didn’t want to tell me though, isn’t it? To avoid this?”
“Maybe,” he chuckled. “Stupid, right?”
Laughing, she leaned in and pressed a quick kiss to his mouth. “I guess we need to work on our communication, huh? Is this what happened with Emily? Why you guys didn’t work out?”
His eyes darkened as he watched her face, and he sighed heavily before looking away. “I don’t know … it was a big part of it, I guess. It was hard for her to handle us being apart all the time, with me always traveling and –“
“The women?” Harmony broke in, raising an eyebrow in question.
“The women? Yeah, probably,” he agreed. “The thing is, I used to always ask her to come with me. To travel with me.”
“And she wouldn’t?”
Xander shook his head. “No. I never could figure out why either, and she wouldn’t tell me.”
Thinking, Harmony pursed her lips. “Unless it was just simple female insecurity, I don’t know why, either. If it wasn’t that or maybe an issue with taking time from her own job, then I don’t know.”
“And what if I asked you to come? Would you want to travel with me?” he asked, his eyes softening as he lifted her chin again.
Harmony smiled. “I would if I really could,” she answered. “But you know I can’t, at least this time. I’ve got training to do, especially if I ever want Diane to think I’m good enough to take Minx down and be your only girl. I’m not sharing with Minx forever,” she finished, winking flirtatiously.
“And you’re really gonna be okay with this?” he asked, uncertain. “The whole thing with me being out of town and stuff?”
Harmony rose onto her knees, straddling Xander’s lap as his eyes widened in surprise. “I will be just fine. It’s not like you’ll be gone for months, so I think I can make it. Honestly, I think I’m only surprised because this wasn’t what I thought was going to happen. But we’ll figure it out, okay? We just have to talk it through.”
“Really?” he asked her, surprised. He brought his hands up, brushing her hair away from her face. “Are you seriously gonna be okay with this?” His eyes held uncertainty and surprise, and his voice was soft with wonder.
“Well, first of all,” Harmony answered, bending down to drop a light kiss on his mouth. “I’m not Emily, so try not to expect me to react like she did. And secondly, trust me to tell you if I’m struggling, then we can figure out what to do about it together. And … well, thirdly, I’ll just have to make sure you remember me while you’re gone,” she said, sliding her arms around his neck and pressing herself closer to him. She arched her body, rocking her hips in his lap, smiling victoriously as he allowed his head to fall against the back of the couch.
“Oh, I don’t know,” he groaned, gripping her waist to still her movement. “You might have to work a little harder than that to be completely unforgettable.”
“Oh, is that so?” she asked, sliding down from his lap until she knelt between his knees. With a devilish grin widening her mouth, she took his belt buckle in her hands, unfastening it to reveal the button of his jeans. “I guess I’ll have to work a little harder to make sure I’m memorable, then, hmm?”
Lifting his weight slightly, Xander helped as Harmony unfastened his jeans and dragged them down over his hips. “Well I like the sound of that,” he said, sliding from the couch to join Harmony on the floor. “But only if I get to return the favor. I can’t have my girl forgetting about me while I’m gone either, since I’m leaving her alone with a bunch of testosterone-loaded muscle-monkeys.”
Chapter Thirty-Four
“You look miserable,” Cameron said a few days later, her lips trembling as she tried not to laugh. The long, heavy curls of her dark hair were pulled into a ponytail that rioted down her back, and her warm brown eyes sparkled with humor. “How long has he been gone?”
Whitney laughed, passing a sugar dispenser to Tabitha, Cameron’s best friend. Watching Tabitha pretend complete nonchalance as she tipped the canister and poured sugar into her coffee, Whitney nodded in Harmony’s direction as she said, “He’s only been gone two days, and she’s dying already!”
“I am not dying,” Harmony retorted, glaring menacingly around the table, which only made the other three women laugh harder. “He’ll be back tomorrow, and I’m fine.” Tearing open the diner packet of granola, she poured it into her yogurt and picked up her spoon to mix it in – groaning as a bit of yogurt slipped over the edge of the bowl. “Ew, I hate making a mess!”
Raising her eyebrows, Cameron slid a stack of napkins along the edge of the table to her little sister. “Don’t worry, Harm, we’re just teasing. It’s funny how fast you learn to miss them though, isn’t it?”
“I don’t miss anyone,” Harmony lied defiantly, ignoring the giggles that circled the table. The truth was, she had been missing Xander, and pretending that she wasn’t bothered was beginning to really bother her. Heaving a sigh, she looked at the women around her: her sister Cameron, her best friend Whitney, and Tabitha, Cameron’s best friend, who had been like a surrogate sister for most of their lives. She couldn’t lie to them – obviously, they knew better anyway.
“Alright,” she sighed. “I do miss him. Xander has barely been gone for very long at all, and I miss him. I mean, we’d gotten to where we were seeing each other every day, meeting for lunch or whatever –“
“And spending long, luscious nights between the sheets, of course,” Whitney added, nudging Tabitha, who covered her mouth as if in shock.
“Anyway,” Harmony continued, her face flaming as Cameron arched a perfectly groomed eyebrow. “I got used to his company, I guess. It’s not like we aren’t talking though; he texts me when he can and he calls every night, so I really don’t know what the heck my problem is.”
“Well, obviously you’ve grown pretty close to him,” Cameron said. “I can’t say too much because I don’t know him yet, but according to Whitney – who got to meet him before me, I might add – he’s pretty infatuated with you, too.”
Remembering their last evening together, Harmony couldn’t hold back a smile. “Can’t have my girl forgetting about me,” he’d said. She’d spent most of the night awake, curled up in his bed beside him, trying to straighten out the various feelings warring in her heart.
She was afraid, of course, afraid to fall in love and risk getting hurt. She was just as afraid though, that she was already in love and it might be too late to prevent anything. She had all the symptoms – she missed him when he was away for even the shortest times, she worried about him suffering any sort of injury when he was in the ring at work, and just the mention of his name never failed to make her smile. She thought of him often throughout the day and she’d even purchased a Christmas gift for him already.
“Harmony?” Cameron said, breaking into Harmony’s thoughts with a sharp elbow to the side. She waited for Harmony to meet her eyes, sighing slightly as she repeated what she’d been saying. “And Mom says you talk about him all the time. She told me Dad wants to meet him.”
“Meet him?” Harmony asked, surprised. “But I’ve only been seeing him for a little while, it’s not like we’re serious or anything … I think.”
“Yes you are,” Whitney laughed. “He asked you to go with him, didn’t he?”
“He asked you to travel with him? Oh, that definitely sounds serious to me.” Tabitha winked at Harmony, sitting back in the booth to allow their waitress to refill her coffee cup.
“You know, you guys wouldn’t be able to talk me to death about Xander if you’d actually order some breakfast. Don’t you know breakfast is important to your metabolism?” Harmony muttered, taking a huge bite from the slice of toast on her plate. As she chewed, she wondered if they were right. Were she and Xander serious? He really had asked her to travel with him, and they had been seeing an awful lot of each other lately. But it was
too soon to be serious, wasn’t it? But then, if it was too soon, when was the right time? How long did a couple need to date before they could be considered serious?
“You’re buzzing,” Cameron laughed, scooting slightly away from Harmony on the booth seat they were sharing. “Your phone is vibrating all the way over to my butt.”
“I bet it’s her man,” Tabitha teased, adding sugar to the newly filled coffee cup in front of her.
Harmony rolled her eyes, adjusting her weight so that she could slip her cell phone from her pocket. She loved her sister and her friends, but they were all getting awfully goofy about her dating Xander. Trying not to smile as she swiped her finger over the screen of her phone, Harmony opened the text that she knew would be from Xander.
I just got up, he’d written, and the other side of the bed is really empty. Funny, I’d never noticed that before …
Catching her bottom lip in her teeth to avoid smiling, Harmony lowered her face and typed a quick answer: Good morning, Handsome. I’ve been noticing that my bed seems a lot bigger than it seemed before, too.
Wrestling Harmony (The Kingsley Series) Page 23
