“Do you do it on purpose?”
Was she asking if I intentionally lacked basic social skills? Because the answer was no. I just felt like most of the time people talked and no one was really listening. Most people cared about themselves, not what was going on with you. Most people would rather hear themselves talk than listen to you. I didn’t see the point in wasting my energy. And I was a private person. I always had been, which had made growing up in Wishing Well a challenge, to say the least. Plus, silence had never bothered me. In fact, I’d always found an eerie peace, a strange comfort in sitting in silence.
“Do what on purpose?”
Her brow scrunched and her nostrils flared. I wasn’t a mind reader, but I had a feeling she was calling me some not-so-flattering names in her head. I braced myself, expecting her to lose her shit, but instead she took a deep breath and continued in a tense but calm manner, the same one that my mom used to use when she started counting to three whenever my brothers and I were going to get in serious trouble.
“Withhold information. Do you do it to piss people off?”
“No.”
Holding out her finger, she pointed it at me in an accusatory gesture. “So, you’re not trying to piss me off right now?”
“No.” To prove it to her I asked, “What do you want to know?”
“Everything!” She blurted out as if I was an idiot for even asking.
“Can you be more specific?”
“Fine.” She spun towards me and crossed her arms. The movement caused Romeo to have to shift to keep his head on her lap. His new position didn’t look nearly as comfortable, but hey—I got it. If I had the choice between comfort and having my head between Harmony’s legs, it’d be no contest.
“Let’s start at the beginning. We’ve been working on a camp for underprivileged kids. A camp that you own, and that your aunt and uncle are going to be the caretakers of.”
So far this was all information we’d covered, but since I didn’t feel like meeting the same fate as the kid on the basketball court, I refrained from pointing that out.
“Yes.”
“And you didn’t tell me this because…?”
This question could lead me down a path I wasn’t quite ready to travel with Harmony. If I answered her honestly, I would have to tell her that for as long as I could remember, I’d intentionally kept her at arm’s length. She would inevitably ask the follow-up question of why, and that wasn’t somewhere I wanted to go…yet. But there was no way I could lie to her.
“I didn’t tell anyone except my parents and brothers.”
“Bullshit! Trace knows and your mysterious investor knows.”
“Trace knows because a week ago I decided to expand the camp to incorporate running an animal rescue. When my mom was notarizing the paperwork she mentioned your brothers were handling Old Man Stiller’s place and that they were having some trouble with a few special needs animals. I’m assuming she told him.”
Harmony crossed her arms and the effect was the same as if she was wearing seven push-up bras. Part of what made me good at what I did was the ability to maintain eye contact with someone while still scanning the area for anything suspicious or dangerous. It was a skill that I’d honed over my years on the job to what some considered a master level. An art form. I used that expertise now and drank in the heavenly sight. Moonlight danced over the rounded curves of her full, plump chest. My mouth watered, jeans tightened, and palms itched to touch her luscious mounds.
Her brows raised and her tone still held a large dose of attitude as she asked, “What about the investor?”
“My guess is my dad is responsible for that one. It’s his cousin’s son.”
Kyle was a lot more than that. He was an Oscar winning actor and one of the most famous people in the world.
“The investor is your dad’s cousin’s son?” She said the last three words slowly as if she was trying to put the puzzle pieces of what I was telling her in place.
I was starting to see what she meant. Every question I answered just led her to ask another question. Leaning back against the seat I ran my fingers through my hair and sighed. Maybe I was really bad at talking. Most people didn’t push as much as Harmony did. In fact the only other person who did was my mom. If this was going to go the way conversations with her did, I might as well just lay it all out there and save us both the frustration.
“Right. Kyle Austen Reed is my second cousin. My dad’s been talking to him a lot recently because Kyle’s researching a role for a movie where he’ll be playing a small town sheriff.”
Harmony released her arms and I didn’t know if I was more relieved or disappointed that her breasts were no longer on display like the lights in Times Square.