Page 21 of A Home for Harmony (Blossoms #16)

LOVE MUSIC

S unday morning, Harmony got up early to check any emails or messages she might have. As much as she wanted to have a nice lazy day in the house, she’d told her sister she’d be out all day.

She lied.

Erica was having dinner here with Tucker and Tucker’s grandfather, TC.

Unbeknownst to her sister, Harmony was going to be returning with Theo and Daisy for a big surprise.

She was so excited for her sister and it’d been hard to not give anything away.

With the giddiness of what was to come, she threw the covers back in bed, stretched her arms over her head and twisted a few times, then made her way to the bathroom with her clothes for the day.

She peed, washed her hands, turned the shower on to warm up, then brushed her teeth.

There was music playing in her head. Love music.

Her hips were swinging side to side, her head going with it.

Was the music for her sister or her?

Had to be her sister because it’d only been a few weeks for her and Micah. That couldn’t be love.

Could it?

Nah, she thought.

Just because they had a crazy physical connection and she enjoyed spending time with him didn’t mean her heart was falling yet.

Though she had to admit, even through his grouchiness, he had a heart of gold.

Could she touch it? She didn’t know.

Everyone seemed to find love around her.

She was the youngest. The baby of the family.

Though she was tired of being babied.

At least her sister and brother didn’t treat her that way. Only her parents.

Her father was getting better too.

Her pity party had to stop on that.

She told everyone she never let her mother get to her, but she’d been lying about that too.

Maybe she lied to herself a lot over the years and had to stop it.

Her self-doubt thoughts halted the music in her head. She stripped and climbed into the shower.

As she was lathering up, she thought of her and Micah in here together yesterday before he left.

Oh man, what a body he had on him.

She didn’t care about his age; he didn’t look it to her. He was in better shape than some men she dated around her own age.

He was calm and in control, liked to take charge, but was willing to let go of it too.

His love for his daughter was sweet to see on someone so rough around the edges.

Maybe he wasn’t someone she would have ever pictured herself with in the past, but she was glad she found him.

Or he found her.

She rinsed all the soap off her body, then shut the water off and got out.

She had to kill time until she could come back and surprise her sister.

What she truly wanted was to see Micah—to catch even a glimpse of him—but he was working, and she’d promised herself she wouldn’t interrupt his day just to ease the ache of missing him.

He had a job and what they had was still a secret to an extent.

It was probably too soon to be telling too many people and she’d have to get over that too.

When she walked into the kitchen, Erica was there having breakfast.

“When did you get here?” she asked. Erica had spent the night at Tucker’s.

“A few minutes ago,” Erica said. “I thought I’d come and get things ready.”

“What are you making?” she asked.

“Tucker said he was dying for an enormous dish of baked ziti, so I’m starting the sauce and meatballs now. He wanted enough for leftovers too.”

Harmony held her grin in place. That was Tucker’s way to make sure the meal was big enough for three extra people that would show up without her sister’s knowledge.

“That sounds good,” she said. “Make sure you save me some too.”

“I will,” Erica said. “There will be plenty.”

Harmony couldn’t stay in the kitchen and not give away what was going on, so she made a cup of coffee, grabbed a bagel with some cream cheese slathered on it and then went to her room to get a few things done.

Halfway through her emails, she noticed one that she’d hoped would have stopped by now.

She couldn’t even finish chewing the bite in her mouth and spit it into a tissue, then took a sip of her coffee to help wet her dry throat.

It was only an email. It’s not like they could see her or know where she was.

She took a deep breath and clicked on it. It was best to know what it said rather than just delete it.

It was so nice seeing you having a good time in Times Square. You looked great. Your makeup was the same as your video that came out the next day. Did you film it earlier that day? Loved your boots too. My sister has the same pair.

She was going to throw up.

Whoever this was paid enough attention to her makeup to know it was the same. She’d never commented on that and she’d changed to go out that night.

But the one thing she knew for certain was that not once had her tan UGG boots been in a picture.

Every picture she’d posted was from the waist up.

Which meant that the person was there, live and watching her.

They saw her.

And she had no idea it was happening or who it was.

She put her head on the desk and took a few deep breaths.

Harmony knew, putting herself out there like this, things could happen, but she’d taken all the precautions that she could.

She’d never been careless about anything when it came to social media, even though it was the backbone in her first job and now her business.

After a few more breaths, she pulled it together.

It was only an email. A nice one too. There was nothing threatening in it and anyone who read it would say the same.

Just because she found them all creepy when they added up didn’t mean there was a threat.

Right?

That’s right!

She had to get it together.

Maybe it was just a fan that didn’t like to be blocked and kept coming back.

She had no proof it wasn’t multiple people other than they always used the same emojis after all their emails or messages.

A smiley face, a hug, and a heart.

Nothing odd there except the message was always the same, regardless of the platform, and that was unusual.

She shut her computer down and pushed back.

She wouldn’t let anything ruin this day for her and put her sneakers on, grabbed her phone and went downstairs.

“Leaving already?” Erica asked.

“Yes,” she said. “I’ve got a ton to do. Have fun with Tucker and TC.”

“You didn’t finish your breakfast,” Erica said when Harmony threw out the rest of her bagel.

“I wasn’t as hungry as I thought,” she said, smiling.

“See you later,” Erica said.

Harmony grabbed her coat and purse and went through the kitchen to her car in the garage.

She had a few hours to kill and decided to just do some shopping before she stopped to get the cake.

A few hours later, she met Daisy and Theo in front of her father’s house.

Her excitement was back, the stress of the early morning email gone from her mind to where she was going to keep it.

She was overreacting and knew it. Maybe there was a full picture of her out there.

She’d tagged her friends, they could have posted one.

It could be nothing more than that, rather than someone close enough to her she didn’t know.

“Ready?” she asked.

Theo grinned. “I can’t believe we knew before Erica. She might not be happy about this.”

“Too bad,” Daisy said, grinning. “She’ll forget about it once she sees the ring. I worked damn hard on that.”

Harmony hadn’t even seen the ring yet, as Daisy said no one could see it but her and Tucker.

She supposed she understood that too.

She opened the door and saw Erica in Tucker’s arms with tears in her sister’s eyes.

“We missed it!” Harmony yelled as she ran in the front door with Theo and Daisy behind her.

“You guys knew?” Erica asked.

She so wanted to see Erica get proposed to, but couldn’t ask Tucker to do that. He wanted to make sure his grandfather was present for it and sometimes you had to go with your heart and when it was time.

“We did,” Theo said. “Congratulations.”

Her brother gave her sister a hug and shook Tucker’s hand.

“What’s in the box?” Erica asked her. Harmony was carrying the cake that she’d picked up on the way.

“Cake,” Daisy said, flipping the lid for Erica to see it.

“Happy Anniversary and Congratulations,” Erica said, reading it. Tucker remembered the exact date that Erica had passed out in front of him. Harmony found the whole thing sweet that he was celebrating this way. “I can’t believe you remembered it,” Erica said to Tucker.

“It’s a day I’ll never forget,” Tucker said. “And now we’ll remember the date for a better reason.”

Her sister gave her fiancé a kiss. Her real fiancé and not just a fake one that they were playing previously.

“I’m ecstatic for you,” Harmony said, rushing her sister for a hug. “And let me see that ring.” She pulled her sister’s hand closer to stare at the square-cut diamond that looked very similar to the fake one Erica had before. Only this one had erica flowers all entwined in the band.

“Isn’t it stunning?” Erica asked, then went to hug Daisy.

“It is,” she said. Not feeling any jealousy that everyone was finding love, because maybe she was too.