Page 31 of A Home for Harmony (Blossoms #16)

DIG INTO HIS PAST

“ I ’m sorry if this is a lot for you,” Harmony said three weeks later.

“It’s fine,” he said. “Why would you say that?”

“Because I just met your daughter and you’ve met all of my family but my mother, which will be in an hour. You could drive slower and it’s less time we’ve got to spend there.”

Micah turned his head to see her smirking at him. “You haven’t gone into a lot of detail about your mom. Should you fill me in now?”

“She puts the blades in a helicopter mom,” she said, laughing.

“With Theo, who was in college at sixteen by the way, she was manic. I think the fact that she could brag about him made it easier, but if she could have, she would have driven him there daily and sat in class with him. My father said no way on the commute. Since he was close by it made it easier for Theo to live on campus but go to my father’s when he wanted. ”

“Shit,” he said. “I had no idea Theo was in college that young.”

“As I said, a whiz kid. She coddled and put a lot of pressure on him. He had it hard being so young and being judged, but you’d never know now. Thankfully Theo is pretty laid back, but he ignored my mother and then put his foot down after medical school.”

“Good for him,” he said.

“I should warn you, my mother liked Daisy when she met her but not as a partner for Theo.”

“Meaning what?” he asked, lifting his eyebrow.

“Meaning that she looked into Daisy’s background and then threw it back into Theo’s face he could do better. Theo told her he was cutting ties with her until she apologized and accepted Daisy and meant it.”

“Damn.” He wasn’t sure he could forgive his parents for going behind his back and doing something like that. “Are they on good terms now?”

Her head went back and forth. “I’m not sure good terms is the right word. They get along and Theo and Daisy just swallow their tongues for the time they have to be around my mother. With the baby coming, they are trying more, but having the distance helps.”

“How was she with Tucker?”

“She likes Tucker, but of course had to dig into his life and family. Tucker’s father had a bit of a reputation.”

“I know,” he said. “In a small area like this, TC Nelay was well known for a lot of things.”

Like drugs and whoring. The guy was a piece of shit and treated his staff like trash on the side of the road.

No one seemed to mourn his passing. If it wasn’t for the fact TCN Industries employed so many people in the area and paid well, the place might have gone under with Tucker’s father’s leadership.

“It’s getting better with Tucker running things. He hired Erica to help with the transformation, but you know that.”

Harmony had filled him in on how Tucker and Erica had met in New York City and both ended up back in this area.

“What Tucker’s father did had nothing to do with him.”

“But my mother didn’t see that at first and gave Erica a hard time. I should say Erica and I really ignore our mother. Or I make jokes about it. I feel, being the baby, I’ve never been good enough for her and I have more fun working her up by joking than letting her know how much it pisses me off.”

“I don’t think you get pissed,” he said. “I’m not sure you’ve got it in you. You’re hurt and you should tell her.”

She stuck her tongue out at him. “Telling my mother she is hurting my feelings won’t change a thing.

Then she’ll tell me to grow up. Trust me, I’ve learned.

I do stand my ground when I have to. It always feels as if Erica and Theo have to stand up for me and, though I appreciate it, it’s getting old too. But we all stick together.”

“I’m sure you’ve stuck up for them,” he said.

“I have. All the time. But back to you. She knows we are dating, but nothing more. I’m sorry. I should have told her your age and that you’ve got a daughter, but I couldn’t. I wanted her to meet you first and not form an opinion prior based on information she was going to gather.”

“I’ve got mixed feelings about that.” He didn’t give a shit if Harmony’s mother approved of him, but he sure the hell didn’t like knowing someone was going to dig into his past life.

“I know and I’m sorry. I’m being honest. My mother can be rude but not over the top. Jerry will put her in her place and so will everyone else.”

“Your stepfather,” he said. “How do you feel about him?”

“I like him a lot. He’s completely different from my mother and my father.

My mom needs to control everything. Jerry is a pediatrician.

He loves kids. He’s got one daughter in med school and she doesn’t live around here, but they have a good relationship.

Better than my father had with us, but then I realize it’s just different. ”

“Different isn’t bad.”

“No,” she said, reaching over and running her hand on his thigh. “It’s not. What we have differs from my siblings and my mother will see it and ask questions. She might insult you, but it’s going to end up insulting me.”

“Will it bother you if I speak up?” he asked. “I’m not sure I can sit back and let that happen.”

Her bottom lip came out. “That’s so sweet. It’s not going to bother me. You’ll be diplomatic. You know, being the negotiator and all.”

Micah didn’t expect to see this side of Harmony. With her father she was confident and secure about herself, him, and her career.

With her mother, she was showing self-doubt on not just her career and him, but also her self-worth. It was night and day to him, making him realize there were more layers to the woman he loved than he could have imagined.

His eyebrows rose. “I wouldn’t go that far. Why don’t you fill me in on what she knows?”

The past few weeks they hadn’t had a lot of time together and he felt bad about that, but there was a lot going on at work and she had obligations. Scarlet was at the house half the time like always and he wasn’t up to having his girlfriend spend the night with his daughter in the house just yet.

That also meant he couldn’t go to Harmony’s if Scarlet was home because he wouldn’t leave her alone.

They were squeezing time in the best they could or talking at night. He worried it might not be enough.

Scarlet was working today and then would go to her mother’s house.

“She knows your first name and that you work for the Connecticut State Police. She didn’t even ask more,” she said. “Part of it annoyed me, the other part made me feel good.”

“Do you know why she didn’t?”

“Yep,” she said, nodding her head. “Which is why I let it go. She can see it for herself.”

He smiled. “Are you going to tell me?”

“You need to smile more,” she said. “I know I say that a lot, but you’re just so cute. I want to reach over and kiss you, but I’d have to take my seat belt off and then I might get a lecture.”

He squinted at her. “I think I smile a lot. Or more than I used to. Maybe you bring it out of me.”

He remembered Luke’s words not that long ago about feeling as if he wasn’t worthy. He hated that might be the case and was trying to relax.

That compounded with his parents telling him to let go of the failure of his marriage. He didn’t want his past to bring down his future.

His mother was right. Many people could look at the same situation and all see it differently.

“That’s like honey-coated goodness,” she said. “People always say that about me. I don’t even try.”

“It’s who you are,” he said. “Remember that when people like your mother bring you down.”

Harmony batted her eyes and he was having a panic moment that she was going to cry.

“I appreciate you saying that. I remember those things. I often wonder where I get my personality from. You met my dad. He’s drier than charcoal toast.”

“I like your father.”

“Because he’s a little like you. Or you’re a little like him,” she said, giggling.

“I don’t think I’m that dry,” he said. “Or serious.”

“Yeah,” she said. “You are, but not nearly as much. My father is like that ninety percent of the time. I’d say you’re only about fifty. You’re not with Scarlet and not so much with me.”

He would have said he was like that for more than half, so maybe he was getting better.

“And it sounds as if you’re nothing like your mother.”

“You’re lucky I don’t break up with you for even having those words in the same sentence.”

He smirked. “You just be you,” he said. “Who cares where you get it from? We are products of our environment.”

“We are,” she said. “And please, don’t hold anything said today against me. At least my siblings will be there too so with any luck, my mother is focused on Daisy and the future baby.”

“It’s your birthday dinner,” he said.

“But not my birthday. A few more days,” she said. “To me, this is just dinner with my mother that I’ve put off for a long time. I haven’t seen her since Thanksgiving, so I expect she’s going to be on my case for that too.”

“I’ll protect you,” he said. “Don’t worry.”

“Wear your gun in,” she said, her eyes lighting up. “That might quiet her.”

“I don’t think it’s necessary, do you?”

“But you’d do it for me, right?” she asked.

“I’d do a lot of things, but not that unless there was a safety issue. It can stay in the glove box.”

Micah never left home without a gun. He was always carrying, but if he was visiting someone’s house, it stayed locked in his car.

“Will you teach me to shoot a gun?” she asked.

His head swiveled fast. That came out of nowhere. “Why?”

She shrugged. “I don’t want to be afraid of them. I’ve never held one before. I don’t know, I bet Scarlet knows how.”

His daughter did. He wanted to make sure she could take care of herself.

“That’s the only reason?”

He was searching her eyes for the truth, surprised this came up.

“Isn’t that reason enough?” she asked, frowning.

His head went back and forth. “If you want to learn, we’ll get you a permit and do it the right way.”

“I don’t want to buy one,” she said. “Just know how to shoot it if I had to.”

“That makes no sense. Why learn to shoot one if you don’t have it or aren’t around one?”

“I’m around yours. What if something happened to you and we are together? I might want to fire it then.”

“You need a permit,” he said firmly. “Those are my rules.”

She crossed her arms and scrunched up her nose. “Fine. There you go again, being all serious.”

He turned to look at her. “Firearms are a serious matter, Harmony. I mean it.”

“I know they are. I’m talking about you being serious, not the subject. I’ll get the permit, don’t worry.”

It was hard not to worry when he felt there was something more going on.