Page 7 of A Home for Harmony (Blossoms #16)

MAN OF FEW WORDS

“ H ow is that a problem?” she asked, angling her head.

If it was anyone else, she’d do a booty shake like she did with her sister.

But Micah didn’t seem to be the type of person who would appreciate it.

“I don’t normally spend much time thinking of women,” he said.

Harmony frowned but followed him into the house. “Should I feel lucky that you’re thinking of me?”

He shrugged. “You can feel any way you want.”

That didn’t sound too encouraging. Before he was a man of few words. Now he was pretty grouchy.

It’s like something changed and she couldn’t figure it out.

Maybe she should leave.

“You have a child?”

He turned quickly and she’d moved past him in the kitchen to the living room on the other side and stopped to get a closer look at the teen’s pictures on the fireplace. Good lord, how old was he?

“That’s my daughter,” he said.

“Are you married?” she asked. “I should have asked that long before I said yes to coming here. Or at least if you’re in any kind of relationship.”

“No to both,” he said. “I’m divorced.”

“Got it. And your daughter lives with her mother?”

“You’ve got a lot of questions.”

“I think they are reasonable.”

“Says the person who might throw darts at the wall to pick out her clothes.”

She burst out laughing and pointed her finger at him. “See, funny.” At least a bit of personality was peeking out again. Maybe he had to warm up.

“Really?”

“I thought so,” she said. “And no, I don’t pick out my clothes that way. If I have no meetings, I put on whatever I want. If I have to film for a sponsor, I have to make sure I use or wear their products. Though I might go buy a dartboard and try to do things that way. It sounds like a good time.”

He angled his head. “We can eat in the living room or kitchen.”

“Kitchen works,” she said. “I rarely eat in the living room. My parents didn’t allow it when I was growing up. My mother would have a heart attack if we ate anywhere other than the kitchen or dining room.”

“Most people do those things out of spite when they move out.”

She grinned and pulled a chair out at the kitchen table, then put her jacket on the back of it. He’d hung his up on a peg, but she’d rushed to see the pictures on the fireplace.

His house was nice and fairly modern.

The kitchen looked to have been updated in the last decade or so.

There wasn’t a lot of decor that she noticed moving through, other than the Christmas tree, but that only seemed to fit his personality.

“I’ve never lived alone,” she said. “When I was in college I had roommates and we didn’t have a kitchen or anything until my last year. By then I didn’t want to eat in my room and risk getting food in my bed.”

“That’s gross,” he said. “I have to lecture Scarlet on that.”

“Is Scarlet your daughter?”

“Yes,” he said. “Who did you live with after college?”

“My sister, Erica. I got a job in New York City and she lived in New Rochelle. She had a two-bedroom apartment and it was cheaper for both of us.”

No reason to say she didn’t split the costs. She could never afford half.

She could barely afford what she did contribute, but was thankful for Erica helping her out.

She was making a lot more now on her own than she did at her last job, thanks to those sponsorship fees.

“And now you live with her here?”

“I do,” she said. “We moved here a year ago. I think I told you that. Erica had some health issues that were partially stress related to her job. I think I was ready for a move too. My father has a house on the water and it was sitting empty since my brother moved out of it a while ago when he bought a house closer to New Haven with his wife. He splits his time between New Haven and here for work.”

“The surgeon?” he asked.

“Yes, Theo,” she said. “He’s an orthopedic surgeon. I feel I can trust you. Can I?”

“You’re in my house and saw a picture of my daughter and know her name,” he said. “I don’t share that with many.”

She tapped her finger to her chin and accepted the plate he just handed her for their dinner.

She pulled her meal out of the bag and did the same for his and held back the giggle he got an egg roll with it too.

“Good point. My father is a neurosurgeon at Yale, New Haven. I never speak of my family online and won’t.”

“They could find out if they search you,” he said. “What do you want to drink?”

“Water is good,” she said. “Did you search me?”

He got two bottles out of the fridge and handed one to her, and then sat.

“I could lie and say no, but I won’t,” he said, serving food on his plate.

“What did you find out?” she asked, taking a bite of her chicken.

It’d be nice to know those things since it’d been on her mind so much lately.

“That you have a large social media presence, but since I’m not online, I can’t see much more than YouTube videos.”

Harmony grinned. “I didn’t find you online and assumed you had no social media presence.”

He lifted an eyebrow at her. “You were looking for me?”

“I said you were on my mind. Problem with that?”

“Not at the moment,” he said. “Though you might have one with it.”

She frowned. “Why is that?”

“We seem to come from different worlds. Maybe it’s an age thing.”

“Okay,” she said. “How old are you exactly? I’ve been referring to you as aged bacon.”

He spit his food out of his mouth as he coughed. “What?!”

She laughed. “It’s a joke.”

“It doesn’t sound like one.” He almost sounded offended so she’d have to clarify this. “And who have you said it to?”

“My sister,” she said. “I told her what happened the day my car died and that I was sitting with you in your SUV. I call a hot guy bacon.”

He snorted. “Why is that?”

“Do you eat bacon?”

“Don’t most men?” he asked.

She rolled her eyes. He was adorably grumpy, which made it even funnier, considering she was the total opposite.

“I think so,” she said. “I love bacon.” He looked up at her and she was lifting her eyebrows up and down. “But the sound it makes is why I call a hot guy bacon. It sizzles. Sizzling is hot. Hot is bacon. Get it?”

“I suppose,” he said.

“You’re no fun,” she said, eating some more around a grin.

“Not long ago you said I was funny.”

“That is something different. Anyway, how old are you?”

“Twelve years older than you,” he said.

“Thirty-eight,” she said. “Not that old. I’m assuming you ran my plates when I left. Aren’t you supposed to do those things before you let someone go to see if there is a warrant out for me or something?”

He squinted. “You weren’t under suspicion for anything, and it’s not like I had a computer with me to do it.”

“You could have called it in,” she said.

“How do you know so much about this?”

“I might as well tell you so you know,” she said. “Oh wow, the look on your face is priceless. I don’t have a record. You know that. Did you think I was going to confess some crime?”

“No,” he said. “I’m waiting for you to drop some bombshell on me that I’m not going to understand. I have enough of those conversations with my daughter.”

“You’re putting the age barrier up there, not me. You could try to learn the things your daughter is talking about rather than thinking it’s not your generation.”

“I’m sure you’d understand her more. She’s sixteen going on twenty-six.”

Harmony smiled. “All teenage girls are like that. And what I was going to say is that my sister-in-law, Daisy, she’s married to Theo. Her best friend is married to Luke Remington. You know Luke, right?”

“I do,” he said. “He works under me.”

“I assumed that,” she said. “And Daisy talks about things that Heather might mention, but not specific details or anything. They work together too.”

“That’s what you smell like,” he said.

“I smell?” she asked, lifting her arm up to check under it. She didn’t think anyone ever said she stunk in her life.

“The floral scents. Scarlet has a bunch of those things, but I know Luke’s wife makes a lot of products at Blossoms where she works.”

“Yes,” she said. “I do some work with Blossoms too.”

Not what she originally wanted.

She’d put together a proposal for a skincare line for Lily and then changed her mind.

It made sense when it first popped into her head, but then she realized the amount of work it’d take for Lily to add this line and decided that she was being selfish doing it.

She accepted other skincare sponsors and was ecstatic with the working relationship.

One thing she realized was that she was branching out way too much and she couldn’t be successful unless she put more of her attention into one thing.

It was more important to focus on one or two things great than multiple things halfway.

She’d finally found it and it was growing faster than she thought and it was what she wanted to expand her business on.

“That’s how you get their products?” he asked.

“I do,” she said. “But I buy them too. I make good money and I’m not someone who just gets free handouts.

I’ve got a growing business and my sponsorships feed money into my business for me to expand into something that I know is sustainable for the future.

I’m riding the here-and-now wave while I can, knowing that the tide will come in at some point, but I’ll be set when it happens rather than be swept away. ”

“That’s a very mature thing to say,” he said.

She crossed her arms. “Are you insulting me or complimenting me?”

“Complimenting. Sorry. My daughter is all about who the new rage is and posting shit online. It drives me insane how easily she is influenced by people.”

“That’s normal,” she said. “Not even for her age, but for people in general. Which is why everything I post is positive but not unrealistic. I won’t accept a sponsor I can’t stand behind and I won’t post anything that I feel might be harmful to people or sway them into making a horrible decision.”

He took a drink out of his bottle of water and she watched as his head tilted back, his Adam’s apple moving as he swallowed.

Her body heated up even more.

“I noticed that from the few I’d seen,” he said. “I don’t know what you’ve got on your other platforms.”

“More of the same,” she said. “Me using or wearing a product, but it’s always done with something else.

A message of sorts. I don’t want to bore you, but if you want, I’ll send you a video of how I ended up getting the following that I did.

It was from my last job. They hired me to help people do exactly what I am doing.

Set up social media profiles, help them utilize those tools, give courses, et cetera.

” She pulled her phone out. “I was working with an animal shelter and filming while I was there so I could teach them how to edit for a post.”

She found the video, he gave her his number, and she sent it to him.

His phone went off, he picked it up off the table, and watched the video while she continued to eat.

“Wow,” he said. “I can see where that might do it.”

It was the video of her getting a scared dog to come out and see her that no one else could do.

“I’ve been told I’ve got this way about me. It’s just who I am. I’d been posting videos for years and then more when it became my job. But that went viral and was the start of where I am now.”

“And where exactly are you?” he asked.

She grinned. “Looking at a piece of bacon and wondering how I got here and what he sees when he looks at me.”