Page 35 of A Home for Harmony

Or that he was next to her.

He hadn’t had thoughts like that since he was in college and before he met Trinda.

“Like the message in your video,” he said. “Which was nicely delivered.”

“That sounded so hard for you to get out of your mouth,” she said, laughing. “Take a sip of your beer. Maybe it will help.”

Their drinks had been placed down and he did what she said, hoping to quench his parched throat after seeing Harmony all sleepy eyed in bed.

But she didn’t come off as sexy. She came off as real.

As genuine.

And he was having a crisis of conscience in his opinion of her.

“I don’t want to put you off,” he said. “I wonder if this is a generational thing.”

She laughed and then winked at him. “Do you know how many Mommy Vlogs are out there? And let me tell you, there is nothing more cutthroat than a mother trying to boast about her child and gaining subscribers. I can’t tell you the number of clients I’ve got that are mothers starting out.”

He frowned. “Clients?”

Her head went back and forth. “I have instructional videos that people can buy on how to earn money on YouTube. They can also pay for one-on-one sessions where I walk them through connection, trends, video editing. You name it, I’m doing it. The one thing I’ve started now is being a liaison between brands and influencers. I’m building a list of brands that want to use influencers for marketing. It’s crazy cheaper than traditional ads for them. I’ve got a list of influencers that is growing who want to earn money. I put them in touch with each other after being the middleman for some negotiations, then get a percentage from both sides.”

Most of this was going over his head, but he understood the gist of it.

“You are keeping your presence so that you’re reputable also?” he asked.

“Something like that,” she said, nodding. “I won’t bore you, but it’s all part of my business. I do the work so both sides don’t have to. It’s not a lot of work either. Or won’t be as the lists grow.”

“I don’t think I realized the amount of money to be made on social media.”

“You have no clue,” she said, smirking. “But people think it’s there for everyone and it’s not. Do I rate a better opinion in your mind now?”

“Is it important how I think of your career?” he asked.

“It is,” she said sincerely. “Don’t you want to know what someone thinks of your career? You said that is part of the reason your marriage failed. I’m sure you want to know how a woman feels about it now before you get too invested. Where is it any different?”

Damn, she had a point. He felt like an asshole not seeing it himself.

“I wasn’t trying to do that,” he said.

“I’d hope not but figured I’d put it out there.”

“You’re educating me on the other side of social media,” he said. “I guess I needed that. Or should know it with Scarlet.”

“It’s not all negative, but there is a lot of bad too,” she said. “Do you want to know how I feel about your career?”

“I’d like that,” he said. He was glad she’d brought it up.

“I’ll be honest and say I never thought much about it until you told me about Scarlet having to text you before she came over at night. Then my mind went to you having your gun out.” She leaned closer. “I thought it was sexy and I wasn’t thinking of the gun in your hand.”

Heat crept up his neck as his face flushed—he hadn’t known anyone could affect him like this, and somehow, she’d done it twice now without even trying.

“It happens,” he said. “It’s better to be prepared.”

“And now you’re going to sound like a parent,” she said, winking at him. “I get it, you are one. I do plan things in life but take them as they come too. As for your job, I’ll be serious. There are going to be times it will scare me, I’m positive. I’m not going to lie. But as you said about your opinion of my job, it’s biased. I’ll consider myself uninformed but open-minded to learn more.”

“I like that,” he said. She was wiser than he’d given her credit for, more open-minded, more accepting than most people he’d known. And if he were being honest, which he wasn’t quite ready to be, she saw things more clearly, more fairly, than he ever had. “I’ll do the same.”