Page 8 of A Home for Harmony

“Because you’re thirty. It’s a good age for you.”

“Not for you at twenty-six?” Erica asked.

She shrugged. “I never thought much of it. I don’t look or think of someone’s age when I get to know them.”

“But you are thinking it with Micah,” Erica pointed out.

“You’re reading more into this. I said he’s older. It’s not just the gray hair that I saw, and yes, it was only a few on the side by his ear. But he had some lines in his face.”

“Wrinkles?” Erica asked, smiling. Her sister pulled into the grocery store parking lot. It was pretty empty this morning.

“I’ll call them laugh lines. Though I don’t picture him as the type of person who laughs a lot. Having spent enough time with Oscar, I know a grouch or two when I see one.”

Erica gave her shoulder a playful shove when she shut the car off.

“I guess that makes you a pro,” Erica said.

“Could be,” she said. “I wonder if I can get a coffee inside. I’m dying for one.”

“I doubt it,” Erica said. “But I could have gone through the drive-thru for one on the way.”

“It’s fine. I’ll live.”

Her sister limited her caffeine intake now due to migraines so she tried not to put the temptation in front of her.

“If you could have lived without it, then you wouldn’t have ventured out to get creamer this morning,” Erica said, grabbing a cart and pushing it toward the door.

“I was planning to go out later anyway,” she said. “And my car would have or could have died at any point. It was better in the morning than at night.”

“Good point,” Erica said. “What did the mechanic say?”

“It’s some electrical thing. They can’t even hook it up to the computers there, so it’s going to get towed to the dealership. God only knows how long I’ll be without a car.”

“It’s only two years old,” Erica said. “They should give you a loaner.”

“Do you think?”

“I would ask them if it’s possible,” Erica said. “A lot of dealerships do that.”

“Yeah. With luxury cars, but I don’t have one.”

“You won’t know until you ask,” Erica said.

“They should get my car today and I’ll do that when they call,” she said. “Now let’s get some food and get out of here.”

“Why?” Erica asked. “So you can post about today’s adventure?”

She turned her head to frown at her sister. “You know I don’t do those things. I’ll admit I was an idiot today. I shouldn’t have done that, and I wasn’t prepared.”

“That’s right,” Erica said. “All those things. So maybe eat some humble pie and post that to all your followers so that someone else doesn’t do it next time.”

Her head went back and forth. “Mom might see it,” she said, wiggling her eyebrows.

Erica snorted. “Do you really think Mom watches anything you do on social media?”

“No,” she said, her voice lowering. “She thinks I can’t take care of myself, which today kind of proved it and that hurtsworse. But it’s more about the fact she thinks everything I do is frivolous and meaningless.”

Erica took her hand off the cart and reached for Harmony’s. “We know that isn’t the truth and I’m sorry that I brought it up to take the shine off of you. I never like doing it.”