Finding Harmony (16 page)

He waved a hand. “I’m just trying to acclimate myself to
the new position, Jake.”

Jake blew out a breath. “Yeah. Executive Officer of big
money, and ruler of all finances in the free world. You wanna tell me what
happened in Florida?”

He winced and took the two Advil with a gulp of coffee. “I
don’t know what you’re talking about.”

“Yeah,” Jake said again. “I got an earful from dear Stepmom,
along with a couple of gropes. She said something about some tree-hugger?”

He kept his face immobile, saying nothing.

“Come on, bro,” Jake said softly. “Spill.”

He looked into his brother’s eyes. Dark like their
mother’s, they were clear and sharp and concerned. What the hell?

He spilled.

Jake let out a whistle and ran his fingers through his
hair, freeing a few strands from his ponytail. “So what are you going to do?”

Rick’s throat was tight, but he was just thirsty, right? He
drained the rest of his now-cold coffee. “Nothing. I’m going to do nothing. She
told me to leave and I did.”

“Just like that?”

He looked at his brother. Jake lounged in the chair. He
appeared relaxed but his eyes showed his full attention from beneath lowered
lids. Damn.

“Look, Jake.” He spread his hands in front of him. “Harmony
made her choice. It wasn’t me.”

“What did you choose? Tell me that one.”

He stood and paced behind his desk. “I chose Chapman, damn
it. It’s what I’ve wanted forever. Since Mom died.” He met Jake’s gaze. “This
is what I chose.”

“Man.” Jake shook his head. “You sound just like Bill.”

He fisted his hands. “Don’t give me that bullshit! You’re
not the one working his ass off for this company, here every friggin’ day no
matter what.”

“Hey, I’m only telling you what I see. You give yourself to
this place and you lose, bro.”

“This is my career, damn it! I don’t know anything else. I
vowed to win and this is my reward.”

“You’re losing it, Rick. Stay here and you’ll turn into our
father.”

“That’s not fair,” he growled. “You play at Chapman. You
scale mountains and jump off bridges and when you’re bored you come back here
to make a little money. I can’t do that.”

“Why not? You don’t owe Bill anything.”

He felt his anger leave in a rush as he covered his face
with his hands. “I don’t do this for Bill.”

The silence stretched for several minutes. He heard Jake
shift in the chair and lifted his head to find his brother leaning toward him. Jake’s
eyes looked wet.

“She’s gone, Rick,” Jake said softly. “She’s been gone a
long time.”

He knew this in his head. But in his heart? It was like she
just died.

“It’s not just my promise. This is what I’m made for. This
is what I want.”

“Then why do you look like shit?”

He smirked at him. “Thanks.”

“Now tell me what you really want,” Jake said.

What did he want? He wanted passion and comfort. Strength
and sweetness. He wanted to feel like he did when he was with…

“God, Jake.” He swallowed hard. “I want her. I want
Harmony.”

“Then go for it.”

He rubbed his brow and winced again. “It’s not that easy.”

Jake stood and walked around the desk. “Seems easy to me.” He
put his hand on Rick’s shoulder. “And it seems like you should fly back down
there and make her see that, too.”

“No.” He sat back in his chair. “She told me to leave and I
left. End of story.”

Jake shook his head but didn’t press him again. He didn’t
know if he was grateful for that or a little pissed off.

“I talked to Cassie last week,” Jake said.

Cassie. Their wild little sister who was off in Europe.

“Man,” Rick said. “Do I want to know what she’s up to?”

“She got kicked out of another school.”

He snorted. “Big surprise. I doubt she’s ever going to
graduate.”

“She runs around with those Euro-trash friends of hers. They
don’t care if they finish their degrees or not.”

“I wish she’d just finish and come home.” He fiddled with
the pens on his desk. “I haven’t been able to reach her for months.”

Jake chuckled. “I think the kid turns off her phone. Wouldn’t
you?” He walked toward the door. “Let’s get together for dinner.”

He thought of his schedule for the coming week. What the
hell? “Thursday night?”

Jake nodded. “Don’t work too hard,” he said as he left.

He laughed at Jake’s parting shot. He thought about his
siblings then, each screwed up in their own way because of Bill. He wasn’t
kidding with Jake. He didn’t want to know what trouble Cassie was getting into.
Maybe Bill’s attention would come in time to help one of them. Before Jake
killed himself or Cassie got into a mess Bill’s money couldn’t buy her out of.

He thought about all Bill had finally bestowed on him at
Chapman. He had his father’s attention now. Finally.

It would have to be enough.  

***

Harmony woke up, her head pounding. She turned and nearly
threw up over the side of the bed.

“Shouldn’t have eaten at The Clubhouse last night,” she
grumbled. “Darn rich food.”

She sat on the edge of the bed and braced herself with her
arms while the room settled. Rubbing her temples, she took slow even breaths. True,
she hadn’t been sleeping well since Rick left two weeks ago. It seemed she saw
him around every stinkin’ corner of the property. Dr. Robbins only asked about
him once, thank goodness. She hated lying, especially to him. But it was better
if everyone thought she and Rick hadn’t been lovers while he was here. Because
if they knew he’d used her, taken advantage just to further Chapman’s concerns,
what did that make her?

It was bad enough Hettie knew. But as eccentric as she
seemed, Harmony knew she could count on the woman to keep her secrets. Yes, she
knew they’d slept together. What she didn’t know was how hard Harmony had
fallen for him.

She washed her face and felt better right away. That was weird.
As she brushed her hair, she focused her mind on the meeting with the
developers at the end of the week. Since Rick left, she’d found that they
welcomed her input. So she accompanied Dr. Robbins to the meetings and also
discovered that she liked presenting her own work to a table surrounded by
people with more money than she’d ever see. But they treated her well. They
respected her. Darn it, it felt good.

Another day at the Institute, another day to avoid Rick’s
phone calls. Becky didn’t even page her any more. She just took a message and
left a little pink note on Harmony’s desk in the lab. It was a nice stack of
pink notes by now, but she couldn’t bear to throw them away. So there they still
sat, pink, perky and expectant.

She finished getting dressed and rode into the village. Several
people she recognized called out greetings to her as she wove her way through
the Village Center toward the Institute, and she waved back. Residents and
people who worked at the Welcome Center called her name as she rode past. Strange,
but it felt good. Maybe she should think about moving into the village. Hettie
had been pressing her to do just that for weeks now. Construction on the
recreation center would start in a few months. Why put off the inevitable?

Just a couple of months ago the thought would’ve seemed
ridiculous. Frightening. Maybe she’d go into the Welcome Center and see what
they had available. She snorted. Maybe Rick’s house was still vacant. No way. She
couldn’t bear to be in the place he’d so recently occupied. It was bad enough
she saw him around every corner.

Her scooter wobbled beneath her and she touched her left
foot down to steady herself as she turned a corner. No. She couldn’t drive past
that house without thinking of what they’d done inside. What she’d done. She’d
been wild and free and had taken full advantage of the willing man beneath her.
Rick had been in as big a hurry, his body ready for her in an instant. Her body
flushed with the memory. Why, they hadn’t even had time to put on a condom.

The truth hit her right in the belly. She skidded to a stop
and covered her mouth with her hand.

“Oh, God.”

She counted in her head and knew. In a flash she just knew.
She was pregnant! In her mind she saw a flash of something, a smiling baby with
thick dark hair and bright eyes. Rick’s son or daughter. Oh, God.

She got off her scooter and walked it the block or so to
the Institute. She didn’t trust herself to ride there safely, the way her hands
were shaking. Heck, her whole body was shaking.

“Hey, Harmony!” Becky called.

She turned and waved to the girl sitting on a bench beneath
a large crepe myrtle tree. She parked the scooter and took off her helmet. Her
cheeks burned. That was silly.
No one knew about Rick or the baby. If
there was a baby. Well, she wasn’t going to wait to find out.

She walked over to Becky on shaky legs. The girl was
drinking a yogurt smoothie and just the thought of drinking the thick rich
shake, sweet and creamy and a little sour, made her stomach twist again.

“Hi, Becky.” She took a breath as the nausea passed,
leaving her heart racing.    “When you go back in could you tell Dr. Robbins I’m
here but I’ll be a little late?”

“Sure.”

Becky’s brow furrowed and she put down the smoothie. Harmony
watched the shake ease its way back down the straw and gulped.

“Harmony?”

She looked at Becky again and shook her head. “What?”

“Are you all right?” Becky smiled a little. “Sorry, but you
looked a little pale there for a minute.”

She swallowed as she tried to slow her racing pulse. “I’m
fine.” She gave the girl what she hoped was a smile. “Really, Becky. I’m fine.”

Becky opened her mouth but Harmony didn’t give her a chance
to ask her anything else. She waved and turned away, heading for the
storefronts across the street. If her suspicions were right, in a couple of
months no one would have any question about it.

She hurried toward the shop on the corner, an old-fashioned
drugstore and soda fountain that carried everything from penny candy to the
newest pregnancy tests. She hurried past the glass and chrome canisters filled
with red-hots and other treats, the sweet smell almost sickening her again. Well,
she sure wasn’t shopping for taffy. Huh-uh. The sooner she knew, the better. She
turned down an aisle of the store to a section she’d never visited before.

Less than fifteen minutes later, in the privacy of the
ladies’ room at the Institute, her answer was a double line where there should
have been one. She crouched down on the floor of the bathroom and leaned her
head against the cool tiles behind her. A baby. What would Rick say?

She stood and dropped the test stick into the garbage can. “He’s
not going to find out,” she said as she washed her hands. She couldn’t tell him.
It was a moot point anyway. He wouldn’t want the child. He’d probably think it
was nothing more than an inconvenience.

Wiping her hands, she stared in the mirror as another
thought struck her. It could be worse. What if Rick wanted to help her raise it?
A sense of protectiveness flared in her and she held a hand over her belly.

“It’s never going to happen,” she said, only half to
herself.

He’d fly in now and then to see them, throw money at them
like Bill had done. Then he’d go back to his work. There would always be his
work. She wouldn’t let Rick’s driving ambition turn their child into a
carbon-copy of himself.

An abandoned child desperate for its father’s attention.

Harmony waited for the morning sickness to pass, nibbling
on one of the rice cakes she kept handy beside her bed. She stared up at the
draped ceiling. Just a few more minutes and a spoonful of apple vinegar and
she’d be fine. Good thing she’d listened to her mother when she handed folks
advice for everything from arthritis to insomnia to morning sickness. Ariel
Brooks certainly knew her stuff.

She should really talk to her mother. Nearly a week had
passed since she’d learned she was pregnant, and keeping the news to herself
was driving her crazy. She didn’t want anyone at the Institute to know about it
yet. She’d kept any exchanges with Hettie to a minimum, too.  God knew she
couldn’t tell Rick. But she was happy about the baby, this little bit of her
and Rick. She smiled and sat up slowly. She’d make sure he or she was loved,
and what better start was there than Max and Ariel Brooks showering the child
with affection and good thoughts?

“Maybe Ariel will have a reading of the baby’s past lives,”
she laughed to herself.

As she’d gotten used to, the nausea passed quickly and she
dressed. Her parents were due for a visit. Maybe she should wade through that
growing pink pile of messages at the Institute and see if there was one from
them. She threw on a sweater and hopped on her scooter. As she made her way
from the camp, the cool air invigorating on her cheeks, she still thought about
those phone messages.   She’d glimpsed Rick’s name on one slip yesterday, and
her fingers had itched to pick it up. But, as the more recent ones in the stack
showed, it just had his name and telephone number. No message, no endearment. What
did she expect? A stinkin’ Valentine?

Something niggled at her, something that made her stop at a
point where the path grew rockier and more overgrown. Precisely where over the
past three weeks she’d purposely kept her gaze fixed forward. He’d asked her to
come and look at the rec café before he left, and more than once. She’d
resisted. Why take an interest in his work? He was interested enough for the
both of them  But now she felt like she had to see it. It was the reason they’d
gotten together in the first place. It had meant so darn much to him while he
was here.

“What the heck?” She stepped on the pedal and turned the
scooter in the direction of the café. Built on the site where she’d first seen
him.

“Be strong, Harmony.” Don’t be a fool, she mentally added.

As she got closer, the path became smoother and she could
make out the recreation area up ahead. But something wasn’t right. The nature
trails were well marked but their edges were soft enough to look as if they’d
developed over years instead of weeks. She could see hikers and children making
use of the paths, some hurrying and some taking their time. At the center of
the activity was a building, nestled under a canopy of trees.  

She stopped the scooter and stared. “Wow,” she breathed.

The rec café was nothing like she’d envisioned. It was made
of stone and framed with rough-hewn wood planks, and the paint that colored the
stucco walls was a green as soft as the underside of a scrub buckwheat leaf. People
bustled in and out of the double doors, talking and smiling as they carried
their little brown bags of treats and cups of coffee to the round iron tables
set on the small stone patio. She drove closer and parked the scooter in the
bike rack set off to one side of the building.

She saw bottles of juices and nectar on the tables and in
people’s hands and could smell cinnamon and vanilla. Suddenly her mouth watered.
She smiled. So much for morning sickness. This baby wanted to eat and it wanted
to now. She stepped off the scooter and walked into the little retreat.

There was a line from the counter to the door, and she stepped
aside to allow a happy patron to make their exit.

“Harmony!”

She turned at the familiar voice and stared at her mother, who
bustled behind the counter. “Mom?”

Ariel smiled at her as she finished a transaction at the
cash register. “And five is twenty.” She waved over a young woman working
behind the counter to take up her position and wiped her hands on her tie-dyed apron.
“Hello, dear.”

“Mom, what are you doing here?”

Her mother grinned and jabbed her thumb toward the man
deftly working the cappuccino machine. “I couldn’t let him work by himself,
could I?”

She blinked in the man’s direction. “Dad?”

Max winked at her. “Hi, hon,” he called over the hissing
and gurgling of the machine.

She took a step back and settled on a stool near the
counter. “What the… ? Mom, why are you guys working here?”

Ariel pointed to the large bake case dominating one wall of
the rec café. Glass plates topped with white doilies sat on the racks inside,
holding snacks Harmony could identify in a heartbeat.

“Tofu cheesecake, Mom?” She smiled. “Carob fudge brownies and
cinnamon apple tartlets?”

“That’s right,” Ariel said. “I supply all the treats for
the joint. Your Dad makes the coffee.”

“How did you… ?” She was floored. “How?”

Ariel took her hand and sat beside her. “Rick.”

She was grateful for the seat beneath her bottom as she
tried to clear her head. Rick? She must have heard wrong. “Rick? I know he was
involved in the staffing, but… ”

“He changed the design, too,” Ariel said. “To make it fit
in better, he told us. To put it in balance. He arranged for your father and me
to supply the place.” She winked. “Working here was your father’s idea. But
what the heck? Maybe we could settle down a few months out of the year. It
beats trucking up to Orlando every weekend.”

Her head was spinning, and it had nothing to do with the
tiny being nestled inside her. Her mother’s explanation made no sense. Yet it
filled her with a cautious spark of hope.

If Rick could change his mind about the café, maybe he
could change his attitude too. Maybe he didn’t think Cypress Corners was so
messed up after all, not if he could see the merits of blending development
with nature.

“Maybe I was wrong,” she said to herself.

“About what, dear?” Ariel asked. “When I spoke to Rick
last—”

“You… ”  She faced her mother. “You spoke to him?”

“Yes, dear. Before he went back to Boston.”

She looked around at the successful and lovely little café.
“Before. Then he knew about… He must have made these changes weeks ago.”

“And called your father and me,” Ariel added. “I think
we’re a pretty good fit, don’t you?”

Her dad was humming as he bopped around behind the counter.
Her mother, with her unruly hair tied in a neat ponytail with a scarf that matched
her apron. Harmony had to admit her parents looked too cute and capable in the
place. This place that Rick had changed to suit its environment instead of
intruding upon it.  Could it be he really understood it now? The way everything
should be in balance?

“Mom.” She took both her mother’s hands in hers. “I have to
tell you something. I… I need your opinion.”

“Mine?” Ariel started to stand. “Let me get my crystals,
and—”

“No. We don’t need the crystals.”

Her mother settled back on the stool, her brow furrowed. “What
is it, dear?”

“Rick’s stepmother told me something when she was here. Something
horrible. I didn’t want to believe it.”

“What did she say?”

She took a breath. “She said that Rick used me to further
his career.”

There. It was out. To her great relief her mother was
smiling. Relief and surprise. That wasn’t right.

“That’s ridiculous, Harmony,” her mother said. “Rick didn’t
use you. He cares for you a great deal.”

She blew out a breath. “I wish I could believe that.”

Her mother started to say something more, but held back. “I
can’t tell you what’s in Rick’s heart, dear. But I can see yours. You love
him.”

Yes, she loved him. Him and the baby she carried, but she
couldn’t say that. Not yet.

“Yes, I love him.”

“Does he know?”

“God, no.” Harmony stood and crossed to the cooler near the
counter and grabbed a bottle of peach nectar. “Put this on my account, Dad.”

Max chuckled and made a check in the air with one finger. “I’m
starting a tab, hon.”

She returned to her mother and sat again. “I didn’t tell him
I love him.” She opened the bottle, drank down the sweet cool nectar and licked
her lips. “What good would it have done?”

Ariel shrugged. “That’s between the two of you. But that’s
not all I wanted to tell you.”

“Oh, brother. What next?”

“We know about the bank account, dear.”

She couldn’t protest, so she just nodded mutely. “And?”

“There’s no need, Harmony.” Her mother shrugged and placed
a hand on her hip. “Your father and I are doing just fine, especially with a
direct market for these goodies.”

“But I have to pay you back, Mom.” Her eyes began to tear. “What
Adam did… What I let him do to both of you was horrible.”

“We never blamed you,” Ariel said. “Not once. Adam was no
good.”

“He was a bastard,” she muttered.

“Yes, he was,” her mother said. “But boy, was he great at
hiding it. I couldn’t even read his aura, he had such a wall of charm put up.”

Charm. Yeah. Adam had charm in spades.

“But still, Mom. All your savings… It still stings that he
used your hopes that way.”

“We were foolish. But he only took our money. He took your
heart.” Ariel tilted her head to one side. “Or did he? I think someone else has
it now.”

“Yes.” She capped her bottle and set it on the counter. “Fat
lot of good it does me. We all know how great my judgment is where men are involved.”

“Don’t do it, sweetheart.” Her mother shook her head, the
tiny bells hanging from her ears softly tinkling. “Don’t let Adam ruin what you
could have with Rick.”

“And what’s that? A life in Boston? I don’t think so. He
might have made these changes here, but could he settle here? Be happy here? With
me?”

“I don’t know. But don’t let your past judgment cloud your
mind now. I’ve seen Rick’s aura, remember?”

She shrugged. “So you said.”

Ariel didn’t appear to take offense. She just smiled again.
“His aura is pure, Harmony. Yes it’s cloudy, even when I saw him a few weeks
ago. But he has a good soul.”

Her mother stood and patted her arm. “Finish your juice. You
could use it.”

She started but her mother just smiled again and stepped
behind the counter. She couldn’t know about the baby. Could she?

She finished the bottle and capped it once more, fiddling
with the label wrapping the wide neck. Rick’s aura was pure, huh? She snorted. What
did that mean?

Her hand settled on her belly and she felt that spark of
hope flare inside her. Rick had made these changes. He’d found a way to let her
parents take care of themselves, something she’d never even considered. To see
them with such purpose, the obvious enjoyment they felt working for themselves,
told her she’d approached the aftermath of Adam’s scheme in the wrong way. She’d
thought money was the only thing Adam had taken from them. Who would have thought
that Rick would see more where she hadn’t?

Had she been wrong, letting him go back to Boston? Was
there was a place for him at Cypress Corners? Her heart lifted a fraction. Was
there a place for him with her?

“Maybe,” she whispered to herself. “Maybe.”

She smiled and tapped the counter. “How about a slice of
cheesecake, Mom?”