Chapter 6
SIX
HARMONY
Crois had to be certifiable. After he shot up from the table at breakfast, Harmony thought he’d sneak out the back door. It wouldn’t have surprised her.
She should have known better than to order her favorite breakfast from Peggy Ann’s Diner. She might not be adventurous in her food choices, but she could be… enthusiastic.
Vega had become used to it and just ignored her if she became ‘too much.’
But she’d learned to control herself.
For the most part.
Why she’d relaxed like that around Crois? She had no idea.
She should have been more controlled.
She could have blamed it on the lack of sleep, but that didn’t quite ring true in her head.
Sigh.
Still, he’d come back to the table and while he’d smiled and joked with her, she couldn’t help but wonder if it was a little forced.
By the time they left the diner she was worried that she’d ruined everything.
Crois walked her to his car and before he reached for the passenger door handle, she put her hand out and touched his arm.
He froze in place, his head turning to look at her with a strange expression on his face.
When his gaze met hers, she pulled her hand away. “S…sorry.”
He straightened to his full height and leaned in toward her, just an inch or two in reality, but she felt her heart pounding in her chest. “What’s there to be sorry for?”
She swallowed but her ears felt stuffy like she’d gone up into the clouds. It took her a moment to answer. “For touching you like that,” she gestured at his arm. “And for… and for whatever made you leave the table earlier. I… I don’t know what to apologize for, so I’m apologizing for all of it.”
Harmony pulled in a breath when he turned, moving her between the car and his larger form.
“You,” he lifted a hand and tapped the tip of her nose with his fingertip, “have nothing to apologize for. What happened in there was all on me.”
She gave him a look, narrowing her gaze on him. “I don’t know…”
“I love that you love those pancakes. Even better than that, I think it’s awesome that you didn’t hide how much you liked it from me. My problem is that my eyes are open now, Harmony. I see you. I… want to see more of you. And that means that you don’t have to hold back from me.”
She was blushing to the roots of her hair. “It’s… silly. Childish.”
He reached out and she thought he might touch her face.
Or maybe put his hand on her shoulder. Instead, he set his hand on the roof of the car.
“If you were childish,” he smiled, “we wouldn’t be standing here, Harmony.
I might be a guy who seems to be a little crazy on the outside.
I’m also a man who knows good when I see it.
And you, Harmony Morgan, EMT extraordinaire, are good all over.
“If you think that I have a problem with that, with you… tell me. I’ll answer whatever questions you have.
And I know that I think… I think you’re fascinating.
It’s the reason why I wanted to take you out to dinner…
Well, it ended up as breakfast, but I would have taken any option that you’d give me. ”
Harmony breathed in through her nose, filling her lungs. It was hard to talk to him about this. Hard to explain.
“I’m not sure-”
“About me?”
She heard the hurt in his voice and felt even worse than she had a moment before.
She shook her head. “More about me. I’m just… I came here to get away from pressures about my life. I never expected… I didn’t plan to meet someone and… start something.”
“Well, you met me a while ago,” he lowered his voice and moved closer, just an inch or so. “So, this isn’t a love at first sight thing.”
Harmony tensed then, her shoulders tightening.
Love?
Crois shook his head. “See? Here I am putting my big foot in my mouth. I’m definitely not as smooth with women as people think I am. I’m likely to say and probably do some stupid things.”
She looked at him, trying to see through the words to the truth.
Was he saying what he meant?
Could she believe him?
Did she want to chance things with him?
She shook her head, trying to untangle her thoughts.
“So, what are we doing here?”
“Here?” Crois lifted a hand and brushed the back of his fingers across her cheek. “I’m just trying to get to know you when there isn’t a life that you’re trying to save. And I don’t have to take my shirt off and end up on social media.”
She chuckled a little at that.
“How did you end up on social media?”
He shrugged and looked a little adrift at that.
“It’s kind of crazy that people would care.”
Harmony frowned at his words, because she heard the truth of his feelings in his voice and saw it when she looked at him.
Crois had a reputation in the first responder community for being a man who loved women. Well, dating them.
And maybe she’d taken that reputation on its face.
She didn’t question it because it wasn’t something she cared to look into any deeper than the gossip she heard. She didn’t know him well enough.
But now, she felt bad about it.
Trusting the gossip.
Crois was a good officer. She knew enough about him to believe that because she’d seen the evidence of it.
Now he was looking for her to see beyond what she’d heard.
What everyone ‘knew.’
Did she want to see more?
Then there was the question she was afraid to answer.
Did she want him to see more of her?
That might be the worst part of it all.
“Crois…”
“Give me a chance, Harmony.” He smiled at her and that smile made her feel warm where her doubt had given her chills. “Give us a chance?”
Goodness.
It sounded like such a simple request, but in her heart it felt like she was about make a momentous decision.
“I…”
Crois drew in a breath through his nose and let it out slowly.
“I think we should see where this could go.”
She knew she’d said the words.
She felt them in her throat.
She’d even heard them with her own ears.
Harmony just hoped that she’d made the right decision.
CROIS
She looked at him as if she wasn’t sure of her own words.
Crois didn’t know what to think of that.
Or how to feel.
What he did know is that he was grateful.
Grateful for that chance that she was giving him.
For more than a year they’d been in each other’s orbit.
Passing by each other.
Working on scenes together.
They’d seen each other.
Talked to each other, but only moments here and there.
This?
This step they were taking wasn’t easy.
He was likely going to make mistakes, but he knew he couldn’t let it go.
He couldn’t let go of the chance to try.
“I’m going to make you a promise,” he told her. “I’m taking this seriously. You and me.”
“You and me,” she repeated his words softly. “Okay. I… I’m not sure I’m there… yet. But I’m willing to try. I want to try.” She licked at her lips as if they’d suddenly gone dry. “Is that enough?”
He pulled her in for a hug.
It wasn’t a strangling grasp, but he just wanted to give her a hug.
“Whatever you’re willing to give,” he spoke softly into her ear, “is great by me. I’m just grateful for the chance to get to know you. To try for an us.”
When he loosened his hold, she didn’t pull back with a jerk.
She didn’t shrug off his arms.
She smiled at him. “Okay. Let’s… let’s try.”
“Okay,” he smiled back at her, his cheeks stretching with his grin. “Okay,” he repeated, relieved. “So, is there any chance that you want to… keep me company for a little while longer?”
He saw her answer before she said it.
He saw it in the slight furrow of her skin between her brows and the way her lips thinned a little.
“I probably shouldn’t.”
He nodded in agreement. “Okay.”
She looked at him as if she was waiting for the other shoe to fall, but to her surprise, it didn’t.
“I’m good with no, Harmony. I’m not going to pressure you.”
He saw her nod, but he also saw that she was struggling to believe him.
It was strange for him. Women that he dated were usually falling all over themselves to smooth things over with him when there was a disagreement or a difference of opinion.
Harmony held herself back. She didn’t push herself to make him feel better.
What had always been the norm before wasn’t happening between them, and Crois?
He didn’t just like it, he felt strangely hopeful because she was letting him see her tension. She was letting him see that she wasn’t quite sure.
Letting out a breath, he gave her what he hoped was a reassuring smile, because he felt it. He meant it.
“So, where can I take you? Do you have somewhere you need to go?”
Harmony breathed in and smiled at him. “Actually, I need to go to my apartment, I need to sleep. I need a lot of sleep.”
“Done,” he nodded, “I can drop you off at your apartment.”
“Great!”
He opened the passenger door and held it while she got in. He waited to make sure that she buckled in her seatbelt and closed the door before jogging around to the driver’s seat.
When he slipped in behind the wheel, he looked over at her as he buckled his own seatbelt. “So…”
“So?” She looked at him with a nervous tilt to her smile.
“Where do you live?”
She stared back at him with a blinking, blank stare.
And then she laughed.
Her shoulders shook and she covered her face with her hands. “I’m a big dork.”
Crois reached out a hand and gently swept it over her hair, enjoying the silky waves of her hair. “Then I must have a thing for dorks.”
Harmony turned her head, lowering her hands from her face. “Then I have a decent chance with you.”
“More than decent,” he smiled at her. “You think you’re a dork, but I like you, Harmony. I like the way you talk the way you are. So,” he reached out and carefully smoothed a few errant wisps of her honey-blonde hair from her face, “where do you live?”
“Tudor Arms on-”’
“Wait,” he frowned for a moment, struggling to believe that he’d heard her say the words that he’d heard. “Did you say Tudor Arms?”
She nodded. “You asked where I live.”
He smiled at her. “I live there, too.”
Startled, she widened her eyes. “Really?” She turned toward him as much as she could with her seatbelt on. “Which floor? Which wing?”
He wanted to laugh at the situation that they’d found themselves in. “Third floor. West wing.”
Her eyes were sparkling. “I’m on the fourth floor. East wing.”
“So, you mean we live basically opposite of each other?”
“Basically.” She shot back. “When did you move in?”
“Earlier this year,” he explained. “I was a few blocks over, but that building was falling down around my ears. Tudor Arms put up a sign on an open unit. I saw it when I was driving home and called that night. I left a message on the machine, and the building manager called me the next day.”
Harmony nodded. “It was the first apartment I viewed when I moved to Center City. It was a great deal and relatively close to work, so I didn’t waste a moment and took the apartment.”
He nodded and then shook his head. “Crazy that we’re in the same building.”
She smiled at him, her whole expression bright. “I can only imagine with our schedules we just haven’t seen each other.”
He put the key into the ignition and started the car.
She gestured at the wheel. “You have a car, so you probably go in through the doors from the parking lot.”
“Yeah,” he nodded. “And you go in through the door from street closer to the bus stop.”
A moment later she relaxed and damn, it looked good.
He hadn’t seen how tense she was until that tension was gone. She leaned her shoulder against the car seat and smiled.
“I can’t believe it.”
“That we’re living in the same place?”
Harmony nodded. “I guess, I’ll have to look out for you from now on.”
“And I’ll look out for you, too.” He felt his heart swell in his chest as he put the car into reverse.
His life was changing step by step and he was loving it.