Chapter 13
THIRTEEN
HARMONY
When she dragged herself into her apartment, Harmony was just about to drop into a chair when her phone lit up.
Startled, she looked down at the screen.
It only took a second for her to smile.
Crois.
She answered the call. “Hey.”
“Hey,” he replied. “You’re home.”
She stopped short and looked around her. “How… How did you know?”
Harmony heard his soft laughter through the phone.
“Come to the window, Harm.”
She narrowed her eyes for a moment and then she caught on.
With the phone still near her ear, she moved to the window and looked out.
Crois was standing in his window across the courtyard, waving at her. “Hey.”
It was kind of odd. She was hearing him like he was standing beside her, but he was so far away.
“You saw me through the window.”
“Yeah, I saw you, but I was watching for you to come home.”
At one time, Harmony would have heard that and thought he was creepy, but now…
Now she thought it was nice.
Like he cared.
“Thanks,” she said the word and then… she didn’t know what else to say.
Crois probably liked people who were a little more glib than she was.
“Hey,” Crois’ voice was surprisingly warm through the phone. “You look like you’re overthinking again.”
Her head snapped up and she leaned against the sill, looking across the courtyard in his direction. “H-how can you tell?”
“Why don’t I come over and we can talk in person.”
Her instinct was to tell him no, but her heart, that pesky thing in her chest, had another answer.
“Sure.” The weight she had on her shoulders from her shift lightened. “I think… I’d like that.”
“Great.” It sounded like he was a little relieved. “I made some breakfast,” his voice was softer, “want me to bring it over?”
Her stomach rumbled an answer before she could say a word. “Yeah,” it rumbled again and she smiled, “that sounds great.”
“Give me a few minutes. I’ll be right there.”
“Okay.”
After he hung up, Harmony moved into her bathroom and looked herself over in the mirror.
She turned the lights on and tried to ignore the shadows under her eyes.
Hmm.
She was horrifyingly mundane in her looks. Her warm blonde hair was probably the best thing about her. It was a bit of what her old trainer called ‘flyaway’ and it was hard to keep out of her face when she didn’t have it pulled back.
And her face.
She sighed.
She had freckles from her childhood that she couldn’t make go away even if she caked on makeup. It gave her a look that screamed Heidi or PIppi Longstocking, but without the snazzy personality.
What did a guy like Crois St. Cyr see in her?
He was gorgeous. Tall. Athletic.
Women stopped talking when he walked by.
People drooled over him.
Her complexion could be pasty enough that she could blend into walls just shades away from eggshell or ecru.
Looking at the countertop of her bathroom sink, she saw toothbrush and paste. She saw a razor. There was even floss.
Not a single bit of makeup visible.
Looking back at the mirror, Harmony sighed.
“Why me?”
For a moment she considered hiding from Crois when he came knocking on her door, but the moment she heard the noise her heart kicked in her chest.
She might not understand what he saw in her, but she knew what she saw in him.
Someone she wanted to spend time with.
Someone she wanted to get to know and fit in with.
And so far, he felt the same way.
Turning off the bathroom light, she moved through the apartment and stopped at the door. She could tell by the light under the door that he was standing right outside.
It took a moment for her to calm her heartbeat through a few breaths and then she opened the door for him.
He lifted one brow at her and she laughed.
She out and out laughed.
He frowned at that, his brow furrowing. “What’s going on?”
Harmony couldn’t answer him, she was still laughing.
She felt Crois take hold of her shoulders and move her back into the apartment.
When she was able to wipe the backs of her hands across her eyes, she heard the soft click of her door lock and the nervous laughter faded away.
“I’m… I’m sorry,” she sighed, “I guess I’m just… exhausted. Maybe,” she drew in a deep, lung-filing breath and finished her thought, “you might not want to be around me right now. I might be less than… less than…”
She sagged with exhaustion, her arms dropping limp to her sides and her head dropped forward.
“I don’t even know what to say.”
“That’s okay, Harm.”
She felt his arms surrounding her a moment before her forehead touched his chest.
He leaned her into his embrace and didn’t do much more than hold her.
It was enough
Actually, it was more than enough.
It felt good to be held by him.
It felt good to be understood, at least she felt like he understood her, which was the biggest mystery of it all.
“Saint?”
She felt him go still with his arms around her.
“There’s still time for you to walk away and forget that you got this close.”
He loosened his arms from around her and she held back the sudden urge to reach out and grab him. To hold on like she couldn’t bear to let go.
And in her panic she understood that she didn’t want to let go.
Even more, she didn’t want him to let go of her.
His hands touched her face, his palms cradled her cheeks, and turned her face up to his.
“I’m not going to walk away from you, Harm. That would be the worst decision I could ever make.”
She tried to draw back from him, but couldn’t. It wasn’t that his hands held her tight enough to hurt.
He held her still and warmed her.
How? She’d never know.
He held her and looked into her eyes.
It wasn’t as uncomfortable as she would have imagined. Instead, it felt… intimate.
“I’m not walking away from you, Harm. From us.”
“I… I’m difficult. You know that.” She hated saying the words, but she felt like it was better to say it than let him decide what to do with the facts.
“I’ve got a bad reputation with women,” he raised his brows. “Don’t you want me to walk away?”
She shook her head, but the movement was hardly anything with his hold on her, but she could still speak.
“The last thing I want you to do, is to walk away from me…”
If he hadn’t had his hands on her, holding her, she might have turned her back and locked herself in her room.
“I just don’t want you to regret it.”
Crois hands moved from her cheeks and toward the crown of her head. He removed one of the hair pins she’d used to restrain a few errant wisps of hair and then another. His other hand reached around to the nape of her neck and took out the hair tie that held her hair back in a ponytail.
When her hair was free, he moved his fingers through her hair and she let out a breath through her nose. It was a little thing in the scheme of things, taking down her hair, but it felt good.
Really good.
Like her head wasn’t so tired.
Her temples weren’t so tight.
And his touch… she wanted more of it.
More of him.
“I’m not going to regret the time I spend with you, Harmony. I’m going to take each moment and enjoy it. I think… I hope that’s the key to making this… this relationship work.”
Listening to him, turning the words over and over in her head, he made it seem possible.
“Now, why don’t you have a seat and relax.” He walked her toward her living room and the big cushions she had around a low coffee-table. “I’ll bring the food over and put everything out.”
Harmony sat down on one of the big cushions at the table and watched him as he moved back to the door where he’d left a couple of reusable shopping bags that looked like they were full. He made sure the door was closed and locked before bringing the bags over to the table.
She waited for him to make a comment over the odd furnishings she had in her apartment, but he didn’t.
Instead, he smiled at the room, his eyes moving over her space as if he appreciated what he saw instead of questioning everything.
The few people she’d had over to visit had always looked at her space and at her as if she was odd.
Something that needed to be explained.
Crois just seemed to relax into the open space.
As soon as he opened the last of the plastic containers he had in his bags and brought out a sealed bottle of orange juice, placing it near his travel coffee cup, he sat down and folded his legs with a relieved sigh.
“I didn’t know what you’d like, so I made a few things.
Nothing… nothing too interesting. I hope that’s okay. ”
She looked over the containers and smiled. “I like fruits. And you know I like pancakes.” She craned her neck to see what was in the other container. It looked like some kind of puffed bready things with powdered sugar. “What are those?”
Crois reached out and took a hold of the container, lifting his side of it so she could see more of what it contained. “These are beignets. Kind of like doughnuts without a hole and powdered sugar instead of glaze.”
Harmony felt her eyebrows raise at the description. “That sounds like heaven.”
He was grinning at her and using a small set of tongs that he’d brought with him, he put a couple on her plate beside the berries she’d scooped onto the plate.
It didn’t take her long to discover just how right she’d been. “Beignets,” she smiled and sighed, “they are heaven.”
He nodded and reached across the table.
She froze as his hand came closer to her face.
Harmony could only blink and breathe as she waited to see what he would do.
At one point, his hand was so close that she swore she could feel the warmth of his skin even though he wasn’t even touching her. She kept her eyes on his face watching him, watch her.
It was almost more anticipation than she might be able to handle.
Then, he touched her.
His finger against her lip.
The pressure was subtle, barely something she could feel.
If she hadn’t been waiting to see what he was going to do, she might have missed it.
But with her attention fixed on him, she felt his touch.
And she watched him move his hand to his mouth.
It was then that she saw the powdered sugar on the pad of his thumb.
He smiled at her. “Sorry,” his voice was little more than a whisper, “I should have used a napkin, huh?”
She pulled her bottom lip into her mouth and licked it before she let it go.
Harmony wondered if the taste of his skin was just as sweet as the powdered sugar.
She couldn’t taste anything else on her tongue.
“I liked it.”
it wasn’t so much an admission as a statement of fact.
Well, it was kind of both.
He was looking at her with an expression she couldn’t quite name.
“Crois?”
She seemed to startle him and he reached into the container and picked up another beignet. He leaned closer, holding it out between his fingers.
Harmony smiled and leaned closer. Right before it would have brushed up against her lips, she opened her lips and closed them over his fingers.
Something changed in that moment.
Something inside of her.
Something elemental.
How had it happened?
With a simple touch from a man who was listening to her words and her actions.
When had she become so lucky?
Why?
Crois.