Page 8 of Too Delicious

“She sounds like a great lady and deserves a comfortable life.”

I love watching Harmony’s face when she talks about her mother. My heart squeezes at the memory of our parents and Aunt Gabby. Our family might be comfortable, but it’s suffered a lot of loss and a lot of fractures. I can already see myself turning this house into a place full of family and friends, rather than a show place for celebrities and people I don’t care about.

Sorry, Aunt Gabby, for what I’m about to say.

“I loved our aunt, but I’d like to gut the place and redo it. I could do with a few less cupids, you know what I mean? And I’m all about a nice water feature, but a moat? Really?”

Harmony laughs so hard she has to set her glass of pinot on the coffee table. “Oh my god! I’m so glad you said that. I was so freaked out by the cupids! No offense, but I thought the Playboy Mansion and the Versailles of Florida had a baby. I almost made Summer turn the car around and leave.”

I am dead. I’m laughing so hard I can’t breathe.

“I shouldn’t have said that!” Harmony cries, leaning in and grabbing my hand. “My mouth got away from me!”

“Stop it, I love your mouth.”

Immediately she snatches her hand back.

The air is thick between us as we sit there, watching each other.

“Tell you what. You get me a return on my investment, and you can be the first to take a sledgehammer to the cupid fountain,” I tell her. “In fact, you can help me DIY the whole place.”

“But what would your girlfriend say about me hanging around your house in a sexy utility belt?”

If she’s trying to make me less aroused, she’s having the opposite effect. Now, I can only imagine Harmony waltzing around my house in nothing but that and a hard hat.

“No girlfriend. And I’m inviting you as a friend,” I tell her.

Her genuine smile breaks me in half.

“Friends,” she says.

We fist-bump each other, and I’m happy Harmony is comfortable with me.

“Let’s go find the others and sign the contract.”

chapter

four

Harmony

Tonight has turned out better than expected.

I made a new friend where I didn’t expect to make one.

Then, everything goes to shit.

Cooper checks the hall to look for Carter and Summer. I check the sitting room before circling back.

Where are those guys?

Suddenly, the hall light flicks on, and what do I see?

Cooper and Summer alone together, in the hallway, looking like they just got caught with their hands down each other’s trousers.

Okay, that’s not literally what I saw.

But something is happening here because Summer is covering her mouth, and Cooper is wiping his.

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