Page 3 of An Engagement for Erica

Work, work, work. It’s what she was good at and enjoyed.

Until her body decided to not play nice and refused to enjoy the ride another minute.

“No,” Erica said. She put her head back and let out a frustrated shout like she had as a teen when her mother was drilling success into their heads.

“Shhhhh,” Harmony said. “You might wake the neighbors and they will think I’m out here drowning you.”

“I wish you would,” she said.

“Okay, now I’m really scared. What is going on? This isn’t like you.”

She turned to look at her sister and saw the concern in her eyes.

There was no reason to worry anyone over something so silly and stupid in the big picture.

“I got an email this morning for a big consulting job not that far from here.”

“That’s great,” Harmony said. “No traveling for this one.”

“Big money behind it too,” she said.

“Even better,” Harmony said, excited. “So why are you so upset over it?”

“I’m not upset,” she said. “I’m anxious.”

Harmony gave her a little squeeze. “It’s okay to be nervous. Didn’t you tell me that when I went out on my own too? It’s scary being the boss.”

She laughed. Not a funny sound. “The job doesn’t make me nervous,” she said. “It’s the person who is hiring me.”

“My big sister doesn’t get intimidated or nervous around anyone.Peopledon’t do that to you.”

She smiled. “Not normally,” she said.

“Then why now?” Harmony asked.

“Tucker is the one I passed out in front of. He was working for a company in New York City. I guess he’s taking over the family business not far from here and needs help.”

“Oh,” Harmony said. “So you’re embarrassed. No reason to be. Honey, you were sick and didn’t know it.”

“Not sick,” she argued. Just an idiot!

“We aren’t going to get into it. You won’t win. Give it up. So what, he didn’t see you all strong and invincible? Big deal.”

“He gave me mouth to mouth,” she whined.

“He saved you,” Harmony said, the moonlight catching her sister’s smile.

“I hadn’t stopped breathing,” she said, snorting. “He just panicked.”

“I would have done the same thing,” Harmony said. “What’s the big deal? There has to be more going on.”

She hated to confess this, but if she learned one thing in the past year of her life, it was to not keep everything bottled up.

“To quote you, he’s sizzling enough to set the place on fire. Like a good piece of bacon after not eating for weeks.”

Harmony’s mouth dropped. “You’ve never said that about a man before.”

Adding the bacon part might have been overkill, but it was what came out of her mouth.

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