Page 115 of An Engagement for Erica

“What does that mean?” her mother asked.

Harmony was chasing her and trying to get the phone away from her. Anyone watching would think it was hilarious, but she wasn’t letting her sister handle this for her.

“It means that you’ve made a lot of mistakes as a mother and we don’t rub your face in it. I’d think you’d stop doing it to me. If you don’t have anything nice to say about a man that I’ve fallen in love with, then we don’t need to talk.”

She hung up and looked at her sister when she tossed the phone on the couch.

“You love Tucker?” Harmony asked.

“That is what you are asking me?” she asked. “Not what Mom was saying.”

“I can imagine what she was saying,” Harmony said. “We’ll get to that. First tell me about loving Tucker. Oh my God. Have you ever been in love with a man before?”

She rolled her eyes. “Yes, I’ve been in love with a man before,” she said.

“When?” Harmony asked. “Not Rodney. I hope it wasn’t him. He was a pretentious dick wad.”

“He was that,” she said of an old ex a few years ago. “And we only dated a month. No, not him. It was someone in college and it doesn’t matter. We were young and it didn’t work out. Not meant.”

“But it’s meant with Tucker?” Harmony asked. “Don’t you think?”

“I hope so,” she said. “Only time will tell, but you never know either.”

“I’m so excited for you.”

“Don’t hug me,” she said when Harmony walked toward her with her arms out. “You’ve got raw meat on your hands. The least you could have done was wipe them off first.”

“I couldn’t,” Harmony said, laughing. “I just wanted the phone away from you before you told Mom to fuck off.”

She burst out laughing. “I’d never say that.”

“Come on,” Harmony said, rushing to the kitchen to wipe her hands. “You were close. You know it.”

“Maybe just a little,” she said, holding her arms out wide. “But I still wouldn’t.”

“I don’t know,” Harmony said. “You scared me when you started doing a dance like you wanted to hit the wall. Let me guess, she was telling you all the bad things she found out about Tucker’s father?”

“Right on the first try,” she said. “It took her longer than I thought, but I had hoped she’d ignore it and just tell me things she might have found out about Tucker. Which there shouldn’t be anything.”

“Not Mom,” Harmony said. “She has to find the dirt on everyone. Because, you know everyone has dirt on them.”

“I guess,” she said. “I don’t think we do, do you?”

“Not you,” Harmony said. “I don’t think I do, but who knows what other people say or think about me. Everyone has opinions.”

“That they should keep to themselves,” she said firmly.

“Not everyone can ride the middle line as well as you,” Harmony said. “Just remember that. Some people pick a side.”

“I can’t pick a side at times,” she said.

“With your job,” Harmony said. “Not with your personal life.”

She thought of that for a minute.

“I don’t think that is true though. If it was, I wouldn’t have been able to fall in love.”

“Oh,” Harmony said. “Back to that. Did you tell him? Did he tell you? I want details.”

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