Page 17 of Red Hot Harmony

“He’s the cutest.” Harper looked up. “Camille said you adopted from BrightSide.”

“Yep.”

There was a flurry of activity in the back and then I saw the woman who’d played a significant role in my getting the tutoring gig. Renn. She was dressed sharply, her hair and makeup neat.

“Dante, right?” She swept in like a hurricane, scooping up Snowflake from the floor and kissing him on the nose.

I felt a pang beneath my ribcage. Jealousy.

Behind me, the front door opened, letting a gust of hot air sneak inside. I was hustled off to the side to allow the customers to pass. They stared at me longer than socially acceptable and I caught a flash of recognition in the eyes of a younger woman who was wearing a Foo Fighters T-shirt. It would probably take her less than a minute to put two and two together, which meant I needed to hide. Pronto.

“Nice flowers.” Harper nodded, leading me to the back of the store and away from the action, away from Renn trying to steal my dog.

“You think she’ll like them?” I asked.

“Are you kidding?” His brows shot up. “She’ll love them.”

That made me feel a little better about this unplanned visit. “Is Ally still pissed at her?”

“She told you about that?”

“Yeah, not in so much detail, but I got the gist of it.”

“Ally’s at my place. I think she’ll come around in a couple of days.”

“That bad, huh?”

“Teenagers.” Harper shook his head.

To my left, there was a whole wall of lingerie and to my right were jewelry and accessories, all bright and shiny, and I let my imagination wander to where it’d never wandered before. I pictured Camille in one of these dresses with a strand of diamonds around her neck.

The thought gave me pause, and the strangeness of it almost tripped me up, but I recovered quickly.

We reached what appeared to be some sort of lounge with plush couches and a glass coffee table. The noise of the main floor was muted by the carpeting and fabrics lining the area. Camille stood in the corner facing a section of shelves, and a slight turn of her body revealed that she had a black pen stuck in her mouth and was holding a clipboard.

Harper quietly took his leave, smiling at me encouragingly before disappearing behind a mass of white gauze hanging down from the ceiling.

Oblivious to the fact that someone was here, Camille plucked the pen from between her lips and scribbled something on the paper on her clipboard, then stretched her arm to the very top shelf in an attempt to seize what appeared to be a snow globe.

“Let me help.” I settled the roses in the crook of my elbow, crossed the room in three long strides, positioning myself next to her, and grabbed it for her.

“Oh.” She spun around so fast, the movement almost a blur, that her back brushed the shelf and knocked something over. “You scared me.” Green eyes flicked up to meet mine.

“Sorry. That wasn’t my plan.” I smiled and offered her the snow globe. It was a larger one with figurines of a bride and groom inside and little white flecks dancing around them from the disturbance I caused when I snatched it from its spot.

“Are you sure?” Camille teased.

Her chest rose and fell in fast intervals and the snow globe was still pressed between our bodies when I leaned in and gently kissed her on the lips. It wasn’t messy or lustful—it was just a graze of our mouths, an exchange of breaths. Gentle and quick.

But it was all I needed to make sure last night hadn’t been a product of my imagination, to make sure I was still whole and sober.

“Are the flowers for me?” Camille asked, her voice a trembling half-whisper.

“Yes.”

“Thank you. They’re beautiful.” She took the bouquet and the snow globe, then stared at the puppy excitedly rubbing against her shoes. “I don’t remember inviting you.”

“You didn’t,” I confirmed. “I was in the area.”Lie.

---