Page 82 of Red Hot Harmony

Dream Bride was in the middle of a huge shopping center, just a few blocks away from 101. There were multiple lanes of asphalt and fire usually never made it that deep into the city since it would need to burn through a whole lot of concrete.

“Please,” my mother said sternly.

“I got it. Don’t worry.”

The she abruptly changed the subject. “Is everything between you and Ally okay?”

She got a tattoo without my permission and I don’t ever plan on telling you because you’ll flip.“She’s a teenager.”

“That’s not what I asked, Camille.”

Ugh.“We’re fine. Thanks for checking in on me. Tell Dad I said hi.”

“Will do. Be careful.”

“You too. Bye.”

After ending the call, I walked to my bedroom to search for my phone. It was under the bed, battery drained, and I had no clue how it’d gotten there. I remembered arriving home upset, opening a bottle of wine, having some of that wine, passing out, waking up to a disturbance at the door at the crack of dawn, having an intense conversation with Dante, having even more intense sex, falling asleep in his arms. There were definitely black holes, but for some reason, they didn’t bother me as much as my daughter’s tattoo and the fact that she’d done it behind my back.

After I plugged the phone in to charge, I returned to the kitchen to pour myself a to-go cup of coffee and check the news.

I quickly flipped through the channels, searching for the local one. County officials had ordered a mandatory evacuation of the entire Santa Rosa Valley just now and the video snippets of what was going on there made my stomach churn. People were fleeing by the hundreds, their vehicles stuffed with whatever they could grab. Several aerial shots showed a wall of fire crawling down the mountain and ruining everything in its way. Black curtains of smoke rose from the ground, making it difficult for the cameras to capture the details, but the carnage taking over the territory was obvious.

The video switched back to the reporter, who was now talking about a possible threat to the medical center near Lynn Ranch.

More aerial shots flooded the screen and unease crept up my spine. I rushed to my bedroom and slipped into a pair of jeans and a shirt, then checked the phone, and called Harper.

“Hey, are you watching the news?”

“I am,” he said, sounding concerned. “I was going to try to leave for work early, but Ally is still sleeping.”

“Jesus. Were you two up late?”

“Yes.” He paused and it felt meaningful, so I didn’t dare to interrupt. “We talked a bit about things and...the tattoo situation.”

“Did you find out where she did it?”

“Apparently, it was a friend of a friend, who—as she claims—is a solid dude and does clean work.”

I took a deep breath to calm down, but it was harder than I thought, because someone inked my fifteen-year-old daughter in spite of it being against the law. I was shaking. “I’m leaving. I’ll be there shortly.”

“See you soon, sweets.”

I miscalculated. Because of the road closures, the traffic was bad, and it took me nearly forty minutes to get to Harper’s place.

On the way there, I called Dream Bride to verify that Amun was there to open up. I expected a bunch of cancellations because of the fires, but I also worried about her not getting to work on time since she lived in Thousand Oaks and the freeway had been a nightmare these past few days.

“I’m all good. I got it,” she reassured me. “There are a couple of voicemails. Our eleven o'clock fell through, but the rest of the clients are still on.”

“Sounds good.” I paused and cleared my throat. “Are you doing okay with all the madness over there where you live?”

“I’ve been staying at my boyfriend’s here in Calabasas. Otherwise, I wouldn’t be able to come.”

“I’m sorry. I hope it’s not an inconvenience.”

“Staying at my boyfriend’s?” She gave a small laugh. “No, not at all. He has a pool and a gym.”

“Oh, well, then you’re set,” I told her, doing my best to keep the cheer in my voice despite being slightly appalled by this assessment of what qualified someone as a good boyfriend. Oh, the gullibility of youth. What more could a twenty-something woman want in a man at that age besides a place with amenities and a big dick?

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