Page 70 of Forbidden Harmony

“Yeah, I know.” Harper sat back on herbed. “I’m worried about Dad.”

“Is he still acting kind of weird?”

“So weird. He’s still talking about retiringand selling the clinic,” Harper said.

Addison could see the hurt and theconfusion on Harper’s face even with the mask covering it.

“I don’t understand why he keeps talking aboutselling the clinic. He loves being a vet, always has, and he’s not even sixtyyet. Ever since Mom died, he,” Harper paused, “he hasn’t been the same. It’sbeen six years and he still hasn’t cleaned out her side of the closet. That’snot normal, right?”

“He loved your mom a lot.”

“He did,” Harper said. “Even when she didn’tdeserve it.”

The pain in Harper’s voice made Addie wishshe was there to hug her. “I’m sorry, honey.”

“Thanks. I think that new vet he hired ispressuring him into selling. Dad didn’t really start talking about it until thisguy started working there. Only a month after he started working with Dad, he toldhim he would be interested in buying the clinic if Dad ever wanted to sell it.Next thing you know, Dad’s talking about selling the clinic.”

“Okay, but your dad wouldn’t do anything hedidn’t want to do,” Addie said.

Harper pushed at the mask on her face. “Wouldn’the? Mom walked all over him for years.”

“Your mom had a very,” Addie paused, “strongpersonality.”

“Yeah, just like me,” Harper said.

Addison scowled at her, making the mask wrinkleand sag, “Stop it. You’re nothing like your mom. She was selfish and, I knowit’s not nice to speak ill of the dead, but she was a real asshole for what shedid to you and your dad.”

“Whoa,” Harper said with a small smile. “Lookat the mouth on you now. Looks like teaching you the joys of a good pussyeating isn’t the only thing Preacher’s taught you.”

Addison was kind of thankful the cold andgooey mask hid the bright blush on her cheeks. “Harper!”

Harper’s usual cheerful attitude was comingback in full force. “What? I’m just saying that I think this casual fuckingthing you’ve got going on with Preacher is good for you. When is your next,”she made quotation marks with her fingers, “lesson?”

“Well, um, I guess this weekend,” Addison said.“We just had lesson two yesterday, and I proposed a once a week thing for amonth, so…”

“But you’ve had two lessons in two days,”Harper said. “So, maybe Preacher’s just gonna do what he wants when it comesto rocking your world. Hell, maybe -”

She glanced down at her phone before yankingthe mask off her face. “Sorry, pinky-pie, I gotta go.”

“Is there something wrong?” Addie said.

Harper grinned, her face shiny from the moisturizingmask. “Nope. Francisco just texted me. I texted him earlier to see if he wanteda booty call tonight and he’s on his way over. I’m about to get me some D.”

“Oh.” Addie blinked at her. “Oh, well, um,okay. Have fun.”

“I plan on it,” Harper said with a laugh. “Textme when Preacher calls you for another lesson. Let me know if you’re planningon doing something outrageous like have sex in a hot tub or something.”

“Ha, ha,” Addison said. “One, Preacherdoesn’t even have my number, and two, I would never have sex in a hot tub. Wateris a terrible lubricant, and do you know how many germs are just floatingaround in the average hot tub?”

Harper laughed. “Oh, how I love you, AddisonMabel Moore. I’ll talk to you later!”

She blew Addie a kiss and ended the call.Addison went to the bathroom and peeled off the mask. She tossed it in the garbageand rinsed her face before patting it dry. She supposed her face looked lessdry… it was kind of hard to tell with how shiny it was now. She scooped herhair into an unflattering bun on top of her head and brushed and flossed herteeth before returning to the bedroom.

It was only eight-thirty, but she was alreadyin her pink cotton pajama bottoms with matching tank top and had been sincefour. She studied the orange splotch at the bottom of her tank top beforesniffing it. Yup, that was definitely a Cheetos stain. Sadly, it was fromFriday night.

She briefly considered changing her tank topbefore climbing into bed. What did it matter? It wasn’t like she had anyoneto impress. She picked up the scarf she was knitting and knit a couple rows.Normally knitting soothed her, but it wasn’t doing anything for her tonight.

She was feeling restless and lonely and… horny.She stared blankly at her knitting. She’d just gotten laid two days in a rowand she was still horny. What was wrong with her? She and Harrison used to havesex once every couple of weeks and nine times out of ten it was because she initiatedit. That had always seemed like enough for her, especially if it was one ofthe times she actually had an orgasm, so what was going on with her?

---