Page 13 of Forbidden Harmony

“Don’t be, it’s all good. I’ll do my ownthing tomorrow,” Addie said.

She plastered a smile on her face,determined not to let Grace see how upset or left out she was feeling. It wasn’tGrace’s fault Addison wasn’t part of a couple anymore. Besides, she needed toget used to being alone and enjoying her own company. She didn’t need a guy tohave a good time. She could have a great time on her own.

* * *

“I am having a great time on my own,”Addison muttered. She opened the door to Twisted Stitches and stepped inside.The air conditioning hummed in the store and the cold air was a welcome relieffrom the hot mugginess of main street.

During the winter months, Harmony Fallsonly yarn shop was closed on Sundays, but Emma, Twisted Stitches owner, keptthe shop open seven days a week during tourist season. Not surprisingly, theyarn shop was busy with a mixture of both tourists and locals. Some wereobviously just there to escape the heat for a few blissful minutes, otherscarried small baskets loaded down with colourful hanks of yarn.

“Addie, hey, how are you?” Emma, wearing a‘Twisted Stitches’ t-shirt, squeezed her curvy body past a couple of tourists.She carried a few hanks of yarn, a couple of sets of knitting needles, and a patternbook in her hands. Her usual calm vibe was a little frazzled. “Good to seeyou.”

“You too, Emma. Busy in here today,” Addisonsaid.

“It is. I’m a bit swamped because Coracalled in sick.”

“Ma’am? Excuse me, ma’am?” A woman wearingan ‘I love Harmony Falls’ t-shirt and a large sunhat jammed onto her head,waved at Emma with one sunburned arm. “Do you have this yarn in chartreuse?” Sheturned to face the bored looking teenager standing next to her. “The yarn placein New York just has so many more colours. I knew I should have brought extrayarn to the cabin, but your father insisted there wasn’t enough room in thecar. Probably because he filled it with his fishing gear. I swear, next yearwe’re renting a trailer when we come up for our summer holidays. If yourfather gets to bring fifty different fishing rods, I should get to bring morethan a bagful of yarn.”

The teenager mumbled a reply that Addisoncouldn’t hear as the woman waved at Emma again. “Ma’am, I’m really looking forchartreuse yarn.”

Emma turned to face them, and Addisonwinced when the woman twitched in surprise and the teenager said, “Dude, what’sup with your face?”

“Rodney! Car, now!” the woman snapped.

He was still staring at Emma and his motherelbowed him hard in the side. “Go to the car and wait for me there.”

“Fine.” The teenager rubbed his ribs. “God,it was just a question.”

“I’m so sorry,” the woman said as theteenager slouched out of the store. She smiled apologetically, her gazeskittering away from Emma’s face.

“It’s fine,” Emma said in the ‘it’s no bigdeal, it happens all the time’ voice that Addison suspected she had perfectedby the age of ten.

She wanted to glare at the woman when shecontinued to stare at Emma. The curvy yarn shop owner had a large port stainbirthmark that started at her left temple, covered almost the entirety of herleft cheek, and followed a meandering path down the left side of her throat todisappear under the collar of her shirt.

Addison had always admired Emma’s abilityto deal with the constant questions and looks from tourists and even locals who’dknown her all her life. Secretly, she was surprised that Emma hadn’t movedaway from Harmony Falls. Living in a large city or even a mid-size one likeNew Cassel, would probably have been easier for her to blend in. There shewould have just been another slightly different looking face in the crowd.Here, her birthmark meant she was often considered as, or talked about, likeshe was the town freak.

As Emma, a smile tacked on her face and herhead turned to minimize the amount of birthmark the tourist would have to see, helpedthe woman, Addison moved deeper into the shop. It wasn’t that big of a space,but Emma had maxed out the space she did have by hanging yarn on the wallsalmost to the ceiling. Addison rummaged through a bin of discount yarn, studyingeach hank of yarn and reminding herself that she really didn’t need any more.

Her job as a schoolteacher paid her rentand her bills, but it didn’t leave a whole lot of extra. She tried to befrugal and didn’t eat out much or take a lot of vacations, but she didadmittedly have an addiction to yarn. She stroked the soft cotton yarn she washolding before putting it back.

Her car had been making that weird clickingnoise again and she needed to seriously consider taking it back to the mechanic.She would try Nuts and Bolts Auto Repair this time, instead of the shop ownedby Gordon Rampton. She took her car to Gordon because that’s where Harrison tookhis Mercedes, but her crappy Honda Civic had looked ridiculously out of placeamong the gleaming Mercedes and BMW’s that Gordon mostly serviced.

Gordon was always perfectly polite and nevermade her feel embarrassed about her piece of crap car, but now that she wasn’twith Harrison anymore, she could try a cheaper alternative. Harrison wasalways so concerned about appearance, always wanted people to look at them andsee wealth and opulence, that he’d balked at her doing anything others mightconsider cheap.

She sighed and moved down the far aisle tostudy the selection of sock yarn. Harrison had expensive taste and while hemade good money, she knew for a fact that he carried a lot of credit card debt.They’d always kept their finances separate at Harrison’s insistence – some dayshe acted likeshewas the one with money issues – and she supposed nothaving to take on his debt was another reason to be thankful they’d separated.

There were a lot of reasons she should bethankful they’d separated, and she needed to concentrate on those instead ofobsessing over the fact that Harrison said she was stiff and unsexy andterrible in the sack. So she wasn’t a great lover. It wasn’t the end of theworld. There were probably plenty of women who weren’t amazing at sex.

She studied the wall of yarn, not really registeringanything she was seeing. Maybe she needed to order a couple of books online togive her some tips and ideas on how to be better at sex. Her idea of rebound sexhad seemed like a good one on Friday night, but now, she wasn’t quite so sure.If the only person she’d slept with was Harrison, she could hold on to the hopethat maybe it wasn’t all her fault. Maybe Harrison wasn’t so great at it eitheror –

Crystal seemed to be enjoying herself. It’syou, girl. Face it. You suck in bed. You were worried about that long beforeHarrison finally told you the truth. You need to get better at this sex thing,and you know reading a few books isn’t gonna cut it. You need some hands-onexperience with a real penis. A penis that’s attached to say… I dunno…Preacher?

She grabbed a random ball of yarn from thewall and stared at it. She really needed to get over her stupid crush on Preacher.It was starting to border on obsessive. Last night, she’d had this shamefullittle fantasy where Preacher had shown up at her place and without a word, pickedher up like she was some damn princess in a fairy-tale, carried her to herbedroom, and…

Say it, Addison.

Her face flushed hot. No, she wouldn’t sayit. A proper lady did not have dirty thoughts about a man’s head between her thighs,about his tongue –

“Girl, are you serious? How can you notknow that Harrison dumped her? Have you been living under a rock?”

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