Page 14 of Beautiful Harmony

“Mrs. Walters and her creepy grandson left.” Cora’s face made a little moue of disgust. “He hit on me right in front of her, said he liked my ass and wanted to see it bent over his bed. How awful is that?”

“He’s such a prick,” Lucas said. “He hit on Emma too.”

Cora hooked her arm around Lucas’s. “I had to park over on the next block, so would you mind walking me to my car? It gets dark so early now.”

“Sure,” Lucas said. “Emma, are you ready to go?”

“I’m just parked out back,” she said. “So, no need for -”

“I’m walking you to your car as well,” Lucas said firmly.

“Such a gentleman,” Cora said, squeezing his arm.

Swallowing down her jealousy, Emma said, “Give me five minutes, and I’ll be ready.”

CHAPTER5

Emma let herself into Rayna’s house using her spare key. Rayna’s dog, an old, mostly blind, definitely deaf beagle named Bea, stood in the hallway with what looked like a poodle cross. The poodle’s hair was crazy long, and it peered at her through the bushy fur hanging over its eyes. The living room was to Emma’s right, and she could see three mixed-breed puppies sleeping in a pile in a metal pen lined with puppy pee pads and soft beds.

She wasn’t surprised by the poodle or the puppies. Rayna was the founder of Little Whiskers, a cat and dog and occasionally small animal rescue. They didn’t have a physical shelter and relied on fosters for the many animals they helped in Harmony Falls and the surrounding communities. While she had a healthy number of fosters for the rescue, Rayna always had a few wayward animals at her home. Emma would have been more shocked if she’d walked in to find just Bea.

“Hello, Bea,” she said as the old beagle walked up to her with her tail wagging. “How’s it going, sweet girl?”

She petted Bea and let the poodle sniff her hand before patting it on the hip. “Hi, cutie. You need a haircut.”

She hung her coat on one of the coat hooks on the wall. “Where’s your mama, Bea? Is she -”

A strangled scream from the kitchen set Emma’s heart into overdrive. Bless her stone-deaf heart, Bea continued to stare at her with her tail wagging. The overgrown poodle made a startled woof before disappearing into the living room.

Emma headed toward the kitchen. “Rayna? Honey, are you okay? What’s…”

“Hey, Emma!” A pretty dark-haired girl with brown eyes and porcelain skin waved at her. “How’s it going?”

“Hi, Arianna. I’m good. What are you doing to Rayna?”

“She’s torturing me,” Rayna said.

Rayna sat on a kitchen chair with her head tipped back, and Arianna stood over her. A waxing pot was plugged in on the counter, and white strips of fabric were laid neatly next to it.

Arianna rolled her eyes before poking Rayna in the forehead. “Look, it’s, like, not my fault that you don’t have perfect eyebrows like Emma. This needs to be done. I can’t take looking at those fuzzy caterpillars you call eyebrows anymore.”

Emma joined them, studying Rayna’s face. “You’re waxing her eyebrows?”

“She’s torturing me,” Rayna repeated.

“God, don’t be so dramatic.” Arianna used a small wooden stick to carefully spread wax below Rayna’s left eyebrow. “It doesn’t hurt that much.”

“Emma,” Rayna said as Arianna smoothed fabric onto the wax, “tell her to stop.”

“Too late,” Arianna said before pulling off the fabric strip.

“Gah!” Rayna shouted as Arianna grunted with satisfaction and showed Emma the strip.

“Look at this… it’s like a whole eyebrow on here.”

“Oh my God,” terror infused Rayna’s voice, “tell me you didn’t wax off my entire eyebrow.”

“Of course not. I’m a professional,” Arianna said.

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