“Okay,” Erica said. “Now you’re bragging.”
“I have to brag a little. You’ve been getting it for months while I’m playing with Mr. Pinky.”
Erica put her hands on her ears. “I can’t hear you when you talk about your toy.”
“Don’t be a stick in the mud,” she said. “But you get my point.”
“I do,” Erica said. “You look really happy.”
“I am,” she said. “So happy. I’m not sure what is going to happen or where we’ll go or end up, but as I told him—one day at a time.”
“That’s how you live your life,” Erica said. “Not everyone can.”
“If he can’t, then he’s not the one for me,” she said. “Because no one should have to change completely for another person.”
“Everyone changes a little, Harmony. Just remember that.”
“I will. I don’t have a problem with it. That is part of taking it one day at a time. I’m already going to keep reminding him of those things. I know it.”
“Do you think you’re going to have to put a lot of work into it?” Erica asked, wincing.
“I’m not sure, but if I do, I will. It will be worth it. I just know it.”
“You always know what is right for you,” Erica said.
“That’s right, I do.”
She just hoped she did this time too.
15
BEING A GIRL-DAD
“Barnes.”
Micah turned his head to see one of his investigators come into his office. “Hey, Brooks. What’s going on?”
The minute he saw the man, it hit him that Brooks Scarsdale’s wife worked with Luke’s wife. So that meant that Harmony probably knew another one of his men.
He didn’t remember his life ever getting this complicated.
Then he wondered why he thought that when all it’d been was a few dates and a fabulous night of sex.
It’s not like Harmony was asking a lot from him.
Not much at all like the other women he’d dated.
Maybe being with someone younger wasn’t as big of a deal as he thought. Could be she wasn’t thinking along the same lines as a woman in their mid to late thirties looking to settle down and start a family and putting the pressure on him.
“Got a minute to go over a few things on a case?”
“Always,” he said. “Come in.”
“It’s the elder abuse case.”
He snarled. There were things he hated in life and preying on the vulnerable was at the top of his list.
He didn’t care the age, the sex, the religion, or nationality. None of that.