Chapter 4

chapter

four

Harmony

Tonight has turned out better than expected.

I made a new friend where I didn't expect to make one.

Then, everything goes to shit.

Cooper checks the hall to look for Carter and Summer. I check the sitting room before circling back.

Where are those guys?

Suddenly, the hall light flicks on, and what do I see?

Cooper and Summer alone together, in the hallway, looking like they just got caught with their hands down each other's trousers.

Okay, that's not literally what I saw.

But something is happening here because Summer is covering her mouth, and Cooper is wiping his.

At the other end of the hall is Carter, who's just thrown on the light. He looks as betrayed as I feel.

Wow.

My own sister.

This is certainly…something.

"Carter?" Summer squeaks, looking shocked at being discovered.

"Summer, what's going on?" I ask.

Summer turns to me.

Why do I have to ask? I saw everything I needed to see.

I don't know what else to do, so I run.

I run down one corridor and then another, then duck into the sitting room from before.

"Harmony!" Summer calls out me.

"Leave me alone!" I shout. I finally collapse at the first sign of chocolate—which sits in a crystal bowl by a fringed, tufted sofa, the perfect spot for a dramatic sobfest.

"There you are," she says, all breathless and concerned.

"There you are," I imitate, wolfing down chocolate dinner mints.

What ensues is a typical sisterly argument.

She accuses me of being terrible at comebacks. I tell her to shut up. Eventually, I let her sit down and explain herself.

She's still insisting that the kiss was an accident. I shove another mint into my mouth.

But then she goes on to tell me that she kissed Carter earlier, and things got awkward so she went to the bathroom. When she came out, she thought Carter was standing there. But it was Cooper. So she kissed him "again."

"I wanted to crawl into a hole when I realized who I'd kissed."

"He sure didn't though, did he? He was beet red." Cooper liked the kiss. Why wouldn't he? Most people prefer Summer over me.

I don't know if she remembers when my prom date hit on her after she laughed at all his jokes all night. True, she rejected him. But still, I ended up abandoned at prom and had to ride home with Summer and her date.

Then when I found out my ex-fiancé cheated on me, Summer confessed that he had once drunkenly passed out in her bed.

She hadn't done anything untoward, except behave like the effervescent, vivacious opposite of me. Men love her. Dogs love her. Strangers gravitate toward her everywhere we go.

"Cooper was embarrassed for me, and he pushed me away!"

"Sure he did," I scoff.

"Harmony, look at me!"

Eye contact. Yuck.

But when I look at Summer, I see my baby sister and best friend.

I need to hear her out. I know in my heart of hearts she wouldn't hurt me, not on purpose. She would never go after a guy she knew I really liked.

But I have to tell her how I feel.

"You have the entire world eating out of the palm of your hand. So maybe try to understand why I assumed the worst when I walked in and saw you in flagrante delicto with Cooper."

She snorts. "Listen, I don't know what ‘fragrance diablo' is, but I'm pretty I sure didn't do that!"

I blink at her and think back a few years. "It's never your fault. Is it?"

"Oh, sis. No. Don't go there."

"I went there," I say. "I can't help it. My brain went there."

"Harmony, I promise you. Cooper is not interested in me."

"Are you sure?"

"Babe, I think I know when someone is interested."

"That's true."

"More importantly, Carter and Cooper are committed to partnering with us," she says.

"Really?"Even after that scene? I doubt it.

She nods. "There's just one tiny detail we have to hammer out."

Already, I don't like the sound of that.

"What is it?"

"Let's go find the guys and review the contract," Summer tells me.

It turns out, Cooper and Carter have been looking for us. They stand in the doorway, and I wonder how much of our conversation they overheard. Little sneaks.

Oh god, I hope I don't have chocolate in my teeth.

Cooper swiftly takes me by the arm and we exit without Carter and Summer. I don't know why he's suddenly being so physically forward with me, but he walks with such urgency that this must be about giving Carter and Summer a moment alone.

Cooper's lips are moving; he's saying something about showing me the contract in his office. But I can barely hear him over the crackle of electricity that rolls through me with his hand on my lower back, escorting me from the room.