Discovering Harmony (Wishing Well, Texas #3)

by Melanie Shawn

  “You can start in here. This all needs to be cleared. Put it in piles. A dumpster should be here by ten. When it gets here you can use the wheelbarrow to haul it out.”

  When I didn’t hear any signs that my instructions were being followed I looked behind me and saw that Harmony hadn’t made it over the threshold of the barn door.

  She stood outside, framed perfectly in the rectangular entrance with the sun backlighting her, hands planted firmly on her hips, head cocked to the side. Her hair was pulled up in a ponytail, and I couldn’t help but notice the way the rays of sunshine picked up the blonde and red highlights that ran through her auburn strands. I was also having a hard time ignoring the slender slope of her smooth neck that her hairstyle showcased. My mouth watered as I tried to erase the vision of my lips brushing against the soft, supple skin between her jawline and collarbone.

  It didn’t work.

  Her nostrils flared as she exclaimed, “Have you lost your ever-loving mind?”

  Yes. I had. But not in the way she thought. I had lost my mind thinking that I could be in this deserted, secluded location with her for even one day and still have a shred of sanity intact. Especially considering the jeans she wore molded to her body like a second skin while her thin cotton t-shirt pulled tight across her full chest. All of it was making me feel things that I had no business feeling.

  “You do not actually expect me to go in there?” Her arms flew up in a dramatic show of exasperation.

  The movement caused the cotton hemline of her tee to pull up and reveal a seductive sliver of her toned abs. I swallowed a groan as my jeans grew tighter. I knew she wasn’t teasing me on purpose—hell, if she was, I wouldn’t stand a chance. But that didn’t change the fact that every word she spoke, every look she gave, every movement she made was driving me fucking crazy.

  “Unless you have some Princess superpowers that would enable you to clean it up from out there…Yes. I do expect you to come in here,” I gruffed harshly. I was trying my damnedest not to take out my sexual frustrations on her, but that was proving to be easier said than done.

  Harmony crossed her arms in a defensive stance, which only served to pull the thin material covering her chest even tighter. “No. Abso-freaking-lutely not. There is no way I’m stepping a foot inside of there.”

  “You are Harmony Briggs of Briggs Farms, aren’t you? You did grow up on a farm, right? I wouldn’t think a little elbow grease would spook you.”

  “I grew up on a farm with eight older brothers who handled the elbow grease. But that’s not the reason.” She planted her hands on her hips, as she puffed out her chest. “If I sneeze, the roof will probably collapse. And I sure as hell am not going to start digging around in all that…” She waved her hand towards the piles and piles of debris that lined the entire two thousand square feet. “There have to be rats…spiders…and God knows what else in there!”

  I knew that the structure was sound. I’d had my engineer out just last week and he’d approved all of the plans I had. There was no way I’d ever let Harmony step foot in a building that wasn’t safe. As far as the rats and spiders, I’d also taken care of that with pest control, but she was on a need to know basis and those were both things she didn’t need to know.

  “You grew up on a farm and you’re scared of rats and spiders?”

  “Yes!” Her green eyes grew wide.

  “Well, tough. This isn’t summer camp. Get to work.” I honestly wasn’t being a dick just for the fun of it.

  She wasn’t here out of the goodness of her heart, she was here as a punishment because she’d decided to take it upon herself to liberate Romeo with no regard for the fact that it broke the law. Harmony played by her own rules. Over the past year alone, I’d stopped her over a dozen times for speeding in her little red coupe and I hadn’t handed her even one citation. And I wasn’t the only one. She’d sweet-talked at least three other officers that I knew of, and one of them was a woman. Actions had consequences, and it was time Harmony was taught that lesson.

  “Clear it. I’ll be back with a wheelbarrow when the dumpster gets here.”

  Throwing down the scrap of metal that I’d picked up, I crossed to the entrance with two long strides. My plan had been to leave her to it and let her mind run wild with the idea of coming face-to-face with rats and spiders. That was until I got close enough to see the sheer, undiluted panic in her eyes. It was at least ten times worse than the night she’d tried to brave the cemetery. Her chest was rising and falling so rapidly I was afraid she would hyperventilate. And her normally sun-kissed skin was as white as a sheet.

  Shit.

  “The structure is sound. The engineer cleared it Friday. And I had pest control out here over the weekend. I can’t promise you won’t find anything dead, but there’s nothing living that you need to worry about.”

  Her brow furrowed in confusion for several beats as she stared up at me. I wasn’t sure if she’d heard me.

  “I said the structure is—“I was interrupted by her balled up fist pounding into my solar plexus. “Umph.”

  “I heard you the first time!” she screamed.

  Romeo, who’d been my shadow, by buddy, my pal since he’d jumped out of the car, was now standing between us quietly growling with a menacing stare, making it clear to me that if I tried to take one step towards Harmony he would do whatever it took to protect her.

  I lifted my hands in mock-surrender as I took a step back, letting him know that I wasn’t a threat. “Hey, she hit me.”

  It wasn’t that I really feared him. I didn’t. But I liked the idea of a guard dog for Harmony and I would do anything I could to encourage and support his protective behavior.

  “I hit him because he was being an asshole.” Harmony defended her actions to Romeo, who laid down in a flop and sigh once he wisely assessed that I wasn’t a threat.

  As tempted as I was to defend myself by pointing out the fact that I’d spent hours convincing “Cruella” not to press charges, I let it go. For the record, I’d also had to call in several favors so that she didn’t end up on the side of the road in a bright orange vest with a trash bag—but, hey maybe that was what she wanted.

  “If you’d rather be picking up garbage on the side of the highway or hanging out with dead people, don’t let me stop you.”

  “Dead people?” Harmony’s face grew even paler and her green eyes widened.

  Putting my hands in my pockets to keep myself from doing something stupid—like reaching up and brushing the stray hair that had fallen over her cheek, cupping her face, and kissing every bad thing in her life away—I inhaled deeply through my nose and nodded just once. “Yep, those are your other two options for community service. Highway cleanup crew and morgue assistant.”

  Her eyes narrowed as they searched mine. She was most likely trying to suss out whether or not I was full of shit. I wasn’t. Serving her community service hours here, under my supervision, had taken a load of paperwork and getting a signature from not only my dad, which had been rather easy, but also Judge Patterson, which had not been easy.

  “Fine.” Straightening her back, she squared her shoulders and pointed her finger, jabbing it into my chest. “But if I get crushed by the roof, poisoned by a spider bite, or mauled by a rat, it’s on your conscience.”

  I was sure that she was serious as hell, but that didn’t change the fact that she was also cute as hell. Somehow, I managed to keep a straight face as I nodded just once. “Copy that.”

  As I started towards the main house, Romeo fell in line beside me. With a short whistle and gesture back towards Harmony, Romeo did an about face and bounded back the way he’d come. Glancing over my shoulder I saw Harmony bend down and scratch behind his ears as she told him what a good boy he was and how they had a lot of work to do today.

  My eyes zeroed in on the rounded, heart-shaped curve of her ass, and sweat—that had nothing to do with any physical exertion—beaded the back of my neck. It was going to be a long day. And this was j
ust the beginning.

  What the hell had I been thinking?

  This was beyond being a glutton for punishment. I must be a full-blown masochist.

  Chapter 7

  Harmony

  “Best not to do the crime if you can’t do the time.”

  ~ Loretta Reed

  “Oh, come on!” My arms shook as I tried to leverage my body weight to push the wheelbarrow filled with bricks, wood, and metal scraps out of the barn.

  Had I overfilled it? Probably. But I was a one-trip kinda gal. Always had been.

  In second grade, I’d trudged my backpack, volcano science project, and change of clothes in a rolled up sleeping bag for a sleepover birthday party the entire two mile walk to school just so I wouldn’t have to go home after the bell rang. Junior year, I carried my cheerleading uniform, homecoming dress, shoes, and make-up bag, all six periods just so I wouldn’t have to either run out to my car after school or to my locker that was on the opposite side of campus. During college, I’d actually tweaked my back and had to see a chiropractor because I’d attempted—and failed—to haul a table and chair I’d bought up the three flights of stairs to my dorm room by myself. To this day when I went to the grocery store, I would carry forty bags, even balancing some on my feet as I walked before I would make a second trip from the car. So all of this back and forth to the dumpster was going against the very fiber of my DNA.

  “Ugghhh,” I grunted loudly as my glove-covered fingers tightened around the wooden handles. Taking in a deep breath, I held it as I dug my feet into the dirt floor and pushed with all of my Mighty Mouse strength.

  Much to my dismay, the “might” in my mouse was not enough. The sucker didn’t budge.

  Knowing that I had no other choice than to lighten the load, I lowered my arms and dropped the wheelbarrow back down with a crash. My shoulders sunk in defeat. I lifted my forearm to wipe the sweat that was pouring down my forehead like a waterfall.

  I stood, my breaths coming in labored pants as I took in my surroundings. I should be sipping sweet tea in the air-conditioned comfort of my home while I researched and worked on my Master’s thesis. Instead, I was sweating in cracks and crevices that a lady didn’t dare speak of. Every muscle in my body was on fire due to the fact that I hadn’t worked out since my freshman year of college when Cara talked Destiny and I into going to a boot camp class. And even then I’d only lasted fifteen minutes. Now, thanks to the fact that my breakfast only consisted of two cups of coffee, I was so hungry that the hay was starting to look appetizing.

  To sum up, I was miserable.

  All my life, my parents had tried to drill into us that one decision could change your entire life. I would say that ninety percent of the time, the warnings were associated with contraception and safe sex, which my brothers and I always found hilarious considering there were nine of us. The other ten percent of the time they were a mixture of not drinking and driving, not getting into fights, and not setting things on fire. Although the last was only aimed at my brothers Trace and Travis, who had earned the nickname TNT thanks to their love and reckless use of fireworks.

  I’d half-listened to all of the parental rants. I just always figured if any of the Briggs kids were going to get into trouble with the law it would’ve been one of my brothers. Sawyer got into brawls all the time during his teens and early twenties. Or maybe it would be TNT accidently blowing something up. Never in a million years did I think it would be me.

  Thanks to one act of passion, one act of kindness, one act of heroism—here I was. One afternoon where my compassion had outvoted my common sense was all it took to end up here. And this was just the beginning. I had, oh, about one hundred and ninety-six hours left.

  Part of me, the childish part, wanted to throw a tantrum. But my parents had raised me better than that. If there was one thing that the Briggs family prided themselves on, it was stepping up and taking responsibility for your actions. As much as I hated to admit it, I was actually getting off easy. Things could’ve been a lot worse than this, and I had one person to thank for that…not that I planned on thanking him anytime soon.

  Sticking out my bottom lip, I blew out a breath, causing my bangs to blow up. Out of the corner of my eye I spied the party responsible for my current predicament.

  Romeo was curled up on a blanket of hay in a cool, dark corner…snoring.

  “Seriously?!” I yelled in frustration. “You’re just going to take a nap while I’m killing myself?”

  He stirred and lifted his sleepy head, opening one eye before plopping his chin back down on his hay bed with a sigh.

  It was adorable.

  No matter how irritated I was at that dog, I could never stay mad at him. Not when he peed on my down comforter during the thunderstorm the day I’d saved him from the evil clutches of Cruella.

  Not when he chewed my Christian Louboutin high heels. Not even when he threw up on my favorite Coach bag after he’d got into the trash and scarfed down almost an entire large pizza that I’d burned and tossed.

  My hands rested on my hips as I cocked my head to the side and watched Romeo just as relaxed as he could be. “You know what? You are damn lucky you’re so cute.”

  “So are you,” Hudson’s deep voice rumbled.

  I gasped in a start as I spun around and found the man that had just taken a year off my life leaning casually against the barn door, like he’d been there all day and was in no hurry to leave. His shirt was damp with sweat and it outlined his chiseled frame like he’d been greased down for a Playgirl shoot. Every muscle in his biceps and triceps were chorded from hard, physical exertion. There were faint impressions of the dips and valleys of his six-pack abs. My mouth watered like a popped fire hydrant as my eyes scanned his torso, upper body, and arms.

  I was so distracted by the overwhelming sex appeal he was so effortlessly oozing that it took a moment before the words he’d spoken absorbed into my consciousness. When they did, my eyes shot to his in shock.

  “Wait a minute….” I rewound them in my mind, just to make sure that I hadn’t imagined them on account of heat stroke or something. Nope. Not imagined. He said I was cute. I notched up the twang in my southern accent as I fanned my hand in front of my face. “Why, I do declare, Mr. Reed, did you just pay me a compliment?”

  I was teasing…sort of.

  In all the years that I’d known Hud he’d never once complimented me. Well, not with words anyway. He’d given me a few very complimentary, very heatedly pleasant stares with his light brown eyes that had left me feeling all kinds of flattered. As far as any kind of verbal validation? That had been a big ol’ goose egg.

  “No,” he stated flatly, his facial expression as unreadable as always.

  I grinned from ear to ear, not at all dissuaded by his response. “Not to tip your canoe as you float down the river of de-Nile but um, yeah…I think ya did.”

  Pushing off the door, he stood to his full height. His feet were planted shoulder-width apart as he crossed his arms and took in a deep breath through his nose. The alpha stance might’ve been harmless on another man, a lesser man. But on a sweaty, muscular, jeans-and-white-shirt-wearing Hudson, it was devastating.

  My body heated from the inside out. The heat started coiling low in my belly and spread like wildfire up to my cheeks. I could’ve stayed there all day, just staring at him, and as embarrassing as it was to admit I probably would’ve if he hadn’t spoken the one word that cut through my lust fog like a ray of bright sunshine.

  “Lunch,” he rasped.

  That one word served as a railroad switch to my one-track mind that had been headed straight to Sex Station and was now chugging at full steam ahead to Food Depot. My feet were moving before I even realized I was walking.

  As I was passing Hud, who was still standing firmly in place like a statue carved by Michelangelo, I exclaimed, “Thank God. I’m starv—”

  His long, thick fingers wrapped around my wrist causing me to become temporarily mute and paralyzed. My st
eps were halted and I stood frozen, speechless.

  Out of the corner of my eye I saw, in a barely perceptible move, he dipped his chin, his voice was low and gravelly as he spoke, “For the record Princess, when I compliment you, you’ll know.”

  Maybe it was the power of his touch, or maybe it was the fact that he was only inches away from me, or the heat, or the hunger, or maybe it was just him, but his simple statement hit me like a Cupid’s arrow dosed with sensual fire that shot straight to my heart, causing my head to spin as a tingle of awareness spread through me like an electric charge.

  Before I could process the sensory overload currently happening in my body, Hud dropped his hand and turned. I watched his wide shoulders and broad back as he stalked in long strides towards the main house.

  Damn. If this was how I felt when he didn’t compliment me, how in the hell was I going to be able to handle it if he ever did?

  I didn’t know the answer to that, but I was sure hoping I’d get to find out.

  Chapter 8

  Hudson

  “She could charm the dew off of a honeysuckle.”

  ~ Loretta Reed

  Harmony took a significant swig out of the second water bottle that she’d pulled from the cooler. I watched, captivated, as she downed the entire contents in about the same amount of time it had taken her to finish off the first—less than thirty seconds. Over thirty ounces of water in under a minute.

  “Thirsty?” I observed more than asked as I reached in to pull out bottle number three.

  A loud smack sounded as she finished the contents. She set the empty container beside her before grabbing the one I’d just retrieved out of my hand. My eyes locked on the area where the smacking had originated. Her full, cherry red lips were wet, drawing me in like a magnet. They were always enticing, inviting and enchanting…but the glossy sheen that covered them now was so damn tantalizing I wasn’t sure how I was possibly going to get through the next thirty seconds, much less the next thirty minutes, without tasting them.