Sweet Harmonies (3 page)

And yet, on the very first day that she had
made a move toward a stripped down, simple, homespun life where she
could focus on her art, she'd not only entered into a gigantic
professional battle, but also met a man. And not just any man. A
man who set her head spinning.

Karina had never felt that before. She'd felt
lust for men before. She'd felt affection. Maybe even love? She
considered that. Maybe, she decided. I'm not sure, but maybe I've
loved a couple of them, in my way. The best way I know how. Yes,
that was what it was. In the best way that she, personally, was
capable of loving, she had loved a couple of men. It wasn't what
they write sonnets and make cheesy movies about, but it was her
best version of love.

But she had never...NEVER...felt out of
control the way she had felt in Sue Ann's cafe today. Her head
spinning like she'd ingested some hallucinogen. Her heart pounding
like it was about to beat out of her chest. Her breath quickening
uncontrollably. And the worst part, the part that she absolutely
couldn't wrap her mind around no matter how hard she tried, was
that she had been rendered speechless.

Her.

Speechless.

Karina had had her fair share of problems
over the course of her life when it came to talking, but every
single one of them had stemmed from not being able to keep her
mouth shut when she should have been silent, not the other way
around!

This afternoon had been the first time she
could ever remember, the first time in her entire life, that she
had actually wanted, needed, to say something – and the words just
wouldn't come.

And the maddening thing was that this had
happened in front of the only man she'd ever met that she actually
had the urge to impress! What was that all about? She had always
been surrounded by men who tripped all over themselves trying to
impress her, not the other way around. And, while she had enjoyed
the attention and the adoration had made her feel good about
herself – she was human after all – it was more of a general
sentiment that she appreciated. She enjoyed being surround by
adoring men, but couldn't give a starving rat's ass if any one of
them in particular held her in esteem at any given time. If one of
them became disillusioned, there were plenty more waiting in the
wings to take his place. And, honestly, Karina didn't distinguish
much between them.

She sighed as she reflected on this. She
realized it made her sound like a terrible spoiled princess, and
that wasn't it at all. She was just so focused on her music and her
career that her personal relationships were a sideline, an
amusement, and she never devoted much passion or thought to
them.

Today? With Ryan? That was a whole different
animal.

This afternoon the tables had been turned.
And she hadn't liked it one bit! Or...maybe she had loved it. She
couldn't decide.

She shook her head in a vain attempt to clear
it. Why was this happening to her?

Why on earth would these two major first time
events – the first time she had met a man she actually wanted to
impress and the first time that her wits had utterly failed her –
have happened to occur virtually simultaneously?

It was like the Universe's cruel joke!

She trailed her fingertips along the walls as
she wandered her home, willing the tactile sensation to bring her
back down to earth.

She stepped into her generously-proportioned
open living room. The vaulted ceilings were high above her, giving
the space a cavernous, amphitheater-like feel. She slowly crossed
the large room to the expanse of glass which made up the exterior
wall of the space.

The view from this mountain-top hideaway was
breathtaking. From her perch, she could see all the lights of Hope
Falls in the valley below. Because she knew the layout of her
hometown so well, she could easily spot the various landmarks – Sue
Ann's and the rest of downtown, Amanda's house, the rec center, the
high school. She wished that she had the acuity right now to
accurately map her internal landscape as precisely as the one she
was gazing at out the window right now.

At least, she consoled herself, she had some
quiet time alone to figure this out. That's what she had never been
able to get when she was living the hustle-bustle of her pop star
life. People thought it was so glamorous, that you were constantly
surrounded by minions jumping to do your bidding. Ha! Far from it.
Sure, she had an entourage, but most of the time it seemed to
Karina that – from her PR agent to her manager right down to her
stylist – she worked for them more than the other way around.

She was up by four or five most mornings to
do satellite or phone interviews, and then it was a non-stop day of
doing what she was told until at least midnight – at which point,
she would get four or five hours of sleep and it would start all
over again. Her assistant would tell her where to go, her manager
would tell her what to do, her PR flack would tell her what to say.
Her nutritionist would tell her what to eat. Her label would tell
her what to sing. She was sure that soon there would be someone on
staff to tell her what to think. She wanted out before that
happened.

Sure, she had money, she had fame, she had
professional success. The one thing she had never been able to get
was blissful, long, uninterrupted time alone. Whatever personal
chaos was going on inside her right now, she reflected contentedly,
at least she had quiet time alone to deal with it.

No sooner had this thought crossed her mind,
however, than Karina was startled by a booming knock at the door,
its shuddering resonance echoing throughout the cavernous empty
space.

Karina rushed to the front door, thinking
that there must be some sort of terrible emergency going on for
someone to drop by unannounced and then pound on the door that
hard, at this time of night. She looked through the peephole and
saw Sam, one of her and Amanda's best friends, and her heart
seized.

What could be wrong? Could something be wrong
with Amanda? Or maybe it was the fourth member of their group,
Lauren...Karina flung open the door in a panic, fearing the
worst.

When the door opened, however, Sam turned her
face brightly toward Karina and chirped, “Hey, there!” and then
bopped past her into the living room.

Karina followed her, bewildered, her heart
still beating fast in trepidation. “What's going on? What's wrong?”
she breathed.

Sam was still walking forward, taking in her
surroundings in wonder, “Dang, it looks so weird and creepy in the
dark, with just the candles! Do you get the power turned on
tomorrow?”

Karina shook her head and rubbed her
forehead, trying to get a handle on what was happening. She felt
like she and Sam were in the middle of two separate conversations,
both just barreling forward on their own path, oblivious to the
other person's contributions.

“
Um...tomorrow, I think. About the
lights. Lauren's taking care of it. Seriously, Sam, what are you
doing here? Is something wrong?”

Sam giggled, “Nothing's wrong! Except I heard
from Amanda that you met a guy today, and you were completely
flummoxed! I had to get the details for myself! Who is this man of
steel, that he can destroy not only mere mortals, but also
celestial super stars?”

Karina exhaled a sigh of relief, “Geez, Sam.
You had me in a panic! I know you may have been cut off from social
norms while you've been ensconced in Olympic training all these
years, but just FYI, for the future – an unannounced ten pm drop-by
is the equivalent of a three am phone call. It usually means
disaster in some way, like a death or someone's in the
hospital.”

Sam waved this aside, “Oh, please. It's not
like I haven't lived in the world, I know that. But I just got off
the phone with Amanda, and I couldn't wait until morning to get the
scoop! And since you're horrible at picking up your cell phone,
combined with the fact that I wanted to see your face when you told
me the story AND the fact that you are now living literally right
across the street from me, I figured...impromptu pajama party!”

Karina's only answer was an incredulous
scowl.

Sam laughed, “Oh, calm down. I'm just
kidding. About the pajama party part. Not about the fact that
you're going to tell me absolutely everything about meeting one Mr.
Ryan Perkins this afternoon!”

Karina's face softened and she laughed a bit,
“Oh, fine. Come on in the living room. I ordered Chinese, which has
probably gotten cold, but that you're welcome to share. I also have
wine.”

Karina sank gracefully down to the floor,
sitting cross-legged in front of the Chinese food cartons, opening
them one by one. Sam plopped down across from her, saying, “No
thanks on the noodles, but I will take some wine.”

Karina laughed, “Noodles are crap for your
training, but you can get drunk.”

Sam shrugged, “Wine's not exactly a protein
shake either, but it's really about what's worth it to you, to
cheat a little bit for. Cold egg foo yung? Not so much. Glass of
wine? Yes, please!”

Karina poured the wine into first Sam's glass
and then her own. She took a sip and reveled in the warmth she
could already feel spreading through her shoulders and back. She
picked up the carton of orange chicken and popped one of the sweet,
crunchy pieces into her mouth. Even cold, it was not half bad.

She smiled. Sitting in her own home in Hope
Falls, drinking wine, eating food, surrounded by candlelight and
friendship, she felt more at home than she had anywhere, in years.
It solidified in her yet again the rightness of her decision to
move back to Hope Falls.

And what about Ryan Perkins? Would he prove
to be further proof that she had made the right move coming back
here? Or would he be her undoing?

Since Sam was here, she figured, she may as
well use her as a sounding board. That's what girlfriends do,
right? Yeah, she thought to herself, that's what they're always
doing in movies, anyway. She shrugged. Here goes nothin'!

“
Well, yes, I did meet this guy today,”
she began.

“
Yes, I know!” Sam burst out
enthusiastically, “His name is Ryan, he's Sue Ann's grandson, and
he's here helping her out with the cafe. He's tall, blonde, and
hunky, and apparently he sings and plays guitar like a dream! Also,
apparently, he reduced you to a whimpering pile of mush with just
one handshake!”

Karina laughed, “Do I even need to be here
for this conversation?”

Sam chuckled, chagrined. “Sorry. I guess I do
get a little carried away. I'm just so excited for you! Tell me
everything! I won't interrupt, I promise!”

Karina flopped back and lay staring at the
ceiling. She sighed dreamily. “OK, I will admit, it was slightly
thrilling, to feel that zing...that overwhelming thing that they
talk about in movies. I won't go so far as to say that I actually
liked feeling out of control...but it's like, there was this little
part of me that actually wanted to like feeling out of control,
does that make sense?”

Sam matched Karina's dreamy sigh with one of
her own, although hers was tinged with sadness, “No, it doesn't
make sense. I'm dying to meet someone that makes me lose control of
my senses!”

Karina laughed heartily, “Oh, right, little
miss competitive. You say that now, but let's see what the story is
ten minutes after you meet someone that you lose yourself in. I
have a feeling it won't be a pretty picture!”

“
True, I might be romanticizing,” Sam
conceded, “Maybe the actual feeling is scarier than I'm imagining
it. But, to be fair, it's probably more thrilling than I'm
imagining it to be, as well!”

Karina was quiet for a moment, and finally
responded with a quiet, “Yep.”

--- ~ ---

Ryan Perkins awoke early the next morning,
with a sense of expectancy that had been distinctly missing from
his life for the past several....months? Years, maybe? He tried to
remember the last time he had felt as excited about anything as he
felt at the prospect of seeing Karina today, and was hard pressed
to pull out even a single memory from his entire adult life.

Well, damn.

That was depressing.

When he made the leap back into childhood,
then, yes. Memories began taking shape. Christmas mornings,
obviously. Last days of school. The weeks leading up to the county
fair, that year he had had a prize pig to show. Yes, he realized as
he made an even more careful mental inventory of his teenage and
adult years, he really did have to go all the way back to middle
school to pull out a time when he felt even a fraction of the
anticipation that he felt this morning.

Ryan was normally not a morning person,
although circumstances had long dictated that he rise well before
the sun. Still, every single morning it was a colossal struggle for
him to get himself up and on his way. He arose with the alarm clock
each day both weary and bleary, and dragged himself into the
bathroom feeling like cement blocks were tied to his limbs.

This morning, on the other hand? He had
jumped out of bed, raring to go, a full fifteen minutes before the
alarm had gone off. No scratchy eyes, no weighty limbs. He was full
of energy, and went into the bathroom to take a shower without even
giving a thought to the notion that, if he had wanted it, he could
still steal fifteen more precious minutes of sleep.

Ryan turned on the shower, setting the
temperature as hot as he could stand it. He loved to start the day
out feeling the pulsing heat of the strong stream of water beating
into his muscles, breathing in the steam. It made him feel
alive.

This morning, the heat and steam conspired
with his thoughts of Karina to almost make him feel
lightheaded.