Sweet Harmonies (5 page)

“
Oh, no,” Karina groaned, “Please say
it's not going to be like this all day.”

Just at that moment, Amanda flung open the
door and cried, “You're here! Excellent! Come on in! Is everybody
all bright-eyed and bushy-tailed this beautiful morning of moving
day? Or should I say 'Ryan Day' instead?”

“
Oh, good lord,” Karina continued her
groan, “It really IS going to be like this all day.”

Just then, Lauren strode matter-of-factly
into the room. “Like what?” she asked crisply, and then added, “Are
we ready to get going?”

“
Fantastic!” Karina exclaimed, “Here's
at least one person I know won't have reverted back to junior high,
with the 'I wanna meet Ryan! Tell me about Ryan!' and the giggling
and the blushing and all that nonsense!”

She knew that if she could count on anyone to
be sensible about this whole Ryan thing, it would be Lauren, who
was practical through and through.

“
Oh, no, don't get me wrong,” Lauren
clarified, “I absolutely want to meet Ryan. I just want to get you
moved into your house first. Eventually, I'm going to sit you down
and get you to spill every last detail. But the movers are going to
be here in an hour and a half, and we have a very short window of
time in which to get a lot of things done, so that has to be the
priority right now. But please don't mistake that for a lack of
interest in this Ryan character. Don't misinterpret my
organizational skills as a free pass – you are going to owe me one
gigantic gossip session later.”

Amanda's fiance Justin was coming down the
stairs as Lauren finished this last remark, and started laughing,
“Hey, Karina! I heard the words 'gossip session' – does that mean
they're grilling you about Ryan?”

Karina threw up her hands, “Really, doesn't
anyone have anything else at all to talk about in their lives?”

“
No,” the rest of them answered in
unison.

Karina shook her head and sighed, “You guys
are making a way bigger deal out of this than it actually is.”

Amanda scoffed, “That is ridiculous! You,
Karina Blackstone – who have never lost your head over a guy, not
even one time – YOU were completely and totally and utterly
flummoxed and twitterpated from the first instant Ryan Perkins
walked out of the kitchen at Sue Ann's Cafe yesterday. It was like
nothing I've ever seen before.”

Karina resigned herself to the fact that this
story was going to be told, because Lauren and Sam were clearly
hanging on every word coming out of Amanda's mouth. So, if she
tried to shut it down, she would find herself on the wrong end of a
three-against-one battle. Best to just surrender now.

“
Alright,” she sighed, "tell the story.
But, can you just tell it in the car, please? Because Lauren's
right, we do have a lot to do.”

“
Oh, you hold your horses,” Amanda
shushed her, and then continued her tale in a dramatic voice, “So
there we were. Sitting at our table, minding our own business. All
of a sudden, Sue Ann calls for her grandson to come out and meet
us. He walked out from the back, and it was like....the heavens
opened! As if rays of celestial light were shining down upon his
golden head...”

“
Oh, please!” Karina began to
interrupt, but Sam and Lauren both shushed her.

Amanda continued, “Karina gasped...”

“
Oh, I did not gasp! Now you're just
making it up as you go along!”

“
Oh, you gasped,” Amanda assured her,
“I mean, it wasn't like Freddy Kreuger was about to murder us or
anything, but there was a definite gasp. Now, shush, this isn't
your story!”

“
Not my story? It's about me!” Karina
laughed incredulously.

“
Exactly...you are the subject of MY
story!” said Amanda.

Lauren reached over and, without so much as a
glance in her direction, placed her hand over Karina's mouth.

“
So, anyway,” Amanda continued,
undaunted, “Ryan walks out, Karina's gasping, I can practically
hear her heart beating out through her chest, all the blood has
rushed from her face.

He comes over to us, shakes hands with
Renata, shakes hands with me. Then, he turns to Karina, and I swear
to you – it's like some kind of spotlight was shining out of his
face. I never actually knew what the phrase 'he beamed at her'
meant until I saw that. It was like literal, physical light shining
from his face onto Karina.

And Karina, she puts her hand out to shake
his, and it's shaking like a leaf. Honest to God, just hanging
there in the air, trembling.

So then he takes her hand, ever so gently,
like he's going to bring it up to his mouth and kiss it. And
Karina, the original Queen of the Quip, can't say anything! It was
just this long, heavy silence while they stared at each other –
until finally, I was like...AWKWARD...so I started talking to fill
it.”

Amanda took a breath, something she hadn't
done in a long stretch, and continued, “And then, this is the best
part, you guys, when he sang...” Amanda paused for dramatic effect
and gathered her hands in front of her heart to show how touching
the moment that she was about to relate was, “Karina cried.”

Lauren and Sam's jaws both dropped.

“
Karina cried?” Sam exclaimed, “You
didn't tell me that part on the phone! Our stoic Karina actually
cried?”

“
And her heart grew three sizes that
day,” Lauren intoned dryly.

The rest of the group laughed.

“
And I must admit, that does change
things,” Lauren added.

At this, Karina wriggled back from Lauren's
hand.

“
Change things? What are you talking
about? So I got a little choked up, it's not like it never happens.
I'm a human being, I have feelings!”

“
We've suspected that all along,” said
Lauren, “the thing is, now we've just seen actual evidence of
it.”

“
Well,” said Justin pragmatically, “I
think the only thing left to do is to go and meet this amazing guy,
who was somehow able to bring out the soft and squishy side of
Karina.”

--- ~ ---

Ryan looked out the big picture window at the
front of the cafe and saw a white passenger van pull up in front,
with a dark green logo on the side comprised of an oval encircling
a pine tree and words “Mountain Ridge Outdoor Adventures” inscribed
at the top.

“
That’s them!” Sue Ann exclaimed,
jumping up excitedly. She handed him the box containing the cartons
of breakfast sandwiches and laid the cardboard drink holders with
the coffee cups on top.

“
OK, Ryan,” she said, kissing him on
the cheek, “There’s cream and sugar in the bottom of the box. I
think that’s it. You have a good time with your friends, now!” she
finished, patting him on the back and sending him out the
door.

Ryan felt distinctly like a junior high
school kid getting sent off to summer camp, a feeling that wasn’t
mitigated when the side doors of the passenger van opened up and he
had to awkwardly clamber into the backseat like a kid climbing into
an overstuffed school bus. It was even further solidified when he
looked out the window as the van was pulling away and saw his
Granny standing on the sidewalk, waving at the receding
vehicle.

But any nerves he may have felt about being
accepted by this crowd of mostly-strangers were quickly laid to
rest when they greeted him heartily.

When he climbed into the van, he knew that
his first order of business was going to be to connect with Karina.
Nothing too overbearing. But he wanted to start the day off by
erasing any doubt she may have in her mind that, when it came to
how he viewed things, she was special. Very special.

He settled himself down into the lone empty
seat in the van, which, as it happened, was in the back, right next
to her. This made him smile, he took it as an indication that fate
was on his side.

Ryan turned to face Karina with a huge smile
on his face, and took her hand in his, ostensibly to shake it.
However, he held it in his for a moment, warmly, seductively,
looking straight into her eyes. His smile spread even wider, he
winked at her, and, in a tone that was low and intimate, said,
“Good morning, Karina.”

Karina’s mouth opened, but nothing came out,
and she quickly closed it again. A blush started to creep up her
cheeks, and she opened her mouth again, but again, no sound
escaped.

“
Hey, Ryan,” said the blonde woman
driving the van, filling the silence which was fast becoming
awkward, “we’re so happy you could come hang out and help Karina
move today! I think it’s going to be a good time.”

“
Thanks, I’m glad, too. I appreciate
you inviting me,” Ryan replied, “You’re Amanda, right?”

“
Absolutely, good memory,” Amanda
confirmed. Then, her face lighting up as she looked at the
brown-haired man in the passenger seat next to her, she said, “And
this is my fiancé, Justin.”

Justin turned partway and glanced back at
Ryan, giving a small wave, “Hey, man, good to meet you,” he said,
and then leaned over and kissed Amanda’s cheek. He whispered
something to her and they both started laughing.

Another blonde woman, this one tall and
elegant, perfectly coiffed and made up even at this hour and for
this task, smiled at her friends indulgently and then turned that
smile to Ryan, “Please excuse Amanda and Justin. They’re in the
honeymoon phase of their relationship, they can’t keep their hands
off of each other. I wish that I could tell you that this little
display was the last instance of PDA that we were likely to be
subjected to today, but, sadly, I suspect the opposite is true. I’m
Lauren, by the way,” she said, extending her hand gracefully across
the seat to shake his.

“
Nice to meet you,” he returned her
greeting. Then, giving Karina a wink, he added, “And, believe me,
the PDA doesn’t bother me. I believe in love. I think expressing it
is nice. I think not being shy about letting someone know how you
feel about them is one of the things that keeps you in
love.”

“
Good to know!” piped up the cute,
pixyish, auburn-haired woman sitting on the middle bench seat with
Lauren. “And, I’m Sam. So, now you know everybody!”

“
It’s great to meet all of you,” Ryan
said, “If anyone’s hungry, my grandmother sent some breakfast
sandwiches and coffee.”

Justin turned around, “I thought I smelled
something delicious, pass those up here!”

For the next few moments, everyone was
engaged in the task of distributing the food and coffee and
starting to munch on it.

“
Oh, man,” Sam groaned, “I love Sue
Ann’s cooking. And it was so sweet of her to make me a turkey patty
with egg whites and low fat cheese on whole wheat for my breakfast
sandwich, Ryan. Please thank her for that.”

“
And it was so sweet of her NOT to make
that for the rest of us,” Justin interjected, “Please thank her for
that as well!”

“
Ryan, if you want to pass the box up
here, we can use it for a trash receptacle,” Lauren
said.

“
Lauren’s the organizer, just to let
you know,” Sam told Ryan, “She and her clipboard are ruling the
schedule today.”

“
Good to know,” Ryan said, “I’ll be
taking my orders from you, Boss.”

As the van climbed higher and higher into the
mountains above Hope Falls, Ryan gazed around at the scenery
wonderingly. “I didn’t even realize there were houses up here, or
come to think of it, that the roads even went this high.”

“
Oh, yes,” said Lauren, “I’m in real
estate and I helped Karina find this home. I’ve only recently moved
back into the area as well, so I did a lot of research on the MLS.
I was actually surprised to find out that there are some really
lovely homes up here in the hills and mountains that surround the
town proper. Most of them are vacation homes, however, and not
owned by locals. That’s probably why people that live in Hope Falls
don’t naturally think of them as part of the town.”

Ryan turned to Karina, “I can’t wait to see
your new house.”

Karina opened her mouth to speak again, and
this time actually was able to form words, “Oh, and Lauren found me
the greatest house, too. It’s got an amazing view, and a really
wonderful state of the art home studio, as well. That last part was
really what sold me on it.”

Ryan smiled at her again, in that way that
shut out everyone else in the van - everyone else in the world, for
that matter - and enclosed the two of them in a little bubble all
on their own, a world completely unto themselves.

“
Maybe we can jam later,” he suggested
with a wink.

Karina smiled widely, and it was clear she
was getting at least some of her bearings back. “It’s a date,” she
said playfully.

“
OK, you crazy kids, break it up! We’re
here!” Amanda called as she pulled the van into the driveway of a
spectacular redwood and glass structure.

She turned off the motor, took off her
seatbelt and began to open her door to climb down, but Justin put a
hand on her shoulder and cried, “Don’t even think about it! You
wait right there!”

As quick as a flash, he removed his own
seatbelt, bolted out of the van and ran around to the other side,
and opened Amanda’s door.

“
My lady doesn’t open her own doors
when I’m around!” he declared grandly.

Amanda laughed and pretended to swoon. “My
hero!” she exclaimed, clasping her hands in front of her.

Justin held out his hand to assist Amanda
down from her perch high in the van seat, but when she placed her
hand in his, he surprised her by grasping her around the waist,
pulling her out of her seat and whirling her around in his
arms.