Page 45 of The Sound of Harmony

ChapterTwelve

Emma spent all day Friday prepping for the estate sale. She also spent the entire day thinking about Kendrick, and how that thing that wasn’t supposed to happen? Happened.

Not the sex, although that wasn’t supposed to happen either. She could tell herself that phone sex didn’t count, but her body knew better. That man did things to her. Nice things. Things she’d like to do again, preferably in person.

But mind-blowing orgasms aside, what Emma was truly concerned about were the feelings—the feelings she swore she wasn’t going to catch. She’d worked so hard to keep every part of her life organized and compartmentalized, but there wasn’t a box she could put this in. No shelf it went on. As much as she wanted to tuck her heart away and keep it safe, she couldn’t.

And it seemed that Kendrick was catching feelings of his own. That thought felt like a zipline across a canyon, making her heart soar while her stomach plummeted.

Luckily, the estate liquidators weren’t the chatty type, so she could be lost in her own thoughts as she worked with them to arrange and price everything in the house.

The estate company was run by two men in their forties named Dave Ashton and Dave Wendell, but they told everyone to call them tall Dave and short Dave. Their company was full service. They’d price the items, help staff the sale, and send any leftover items to charity.

By six o’clock, Emma, Dave, and Dave had everything ready to go for the next morning. She emailed Mitch an update and then started a text to Kendrick. He would arrive in Columbus tonight, where Mitch would pick him up and bring him to Cannondale.

She hesitated, her fingers over the phone’s keyboard. What to text to a man who was more than a client, more than a friend, less than a lover, possibly a one-night-stand—in the strangest way possible—whom she liked a lot but wasn’t supposed to, and had to work with for at least two more weeks?

How’s the bus? Lame. But she couldn’t think of anything else.

I’m in the middle of nowhere Pennsylvania, he texted back. Cell service cuts in and out, but I think I have one bar.

Looking forward to seeing your house tomorrow?

Looking forward to seeing YOU tomorrow.

Emma selected a smiley face, but erased it before sending. Regular texts were hard enough—words with no tone of voice, rate of speaking, or pauses—but emojis held their own kind of danger. They could be misinterpreted so many ways. On the other hand, a smiley face seemed like the easiest way to end the conversation so she selected it again and hit send.

Kendrick texted back a sunshine emoji.

She didn’t know what that meant. Was that happiness? Or meant to symbolize a day? As in, I’ll see you in one day? Or was it an obscure piece of slang? She texted a sun back to Kendrick and waited for what would happen.

What happened was that her phone couldn’t deliver the message.

Kendrick’s phone wallpaper was a photo he’d taken at his last concert, the entire woodwind section of The National Orchestra crammed together for a selfie. Ben had joined them backstage afterwards, praising the program in general and the flutes in particular and not making a single penis joke, despite being given several openings.

Kendrick finally had cell service. He sent Ben a quick text. You were right about Emma.

You’re not making her your friend? Ben answered.

Not even close.

Ha ha nice.

You and Raine, though?

She’s great.

You’re welcome. Kendrick added a side-eye emoji.

You made the intro, but I closed the deal.

How, though? How’d a Dummkopf like you impress a woman like her?

You wouldn’t believe me if I told you.

What does the sunshine emoji mean? Emma texted Kendrick an hour later.

She was at Gwendolyn’s apartment, just across the river from the CU campus, eating pepperoni and mushroom pizza. Emma was tired and wanted to zone out with tacos and the news, but Gwendolyn freaked out if she didn’t lay eyes on her sister at least once a week. Since Emma was working tomorrow, they wouldn’t be able to meet for their usual Saturday morning coffee, so she’d agreed to pizza tonight.