Page 73 of The Sound of Harmony

Brooke pushed the cart along. “So when are you going back to DC?”

“My plans are fluid at the moment.” Kendrick pretended to be interested in the hand towels, while they both pretended that Brooke’s question was simply idle chatter.

She grabbed the nearest towels—orange—and shoved them between the lamps in the cart, not even asking him about his choice of colors. “Hasn’t Emma convinced you to stay?”

“We haven’t discussed it.” Kendrick dug into the cart and removed the orange hand towels. He unwrinkled them and put them back on the shelf, picking up some white ones instead.

Conversation from other shoppers bubbled around them. The clink of silverware. Lids on pots. A child had discovered the stuffed animals and was winding up to pitch a fit when his mother said no.

Brooke moved the cart off to one side, away from the crowd. “I like you, Kendrick,” she said. “You’re smart, you’re cute, and I bet you’re soft and squishy on the inside.”

“I totally am,” he said. “Open me up? It’s just mush in there.”

“You need to know something.” Brooke lowered her voice. “Emma is in a delicate place. She can’t take another heartbreak.”

“So let’s not break any hearts.”

Brooke held up a hand. “I just want what’s best for her. She’s had so much taken away from her.”

“I know.”

“This is the first serious thing Emma has had since she was married. I want her to be happy.”

Kendrick added his towels to the cart. “And I want to make her happy.”

Brooke gripped the cart again, pushing toward him in a friendly way until he took up the handlebar. “You do. I can tell. I’m the queen of putting together unlikely ingredients. I know what combinations work. Yours? I think it’s going to work.”

“Like pine and gardenia?”

“Like pine and gardenia,” Brooke echoed. She reached for some storage baskets.

“But we have to wait until six weeks have passed?” Kendrick teased.

Brooke touched the tip of her nose and then pointed at him. “Somehow, I doubt you guys will take that long.”