While we pick, we spread out. Different members of my family end up in conversation with Harmony, asking about her work, her background, her daily life.
Lily asks, “Do you get to shop at Prada? Do you get to shop at Gucci?”
My sister-in-law is fighting a losing battle with this budding fashionista, trying to keep her down to earth now that she occasionally gets to meet famous people.
“Sometimes,” Harmony says. “As long as I don’t have to go to Rodeo Drive. I hate that whole area. I’d rather shop online—but I do like designer clothes.”
Garrett teases her about being with a knucklehead like me. My grandpa shares his favorite things about picking season. Ari informs her that we have special honey in the pantry (from our bees that get nectar from the orange blossoms in the spring).
At some point my mom tells her, “You know, Hank and I didn’t like each other at first either.”
“No?”
“No, I thought he was cocky. Turns out he was just quiet, but it came off like he thought he was too good for everybody. It took me a while to realize he was actually very nice. When I figured that out, I felt like an idiot.”
Glancing over at me, Harmony says, “I know the feeling.”
Harmony asks about my mom’s music and what it was like to grow up out here, their voices fading as they ease down the row. Jackson follows, prattling on about something, probablyagricultural factoids he thinks Harmony will like, but I can’t hear them well anymore.
I end up picking next to Garrett, so I ask how he’s been.
“Good. Nothing too much out of the ordinary. Although, Brianna started an Etsy shop selling polymer clay jewelry, so … that’s all over the house.”
“She any good at it?”
“Unfortunately yes.” He chuckles. “She has all these tiny tools that she uses to sculpt miniature flowers and other detailed shapes. I didn’t think it would take off, but other women love that stuff. She makes like a thousand dollars a month, and she’s growing too. So it’s clay central station and I can’t even be mad.”
“That’s pretty cool.”
“Anyway. Nothing like what you’ve had going on. Harmony Sonora? The media’s been tough on you two.”
“Well, the label’s encouraged it. They made us work together hoping to cause a stir on purpose.”
“Guess I shouldn’t be surprised. It worked.”
I scoff. “I know.”
“It’s … actually had me thinking. Ever since Glambamsignedyou, in fact, I’ve been thinking.”
“About what?” I twist off an especially plump orange, even though I’m supposed to leave those ones.
“About your career. About … how you still haven’t been able to control your brand much. How you’re having to put out yet another country album.” Garrett rubs the back of his neck.
I think I know where this is going.
“It’s not your fault,” I say.
“It kind of is, though. It was me who pushed you to take the deal with SiNKroNyze. It was me who told you to just get your foot in the door.” He huffs. “As your older brother, I should have given you better advice. I should have told you to hold outfor something better—because that’s what you deserved—and a better deal would have come along, I know it would have.”
“You were eager to see me succeed,” I reason. “And, at the time, you’d been watching me struggle for years. You went to so many of my gigs, let me bounce all my new ideas off you, talked me up to anyone who would listen—and probably to plenty of people who preferred not to. I know you wanted my ‘big break’ as much as I did, and we both thought SiNKroNyze was it. Or at the very least that it was a medium-sized break that would lead to the big one. Regardless, you can’t take all the responsibility for that; I was an adult and I made that choice.”
“Maybe. But I still supported it. And now I’ve watched you struggle for yet another three years, in a different way of course, but struggle nonetheless.”
“I’m really lucky. Luckier than most. It’s hard, sure, and I want more control—of course—but I’m not miserable.”
Garrett nods toward Harmony up ahead of us, who is listening intently as Grandpa Joe tells her something about the orange-tree leaves. “Especially not now.”
“Especially not now,” I agree. “I don’t know how things would have panned out if I’d gone a different way, but there’s a good chance I wouldn’t have met her.”
