He continued his story. “When I was seven, Gramps bought me a magic set. It had the disappearing ball trick, a deck of cards, and a magic wand. He’d practice with me for hours on end until I could do them all with ease. And then, the day after my eighth birthday, he passed away.”
She stopped running her fingers along the coins and looked up. “I’m so sorry.”
“I still miss him, but doing magic makes me feel like we’re still connected.” Breck fell back in his seat, shocked that he’d said those words out loud. He’d never even thought them before, and yet he knew they were the truth. The sense of deep honesty spread all the way down to his toes.
“I’m sure he’s proud of you.”
He lifted a shoulder.
“Why are you down on yourself? If you love what you do, then you should be proud of it.” She reached out to pat his forearm and pulled back at the last second.
He didn’t comment on her move. She was obviously a generous and kind spirit who had been wounded. Something inside told him to tread carefully. Maybe one day she’d open up to him about those wounds, but pushing her would do no good. Sharing with her might build some trust. There would have to be a whole lot of trust between them if they were going to work together as a team. “Let’s just say that there are expectations on the shoulders of an only son of a couple who started their own business.”
Her lips formed a perfect O. “That stinks.”
“It’s not like they’ve disowned me or anything. It’s more like they like to pretend I’m not trying to be a magician.” He ran his hand down his cheek. “I know it sounds childish and silly, but have you ever wanted something so bad that you have to give it your all or you’ll spend the rest of your life wondering if you could have made it?”
She rubbed her lips together and her eyes fell to the tabletop. “I can’t say that I have.”
He slouched at her confession. “Well, maybe I’m weird, then.”
Her chin lifted. “Then be weird, because you’re good at it.”
He wrinkled his brow.
“That didn’t come out right.” She half chuckled. “You’re good at magic, so you should own it. Confidence breeds success. Besides, someone recently told me that when you step off your path in life, heartache surely follows.” This time, her hand did touch his arm. “If magic is your path, you have to stay on it.”
“Wow. That’s deep.”
She rolled her eyes. “That’s my boss for you. She’s … different. But—” Harmony cocked her head. “—she’s starting to grow on me. In fact, she was the reason I called you back.”
“Then she’s growing on me too.” His hand covered hers of its own accord, and the attraction was back, humming across his skin like the D-train at maximum speed. They locked gazes, and the air grew thick.
“Here we go!” The perky waitress set down two mugs of steaming tea. “If you need something sweet, let me know. We have excellent peanut butter bars today.”
Harmony pulled her hand away, leaving his feeling lonely and lost. “Thank you.” She tucked her hair behind her ear, lifted the cup, and blew across the steam. When their server was gone, she set her cup down, speaking more to it than to him. “I should let you know that I’m going home for Christmas and I’m not coming back.”
“Oh?” He gulped down his tea, burning his tongue in the process.
“IfI can get the money for a train ticket. It’s all up in the air right now.”
Payment. Of course!“I’m so sorry. I should have told you right off.” He grabbed a folded contract from the inside pocket of his coat. “I don’t have money to pay you by the hour, but I thought a royalty split would work?” He flattened the pages on the table.
She leaned forward as he explained.
“When a video hits a certain number of views, MyHeartChannel will use it for advertising. I’m not sure how advertisers do things on their end, but what that means is that for every thirty-second commercial someone views attached to my—our—video, we get seventy-five cents.”
She wrinkled her nose in the most adorable way. “That doesn’t seem like very much.”
“Well, it’s not if you only have ten or twenty views, but if you have ten thousand …”
“That’s seven thousand five hundred dollars,” she filled in.
“Yeah. And if you have two videos …”
She held up a palm. “I get it. What’s the catch?”
“The catch is there are thousands of channels to compete with, and getting your videos seen by enough people to get a commercial is a major effort.”
