“Merry Christmas to you as well,” she said quietly.
Was that regret laced in her voice, or just wishful thinking on his part? He might never know, and he hung up the phone feeling heavy and rejected. So much for working with an assistant. He stared down at the cards in front of him, the queen of hearts smiling like the Mona Lisa. “She said no,” he told her. Feeling ridiculous, he typed the same words in a text to Jeb.
Jeb replied with aSorry, bro. Know any other beautiful women?
Breck snorted.I wish.A generic beauty wouldn’t do, though. Harmony had something special, a light that drew in viewers—and him—for more.
Join the club.
Something will come up.He hadn’t told Jeb that this was his last shot at making a living with magic. He hadn’t told anyone. It was his burden to carry and his motivation.
At least his parents would be happy if he quit. They never quite understood his fascination with cards and tricks, though they tried to be supportive in their way. More often than not, they asked him to put the cards away at the dinner table, though they’d smile woodenly through one of his if he asked. It was a hard way to grow up. If it hadn’t been for his grandpa, he might have quit magic before he even gave it a chance.
He’d turned twenty-five this year, and being a quarter of a century old did things to his brain. It made him think about where he was in life, evaluate his decisions. He took a good, hard look at where he wanted to be by the time twenty-five more years passed by, and a wife and family were definitely on his priority list.
A fear that obtaining his magical dreams would mean giving up the family he craved motivated him to practice his card tricks for the next street show, despite the stab of disappointment that Harmony wouldn’t be a part of it.
Darn it all, he’d hoped she’d say yes. He really, really hoped she’d want to see him again, because as much as he’d tried to convince himself that he wanted an assistant, what he was after was another chance to look into those big blue eyes.
Chapter Four
Harmony
Harmony slowly lowered the phone from her ear, feeling as if she’d lost her stash of chocolate Santas.
“Who was that?” asked her cubicle mate, Jenny.
Nothing was sacred in their three-by-five space. Harmony had heard all about Jenny’s breakup with Timothy last month—over Timothy’s obsession withTransformerscollectibles, of all things. Jenny couldn’t handle the amount of money he spent on thetoys. Tom bristled over her disrespect for hisinvestment strategies. They’d finally decided that separating was the only way they could solve their differences. It was all very grown-up and methodical for a breakup right before Christmas.
What Harmony would have given for a methodical divorce.
She pushed the thought away. This very morning, she’d promised herself not to think about Sam. Each day was a new beginning, a chance to root his influence out of her life and regain the woman she’d been before he’d bulldozed through her heart.
And … she pushed that thought away too. Positive thinking was half the battle. She wasn’t sure what the other half was, but she figured she’d get to it when she mastered the thinking part. “That was the street magician I told you about.”
Jenny swiveled around in her seat. “You didn’t tell me about a street magician.”
“I could have sworn it came up.” Harmony tapped her chin. She’d certainly thought about Breck enough to believe she’d spoken of him. Maybe she didn’t think of him quite as much as she tried not to think about Sam, but he was definitely on her top two list.
“Spill,” Jenny demanded in that wonderful way only true friends can.
Harmony explained about stumbling into the show and being called out of the crowd to help. Jenny insisted they look up the video—that very minute!
Harmony typed in the channel name, and soon she was watching herself smile and blush. Good heavens, Breck was even cuter the second time around. His broad shoulders filled the frame, and his gray eyes sparkled like falling snowflakes during a romantic sunset. She found herself leaning on the arm of her chair to keep her balance.
“Girl! He is so cute.” Jenny kicked off and made her chair spin.
“I know.” Harmony stared at the screen, the rest of the workroom fading into the background. “He has this geek-a-licious thing going for him.”
“Yeah, and he fills out that sweater better than a store mannequin.”
Harmony’s cheeks flushed with heat. “I h-hadn’t noticed.”
“Yeah, right, you didn’t notice.” Jenny shoved her. “What you need to cure your Sam blues is a big dose of magic.” She made humming noises and wiggled her fingers to accentuate her statement.
Harmony shook her head. “What I need is a trip home for the holidays, my mom’s hot chocolate, and a visit from Santa on Christmas Eve.”
“If you say so.” Jenny didn’t sound at all convinced. Perhaps that was because Harmony wasn’t all that sure of her plan either. Breck had given her a much-needed boost to her self-confidence in a way she’d never gotten from a gift under the tree.
