Lyric and Lingerie (Fort Worth Wranglers 1)

“No. No, no, no.” Harmony snatched the chocolate bar from her hand and threw it down on the dresser. One of the squares broke off and fell on the floor.

Lyric reached for another candy bar. She’d tried drowning herself in bourbon, but it didn’t go too well with the chocolate bars.

“No.” Harmony leapt across the room and grabbed the whole box of chocolate. She carried it across the room, opened the window, and tossed it.

“Are you crazy?” Lyric said. “That was Godiva. Mom’s gonna be so mad at you.”

“Get off your ass and go after him.” Harmony used her get-over-it-or-else tone.

Lyric ignored her as she reached for her phone.

“Thank God. You’re finally going to call him.” What was with Harmony? She hated Heath.

Lyric rolled her eyes as she dialed her mother’s number and then waited for her to pick up.

“What’s wrong?” Her mother sounded frantic. At least Livinia wasn’t yelling at her anymore.

“Harmony threw my box of chocolate out the window.” Lyric debated picking them out of the rosebushes and off the ground and eating them anyway, but it had rained last night, or maybe that was the night before last. Anyway, the chocolate would be a little muddy.

Livinia sighed heavily. “All right. I’ll go buy more after the garden club.”

“Thanks.” Lyric hung up, then rolled over and pulled the covers back over her head.

“Have you lost your fucking mind?” Harmony yanked the covers off the bed and tossed them on the floor. “You’re fighting with your fiancé and taking favors from our mother.”

“I already told you, he’s not my fiancé. He was never my fiancé.” Why did everyone have trouble remembering that?

“Yeah, well, I don’t think Heath knew that.” Lately Harmony’s whole purpose in life was to annoy Lyric. Just once, couldn’t she be comforting?

“He’s the one who thought up the whole plan.” To be fair, he hadn’t thought it up so much as blurted it out.

“He’s also the one who paid for everything with his Amex Centurion.” Clearly Harmony wasn’t on board with the whole leave-Lyric-alone plan.

“That doesn’t mean anything. Money doesn’t mean anything to him. Besides, once he cancels, he’ll only lose the deposits.” She didn’t feel bad about that—he was the one who’d got them into this mess in the first place.

“What if he doesn’t cancel?”

“He already told Momma and Gregor to do it for him. I saw the e-mail. He even called Gregor by the right name.” Tears burned her eyes. Why that detail was what finally had her breaking down in tears, Lyric had no idea. Harmony was right. She was pathetic. Too bad she had absolutely no interest in trying to change that.

Harmony sat down on the edge of the bed then, even ran a comforting hand up and down her back. The gesture alarmed Lyric. Chocolate from her mother was one thing. But sympathy from Harmony was something else. Was she dying and she just didn’t know it? How did they know it?

“This whole separation-and-wedding-called-off thing isn’t written in stone. You could call the wedding back on.” Clearly Harmony had early onset dementia.

“I’m pretty sure you need a groom to have a wedding. Or at least another bride. I don’t have either.” Not that she was in the market for another bride.

“Sure you do. You just have to get your head out of your ass and go get him.” Harmony made it sound so easy.

“He doesn’t want me, Harmony. He’s never wanted me. I don’t why that’s so hard for you to understand.” Her heart broke all over again as she said the words out loud.

“Oh, God, here we go again. Are we really back to the stupid tree house thing again?”

“Stupid tree house thing? He took my virginity and then called me by the wrong name. He hadn’t wanted to sleep with me. He’d thought he was sleeping with you.” Her ego and her heart couldn’t take more rejection.

“So the guy is an idiot—he’s a guy … they’re idiots. They can’t help genetics.” Harmony poked her in the ribs until she finally rolled over and looked her sister in the eyes. “He loves you.”

“He was just pretending—”

“Yeah, like you were pretending?” Harmony as the voice of reason seemed so wrong. “No one is that good. Besides, I saw the way he looked at you. You’re the one he wants. You’re the one he loves. You always have been. Plus, you should have seen him at the jewelry store picking out your engagement ring. He looked at every single ring, every single diamond, every single setting at least three times before deciding on that one. And then, with the inscription he had them put on it … I don’t get how you could still doubt him.”