Forbidden Harmony (Harmony Falls #3) - Elizabeth Kelly Page 0,12

the time’ voice that Addison suspected she had perfected by the age of ten.

She wanted to glare at the woman when she continued to stare at Emma. The curvy yarn shop owner had a large port stain birthmark that started at her left temple, covered almost the entirety of her left cheek, and followed a meandering path down the left side of her throat to disappear under the collar of her shirt.

Addison had always admired Emma’s ability to deal with the constant questions and looks from tourists and even locals who’d known her all her life. Secretly, she was surprised that Emma hadn’t moved away from Harmony Falls. Living in a large city or even a mid-size one like New Cassel, would probably have been easier for her to blend in. There she would have just been another slightly different looking face in the crowd. Here, her birthmark meant she was often considered as, or talked about, like she was the town freak.

As Emma, a smile tacked on her face and her head turned to minimize the amount of birthmark the tourist would have to see, helped the woman, Addison moved deeper into the shop. It wasn’t that big of a space, but Emma had maxed out the space she did have by hanging yarn on the walls almost to the ceiling. Addison rummaged through a bin of discount yarn, studying each hank of yarn and reminding herself that she really didn’t need any more.

Her job as a schoolteacher paid her rent and her bills, but it didn’t leave a whole lot of extra. She tried to be frugal and didn’t eat out much or take a lot of vacations, but she did admittedly have an addiction to yarn. She stroked the soft cotton yarn she was holding before putting it back.

Her car had been making that weird clicking noise again and she needed to seriously consider taking it back to the mechanic. She would try Nuts and Bolts Auto Repair this time, instead of the shop owned by Gordon Rampton. She took her car to Gordon because that’s where Harrison took his Mercedes, but her crappy Honda Civic had looked ridiculously out of place among the gleaming Mercedes and BMW’s that Gordon mostly serviced.

Gordon was always perfectly polite and never made her feel embarrassed about her piece of crap car, but now that she wasn’t with Harrison anymore, she could try a cheaper alternative. Harrison was always so concerned about appearance, always wanted people to look at them and see wealth and opulence, that he’d balked at her doing anything others might consider cheap.

She sighed and moved down the far aisle to study the selection of sock yarn. Harrison had expensive taste and while he made good money, she knew for a fact that he carried a lot of credit card debt. They’d always kept their finances separate at Harrison’s insistence – some days he acted like she was the one with money issues – and she supposed not having to take on his debt was another reason to be thankful they’d separated.

There were a lot of reasons she should be thankful they’d separated, and she needed to concentrate on those instead of obsessing over the fact that Harrison said she was stiff and unsexy and terrible in the sack. So she wasn’t a great lover. It wasn’t the end of the world. There were probably plenty of women who weren’t amazing at sex.

She studied the wall of yarn, not really registering anything she was seeing. Maybe she needed to order a couple of books online to give her some tips and ideas on how to be better at sex. Her idea of rebound sex had seemed like a good one on Friday night, but now, she wasn’t quite so sure. If the only person she’d slept with was Harrison, she could hold on to the hope that maybe it wasn’t all her fault. Maybe Harrison wasn’t so great at it either or –

Crystal seemed to be enjoying herself. It’s you, girl. Face it. You suck in bed. You were worried about that long before Harrison finally told you the truth. You need to get better at this sex thing, and you know reading a few books isn’t gonna cut it. You need some hands-on experience with a real penis. A penis that’s attached to say… I dunno… Preacher?

She grabbed a random ball of yarn from the wall and stared at it. She really needed to get over her