Tangled Hearts (Passion in Paradise) by Sarah O'Rourke Page A

hunk,” Melody teased, pointing at the picture on the
wall behind her friend.  “He’s hanging right there, remember?”
    “Uh huh, he’s always watching
over me.  He also knows I love a good romantic mystery.  So, back to the
impeccable piece of man-meat that helped you this morning.  Who was he?”
    Melody quickly filled
in her gal pal on the coffee chaos and flat tire fiasco that had consumed most
of her morning.  She finished with, “Honest to God, Harm, I didn’t know whether
to kiss him or kill him by the time my car was fixed.  And I have not a single
clue who he even was, but he knew me .  He knew my name was Melody.”
    “Ooooohhhhh,
intriguing,” Harmony squealed excitedly. 
    “No, Harm.  The word
you’re looking for is creepy.  Maybe scary.  Definitely disconcerting.”
    “He rescued you from a
flat tire and bought you coffee,” she countered hopefully.
    “It was crappy coffee
that I reimbursed him for by shoving money in his pocket.  And I could have changed that tire,” she argued, crossing her arms over her chest
defensively.  “He was one of those He-man, Master of the Universe types. 
Definitely not my type.”  Although, she had been engaged to Skeletor so He-man
would be a definite improvement.  When had she began thinking of men in terms
of cartoons from the 1980s?  Good Lord, this was ridiculous.
    “Honey, the last type
you had didn’t work out so well,” Harmony noted gently.  “Maybe we should
reevaluate the type of man you gravitate toward.”
    Melody shrugged before
admitting, “Okay, you might have a point there.  The guy today was still an
asshole though.  He used the c-word, Harm.  Out loud.  In front of me.”
    “Honey, from what you
described, that barista was a c-word,” Harmony declared with a decisive
nod.
    “True,” Melody
confessed under her breath. 
    “You liked him,”
Harmony said softly, her lips tilted up in a small, knowing smile.  “A lot.”
    Melody sank her teeth
into her lower lip guiltily because, let’s face it; she was busted.  “He was…
different,” she conceded softly.
    “Different isn’t bad,”
Harmony stated cheerfully.  “In fact, where you are concerned, I think
different is just what the doctor ordered.”
    “Hmmm,” she hummed. 
“Maybe.  But I’ll probably never see him again.  He probably just heard
somebody say my name while I was at the café or the bank or something.” 
Although, she was pretty certain that if she’d been in a building with him,
she’d have known it.  He just had the kind of energy around him that couldn’t
be ignored.  Plus, he was huge .  There really wasn’t any missing a man
that had to be every bit of 6’4”.  The stunning man had been massive… and those eyes .  Nobody could ever forget looking into those hypnotic eyes of
his.  They were like twin pools of blue yumminess.
    “You’re daydreaming
about him again,” Harmony accused, her voice slightly raised to get the other
woman’s attention.
    “Was not.”
    “You totally were.”
Harmony grinned happily, unwilling to let her friend slide.  She was excited to
see someone as nice as Melody beginning to come back to life after a bad
breakup. 
    “Whatever,” Melody said
dismissively.  “So, it’s getting late.  Do you think you have everything you
need for now?” she asked, as she slid a check across the desk toward Harmony.
    Harmony tried to push
the check back at Melody.  “I told you that you’re my friend.  I don’t charge
my friends.”
    “Listen, we’re both
businesswomen.  We both need to get paid for the job we do.  Take the check to
the bank and put it in your account, Harmony McKinnon Stone.  Don’t think I
don’t know how lucky I am that you’re even managing to fit me into your
schedule.  I’ve had my ear to the ground, too.  You’re a right hot commodity in
these parts.”
    This time Harmony
rolled her eyes.  “I plan parties.  I don’t exactly fly