With my arm finally beginning to feel better, I was able to strum my guitar with it only causing a slight amount of discomfort. Not enough to deter me, and with Del checking the wound and explaining that there was no longer risk to the stitching, I was ready to get back to what I loved – music.
I lay my guitar across my lap, running my hand over the smooth varnished surface and smiling to myself. The need to play ached in my bones. Music was everything and anything I could see in my life. With music, I could get lost in a world full of chaos and crazy. I could feel the strength of the words in the songs that other people had written and use it. The songs, the lyrics, the beat, they all had a purpose. A part to play, and together they moved in harmony to make something so beautiful.
Music was more than just memories for me. Yes, I had grown up around music, having it as part of my life was a given. But music had forced its way through me and become part of my soul and my heart. It lifted me up and empowered me.
I took a breath, but before I could pluck a single string, my phone began to ring. I hung my head, telling myself I should just ignore it, but my mother’s ringtone blared loudly in the small room.
I placed my guitar on the bed, looking at it longingly before I reached for my cell and held it to my ear. “Hi, Mama.” I tried to sound upbeat, but my voice failed me.
“What’s wrong?” she quickly questioned, her voice strained.
“Nothing, Mom. How are you?” The line was silent for a minute. “Mom? Are you all right?”
“Yeah, honey. I’m okay.”
I laughed. “That was convincing.”
“Yeah. Just stressed I think…” she trailed off, her voice was a little shaky and alerted me immediately. My mother was never shaken, upset maybe, but she never sounded defeated.
“Mom…what’s going on?”
She cleared her throat. “I just had a weird phone call today. Nothing to worry about.”
“From who?” I heard her shuffling, she was nervous. There was a soft knock on my bedroom door. I muttered some profanities. “Mom, I have to go, but I’ll call you back. Okay?”
“Yeah baby, it’s fine. We’ll talk soon,” she said quickly like she was relieved that I’d given her an out.
“I’ll call you back, Mom,” I reiterated again, this time a little more sternly, indicating that she wasn’t going to get away with acting all weird and then not explaining herself.
There was another knock on my door and I tossed the phone onto the bed. I caught sight of my guitar again, its strings sparkling in the sunlight. I sighed, contemplating ignoring the persistent person behind the door and locking myself in Kit’s bathroom just so I could play.
Just one song.
I groaned loudly. “Damn it.”
I twisted the door handle and pulled it open, ready to tell whoever it was that I was busy. I was instead met with two of the most hypnotizing eyes I’d ever seen in my life. They were such a light shade of green that at first glance they almost seemed yellow. I couldn’t help but stare, my mind not even registering that I probably looked like an idiot, or that I was being extremely rude. When the woman blinked the colors seemed to swirl, the shade of them changing once again.
“Can I come in?” a soft voice asked. Shaking me from my haze and suddenly making me take notice of the woman standing right in front of me with a sweet smile on her face. Her hair was a brilliant burgundy with just a few gray strands sprinkled throughout. It hung over her shoulder in a thick plait and reached almost to her waist.
“Um, I’m sorry. Who are you?” I asked the woman as politely as I possibly could.
Her smile grew. “The boys call me Bright Eyes,” she offered, as though that would explain to me exactly who she was, but I was drawing a blank. “I’m Kit’s mother.”
My heart began to race and a flurry of curse words flew through my mind like they were on a high-speed conveyor belt.
“Oh…yes…c…come in,” I stammered. I quickly pushed the door open and gestured for her to enter.
“Thank you.”
She moved toward the bed, sitting on the edge as I stood awkwardly in the middle of the room.
“It’s nice to meet you,” I managed to force out as I stood under her beautiful studying eyes. “I’m Harmony.”
“It’s nice to finally put a face to this name I’ve heard about.” She smiled kindly, her voice was soft and sweet, but I sensed an air of authority around her. “Tell me about yourself, Harmony.”
I moved over to Kit’s desk and leaned against it. “Um, I grew up in LA. Well, all over really, but that’s where I was born. Moved to Athens up north Alabama four or so years ago. I’m at the college there studying.” I wasn’t sure what else she wanted to know, or what she already knew, so I kept things simple. She didn’t seem like the type who was afraid to ask questions.
“What is it that you’re studying?” she asked, tilting her head curiously.
“Um, music.” I gestured to my guitar which was laying just behind her.
Kit’s mom nodded as though this pleased her. I wasn’t sure why my nerves were going haywire around this woman. She was petite, beautiful, and her looks seemed completely unthreatening. But the need to please her was running rampant.
She crossed her legs. “You’re part of the Athen’s chapter of the club?”
I cringed. “I suppose you could say that.” Her eyebrows lifted as if prompting me to explain what I meant by my answer. I sighed, knowing there was no way to avoid it. “I was a club girl, yes.”
Her face showed no surprise, no shock, no utter horror at my confession. Relief flooded my body and I sagged a little. She let out a light musical laugh that seemed to make the room a little brighter.
“You were expecting me to react differently to that little bit of information?”
She observed correctly.
“Yes, I guess I was.”
She shrugged, a small smile still playing on her lips. “We’ve all done things we aren’t proud of –”
“I never said I wasn’t proud of it,” I said firmly, the words leaving my mouth without a thought. “Everyone who is in the club has a part to play, whether it be small or large. I have no shame in what I do for the club…or did, I suppose.” I firmly believed every word of what I’d said. I loved the club. They had supported me, given me a family away from home and, for the most part, held me with a certain amount of respect.
Bright Eye’s smile grew larger, her perfectly white teeth now showing as she stared at me. “That’s exactly the answer I needed to hear.”
“Excuse me?”
She stood from the bed and walked toward me. “Harmony, I don’t care if you were a club whore. Just like you said, club girls serve a purpose. They keep the men happy – in more ways than one.” She tucked a strand of hair behind my ear in a motherly gesture. “Kit is president now, he needs a woman who is proud of her allegiance to the club and isn’t afraid to stand up and say that the Brothers are her family.”
I couldn’t help but grin. “Sorry, it’s just we get a bad rep sometimes.”
Bright Eyes laughed. She wandered around, straightening different things just like a mother would in her young child’s room. “No kidding. Trust me, if it had been one of the girls here that Kit had attached himself to, I would’ve had a lot more curse words to say. They just want a patch and power within the club. But you don’t want power, you already loved the club no matter what your position was in it.” She stopped and looked at me, her stunning eyes searing through me. “And now you love Kit too.”
The words struck me hard, making my heart race. Love? Love wasn’t something I had yet considered. My feelings for Kit had slowly grown over the last few weeks but did I love him? I wasn’t sure.
I sat stunned as she eyed me expectantly, chewing my lip as I thought of the words to say.
“Mom, leave her alone. You’re gonna scare her off.”
I allowed myself to breathe as I saw Kit standing in the doorway, a smirk on his face.
His mother laughed, holding out her arms to him. I watched as he embraced her with such tenderness and loving, lifting her feet off of the floor. The way he watched her was with complete admiration and I’m sure once I saw him with his father, the look would be the same.
“You made Dad distract me while you came and third degreed my girl?” he accused as he stepped back, even with a smile.
His mother rolled her eyes but didn’t admit to anything. Smart woman.
“How’d she do?” he asked, smiling over at me.
She didn’t say anything but patted her son on the cheek and walked from the room, humming the tune of the wedding march.