Sweet Harmonies (11 page)

She was not going to be caught unawares
again, dammit! She was determined that he WOULD see her for the
clever person that she knew herself to be, if it was the last thing
she ever did!

Which brought her to her current dilemma.
What to say first. If she had an opening line in mind, she knew she
could walk into the meeting with confidence, and if she had
confidence, things would progress well from there. She needed
something that really popped, a classic Karina quip. Why was her
wit – along with her wits – deserting her now that she needed them
most?

Finally, much to her chagrin, time ran out.
She glanced at the dashboard clock and realized that she was going
to have to park and walk into Sue Ann's, or she was actually going
to be late for the meeting. Dammit!

She strode quickly into Sue Ann's, her
irritation with herself giving her cheeks a fetching glow and her
stride a sexy aggressive purposefulness. She stopped in the middle
of the room and glanced around at the wait staff, and into the
kitchen, what she could see of it over the high counter where
orders were set to be taken out.

“
Looking for me?” she heard a low, sexy
voice from behind her, and whirled around, startled.

Ryan was sitting at one of the small,
two-person tables by the window, sipping a cup of coffee.

“
Hey, gorgeous,” he said, “Come have a
seat. I'll go get you a cup of coffee.”

“
OK,” she said as she settled herself
into the chair opposite him. Great, she thought to herself
sarcastically, that was a brilliant line. I see my ability to think
quickly on my feet is still intact.

Ryan returned with her coffee, as well as a
small tray with sweeteners and a miniature pitcher of cream, and
set them on the small table in front of her.

“
So, did you have trouble finding a
parking space?” he teased companionably.

She gave him a puzzled look.

He grinned, “Well, I did notice that you went
around the block about six or seven times before settling on one. I
thought maybe someone was parked in your favorite space.”

Her face burned with embarrassment. “I,
uh...had errands,” she mumbled, aware that made no sense, but
powerless to stop the words from coming out of her mouth.

Ryan had the good grace to let the topic
slide at that point, and she appreciated that about him. It was one
thing to tease people lightly, especially people like her who
appreciated a good joke. But there was another type of teasing that
people sometimes fell into, funny people especially, where they
would continue pursuing a joke long after it was clear that it was
uncomfortable to the other person. Karina viewed these people as
jerks, pretty much, but as a witty person, she did understand the
temptation to keep rolling with a topic when funny lines were still
popping into your head. It took real self control to bite your
tongue when everything inside you was screaming, “Just say it! You
know it's hilarious!”

Karina was very happy to learn that Ryan was
the type of person who put other peoples' feelings above his own
need for a quick laugh.

Ryan pulled a notebook and pen from his back
pocket. He flipped it open to an empty page and said, “Ready to get
started?”

She nodded gratefully and smiled, pulling her
own notebook and pen from her purse. She opened to a blank page and
titled it “Town Follies.”

Ryan smiled at her, although with her head
bent over her notebook, she didn't notice it.

“
OK,” she began thoughtfully, “I think
the first thing we need to think about is if we are going to have a
theme or not. A lot of the later plans will stem from that
decision.”

She looked up at him across the table, to see
what his response would be, but all she saw was him grinning at her
as if she was the cutest thing he'd ever seen.

“
What?” she asked, “Did I say something
funny?”

Ryan shook his head, “No, no. Sorry. I'll
concentrate harder from here on out. I just got caught up in how
cute you looked all bent over your notebook, writing so intently.
But, yes. I do need to concentrate. You were saying? A theme?”

But now Karina had gotten distracted from the
original topic. She pushed her notebook aside and took a sip of
coffee. As she set her cup down, she smiled at Ryan fetchingly.

In a far off corner of her brain, she
wondered if she were really so shallow that a simple compliment
about her appearance could set her at ease so quickly? She shrugged
mentally. So what if that were true? She was a girl. She was
entitled to a LITTLE bit of vanity, wasn't she? The important thing
was that she did now feel comfortable.

She tilted her head and smiled again. Gee,
she told herself, congrats on stopping short of batting your
eyelashes, even if just barely.

“
Actually, I think that talking about
the theme and the rest of it can wait a few minutes,” she said
coyly, “You know, we're going to be working together pretty
intensely until the night of the talent show. I think we should
probably get to know each other a little bit better.”

Ryan smiled, leaning back in his chair, “I
can get behind that idea. Ask me anything you want. Fire away.”

“
OK, basics first. Tell me about your
family. Mom, Dad, brothers, sisters?”

Ryan nodded, “Well, I guess I had a pretty
boringly normal childhood. I was raised on a ranch in Montana with
my Mom and Dad. They're still together. No brothers and sisters.
But, what can I say? It was ideal. I mean, I guess if you put my
feet to the fire, I would have liked to have more kids around to
play with when I was younger, so, yeah, I guess brothers and
sisters would have been nice. But, that's a small complaint.
Overall, I'd have to say I had a very happy childhood.”

“
What about friends? Didn't you have
friends around to play with?”

Ryan shook his head, “Nah. Not during the
school year at least. I mean, I went to school, but it was a small
school, even by rural standards. And because we were all bussed in
from remote ranches, it wasn't like we could just pop over to each
other's houses to play after school. Not to mention, we all had
chores, anyway.”

Karina tried to sound diplomatic, but she
couldn't help but commenting, “That actually sounds sort of...grim,
if you don't mind my saying so.”

Ryan started laughing, “Yeah, I guess I see
how you could picture it that way just from hearing what I just
said. But, honestly, it wasn't how it sounds. I mean, the way I was
raised was the same way kids were raised for hundreds of years
before me. So, there's that, to be part of a ranching and farming
tradition in this country that goes back to its founding.

“
And, aside from that, you have to
picture it. The land – our land – was beautiful. Lush, gorgeous.
And from the time I could remember, through helping my family work
that land, I knew that it was ours. In my earliest memories, I had
a sense of connection and pride of ownership with the land we were
working that some people chase their entire lives and are never
able to achieve. You can't replace that kind of history with a few
after-school rounds of Hungry, Hungry Hippo, you know?”

Karina found herself completely entranced in
Ryan's recounting. “Wow, you're right, now I'm actually jealous!”
she laughed.

Ryan said, “OK, now I'm throwing that
question back at you. Family? I've met your grandmother, what about
the rest of your family?”

Karina nodded, “Fair enough. Well,
truthfully, since you've met my grandmother, you've pretty much met
all of the Blackstone clan that is around to be met. I don't have
any brothers and sisters...well, that I know of, anyway...”

Ryan looked puzzled, “That you know of?”

Karina sighed, “OK, let me back up. So,
Renata is my mother's mother...”

Ryan looked even more puzzled, “How did you
end up with the same last name, then?”

Karina nodded, “Yeah, I know. Well, my Dad
took off before I was born. My Mom died in childbirth, I'm pretty
sure at least. So, I don't imagine that Renata was too eager to
give me my deadbeat Dad's last name, when he couldn't even be
bothered to stick around.”
Ryan shook his head in confusion, “What do you mean you're PRETTY
SURE your Mom died in childbirth?”

Karina grimaced, “Yeah, I know. I was pretty
insistent as a pre-teen that Renata fill me in on all the gory
details, but all she would ever say is that my mother was gone, and
that she was there, and wasn't that good enough? I mean, you've
seen her, you can see what she's like. Dragging details out of her
that she's not willing to part with? Yeah, that's a losing
battle.”

Ryan laughed, “I can definitely see
that.”

Karina sighed, “So, yeah, I eventually gave
up on that. But it doesn't really matter, in the grand scheme of
things. I mean, I had her, I had the tribe, I had all of my
friends. Whether my Mom was not around by providence or by choice,
it's all the same in the end. Why not just focus on the people that
are here rather than the ones that aren't?”

Ryan put his hand over hers and squeezed. “I
think that's a really great way to look at it.”

She looked at their intertwined fingers on
the tabletop, and couldn't help herself. She blurted out, “So, do
you have a girlfriend back home?”

Ryan burst out laughing. He shook his head,
“Wow, you get straight to the point, don't you? No, I don't have a
girlfriend right now. And, just in case you're wondering – because
I have an idea you might be – my last girlfriend and I broke up
over a year ago. She was the third of my serious girlfriends, and
we'd been together for three years. I had a girlfriend in high
school that I was with for two years, a girlfriend in college that
I was also with for two years, and then my most recent
girlfriend.”

“
That's it?” Karina was
incredulous.

“
That's it,” Ryan affirmed, “I don't
know what to tell you. I'm a relationship guy. I don't start to
date someone in order to see where it might lead. If I am
interested enough to pursue someone, it's because I already have a
pretty decent idea that it is going to lead somewhere serious. I
don't fool around with people just for the hell of it.”

Karina was dumbstruck. She'd never met anyone
like this before. In the crowd she ran with, casual dating was the
norm. Getting serious was an aberration that happened when two
people who were 'keeping it casual' happened to get deeper feelings
for each other at the same time. It was certainly never the goal at
the outset of the relationship. Ryan's perspective was a whole new
way of looking at things for her.

“
So, what happened with you and the
three girls?” she asked. She was surprised to find that, more than
anything, she was honestly just curious to get a deeper insight
into how he saw things, and how he operated. She almost felt like
an anthropologist, investigating the peculiar mating rituals of
some obscure culture.

Ryan shrugged, “Well, each one is complicated
in its own way, of course, as relationships inevitably are. But
what they all really boiled down to, in the end, was that the girl
was ready to move forward and take it to the next level, and I just
wasn't there.”

“
Marriage?” Karina asked, and Ryan
nodded.

Karina gave a small smile, “I thought you
were a commitment guy?”

“
Oh, I am,” Ryan responded earnestly,
“If the relationship with any of them would have been right, I
would have walked down the aisle in a heartbeat. The problem was,
none of them were exactly the right fit. I could feel it. Of
course, since I couldn't point to any specific issues we had, it
was really difficult for them to understand why I was breaking it
off. But, honestly, when it got to the point of either move forward
or cut ties, either get married or break up...I just knew it wasn't
a forever relationship. I don't know how I knew. I just...” he took
Karina's hand, “I knew there was something better for me out there.
I knew I they weren’t my future.”

Karina, flustered, found herself at a loss
for a response. So, she just smiled and squeezed Ryan's hand,
smiling and looking into his eyes. They held each other's gaze for
a moment, until finally Ryan broke the silence.

“
So, what about you, super star?” he
said lightly, “Tell me about the trail of broken hearts you've left
in your wake.”

She laughed and shook her head. “Oh, no,
nothing so dramatic. The only real 'relationship' I've had to speak
of, if you could call it that, was my first manager. The one I had
before Bernie. That lasted awhile...years, actually. But, looking
back, that might have just been a relationship of convenience. I
mean, he was tour managing my road show as well as managing my
career. Those were lean years, Ryan, I don't know what to tell
you,” she laughed, “So, it was like...we de facto lived together,
he ran a lot of my day to day life, and also I was only 20 so I had
very little perspective about life beyond the one real boyfriend
I'd ever had. I think that might be why we stayed together for so
long.”

Ryan nodded, “OK, that's why you stayed
together. Why did you split up?”

“
Oh, that one's easier. I signed with
Bernie.”

“
Bernie?”

“
My manager. When I signed with him, I
had to fire my boyfriend, so...”

“
Well...that's why you split up the
professional relationship. Why did you split up the personal
relationship?”

She laughed bitterly, “It was all one big
relationship. There was no difference. Anyway, we still keep in
touch, in a way.”

“
Oh, really?”