Harmony (23 page)

Harmony let go a soft chuckle. “The end.” She curtsied.

He applauded.

“
Thank you for not lying to me.” Harmony said. “And for finding my brother. Thank you for keeping your promise to me. It proves I was right about you. I think Mabel’s wrong. This lion knows exactly what to do to sustain his heart.” She stepped closer and fingered his collar, her lashes lowered shyly. The scent of his spicy aftershave, the sweet smell of air and wild grass, bloomed in her nostrils. “And you know what I think?”

A deep chuckle rumbled in his throat. “Tell me.”

Harmony lifted her gaze from his open collar and locked in on his soft amber-brown eyes. She licked her lips. “Maybe I’m the lioness sent here to claim you.”

“
Is that so?” he ran his hand down her backside. Her body could barely stand the closeness they now shared. With his strong arms locked around her waist. Heat softened her core. Could he feel her belly quivering against his?

“
I’ve been wanting to get you alone since this morning.” He leaned in to kiss her. She dodged his semi-parted lips and stepped away. She picked up the basket and strolled toward a charming spot under the sun for them to lunch.

Romano’s gaze tracked the slow sexy roll of her round hips under her dress as she found a thin patch of grass for them to rest upon. She bent forward to lower the basket and her dress climbed up her slender, toned, brown thighs, tempting him. When she removed the white and yellow quilt and flapped it out over the grass a swarm of butterflies were disturbed and several took flight. Harmony laughed, now caught in a shower of fluttering wings. Her eyes stretched in delight as the butterflies fanned out and away from her. Maybe it was time to tell her about Annie? He was ready to come clean about the battle scars over his heart.

“
Did you see that?” she cried.

He nodded that he did. From his vantage point he could eye every inch of her frame. The gentle slope of her shoulders, the indent of her narrow waist under her raised bosom, and when she turned the lush swell of her ass held him captive. He burned in his gut to express himself. To share with her all the reasons his desires extended beyond Annie and what they’ve shared physically. For weeks he’d watched her from a far and his desire for her voice mixed with his loneliness.

To convince her of his feelings he knew he’d have to go at her pace. She had legitimate reasons to doubt his sincerity. He wanted to do things right, make his proposal stand. He’d thought it all through thanks to Leftie’s provocation. He was going to ask her to leave The Cotton and her life in Harlem. She’d stay here. He’d visit her when he could, and make sure she had everything she wanted. He had it all worked out even down to the sons she would bear him. Now he had to convince her that his feelings were true.

She flashed him a flirty smile and it forced one to form on his lips. “Come on over here. I know you’re hungry,” she said.

Romano walked toward her. Having her alone at his mercy seemed to heighten every one of his predatory senses. He should ravage her on the spot. Instead he dropped to his knees and then over to his side, watching her remove Mabel’s lunch from the brown paper wrappings.

“
Ever been out West?” she asked.

“
West? No. Why?”

She shrugged. “Just wondering. They say it’s a wild frontier. Coloreds own their own towns, and lots of land. I was thinking when this is said and done I might like to travel out there. See it for myself.”

“
Stop singing?”

“
I suppose. I could see myself teaching, yes, getting me some schooling and being a schoolmarm.”

Romano accepted the sandwich. “Maybe I’ll take you one day.”

He didn’t read anything into the nonchalant shrug she gave him. He supposed he should have paid attention. The things left unsaid between them would leave him unprepared for the loyalty and devotion she would show him in the weeks to come. For now he’d been too absorbed with his needs, his wants, to hear anything regarding her desires. He took a large bite and fell over to his back. Harmony removed the bottle of wine Mabel added to the basket then eased down on the blanket and scooted close to him. They both stared up at the sky.

“
When I was a little girl I used to dream songs. I would close my eyes like this and see pictures of my ma, my daddy, God, you name it and then I could just sing to them and it would feel like I had them with me. Used to call them my prayer songs.”

“
You always wanted to sing?” he asked.

“
I just always knew I could sing. Did you always want to paint?” she asked.

Romano pondered it for a moment. He too realized that his paintings were something that came from a place inside of him he knew little of. Maybe his mama loved to do it when she was a girl. She never shared much of her desires, only tended to her children and her husband’s needs and read her bible. “I suppose I’m like you. It’s something that I could just do.” His gaze slipped over to her. Her expression prompted him to roll to his side. He popped the rest of the sandwich in his mouth, chewing fast and then swallowed.

There was something wistful that shone in her large brown eyes as she stared up at the sky, and he wanted to understand it. God help him, but she was still a mystery to him. Her energy drew him at every turn.
Have I actually fallen in love with her?
She would doubt him if he told her he had. Who would believe a man could secretly desire a woman for months from afar, then love her after a few days of meeting. At first he thought it was her singing, because her voice was straight from heaven. Now after having her the past few days he knew it was more.
I love her.

“
I want to know about you Vinnie.” Her gaze switched from the clouds to his. “I want to know about you and her. Tell me.”

It was a simple request. Still the painful memory of his history with Annie soured his gut. He felt encouraged by the understanding and sweet presence of his Harmony. Truthfully the only thing left between him and Annie was his guilt. And that had been enough to keep him immobile over the past two years. It was time for him to let go of the past and move forward.

“
If you don’t want to talk about her still I understand. It’s just that…”

Romano pressed a single finger to Harmony’s lips. She silenced. He traced the seal of her full lips then pinched her chin to lift her face to caress her mouth with his. Her eyes closed and she visibly relaxed.

“
I’ll tell you. I came to America when I was sixteen. I did what I could to survive but this place was so different than home. I spent the first year stealing and eating whatever scraps I could find, catching odd jobs here and there. Then I met Annie and her kindness changed everything.”

“
How did you meet?” she asked, keeping her eyes closed. As if she could see his tale unfold behind her lids.

“
You could say we met by accident. That’s how a lot of my fortune came to me, and was lost, by accident.”

Romano remembered their meeting. Annie had skin the color of sable, and thick curly hair she wore tamed from her face in a single braid down her back. She would tie a baby blue ribbon on the plait. He used to stare at that soft ribbon for long moments before she ever allowed him to touch it, or touch her. Back then she was no more than fourteen herself, and the prettiest girl he’d ever seen. In Sicily he’d never encountered brown skin people. The dark olive skin of Sicilians was nothing compared to those he saw in America. For some reason the people fascinated him. Their style of dress, their music, even some of the foods he could scavenge out of their neighborhoods.

“
The first time I saw Annie she nearly lost her life.”

“
How?” Harmony gasped. Her eyes remained closed.

“
I was running with my friend Lucky. We were looking for a kid who stole from us that day. Lucky took one side of the street and I had the other. We searched the crowds and the stores, thinking we had him cornered. I was the one to spot him first. He ran hard through the outside market darting in and around the street vendor’s carts and tables. Annie and others were there, shopping, not paying attention. I went after him. I was faster and closer when he panicked and started to shove people out of the way. Annie appeared from a vegetable stand with a bag of groceries. She didn’t see him coming. He crashed into her and she fell toward the street. I got to her in time to pull her back from the cars. If she were to tell the story she’d say I saved her life.”

“
And you? Do you think you saved her life?”

“
If I hadn’t been chasing the kid he would have never pushed her in the first place. So what do you think?”

“
I think she was lucky you caught her before the front end of a car did.”

The praise was lost on him. He’d been the lucky one. Living on the streets and fighting for everything had taken its toll on him by the time he met Annie. He loathed everything and everyone until she showed him kindness. Romano had been blown away by the instant connection they forged. She offered him a ruby red radish from her bag as a show of gratitude. He was so hungry he bit into it as if it were an apple. He was so taken by her gentle sweet smile and almond shaped honey brown eyes, he couldn’t leave her side. But his limited English made it hard to express his interest without coming off too forward. Annie seemed to understand him.

“
I didn’t know English then, but she didn’t seem to mind or question it when I offered to walk her home. I guess she could tell by my rags and scruffy appearance that I lived on the streets. When I walked her to her door she announced me to her mother and said I was staying for dinner for saving her life. That’s how Annie was.”

Harmony rolled in close to him. He lifted his arm so he could hold her and she rested her face on his chest. “Finish, I want to hear the story of how you two fell in love.”

“
Mabel and Annie didn’t seem to care that I was some vagabond. They even let me bathe and gave me some fresh things to wear that were left behind by Mabel’s dead husband. The clothes were kind of big but I was grateful. It started from there…”

“
What started?”

Romano sighed. “My life with them. My life without them. My wanting to be somebody important. Every day I’d visit Annie, until my presence in the neighborhood became routine. She took to teaching me English and how to read it too. I was able to get a job with a bootlegger named Greco and a room down in Five Points. Soon I began to make deals on my own. Her brother was a kid then, he’d follow me around everywhere. I took to looking after him. He reminded me of Antonio. By the time I was eighteen Annie was my girl and I had enough money to send for Antonio, and while I did the bootleg runs for Greco, Mabel let Antonio stay with her. He and Teek were both fifteen then, getting into trouble. We were kind of like a family.”

“
What went wrong?”

“
I went wrong. Antonio and Teek wanted to imitate me. But the circles I ran in, I couldn’t let the others know about my surrogate arrangement with a black family. I kept them away from that life. Time passed and when I made enough money to buy a nicer place, and this one, I hired Mabel. Paid her four times more than any domestic. Antonio and Teek were both eighteen and wanting to strike out on their own. I had to keep everything under control. So I eventually moved them all in with me. Everyone knew Annie was my girl, but it was never officially said. For those that didn’t know they feared me enough not to ask.”

“
Is that why you know where you could marry legally?”

Romano nodded. “I would have married her. She didn’t believe me. Thought I was ashamed of her. The truth was I was ashamed of me. I had become my father. It’s why I broke up the gang, I had decided to go solo. Two years ago Teek was killed, Antonio barely escaped with his life, and I wanted revenge. The cost of it all was Annie’s faith in me. She could stand no more.”

“
I’m sorry.”

“
Don’t be. Annie was right to blame me for Teek. I knew things were changing between him and Antonio. Teek could never be part of the world Antonio was drawn to. Antonio started to run with small time Sicilian gangs and Teek did the same with the blacks. By the time they were twenty they had separate lives. And when a young Sicilian kid got killed in Harlem it started the race riots.”

“
I remember. That’s the night Lewis was killed. I think he got shot in the middle of the chaos.”

Romano sighed. “It’s the night Teek died. The cut on Antonio’s face came from a knife fight he was in trying to save Teek. Antonio barely escaped while members of his crew ripped Teek apart. Turns out it was the Five Points Gang that killed the kid and dropped his body over in Harlem. So, all of that bloodshed was for nothing.”