Mysteria Nights

herself into combat mode. It was like the time in Iraq when the shell hit right outside the hospital.

She shoved the rumpled quilt over the sheets, collected scattered pillows, and arranged them hurriedly, wondering where she could arrange Damon where no one would notice him but quickly coming to the conclusion that not a single nook or cranny in the farmhouse would hide a six-foot-five-inch-tall ex-demon.

The doors to the Humvee slammed. Her heart tumbled as she peeked around an eyelet curtain. “They’re unpacking the car, they always do it before coming in, and they’re slow. It’ll buy us some time, but precious little. Just enough time for a shower, I think.” She slapped her hands on his gorgeous bare butt and pushed him toward the bathroom. “We have about two minutes. Maybe less. So I’m coming with you.”

Damon appeared delighted by that fact, until remembering the car in the driveway. Harmony pulled him under the gushing water with her. “This is going to be the fastest shower you’ve ever had.”

They soaped each other hastily.

Harmony grabbed blindly for two towels as water from her soaked hair streamed over her face. “Here’s the plan. I’ll get dressed and go meet them. You go out the side door—grab anything, tools, whatever, make it look like you were working—and I’ll bring them inside and distract them with breakfast.”

He brought his hand to her cheek, a calming touch. “I willna do anything to embarrass you.”

“I know, honey. I know. You’d never embarrass me, Damon. I’m proud to be with you. It’s just that . . .” She waved at the bed. “This isn’t exactly proper behavior for a pastor, and especially for Reverend Faithfull’s daughter.”

He pressed a hurried but heartfelt kiss to her lips. “You dinna need to explain. I know what to do.”

Harmony uttered a prayer of thanks for Damon’s understanding as he grabbed his clothes and hurried out the side door.

Somehow she got herself together, pulling on yoga pants and a T-shirt. She secured her thick mass of soaking wet curls atop her head, jamming in a couple of pins to hold it in place, and burst outside, where Bubba pranced and jumped around her family and their suitcases. Car doors slammed, and her family bustled around the luggage, chattering and laughing, clearly excited to be there. Harmony smiled, her heart filling at the sight of them: Daddy tall and graying, but still so handsome, looking strangely underdressed in his sweatshirt and ironed Levi’s; Mama, regal as always in her role as Reverend Jacob Jethro’s wife but as light on her feet as the star athlete she once was when she met her husband at their high school track meet; Harmony’s oldest brother, Jake Jr., was busy unloading the trunk—one thing about the Faithfulls, they didn’t travel light. And Robbie had come, too, at sixteen the youngest Faithfull, attentive and respectful as he helped Great-grandmother Eudora step down from the rear passenger seat.

Harmony gulped, her stomach dropping. What would the woman see? What would she know? Too much already, Harmony thought, remembering the phone call with her father, when Eudora seemed to know about Damon.

Walking carefully, methodically, Eudora leaned on her cane. As always, she was dressed to the nines: a sapphire blue skirt set, with clusters of pearls clipped on her ears and around her neck, and a chocolate brown wig slightly askew. Step by careful step, she walked around the front of the truck, sucking on her false teeth. Her cane sank into the squishy, damp grass, and she stopped. Frowning, she shook her head in disapproval. Wheeling a bright red suitcase, Mama joined her to stare at the clods of displaced sod, the gouges and skid marks, the broken sprinkler heads, pieces of tattered cloth, and someone’s forgotten sneaker.

The ruined yard.

“Hell’s bells,” Harmony whispered. She hadn’t realized so much damage had been left behind. Her shaking hand crept up to the little cross she wore around her neck. Lord, give me strength— oh, and the creativity—to come up with some really good answers to their questions . Then, with her mouth formed into the biggest, most welcoming smile she could muster, she glided out to them, her arms wide open. “Wow, isn’t this just the best surprise!”

In the next instant, she was swallowed up in a huddle of love, hugs, and kisses.

“We were going to spend this week in Rocky Mountain National Park,” her father explained, “but when we saw the exit leading to Mysteria—”

“We simply couldn’t pass it by,” Mama finished for him. “I had to see my baby.”

Eudora grasped Harmony’s hands in hers. Her skin was once the color of rich caramel; now it was almost transparent over a network of bluish veins. Despite mild palsy, her grip remained as powerful as her intense gray- brown eyes. “Ah, you’re happy, girl, aren’t you?”

“I am, Great-grandma,” Harmony replied shyly. “Very happy.” She knows what you did last night. The thought popped into Harmony’s mind, clear and simple. Her first instinct was to look away, to break the eye contact, but she stayed strong. Fact: Eudora knew what was going on between her and Damon. No way could she hide it. The best Harmony could hope for was for Great-grandmother not to say anything.

“What happened here?” Mama waved a manicured hand at the lawn.

“Um, a circus,” Harmony blurted. Good one. “Yes, we had a bit of a circus here yesterday after services.” That wasn’t really lying, was it?

Mama brought her hands together in delight. “Isn’t it wonderful, Jake? Our girl’s as creative in spreading the good word as you.”

Harmony shrank back in shame as her father puffed himself up. “I’m proud of you, Harmony. So proud of what you’ve done here in so short of a time.”

Oh, boy. If you only knew.

“You got someone to put in sprinklers,” Jake commented. “Looks like a first-class job. You didn’t do it yourself, did you?”

“I did,” said a familiar deep voice.

Harmony’s heart bounced as Damon strode toward the group, a length of PVC pipe and a new sprinkler head in one hand, his other hand extended in welcome. “I’m Damon, the church groundskeeper.” Dressed in clean clothes, his hair brushed neatly away from his freshly shaven face, Damon looked so bright and alert that no one would ever guess he’d been doing anything other than . . . well, than what he’d been doing all night.

Harmony blushed; she couldn’t help it. “I’d been looking for someone to hire, a handyman and groundskeeper, when Damon came along looking for work. He’s been wonderful, such a help, a blessing, truly.”

At her gushing, Damon seemed almost bashful. The part that touched her the most was that it wasn’t an act. “Reverend Faithfull needed someone for the heavier work so she could concentrate on the church. I’ve been busy making repairs and working in the fields”—he pulled a plump ear of corn from his overalls pocket, to the obvious delight of her family—“and once Harmony approves the plans I’ve drawn up for the barn, Mysteria Community Church will have a new social hall and gym.”

“We will?” Shocked, Harmony watched Damon withdraw a folded piece of paper from his pocket. On it was a detailed drawing that he’d clearly spent a lot of time on and that she’d known nothing about. “Well,” she said, “as you can see, Damon is indispensable.”

Eudora cackled and patted his hand. “I see a lot of things about Damon.”

Harmony’s smile was wooden at best. Why, oh, why did she have to have a seer as a great-grandma? Why couldn’t she have a normal family, who wouldn’t be able to tell that she’d acquired a decidedly out-of-the-ordinary boyfriend?

“You’re a good boy,” the old woman said. Then she winked. “Good, good, good.”

Damon coughed. It was the first time Harmony had seen him blush.

Eudora ran an admiring gaze over Damon’s muscular frame, nodding, her eyes crinkling, then she gave Harmony an admiring, conspiratorial he’s-hot wink before hobbling away to lead the clan to the house.

Harmony sidled up to Damon as her family walked on ahead. Pointing to her eyes, she whispered, “She’s a seer. She can read thoughts sometimes. Just don’t say it out loud.”

“But she knows, lass. She knows what I am.”

“She knows what you were.” Harmony took a deep, calming breath. “And all we have to do is keep the rest of the family from finding out.”

It was like old times with the family hanging around the kitchen counters and table just like they did in the big house in Oakland. After everyone had had a tour of the property, the church, and the house, Harmony prepared