17
How was your visit with Damien?” Jules bustled about their shared kitchen space, cleaning up from her morning as Mary arrived to get ready for that evening’s supper club.
“It was really good. I hung out with his family a fair bit. They’re all very nice. Rode ATVs, got dusty. Rode horses too. His eldest brother has all sorts of animals. Pigs, horses, chickens, goats. He’s got a fabulous Lab. Dude, you should see Damien’s kitchen. It’s like heaven, only in Oregon.”
Jules laughed, pausing to put her head on Mary’s shoulder. “I’m glad.”
“Of course we seem to have to run a gauntlet of p-ssy everywhere we go. He brought me home first thing this morning and he got recognized at the airfield. At the coffee shop near his house. At the damned gas station.”
“How does he handle it?”
Mary continued to stir the sauce. “He has that thing that Adrian has. They’re charming, compelling. You want to be around them. He’s always appropriate. At least in front of me. Women just, gah, I don’t know how to handle it. They grab at him, show him their boobs, totally bald-faced come on to him right in front of me.”
“That you care tells me this is more than a fling. Also the way you carve out time for him and the little smile you get when he’s mentioned.”
Mary sighed. “It’s more than a fling. Yes. He wants more, he says. I wanted it to stay casual, but the longer I know him the less casual it feels.”
“Cal, looking the way he does and all, has women coming on to him a lot. Sometimes in my presence. Men too.” Jules hopped up on a nearby stool. “It’s hard. Being jealous, I mean. I used to be envious before Cal was mine. I hated that he was with other people and not me. But now that he’s mine it’s different. If that makes me petty, so be it. But he’s my man. He’s always so appropriate, though you know your brother is a ridiculous flirt. It helps that he’s always got eyes for me, or Gideon, when he comes into a room.”
“I don’t think I’ve ever really been jealous before. It’s unpleasant. But there you go. Also, my brother flat-out adores you, so you’re not going to have to worry about him like that.”
Jules waved a hand. “Oh I know. I was just commiserating. And saying, I guess, that I’ve seen him with you around and he watches you like you’re the only person he’s interested in. The fame thing is hard; we know that from Gillian. But Damien digs you, stupid tabloid pictures or not.”
Mary huffed a breath. “Oh man, those pictures. I made myself a promise, a pact I suppose, not to look at them. It drives me crazy to see. Because that’s not the Damien I know. It’s scary, and then I start doubting myself and him and what I feel and maybe he doesn’t feel it and this is only so hot because I’m not like the others and I don’t just fall at his feet.”
“I know a little bit about that. I mean, about feeling like perhaps it’s the novelty and not the reality that is getting the dude all hot for you. You know I was worried at first about Cal not wanting me, not really. I’m not sure words or reassurances can make it totally go away. It’s going to take time and example. He’s going to have to show you, and you’re going to have to believe it’s real. And there’s really no way around the fact that he is that Damien too. At least in some part. He’s got a persona. His band has a persona. So where that Damien stops and the real one begins is something you have to accept.”
“I know.”
And she did. It scared the hell out of her, but she realized the stuff in the tabloids and on the Internet would always be there. It was up to her to deal with it and up to him to not be a womanizing dick.
If she meant to let this go further. Which, she guessed, she did.
* * *
His mother caught up to him as he got back from a ride with Ezra. Having taken Mary home just that morning, he knew his mother would want to debrief.
Ezra gave him a face, but Damien shrugged.
She sat on his porch, rocking back and forth in the porch swing. “Nice day to have a sit for a while outside. This is a good spot for the swing. Come up to the house and I’ll make you and your brothers lunch.”
“Brothers?”
“Vaughan and Paddy are up at the house helping your dad finish the enclosure for the back fence. There’s a ham in the oven.”
Score.
He and Ezra took up on either side of her as they began the walk back to the main house.
“Mary get back all right?”
“Yep. She left her car at the airfield. She left a message for me when she got back home safely.” He’d liked that she had. It made him feel better. Next time he’d stay, drive her back home. That way there’d be more time with her.
“What do you think of the girl, Ezra?”
“She charmed the demon pig.”
“That’s a good point. Your dumb dog loves everyone, so that’s not a big deal. But the demon pig, well, that’s another story.”
“Violet misses Mary already. I hope she doesn’t revert to her evil ways in Mary’s absence. Elsewise we’ll have to make the girl live here to keep us all safe. Once the beast gets bigger she’ll be a killer if she gets mean. She’s pretty. Mary, not the pig.”
Damien laughed.
“And she cooks like a boss. Christ, if you stay with her, you’ll have to exercise a lot more or you’ll have to roll around everywhere.”
“I went for a run on the treadmill earlier for that very reason.” And the sex was also a good workout.
“I asked her if she’d sign a prenup.”
Damien halted, his mouth open. “You did what? Mom, I’ve been trying to get this woman to give me a chance and you go and do that?”
“Close your mouth. Of course I did. You know what Kelly did to Vaughan. She’s got her monthly check, it’s all she wanted. Do you think I want that for you too?”
“She’s not in it for the money. If she were, I wouldn’t have to fight her so hard to be with me. God.”
“Don’t you take that tone with me. And no, she isn’t in it for the money. She told me she’d only known you three and a half months and you were nowhere near marriage. I like that she told me to back off but with manners.”
“Kelly was too young. Like Vaughan was too young. I don’t think she did it for money. I think she felt like if she had Vaughan’s babies he’d stay home. He’d make a commitment and love her.” Damien knew his family hated Vaughan’s ex. But he mainly felt sorry for her. Vaughan was twenty-five years old when he’d married Kelly. She’d been six months pregnant. Kelly had been even younger at twenty-three. Neither of them had been ready. It fell apart because of that. Another baby to try to keep Vaughan home where he should have been. But that never worked.
“He pays her so she’ll stick close. She could up and move to San Francisco, you know. She stays close so the girls can see him.” Ezra kept walking. “He’s gone four months a year. She’s the one who parents them every day. Give her a break.”
Their mother loved them all fiercely and, at times, with a blindness only a mother can pull off. Vaughan was not blameless in the mess, and while he was a great dad and he loved his daughters, Kelly wasn’t the mercenary bitch their mother believed she was at times.
Their mother sighed. “I love you boys. The problem is that you’re all talented and handsome. Women see that and sometimes you get blinded by what’s under their skirts. And they’re blinded to that by all your charm. It’s my job as your mother to watch over you. Yes, yes, you’re all adults, but I’ll always be your mother. Anyway, I like Mary.”
Well, that was lucky.
“She didn’t run out the door when I called her my girlfriend. That’s a step in the right direction. It’s an issue that I get recognized a lot. But I can’t help it. It’s part of this gig.”
His mother laughed as they went up the porch steps. “She’s far enough away that it’s going to cause her worry. You have to understand it.”
“I know. She’s worried about the life. Worried I’ll stray. Worried I live too hard.”
“You do live too hard.” His mother paused at the door.
“I did. I’m trying not to. I’m trying to be worth it to her.”
His mother looked back over her shoulder at him. “Good. That’s what I like to hear.”
“The two-states thing is odd. How you gonna handle that?” Ezra held the door open for their mother as he spoke to Damien.
“Well, it sucks that I can’t see her as often as I’d like. But travel is part of my job too. So it’s not actually as big a hassle as it would be if I didn’t tour and all that.”
“I’ve been working with Paddy on some new stuff.” Ezra spoke once their mother had moved into the kitchen. “I’ve blocked out time in November.”
They would start work on their next album in two months. Recording was grueling. They spent a lot of time in the barn working. Reworking. Working some more. Paddy was a perfectionist. He insisted on fifty takes if that’s what it took to get it just right. He and Vaughan were at each others’ throats a lot. Damien had to do his level best to ignore most of what Paddy said and did while they were in the studio or they ended up bloodying each other far too often.
One thing was that Ezra was the leader of the band again while they recorded. It saved them from breaking up over and over. He did the guitar work on all their records, wrote nearly all the songs with Paddy and kept things as chill as possible with all the hotheaded Hurley brothers.
“You should ask Mary to come down and personal chef it. You know, while we work on the record.”
Damien paused. That wasn’t an entirely bad idea. He’d considered asking if she’d be their tour chef. He knew she had the supper club, though. But the tour was a year out anyway.
But if she was there while they recorded they’d probably be healthier. They spent a lot of time eating crap and takeout. She’d be a calming influence. Most likely they’d be better behaved and she’d get to see him work.
“I want her to respect what I do. I mean, I think she does. She loves live music and she was a fan before she met me. The questions she asks about the work seem to show she’s interested and not in that fangirl way. I don’t know. I’m . . .”
Ezra squeezed his shoulder. “She’s good for you. I’d totally vote for her to come down here to cook for us. God knows we’d probably work better with real meals instead of potato chips and frozen burritos.”
“I’ll bring it up. Thanks.”
His brother tipped his chin. “Any time. Plus she’s gorgeous. Not like it’s a hardship to look at her.”
He flipped Ezra off as he walked past. But he smiled.