always know they were loved. Both sides of their family lived
03
within an hour of them. His parents regularly had them for weeks
04
at a time through the year, even when Vaughan was on the road.
05
He kissed his mom’s cheek and grabbed a piece of the cin-
06
namon bread she’d been slicing. “About an hour ago. I’m sure
07
you’ll thank me for the shower I took fi rst. Speaking of thanks,
08
glad I’ve got breakfast in my fridge.”
09
“I fi gured you’d come back with that coffee you like, but
10
you’d forget milk and then come up here looking for it.”
11
“Appreciate it.” The bread hit the spot. He hadn’t eaten since
12
the lunch Mary had made him before he left Bainbridge.
13
“There’s leftovers. Want some?” His mother tipped her chin
14
toward the fridge.
15
He got it himself, still wanting the memories of Mary mak-
16
ing him food to be the main ones in his head.
17
He listened to his nieces chatter away, Kensey more actually
18
just chattering,as she was only three and didn’t have all her
19
words yet. Vaughan helped them color and his mother super-
20
vised.
21
Paddy wandered in just as he’d fi nished up.
22
“Thanks for dropping my stuff off.”
23
“No big. How’s Mary?”
24
His mother didn’t try to hide her naked interest in that
25
subject.
26
“She’s fi ne. Went to that supper club of hers last night. I know
27
why it’s so popular now. We went for a hike yesterday.”
S28
“She outdoorsy?”
N29
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Lauren Dane
01
His mother hadn’t liked Kelly. Mainly because Kelly was, as
02
his mother saw it, too soft for the type of life they led. Not just 03
the ranching aspect, but the Hurleys were rough- and- tumble.
04
They rode horses and dirt bikes. They toured and lived hard on
05
the road. Kelly hadn’t much been up for that sort of thing and
06
while Damien couldn’t argue that she was incredibly beautiful,
07
she just couldn’t keep up. She had been jealous of it, saw it as
08
something that took Vaughan away from her.
09
And he supposed, she’d been right.
10
“She’s one of those people who is rarely still. She gets up
11
early and goes and goes.”
12
“’Course she is. Girl has her own business. Who else does it
13
for you?” His mother sniffed.
14
“Promised we’d go kayaking the next time I made it up to
15
visit.”
16
His mother handed Kensey a crayon that had dropped before
17
she looked back to Damien. “Did you invite her here? Have her
18
come down harvest time.”
19
That would be . . . interesting. The ranch would be alive with
20
activity. The pears would be harvested by hand and then cooled
21
to spur ripening before they were shipped. There was even a
22
harvest festival in town that she’d probably love. Even though
23
they were celebrities, they were hometown boys and people
24
rarely bugged them.
25
He wasn’t sure if Mary was ready for a full dose of Sharon
26
Hurley. Then again, who ever was?
27
“I’ll talk to her about her schedule. Weekends are hard.
28S
That’s when the bulk of her jobs are. She’s very business-29N
minded.”
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His mother nodded as if that satisfi ed her.
01
“You’ll like her.” Vaughan spoke from the table. “You should
02
see how hard he chases her. She’s got her own stuff to do. It
03
hasn’t even occurred to her that she’s far more than some . . .
04
um, friend he met on the road.”
05
His mother turned to him, one brow rising. “That so?”
06
“I think so, yeah. It’s early days. I’ve only known her three
07
months.”
08
“You’ll need to show her she’s not the same.” She left it there
09
for the time being. He knew his mother though; she’d seen for
10
herself that he wanted Mary. Once she was sure he deserved
11
her, his mother would turn into his greatest— albeit probably
12
most annoying— ally.
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
26
27
S28
N29
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01
02
03
04
05
06
07
08
13
09
10
11
12
13
14
15
H
16
e woke up. Alone. Normally he’d have been fi ne with
17
that, but really, he missed turning over to fi nd a tiny,
18
dark- haired woman burrowed down into the blankets
19
next to him.
20
He frowned at his inability to get used to life without her in
21
it. It wasn’t like she was with him on tour or anything. So
22
why now?
23
He gave up, looking at his phone to see it was already nine.
24
She’d be awake.
25
He dialed her number.
26
“Why hello.”
27
He smiled. “What’s up, Curly?”
S28
N29
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Lauren Dane
01
“I’m chopping carrots for a salad. Luncheon thingy for one
02
of Levi’s mom’s charity gigs.”
03
“Nice.”
04
“Seriously. His mother is sort of scary, but her friends and
05
all their foundations and stuff keep me pretty busy lately. Can’t
06
complain about that. What’s up with you?”
07
“Kensey and Maddie, Vaughan’s daughters, are here. We’re
08
going a cookout and hanging by his pool. You should come
09
down.” He said it so suddenly he surprised himself. “Have you
10
ever seen a pear harvest? It’s set for day after tomorrow. Stay for 11
a few days. Maybe we’ll go windsurfi ng down on the river. ATV
12
a little. Ride horses. Have lots and lots of dirty and inventive sex.”
13
She laughed. “I don’t know if I can.”
14
“It’s during the week. I’d have you back home for your sup-
15
per club on Friday. I have a small plane if you can meet me. Then
16
I can get you door-to-door a lot quicker.”
17
She sighed, but he heard that she wavered. “It does sound
18
fun, but I have jobs every day this week. And the supper club is
19
Wednesday night, Friday night and Sunday night. This is the
20
one week a month it’s on Wednesday too. I can’t be gone for
21
that long right now.”
22
He frowned. What was he going to say, blow off your job
23
you’ve worked so hard for? “After harvest, how about if I come
24
up? Then you don’t have to worry about not doing jobs. I can
25
even help. And then, you know, the hot- sex part can occur
26
around your schedule.”
27
“All right. If that works for you. I feel bad that it’s always
28S
you who has to do the traveling.”
29N
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Lush
That did make him feel better. “It’s okay. Right now it’s my
01
schedule that allows for it. It’s worth it to see you.”
02
“That’s a very nice thing to say.”
03
“I have a secret.”
04
“Uh-oh.”
05
He laughed. “I like to say nice things to you. Mostly because
06
they’re true, but also because I hope it keeps you sweet on me
07
and all.”
08
“You’re so full of it. My goodness. It’s quite a lucky thing for
09
you that I am, indeed, sweet on you and that you happen to look
10
as good as you do.”
11
He blushed, fi lled with pleasure at her compliment.
12
They chatted a little while longer before hanging up; he didn’t
13
stop smiling for hours.
14
15
16
“She doesn’t seem bothered that we don’t see each other more.
17
Isn’t that weird?” Damien kept an eye on the girls, who were in
18
the pool with Vaughan and their grandparents. Paddy and Ezra’s
19
dogs were involved as well.
20
Ezra turned the steaks. “Maybe she’s not into you?”
21
“That’s not it. I’d know. It’s not that she’s disinterested in
22
me. It’s that, well, other women would have pushed to see me
23
more. She seems content with it. When we’re together it’s smok-
24
ing hot. We’re both into each other. We laugh. Things are easy.
25
She makes me laugh, Ezra.”
26
Ezra laughed. “Well, good. But if you’re expecting her to be
27
like other women, and your previous other women had not been
S28
N29
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Lauren Dane
01
the type you’d want to be with, then maybe you need to readjust
02
your expectations.”
03
“Some of her friends think I’m a drunken man- whore.”
04
There. He said it.
05
“You
are
a drunken man- whore.”
06
“You’re supposed to be on my side, Ezra.”
07
His brother looked up and into his eyes. Very few people saw
08
to the heart of him like Ezra did. “I am on your side. But you tell 09
me, you go search the Internet for yourself right now. Tell me
10
what the fi rst images are. Go on. I’ll be here.”
11
Damien snorted. “I know what they are.”
12
“No. I mean it. My laptop is on the kitchen table. Go. Look.”
13
He did, annoyed at his brother. But when he did the search
14
he cringed. Hell, he was in those pictures, he couldn’t deny it.
15
They weren’t a lie. But that’s not who he was. Not totally and
16
certainly not anymore. The problem with the media, and with
17
Google searches, is that they only seemed to catch moments of
18
your whole life. They weren’t getting shots of him playing Bar-
19
bies with his nieces. Or helping out in the orchards or fi elds.
20
Was this what she thought he did? He scrubbed his hands
21
over his face before returning to the back deck some minutes
22
later.
23
“Look, I know what it is to be a drunken man- whore, okay?”
24
Ezra spoke before he did. “It’s fun and all. For a while. But the
25
hangover is a motherfucker. You can fi x this, but it’s going to
26
take some energy. This woman isn’t a groupie. She’s not with
27
you for a backstage pass. She’s a real person with real feelings.
28S
She’s got a business and a life. She’s not going to want any of
29N
that stuff in her life. Can you blame her?”
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Lush
“She should know me enough to know I’m not that. Not
01
anymore anyway. I’ve always treated her with respect. She’s dif-
02
ferent.”
03
Ezra grabbed a pull or two from his cream soda. “Sure. Which
04
is why it suddenly matters. And probably also why she lets you
05
keep coming around. But you’re going to have to work it to get
06
her to see you’re more than a Google search.”
07
“Like what?”
08
“Court her. Woo her. Whatever you want to call it. She’s got