Behold the Stars (35 page)

In Lilli’s estimation, that was a perfect answer—to the point, establishing a clear, respectful boundary. She hoped Shannon was serious when she said she could handle the guys, because the job was hers if she wanted it. She’d check her references before offering her the job, but Lilli’s search was over. She smiled. “Fair enough. I’ve got everything I need. If you don’t have any more questions, would you like a tour?”

~oOo~

Shannon wasn’t wearing the right shoes to hike over the property, so Lilli gave her a tour of the main house, showing the rooms, each uniquely decorated, with its own powder room; four full bathrooms shared among the eight guest rooms; the kitchen, with its professional setup; the dining room, with service for up to fifty; the lobby/parlor; and the office, with the manager’s apartment behind it. Then they went out onto the porch, and Lilli described the workings of the farmland, where the barn would soon be and the animals it would house, and the woods with its trails and spring-fed creek. They walked around the porch to the back yard, of which Lilli was perhaps most proud: the garden. She’d done—or was doing; it was spring, so things still needed some filling out—an English garden behind the house, with riots of blooming plants. There were six main sections, each with a theme and a feature of its own—a gazing ball, a fountain, a kissing bench, things like that. In the very center stood a gorgeous gazebo, which Isaac had designed and crafted. Or it would be standing in the center, once Isaac and Show got it up.

They were working on it now, both of them shirtless and sweating in the May afternoon sun. Show was still wearing his black beanie, of course. In almost a year, Lilli had never seen the top of his head. Isaac swore he wasn’t bald up there, but Lilli didn’t believe him.

They looked damn good, though, the giants of the Horde, broad of back and rippled of muscle. Show had more ink than Isaac—fully covering his arms and shoulders, and a rampant black horse with a fiery mane and tail dominating his back. But as far as Lilli was concerned, Isaac was the real specimen, perfect in every conceivable way. She paused in the middle of describing the garden, caught up for a second in ogling her man. When Isaac turned and saw her, he grinned widely and waved her over.

She looked at Shannon, who seemed to be doing her own staring. Yeah. Not into bikers, she’d said—except when they looked like this. Lilli felt a little territorial. “That’s my husband, Isaac. Come on, I’ll introduce you.” She went down the steps, expecting Shannon to follow. There were stepping stones lining the paths, so even in heels, she could probably navigate fine.

Isaac folded Lilli up in his sweaty arms as soon as he could reach her. “Hey, Sport. How’re my girls?” He rubbed her belly.

“We’re good. I wanted to introduce you to Shannon Bannerman. She’s interviewing for the manager gig.” Isaac raised his eyebrows, and she knew why. She hadn’t introduced him to any other applicant, and he was around most of the time. She wasn’t sure why she’d brought Shannon down here, except that she’d seen her staring and wanted to mark her claim on Isaac. Which was absurdly immature. But here they were.

She turned to Shannon then and realized that it wasn’t Isaac she’d been eyeing. It was Show—massive, ink-covered, long-haired, long-bearded, beanie-wearing Showdown. Oh, poor Shannon. Show was doing a lot better since he’d gotten through the hell that had been the Christmas season, his first without his family. But his heart was locked up tight. His body, too. Since she’d embraced the role of the President’s old lady, she’d gotten to know the club girls some and was privy to their gossip. She knew that Show, even after his divorce, was not availing himself of their offerings at all. He was all business, all club, still living in the clubhouse, letting his own property go to rot. He wanted no kind of contact with women. Except Lilli, but that was a different thing altogether.

Shannon took the hand that Isaac offered and smiled. Isaac cocked his head toward Show and said, “That’s Showdown. Show, Shannon.”

Show nodded without looking and began hammering a nail into a board. Shannon looked confused at first, but recovered quickly and said to Isaac, “This is gorgeous. Craftsman style—nice choice.”

Isaac grinned—he was a sucker for someone who knew anything about the stuff he did. “Yeah. Don’t like the foofaraw of most gazebos. The curlicues and like.”

“I get you. Good lines to this. Suits the view, too, with the rows of crops and the fence line.”

Isaac looked over at Lilli and winked. She nodded. Yeah, the job was filled.

~oOo~

A barn raising. That had been Isaac’s big idea. Now, feeling like she was standing in the middle of a Rodgers and Hammerstein musical, Lilli was surrounded by almost literally the entire town. The men were putting up the barn, and the women were standing at long tables, feeding the troops. Baked beans, fried chicken, sausages, corn bread, potato salad, bean salad, pies. Kids ran all over—playing volleyball and tag and whatever. Geez. It was like they went out of their way to be quaint.

Today was the raising. The rest of the long weekend was interior finish and painting. And this picnic, every day until the barn was done. When Isaac told her his plan, she’d scoffed. She loved the design, but the idea of a barn-raising seemed silly and unnecessary. They could afford to have the thing built. The money faucet was running too fast, yes, but they didn’t need to go begging.

He’d pointed out that the town would love it—that it would serve as a celebration, the last piece of the reborn Signal Bend, and everybody would be involved. And he’d been right. Lilli had never seen a happier group of people working their asses off.

Shannon, the newly hired manager of the Keller Acres Bed and Breakfast, was here, too. Lilli had wasted no time checking her references—and Isaac had Bart do some investigating, too—and Shannon had wasted no time accepting the job. Within a week of being hired, she was living on the premises. And today, two days after moving in, she was working the town, meeting everyone. The women were a bit guarded with her, but friendly enough. As Lilli herself knew well, it took a lot longer for the women to accept a new resident. Shannon would have to prove that she wasn’t on the prowl for their married men (not that there was a big pile of hotties in the batch) before she’d get some room from the women.

The women were going to be jealous, and some were going to be catty about it. Shannon was the kind of woman that made an old-fashioned country wife feel insecure. Shit, she’d made Lilli feel insecure for a minute. But she was neither flaunting herself nor kowtowing to the smaller minds. She was dressed appropriately for the “women’s work,” in jeans, low boots, and a loose, black peasant top, her fiery red hair pushed off her face with a pretty scarf. People were just going to have to get used to the fact that she was pretty and had a body built for sin.

Almost every man on the premises had looked his fill, but Shannon didn’t seem to pay any of them particular mind. Her attention had its focus already. And that man had looked in her direction but not seen her at all. She’d noticed his lack of notice, that was obvious. Lilli wondered whether she should say something to dissuade her, but there was nothing she could say without telling a story which wasn’t hers to tell. Signal Bend’s newest resident would have to figure things out for herself.

As the sun was dropping behind the tree line, the barn was up. The men packed up their tools, and the older boys cleaned up after them. The women got going with round three of the food: dinner. Lilli, exhausted and her back aching, absented herself and went to sit on the porch swing at the main house. It was a lovely view—the long shadows of the spring sunset, the bright new barn, the whole town milling about, laughing, talking, eating, drinking. The smell of spring foliage and freshly sawn wood. And her man, his braid loose and disheveled, his bare chest wet and streaked with sawdust, walking toward her, pulling a black shirt on over his shoulders.

As he climbed the porch steps, he asked, “You okay, Sport?”

“I’m good. Happy. Back hurts a little.”

He sat next to her on the swing and put his hand on her belly. “She givin’ you trouble?”

“Uh-uh. She’s been pretty quiet today.”

He raised his eyebrows—the baby was usually very active. Lilli wasn’t worried—she felt right. But he didn’t know that. “Should we be worried about that?”

As if to answer the question for herself, the baby rolled hard, and a little elbow or heel made a sharp mound as it pushed from one side of Lilli’s belly to the other. Isaac laughed and gave her a pat. “Okay, I guess that’s a no.”

Lilli was tired. She was happy, but she was about to drop, and her back was singing. The picnic was turning into a party, and the thought of several more hours here tonight and then back at it all again tomorrow made her want to weep. “Would it be bad if we went home right now? I mean, since they’re building our barn, it would be bad to leave first, right?”

He kissed the top of her head and held her close. “One: you hired a manager, who lives here. I’ll bet she’s not going anywhere tonight. Leave her in charge. Two: you’re baking my kid, so if you want to go home, I’m fuckin’ taking you home. Three: when we get home, I’ll rub that oil on your belly and back.”

She laughed. “You trying to get lucky, biker man?” They had reclaimed their sex life in the past couple of months. It was different, and there were things she’d once loved that she didn’t think she’d want to do ever again, but what they had now was wonderful. It might even be better than what they’d had before. More significant.

He gave her a wide-eyed, innocent look. “Not me, baby. You say you’re tired and your back hurts, I’m not making a move. I mean, that oil gets you all relaxed and feelin’ good, and you start thinkin’ you need a little somethin’, I’m happy to let you use me. You know.”

“Well, that’s very generous, love. Okay, take me home. Oil me up.”

CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE

Isaac was on edge every second that he was away from Lilli. He was on edge every second he was with her, too. She was beyond irritable, and he was getting barked at or ignored pretty much nonstop. But at least when he was with her, he was there, ready to help her. Her due date had passed. Nearly a week now, and no obvious sign yet that their daughter was getting restless. Yesterday, at her appointment, her doctor had scheduled an induction for the following Monday. Lilli didn’t even want pain meds during the labor and had tried to make Isaac promise not to let her have any. He’d refused that ridiculous demand. When she wanted drugs, she was getting fucking drugs. But the idea of her labor
starting
with drugs had her even more stressed out and depressed. Nothing he said or did seemed to make her feel better.

He’d had Horde business he had to take care of—finalizing the movie option deal—but before the ink was dry, he was on his bike and heading home. He’d called before he left, but she hadn’t answered. He hoped she was sleeping; she napped often these days. But he always got anxious when she didn’t pick up. He thought he might never be calm about that again.

He trotted across the yard and into the house—and saw his nine-plus months’ pregnant wife at the top of the stairs, trying to wrangle down the solid maple cradle he’d made. He ran up the stairs and took hold of it.

“Jesus fucking Christ, woman! What the
fuck
are you doing?”

She stared down at him, flushed and panting. Her hair was loose, hanging in her face. She was wearing nothing but one of his t-shirts. He could see up and know that she was wearing absolutely nothing but his shirt. She’d given up underwear awhile back, when her belly got too big for anything but what she called “granny drawers.” In the last week or so, except to go to the doctor, she hadn’t really bothered with clothes at all.

“I want it in the bedroom. Why did we put the nursery upstairs? That was fucking stupid. She needs to be close to us. I can’t believe we were so stupid. We need to redo everything.”

Okay. Lilli had lost her mind. As soon as he thought it, it chilled him. He’d almost said it out loud. But he hadn’t, and that was good. These last couple of weeks, her worries about her mother’s mental illness being visited on her, or on Gia, had resurfaced. She’d been dealing with it better than before, talking to him about it, working through the anxiety. But the last thing he needed to say out loud was that she was being crazy. Even if she was.

He needed to be calm.

He pulled gently on the cradle, taking the bulk of the weight from her hands. She wouldn’t let it go, however. “Okay. Lilli, listen to me. I think it’s a great idea to bring the cradle into our bedroom. You shouldn’t be carrying it, but I will take it down right now, because you’re right. When she’s first home, she should be with us. But when she’s ready for the crib, we have the video monitor, so we can see her. It’ll be okay that she’s upstairs. We talked about all this, remember?”

It had taken forever to get her involved with the nursery, but once she was, they had together made a beautiful refuge for their girl—and for them. With the town rebuild, and the B&B, and the orders he’d already taken before the Ellis shit blew up, he hadn’t had time to build anything more than the cradle, but he’d picked up some nice unfinished maple pieces and had coated them with a ruddy stain. The room was all in cream, with faint touches of pink and green. Lilli’s choices. It was worthy of a magazine. He’d be damned if they were undoing it.

“You’re talking to me like you think I’m crazy. Maybe you’re right. But I’m not stupid. So fuck you.” She yanked hard on the cradle—and her water broke in a rush, splashing and flooding over the hardwood stairs.

She looked down at the wet, dripping staircase. “Oh, shit.”

His pulse instantly in overdrive, Isaac went into action. “Lilli, let go of the cradle. Now.” She did. He hefted it in his arms and went backwards down the stairs, praying he didn’t miss a step and break his damn leg. As soon as he hit the hall floor, he turned and set the cradle down, just inside the dining room. Then he ran back up the stairs and took hold of his old lady. “You know what we need to do?”