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