by Lauren Dane
“Uh, okay. Sure.” Natalie rolled her eyes. “I gotta go. I’m supposed to be up there in fifteen minutes. Thanks for the pep talk, coach.”
“I’ll see you tomorrow night. Have fun and make good choices.”
“Love you.”
Tuesday laughed. “Yeah, I love you, too, woman. Let yourself have fun tonight, or I’m gonna be so mad at you.”
“Fine. Fine.”
Natalie hung up and looked at herself one more time. She’d gone with an outfit that was right on the line between casual and dressy. White pants and a red blouse. She had on a necklace Tuesday had made for her. She’d done her hair to slick it back a little from her face in waves.
With a sigh, she brushed the front of her clothes and applied lipstick. She hoped it was the right tone. She should have asked. She looked toward the phone. Maybe she could call.
No.
If this was any other guy, she’d just trust her sense of style and go for it and that’s what she’d do, damn it.
She grabbed her bag, the flowers she’d picked up on the way home and headed for the door. She could do this like a grown-up.
* * *
SHE KNOCKED ON his door, and he opened up with a smile. “Damn, Nat, you sure look pretty tonight.” He kissed her cheek so as not to smear her lipstick. “And you smell really good, too.”
He had on jeans but a button-down shirt. Nothing overly dressy by any means, but he’d rolled up the sleeves to expose his forearms. And they were really hot forearms.
“Can I get your bag from the car? We’ll walk over to their house if you don’t mind. It’s a nice night, and it means we can have a few and not worry about driving.”
“I can be a designated driver if that’s what you’re worried about. I don’t drink much. I have an occasional glass of champagne because it’s the best thing ever, but I don’t plan to drink tonight.”
He looked her over carefully but said nothing else for a moment.
“My bag is in the trunk, and I have flowers for Mary.”
He grinned as she popped the trunk open. “It’s a nice night so I vote we walk, anyway. You stay right here and I’ll get your stuff.” He dashed to her car and grabbed everything before returning. “I’m going to run this up to my room.” He held up the bag and handed her the flowers. “These are pretty. She’ll like them.”
She waited in his entry while he took her things up.
“So are you okay if I drink? I mean...are you in recovery or something? It shouldn’t be crazy or anything. Ezra will be there, and he doesn’t drink. He doesn’t care if other people do, but if you do, that’s okay.”
“Am I making you nervous?”
He kissed the tip of her nose. He played off being silly but she saw a glimpse of vulnerability in his eyes, and she reminded herself to be careful with him.
“I just want you to be comfortable. I want to make you happy.”
She shrugged. “I don’t know what to say to that. It’s very sweet, but an awfully big job really only I can do. Thank you. I’m okay. I just don’t get to oh, no, can’t drive point. It’s not what I do. You can drink. Other people can drink. I drink sometimes. I’m not in recovery, and now I’m ready to walk over to dinner.”
He put an arm around her and shut his front door. “Let’s go, then, gorgeous.”
* * *
TURNED OUT DAMIEN only lived about a three-minute walk from Paddy’s house. His was more Northwest-styled than the modern elegance of Paddy’s place. Music filtered from the house as did lights. She heard laughter as Paddy opened up and hollered that they were there.
A beautiful woman with pretty, dark curly hair came around a corner holding a bowl, which she shoved at the hottie who was obviously her husband. Natalie remembered Damien. With a face like that, it would have been impossible to have forgotten him.
The woman came forward with a smile, and Natalie could have sworn she’d seen her before. “Welcome. I’m Mary, Paddy’s sister-in-law. I’ve seen you around the library, but we’ve not met formally.”
Natalie handed the flowers over. “That’s why I recognize you! Thank you so much for inviting me. I’m Natalie. It’s nice to meet you.”
“Oh, these are so pretty! Thank you.” Mary linked her arm with Natalie’s and drew her through the house.
“The farmer’s market was closing up when I finished with work. I grabbed these and some lemon curd while I was on my way home.”
“I was just there earlier today! Wanted some cider and some honeycomb.” As they entered a large, open kitchen/living area, the people there turned to see who’d come in.
“Everyone, this is Natalie, though I suppose you all might remember her from before.” Mary looked to Natalie. “Paddy told us all you two knew each other from before they went to Los Angeles to make that first label album. Were they totally adorable then?”
“God, yes, totally adorable in that way they have. They were always getting in fights. With each other and with the patrons of the bar. The girls loved them, though.”
One of them laughed; she couldn’t remember but she thought it was Vaughan, the youngest. “You cut your hair. I like it. Vaughan, the most handsome and talented of the brothers. It’s nice to see you again.” He waved from his place at the table. “Can I get you something to drink?”
“Sure, what do you have?”
* * *
PADDY BREATHED EASIER when she simply tossed herself into the mix. Vaughan flirted with her, and she batted him away. Paddy kissed Mary’s cheek as she put the flowers in a vase and headed to where Vaughan was pouring a soda for Natalie.
“Back off. This one’s taken.”
“If you change your mind, I’m younger as well as more handsome and talented.” Vaughan winked.
She sipped her soda as Ezra said hello and Damien reintroduced himself. His brothers were being goofballs to make her feel comfortable, and she got it. And he loved that she got it.
There was a lot of food and a lot of trash talk, too, over dinner at Damien and Mary’s big huge dining room table.
“When I first moved in here, he had this dinky little table. Imagine a family this size, and he has a dinette set that seated maybe four people,” Mary said.
“I was only waiting for you, Curly.” Damien winked at his wife.
“So anyway, you’re a librarian. I was just in last week, but you weren’t there. Yes, I was going to get a look at you and figure out a way to introduce myself, I admit it.”
Paddy groaned, but Natalie squeezed his hand where he’d been holding hers.
“What day?”
“Wednesday afternoon? They said you were at the elementary school doing something.”
“I go to talk about kid lit. All the books we’ve gotten in recently that they might like. It gets me out of the building and third graders are adorable. They get so excited about stuff. The first graders are great, and they spill their parents’ secrets like crazy. Mom drinks beer, and she and daddy take naps with the door locked. That type of thing.”
“I have a second and third grader. I can attest to that.” Vaughan grinned.
She drew Vaughan out, chatting with him about his girls, and there couldn’t have been anything better to have done to make Vaughan like her. He showed her pictures, and she asked all the right questions.
Ezra gave Paddy an approving look as she and Mary disappeared into the kitchen.
“Thumbs-up. I have no idea how you landed a woman like her, but good job, and don’t fuck it up.”
“Um. Thanks, asshole.” Paddy punched Ezra’s arm. Mainly he thought it was funny teasing. The same type they did to one another daily. It was how they communicated most of the time. But in a corner of his heart maybe it sort of sucked that they seemed so amazed he was capable of being with a woman like Natalie. “Some people happen to think I’m a catch.”
“Ha! Yeah, but you run from them usually, so don’t get pissy with us. She’s done some mellowing. I mean from before,” Damien said.
; “She was nineteen years old. I hope to hell I’ve done some mellowing since then, too. Anyway, I thought you didn’t remember her.”
“Dude, we all remember her now. It was two weeks, she was with you pretty much daily. She took pity on us and rustled free drinks. She was as wild as we all were. Plus, it’s difficult to forget a face that pretty.”
“All were.”
Damien put his hands up. “I’m not attacking. I have zero double standards when it comes to wild youth.”
“I like that you’re defensive on her behalf, though.” Ezra raised a brow.
“I just—” He lowered his voice. “She’s sensitive about her private life. She’s not that girl anymore. I don’t want her upset.”
“Fair enough.” Damien nodded. “Ten bucks says Mom and Dad arrive within the next five minutes.”
A flurry of bets were placed as he looked toward the kitchen.
* * *
“YOU HAVE A really gorgeous home here. I don’t even cook, and I have to say how much I love this kitchen.” Natalie loved the warm tiles, the pots hanging from the ceiling, all the gadgets and things. It was lived-in and beautiful and clearly someplace this couple spent a lot of time.
“I can’t take credit for the basic bones. Damien had it built before I met him. Between us? This room was a huge factor in why I said yes when he asked me to marry him.” Mary winked, putting Natalie at ease. “I spend more time in this room than any other except our bedroom probably. You’re holding up well, by the way. My first time meeting all the brothers was when I was surrounded by my friends. Took the edge off. I mean, I suppose you knew them all before, but this is different.”
Natalie laughed. It was different. “They’re all nice, and they clearly care about one another. I guess I was a little worried they’d expect me to be the same as I was back then. But none of them really are, either. I worried for nothing, and my friend Tuesday will poke me and say I told you so.”
“As best friends do. What were they like then?”
“Like Dalmatian puppies. Long and tall and in trouble at all times. They didn’t just come into a room, they sort of spilled into it, all legs and hair and elbows. They had it then, too, that whatever it takes to make someone into a star. Charisma.”
Mary nodded with a grin. “They all have this intense personal gravity that pulls you in. Okay, just tell me if I’m being nosy, but I hear you don’t cook?”
“I’m awful at it. It’s not that I don’t want to. It’s certainly not that I hate food.” She waved a hand at her body. But she never had a mom around, or even a dad who did any time in a kitchen longer than it took to get more beer. She had to make due growing up, and maybe sometimes that was more than she wanted to dwell on so she avoided the kitchen. Maybe. Or it was something her therapist said and was probably right.
She took a mental-bracing breath. This woman was just trying to be nice. And normal.
“I’m, like, cosmically bad at it. All the jokes about burning water? That’s me. Luckily, Tuesday can cook, so I do more cleaning to even things out.”
“I’m dying here. I want to offer to give you lessons, but it seems sort of rude. Is it rude? Because I love to cook and I feel like an evangelist right now and also? I like you. I don’t know a lot of people in Hood River, even though I’ve lived here for about a year and a half now. I tend to get caught up in stuff, and I don’t leave the ranch and even when I do it’s there, this big neon sign over my head that says, Damien Hurley’s wife, and it’s odd. I’d love to hang out. Is that weird?”
It would be weird, too, if Natalie burst out with thank God you’re weird, too! So she waved a hand. “It’s totally not weird. Tuesday has tried over the years to teach me how to cook. I’ve managed to master mashed potatoes, but it took her a year of patience to get me that far. To be honest? It stresses me out. I am so bad at it and I fail at it over and over, and every time I pass by my kitchen when I’m trying to learn something, I feel dread and guilt.” And like she couldn’t even be good at that one basic thing. “I think I might just be cursed. Or doomed. Or something equally dire.”
Mary paused and nodded. “That’s fair. I hate it that you’d feel bad about not being able to get it right. Cooking should be fun. I won’t pester you, but if you ever change your mind, let me know.”
“Thanks. But a definite yes on the hanging-out thing. I have a book club here in town. There are about eight of us. We read across a lot of genres and have themes. We potluck at each other’s houses. Of course, I always bring chips and dip. Yes, I’m that person. But they’re a fun, smart group of women. I think you’d fit in well.”
“Oh, I’d like that, thank you.”
She helped clear stuff as Mary put together the dessert.
“I can actually do coffee well. Want me to make some?” Natalie pointed to the coffeemaker.
“Good idea. There’s decaf in that orange container.”
Natalie got that started and moved to join everyone in the dining room. She paused at the doorway, just looking at them all. Paddy and Vaughan sat next to one another, hatching trouble; that much was clear.
“My in-laws are sure to arrive anytime,” Mary said as she came in from the kitchen. “Michael will have kept Sharon away long enough for us to have gotten comfortable.”
“She’ll be nosy, but don’t take it personally.” Damien grinned at his wife.
“Sharon asked me how I’d feel about signing a prenup in the first ten minutes I knew her.”
Paddy got up and moved to her, putting his arms around Natalie’s waist. “She did it to see what Mary’s reaction would be. Stop scaring Natalie.” He looked back at his brothers.
Natalie tried not to panic. She knew it would be a possibility that she’d meet Paddy’s parents, after all. She just had very little experience with mothers. Tuesday’s family had sort of taken her under their wing over the years, but there’d been no mother in her life growing up, and her grandmother was certainly not much of an example. She found mothers mystifying in most cases.
And that’s when the front door opened and a booming voice announced new arrivals.
“Buck up. I promise they’re nice people.” Paddy kissed her forehead, and she managed a smile.
Natalie recognized Paddy’s mom immediately, and some of her nervousness eased.
“Sharon, I had no idea you were Paddy’s mom!” She moved to Sharon Hurley and accepted the hug. She looked over her shoulder to Paddy. “Your mom is one of the community volunteers in one of the elementary schools I visit regularly.”
Sharon shook her head with a grin that looked an awful lot like her son’s. “Natalie. I can’t believe I didn’t put two and two together. This is my husband, Michael. Michael, this is Natalie but I don’t know your last name.”
“It’s Clayton. Natalie Clayton. Nice to meet you.” She held her hand out to Michael Hurley, who, Mary had not lied, stood at least six and a half feet tall. His hair was dark like his sons’, but his was salted liberally with gray. He was a big man, broad-shouldered. The kind of hale that men who worked the land tended to be. He took her hand, enveloping it in both of his.
“Pleased to meet you, darlin’.”
“There’s pie.” Mary kissed her mother-in-law’s cheek and then accepted a hug from her father-in-law.
“See? I told you if we waited a bit we’d arrive in time for dessert.” Michael pulled out his wife’s chair and waited for Natalie to sit before he did, as well. Damien got up to help Mary in the kitchen.
Paddy put his arm along the back of her chair and Natalie appreciated the support.
Vaughan snorted. “I was looking forward to Mom making Natalie nervous.” He looked to Natalie, who was trying to figure out if she should be offended or not. “No offense.” His grin was pretty much a carbon copy of his brothers’. “She’s just so devious, it’s fun to watch her in action.”
“Don’t mind him. He was dropped on his head a lot as a baby.” Paddy thumped Vaughan. “So you know my mom?”
> It was Sharon who answered instead of Natalie. “I do some mentoring for fourth and fifth graders. We see each other from time to time at the school.” Sharon then smiled at Natalie. “I figured you were a community volunteer, too. I can’t believe I missed that connection.” Sharon looked up at Damien, who brought in a tray of coffee poured into mugs. “Look at your manners. Nicely done, Mary.”
Damien rolled his eyes.
“I did the same thing. I go to a few schools. Sometimes for the library, sometimes on my own. I know everyone by their first name but rarely by their last. Anyway, yes, I know your mom.”
“So she’s been prescreened?” Vaughan teased.
“Vaughan, watch your manners, boy. Your brother is going to punch you in the nose.” Michael forked up some pie and watched his family with an easy smile.
“Wouldn’t be the first time,” Paddy added cheerfully.
“You’re not even going to ask if she’d sign a prenup?” Mary asked, repressing a smile.
“She’s got a trust fund that’s worth more than I am.” Paddy waved a hand. “I’m probably the one who should sign one.”
Anger and worry warred inside her. That was something she should have shared, or not. Money made people feel differently about you. She wanted them to know her before they found out about the trust fund. It was hard to fight preconceived notions, and it just added to the weight of establishing a relationship with other people.
* * *
PADDY FELT THE muscles in her back tighten, and she moved away from him slightly. Shit. He’d done something wrong. Was it the teasing? Maybe he should have punched Vaughan. His brother was only playing, but he didn’t want Natalie to feel bad.
The prenup talk?
She’d gone a little more formal in her manner, and his mother shot him a look.