As the time to get into the studio approached, label people liked to sniff around to see what was going on. Because it was their studio and not time the label leased out, the Hurleys had more control, but they had advances to deal with and other basic industry bullshit.

Currently, Jeremy, their manager, was in town and staying with Paddy. He’d been with them since pretty much the beginning, and Paddy considered him a friend as well as a business associate.

It was late after a long night working, and they all sat outside the barn around the fire pit drinking beer and blowing off steam. “So when do I get to meet this woman you’re seeing? You talk about her so much, I feel like I know her.”

“She’s got some sort of board meeting or other tonight, and then she’s hanging with her girlfriend who’s visiting from out of town.” He’d gotten used to her awfully fast. It was sort of freaky. But the way she just accepted his life with all its noise and chaos comforted him. Filled him up and made him feel whole. “She’ll be here tomorrow night for dinner, though.”

Vaughan cracked open another beer. “We still going out afterward? We haven’t gone to Portland since the spring. You have a girlfriend and Damien is breeding. We have lots to celebrate. Plus, we need to show Jeremy a good time before he heads up to Bainbridge Island to hang out with Adrian.” Adrian being Adrian Brown, major huge rock star and also a client of Jeremy’s.

Damien had met Mary at Adrian’s wedding, and Sweet Hollow Ranch had done some tour dates a few years back with Adrian. Adrian’s wife was one of Mary’s best friends. Around the holidays, it was the craziest mix of musicians, ranchers, security people and cooks. And this year, there’d be a librarian to add.

He smiled, thinking of her.

Vaughan snapped his fingers in Paddy’s face. “Stop thinking of nailing her for three minutes, please.”

Paddy gave his baby brother the finger. It would be good to get out with his brothers. They hadn’t done it in months and months. “What about you, D?”

Damien nodded. “Mary insisted. And by that I mean, she said, ‘get out and do something so I can work on this cookbook in peace.’”

“She’s not going to care if you go out with your brothers, Paddy.” Ezra nodded his way. “Natalie trusts you. You just have to trust yourself.”

“She the jealous type?” Jeremy asked.

“Ha. No. She’s just wary about the wild and crazy aspects of this world we live in. It’s cool. Yeah, I’m in. We’ll have an early dinner and then go out.”

* * *

THE NEXT MORNING, his phone rang, and it was Lykke Li’s “Little Bit,” Nat’s ringtone.

“Hello, gorgeous.”

“So I have a request. If it’s weird and you want to say no, please do, and I won’t even be mad or upset or anything.”

Paddy smiled. “You can always come over and use me for sex. I promise to let you objectify me until we’re sticky.”

She laughed. “Well, that’s good to know. Not that I didn’t already know that. But anyway. Sometime when you guys are working, and you think it would be okay with everyone, and I’ll be quiet and stay out of the way and never say a single thing, do you think I could watch you guys lay down tracks? It’s just I love to hear you sing and I’ve never seen you do it. Which seems sort of weird considering all the other things I’ve seen you do.”

He knew she blushed. His c**k stirred, knowing she would have ducked her head, exposing the back of her neck with that downy bit of pale hair and all that soft skin.

“All you ever had to do was ask. And I hum and sing all the time.” While driving, riding horses, when they hiked with Tuesday, when he cooked, hell, even when they took baths in his giant bathtub.

“Well, that’s different. I mean, whatever. Anyway, I’d like it.”

“Come over when you get off today. You’re only on until what? Three?”

“Yes.”

“Come here to the house. I’m working on something, and I’ll give you a preview. You can hear it that way and then in the studio. It’s the track we’re going to lay down today. Or start, anyway.”

“Really? Yay!”

“You’re making me miss the hell out of you right now.”

“Good. I’d hate to be alone in the missing stuff. I need to go, but I wanted to check in since we didn’t connect last night and you left me a message.”

“Okay. I’m going to be rolling out of here soon enough. I’ll see you later, then. And Natalie?”

“Hmm?”

He nearly told her he loved her. He’d been wanting to for weeks by that point. But he realized maybe the phone wasn’t the right way. “I miss you.”

“Miss you, too. See you later today.”

She hung up, and he managed to get out of bed, heading for the kitchen where he needed a seriously huge pot of coffee.

* * *

HUMMING, SHE PULLED into his driveway and got out, breathing in deep. It was cold and clear, snow maybe on the way. The air had that slightly electric feeling it sometimes did before a flurry. Up here it was higher than where she lived in town and more likely to get it.

He opened his door and the happiness on his face at the sight of her made everything better.

He was beautiful and handsome and masculine. Rumpled in his jeans and long-sleeved shirt. He’d been working; she could tell by the ink stains on the fingers he held out to bring hers to his mouth to kiss. His beard tickled.