“Damn, you’re good at this.”

Mary grinned. “I only knew a bit of it when Damien came into my life. I saw the edges, saw the backstage, the travel. It was surprising.”

They both looked back to the studio where the brothers poked and prodded and bickered their way toward a track that would make them all happy. Natalie wondered about the whole of it even as she tried to pretend it didn’t make her wary.

* * *

SOME TIME LATER, Paddy came around the piano and headed into the booth.

“This is going to take a few hours more. We’re going to skip dinner and then we’re headed out with Jeremy. His last night here before he heads up to Washington in the morning. Sorry, I know we were all supposed to hang out.”

She shook her head, cupping his cheek. “It’s totally all right. You can’t schedule this kind of stuff. It’s good. Call me when you can.” She kissed him and he blushed.

“You so rarely do that.” He said it quietly as he hugged her.

Mary had gone in to talk to Damien and they were alone in the booth for the moment.

“Do what?”

“Kiss me in public. But you do in front of my family and your friends. That makes me happy.”

She took a deep breath and allowed herself to accept his compliment the way she knew he meant it. “You make me happy, too.” She vowed to try harder to be affectionate with him, knew he liked it, needed it, even.

“I’ll touch base with you tomorrow. I’m sorry to say it’s going to be crazy like this for a while as we lay down tracks.”

She brushed a kiss over his knuckles. “It’s fine. This is your job. I have stuff to do, as well.”

“As long as you don’t forget I’m part of that stuff to do. Spend the night tomorrow night?”

She’d taken to spending the nights before a day off with him either at her house or at his.

“Yeah, I can do that. I’m going out with Tuesday in the day, though. We’re seeing a movie and she’s getting a tattoo touched up. I won’t be back in town until after nine or so.”

He pouted. So cute when he did. “Okay. Well, that’s for the best, anyway, since we’ll be working. Come out when you’re ready.”

“Have fun tonight.”

He smirked.

“Don’t get arrested, Patrick. Your mother isn’t going to bail you out and neither am I.”

He laughed. “Ah, gorgeous, I have an attorney on speed dial.”

“Good Lord.” She tiptoed up to kiss him one last time. “See you tomorrow.”

She waved at everyone, reiterated that it was nice to have met Jeremy and left.

* * *

MARY CAUGHT UP to her outside. “Hey, come over to my place. Dinner is still made. Call Tuesday and invite her, too.”

“Oh, good idea.” She quickly called her friend, who said she was on her way up.

At Damien and Mary’s, she slid her shoes off and hung up her coat, smiling to herself that she’d done it enough times that it felt like a habit.

“There are sodas and juice in the fridge. Damien brought some back from his giant box-store run. Also, about four hundred pounds of Cheerios. Those boys and cereal, I swear.”

“Great. I’ll get it. What do you want?”

“I’m having water with some oranges. I can’t do orange juice because it gives me heartburn. My mom says she had it really bad with all her pregnancies, too. Thank goodness I also have enough pregnancy-safe antacids to keep it under control. Also, a plus of the box-store run. Of course in his zeal to be sure I’m okay, there’s probably enough for the next fourteen pregnancies. Not that I plan on fourteen pregnancies. Man, I shouldn’t even have said that.” Mary rapped the wood of the table quickly, making Natalie laugh.

Tuesday arrived, and they filled plates and headed into the dining room.

Natalie buttered her bread. “I’ve never had anyone so much as write me a poem before. A song? I don’t know what to do with how it makes me feel. Damien declared his love for you in a concert venue in front of thousands. How do you process that?”

Mary put some spinach on her plate. “I don’t know. From the start, my biggest hesitation in entering into a relationship with Damien was that aspect of his life. But then I just fell in love with him. I tried to resist him and I couldn’t. I have to weigh that stuff, the harsh public fascination with everything about his life—which is now my life, too—with how much I want to be with him.”

Tuesday sipped her soda. “Song? Fill me in.”

Mary spoke, “Paddy wrote her a song. It’s a gorgeous, sexy love song.”

“It’s a song, Tuesday. Oh, my God. It’s beautiful and I’m filled with all this stuff he makes me feel. I didn’t mean for him to happen, but he’s so pushy and he’s cute and really good in bed, and he loves his mother, and he’s sexy, and he makes up poems about pigs, and I’m so out of my league here.”

Tuesday’s bemused smile made her feel better.

“So, Mary, tell me about the song. I know how Natalie feels and she’s not one prone for overreaction. But a disinterested opinion is always good.”

“He’s... This song is... Wow. Paddy is in major love with Natalie. His writing, as you can probably tell, is very autobiographical. That wasn’t just a run-of-the-mill love song about some random girl designed to make a hit. That song is how Paddy feels about Natalie. Damien told me about the song a week or so ago. Saying Paddy has been bleeding over it to get it right, and how they all think it’s going to be the lead single.”