Fan Girl (38 page)

I turn back to Darcy. “I’ll get that straightened out. Why don’t you sync my schedule with your phone for now, while I get things set up?”

She agrees, “Okay.” Poor kid, she looks scared shitless.

I smile and let her go. “You can go ahead with your day. I’ll text you any info I need. Why don’t you show up here at nine tomorrow morning, and I’ll see what I have for you?”

She smiles and shakes my hand then turns to the guys. “It was great meeting all of you.”

When she leaves Alan says, “She’s cute.”

I give him a stern look. “She’s a baby, and working for me. Don’t go there.”

He holds out his hands and laughs jokingly. “Don’t get your feathers ruffled, Mama Thomas. It was just an observation.”

Bobby puts his hands down on the counter hard and says, “Whelp. I have tons of photos to edit. Okay if I post them?”

All of the guys nod, and I tell him not to make me look stupid.

He rolls his eyes. “I’m an artist, Ali. Jeez.”

I hold my hands up mockingly and mouth ‘So-rry.’

I go into the living room as the guys head out. Opening my laptop, I start looking at how to set up an LLC. Seems like I should just call my lawyer and have him do it, but I think I’ll probably talk to Deklan first.

“Dek?” I yell.

He walks in with two glasses of orange juice, and moves my feet so he can sit down at the end of the couch with them in his lap. He hands me a glass and asks me, “Do you have any ideas for the name?”

I shake my head. “No idea. You?” He wags his head from side to side thinking. “Shell something, what if it was a play on words? Like a song lyric or something.”

“Okay, like?” I ask him.

“Hmm, Shell Innovation, Shell Revolution, Shell B Mine?” he throws out.

“Not bad. Shell B Thomas?” I toss my head from side to side.

“Thomas in a Shell?”

“Tom Shell?”

“TDT?” he asks.

“Shell Solutions?”

“Distorted?”

“I don’t know, babe. Shell B Mine Equestrian Stables LLC is super long,” I point out to him.

He takes a drink and puts his head on the back of the couch, thinking.

“What about Feathers and Leather LLC?” he asks me.

I smile. Feathers because all of the horses have long feathers on their hooves and leather because we are almost never without some form on our bodies. I love it. “Love it, let’s do that. Now should I call my lawyer and have him set it up or how do we do it?”

“I’ll call mine, then I can get Brittany to get the car and phones, stuff like that.”

I stifle wrinkling my nose at his assistant’s name, but say, “Okay.”

He pulls out his phone and makes the calls. I text Sean and Jonny to find out when exactly their mom is coming in. They text back tomorrow morning, so I put that in my calendar and start looking up cars online for his mom and Darcy.

We pick new Ford Fusions in a gunmetal grey that’s really pretty. They get good gas mileage on the highway, so that works for me. Deklan emails the information to his lawyer, then texts Brittany and tells her to get together with the lawyer, whose name I finally learned is Paul, to get the cars located and all that.

“What about your birthday, babe? What do you want to do?” I ask him. It’s three days away, and he won’t give me any idea how he wants to celebrate.

He shrugs. “We can do dinner at home, or go out. I really don’t care, as long as I’m with you.”

I smile warmly. “Cake? Friends?”

He starts rubbing my feet and says, “Yes to cake, friends is fine. We had fun last night.”

I nod. “It was fun.”

“Sweet. Now that that’s done, can we go take a nap?”

I look at him incredulously. “You don’t take naps.”

He smiles, all cheek. “I’m practicing for when the baby comes. It’s code.”

I laugh and take my feet off his lap. “Oh, so that means sex then.”

He stands up and pulls me to my feet, steering me toward the stairs. “That means you get fucked, so march.”

No need to convince me. I give a salute and march upstairs.
 

Chapter 40

Turns out we do take a nap after all. The next day Deklan, Darcy, Nola, and I wait in the kitchen for the boys to get there with Jonny’s mom. The plan is for her to get a work Visa, an American driver’s license and live in one of the spare bedrooms.

We sit around chatting about getting a cake, or making one for Dek’s birthday, and what Darcy can do to help me plan this. Two hours after her flight lands, we hear the beeps that indicate the gate to the property is being opened.

Nola and I went and got lunch for everyone at the farmer’s market earlier, but have been waiting for Sean, Jonny, and his mom to get here to eat. Deklan straightens from leaning on the counter. “Thank God,” he murmurs.

Nola elbows him and nods her head to me. “If you’re hungry, you should think about your pregnant wife, son!”

I wave her off. “I’ve been eating grapes and cheese this whole time. Don’t worry about me.”

Jonny and Sean park their little Honda at the garage and walk in the side door. Sean comes first with a huge suitcase and holds the door for a short woman with dark brown hair in a bun, then Jonny trails behind her with another suitcase.

She smiles and holds out her hand for us as she enters the kitchen. “Well, hello! Is this the Thomas clan, then?”

We all smile at her. Darcy is closest, so she introduces herself first. “Hello, Mrs. Hughes. I’m Darcy, Ali’s assistant.”

Deklan steps in next. “Hi, I’m Deklan. Thank you for coming.”

Nola rounds the island to get to her. “I’m Nola, Deklan’s mother and soon to be Nanny.”

I take the longest, because I have to get off of the bar stool and it’s a process with my belly in the way. “Mrs. Hughes, we are so happy to have you! I’m Ali, Deklan’s wife.”

She shakes my hand, then holds her hands out to touch my belly, asking first, “May I?”

I nod. It’s still weird for people to be touching me all the time. Especially when they’re strangers.

She sets her hands lightly on either side of my stomach and looks at me with a wide smile and twinkling blue eyes. “Aye, this is a strong one! Girl, I think. Thank you for giving me the opportunity to be with me boy, darlin'.”

My eyes go wide. “It is a girl! Teagan Delaney.”

“Oh, a beautiful name. She’ll be a belle, that’s for certain,” she says with confidence.

I
love
those Irish accents. Everything sounds better. I tell her, “Thank you, ma’am. I hope your flights were okay.”

She smiles. “Long, that’s what they were. But oh so worth it. I haven’t seen my Jonny in years.”

Jonny puts his arm around her and squeezes. She looks up at him with love in her eyes. Jonny tells us, “We’ve two more suitcases to unload. Mum, why don’t you take a seat for a tick while we bring them in?”

Nola waves to the island. “We’ve got lunch here for everyone. We wanted to make sure you ate well after all the travel.”

“Well bless you, Mrs. Thomas. I wouldn’t mind some lunch, if that’s what we’ll be havin'.” She takes a seat and Nola gets her a glass of lemonade and a sandwich on a plate.

“Please, call me Nola. We’re practically the same age. I’m hoping we can be friends. We’ll be in the house a lot together.”

Mrs. Hughes smiles. “I would love that. And please, call me Brighty.”

Jonny, Sean and Deklan take the suitcases upstairs, then come down and all sit at the table. Deklan tells Mrs. Hughes, “We’ve put your luggage in the rooms furthest from the nursery. It’s got a private bathroom and little sitting room. If you prefer another room just let us know.”

She shrugs. “Wherever you’d have me stay is perfectly fine.”

I ask her, “Do you mind working for us, Mrs. Hughes? I don’t know what you did before.”

She dabs her mouth daintily with a napkin before replying, “I’ve worked at all manner of things in my life, Mrs. Ali. I’ve done housekeeping in bed and breakfasts, cooked for restaurants, secretarial work for doctors. When me husband died a few years back, I finally went to school and got my certificate to be a dietitian. I’ve been doing that, but there isn’t much demand without moving to the big cities.”

I look wide-eyed at Deklan, then slap my hand down on the table loudly. “Deklan! She’s a dietitian! This is fabulous! And please, call me Ali.”

Deklan chuckles at my excitement then tells her, “Mrs. Hughes, we need to give you a raise. I don’t know if the boys told you, but we have a fantastic farmer’s market outside of the gate. I hope you like it here.”

Mrs. Hughes laughs excitedly. “It keeps getting better. I hope you’ll let me cook for you. I so enjoy cooking and haven’t gotten to do a lot these days, working so much. You’ve a beautiful kitchen too.”

“Please, cook anything you like, whenever you want. We are in the process of getting a car for you to drive when you get your license. Until then, one of us can take you.” Deklan replies.

Jonny looks to his mom. “I told you, Mum. These folks are the best, best employers we’ve ever had that’s for certain.”

“Oh, I feel so badly for the O’Brien’s, but I’m glad you landed on your feet,” she says to the boys. Sean smiles. “Always do, mum.”

After lunch, Nola and I take Darcy and Mrs. Hughes on a tour of the house, then to her room. I make sure she knows she doesn’t have set hours and can go see her son whenever she wants. I leave Nola and Mrs. Hughes to get her unpacked. Darcy comes downstairs with me just as the gate dings, signaling someone at the gate who doesn’t have an opener.

I go to the little screen on the counter to see who it is. I’m still getting used to all the sounds going on and what they mean. Looking up at the camera is my not so favorite person, Brittany. Since the camera is mounted to the gate it looks down on her. I can clearly see the amount of cleavage she’s showing and bare legs. Ugh. I tap the touch screen to open the gate and tell Deklan, who is cleaning up the kitchen. “She’s here.”

He straightens from loading the dishwasher. “Great, she must have gotten the phones.”

Brittany enters the house, without knocking. I don’t know whether to be put off by this, because we clearly know she’s there. But still. Darcy is watching me and I try to seem impartial.

Brittany comes in clacking on four inch heels with a tiny tight yellow skirt and button-down blouse. She seems to have forgotten some buttons though. She’s all smiles and holds out two bags. “Dek, I got everything you requested. Paul got the LLC through and transferred money.”

Deklan takes the bag, and she bends to offer her face. He obligingly kisses her cheek, then turns his back to her as he opens the bags on the counter. “Sounds great, thanks for getting them Britt.”
Freaking Britt? Still?

Next she turns to me and looks me over. “Wow. You’re huge, Ali!”

I give a tight smile and she adds, “I mean, you’ve gotten bigger since I saw you last.”

I tell her, “Baby’s growing.”

She nods slightly then sticks her hand out to Darcy. “We haven’t met. I’m Brittany, Deklan’s assistant.”

Darcy shakes her hand and says, “I’m Darcy, Ali’s assistant.”

Brittany claps her hands once and exclaims, “Oh, this is perfect! I’m sure we’ll be working together all the time. I can show you anything you need to know.”

Darcy looks at me and raises one eyebrow. I shake my head slightly, but Brittany misses the exchange, having turned back to Deklan. She leans over the counter and points to the phones. She’s blatantly showing her goods, but my man doesn’t seem to notice. He’s programming numbers in the phones.

When he finishes, he hands over an iPhone box to Darcy, along with an iPad. “These are yours. I put in all of the numbers from my contact list, you’ll want to do the same with Ali’s phone. If we need you to get in touch with anyone, you shouldn’t have any problem reaching them.”

“Ali, if you tell me where your phone is, I’ll grab it so I can have everything in order.” Darcy offers.

Brittany says she can get it, but I push out of my chair and concentrate on not waddling to the entry where my purse is.

I come back with it to Deklan talking to Brittany about his photo shoot coming up. I leave them to that and show Darcy how to bump the phones together to get the contact list to sync. I look up when Brittany says loudly, “Oh, Dek. I need to make reservations for your birthday! Where do you want it this year?” My eyes are zoned into where she’s grabbing his forearm with her red dagger claws.

Deklan tells her, “I’m having a get together here. Darcy is going to take care of things. You should have off for a few days unless something comes up.”

I see her hand tighten on his arm before she replies, “Sounds great. When do I need to be here? I should help set up. Do you want me to get a chef for the night?”

Deklan flashes his eyes to me and then tells her, “It’s just going to be a quiet barbeque. Nothing big, you don’t need to make the drive.”

Her face ticks like she wants to say something, but she changes it. “Okay, Dek. Whatever you want. I’ll have to give you your present later.” She smiles and flicks her hair.

Deklan stands from leaning on the counter and throws the bags in the trash, effectively dislodging her hand. “Great. Drive safe back, okay? And let me know when I need to meet with New York about the line.”

When she leaves, Deklan gives me a kiss and goes out to the barn to do horse things. Darcy sits down next to me at the kitchen table flipping her phone around. She looks like she wants to say something, but hasn’t.

“What? You can tell me,” I ask her.

She takes a deep breath and looks out the windows toward the backyard. “It’s not the words, it’s her tone. She says the right things but… I don’t know maybe it’s just me.”

Holding up a hand I tell her, “Trust me, it’s not just you. And I’m glad you saw it, too. I was thinking it was all in my head.”

She raises her eyebrows. “What? That she doesn’t like you and wants your husband? Definitely not you.”

I take a deep breath and tell her, “You don’t have to work with her. Just text her when you need something and come to me with questions. She might try to get information from you, so watch out for that. She’s been his assistant for a couple years now, but you work for me. Don’t let her boss you around, at all. Tell me if you have any problems with her.”