Lush Read Free Page A

conve-
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    nience store on the dashboard of a car. She’s amazing.”
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    Damien also dug the way her friends spoke about her. Adrian
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    had mentioned to him that Gillian had a very close group of
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    friends there on the island. Clearly their love for one another
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    was genuine and deep. It said a lot about a person— who loved
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    them best.
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    “Who’s that guy who keeps staring over here?” Damien
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    asked Adrian in an undertone. The way the guy stared, he began
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    to wonder if it was the boyfriend of one of the women at the
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    table. Of Mary, which would totally bum him out.
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    “That’s Cal. He’s Mary’s older brother. He’s with the pretty
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    blonde sitting across from him with the other blond guy. He’s
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    with her too. And with Cal.”
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    This was the second triad he’d learned of in this group. Was
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    it something in the water?
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    Big brother stares . . . Ah well, he’d had more than one in his
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    lifetime. And this woman was clearly capable of handling her-
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    self anyway.
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    “Would you like a drink, Mary?” He stood.
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    “Yes, I would, thanks.” She stood as well and he couldn’t
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    resist a leisurely tour from the toes of her shoes, up a pair of
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    shapely legs over the breasts— good god, the breasts— the long
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    neck and to her face. Gracious.
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    “The bar is over there.” Mary indicated the opposite side of
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    the yard before she took his arm.
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    “Did you always know you wanted to be a musician like
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    Adrian and his sister?”
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    “My eldest brother Ezra works the ranch with my father.
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    He’d bribe me and my brothers to do chores with the promise
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    of being able to use the barn to practice music in. ’Course he
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    was a wild one too, Ezra.” He’d been in the band for a few years.
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    But the road, the life wasn’t meant for everyone. Ezra’s demons
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    Lauren Dane
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    had been rehab sized and he’d retired from the band to save his
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    life.
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    Last year they’d renovated that barn and made it into a home
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    studio.
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    “My parents are musical. They sang in the choir. My dad
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    plays piano and guitar. They got me drums. Well, actually, my
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    uncle got me drums to punish my dad.” He laughed, pausing as
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    they got to the bar.
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    She ordered a beer and he wasn’t sure why, but he was charmed
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    by that. He especially liked that she left a tip. He’d worked as
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    a server and at parties like this one and had people treat him
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    like crap. From then on, he’d always tipped generously.
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    “Anyway, so we lived in the country so it wasn’t like we could
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    get up to trouble anywhere else. So we rode horses and motor-
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    cycles and then when I was nineteen, Paddy— that’s my next
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    eldest brother— and Ezra started a band for real. Vaughan and
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    me, well we just went along because why not? Once we were all
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    of age, we played shitty clubs and couch surfed and then my
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    mother showed up and would spend a few months at a time with
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    us. She’d rent a house and feed us, take care of stuff for us while 21
    we tried to hit it big. And then we did.”
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    “I like your mom already.”
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    “She’s pretty impossible not to like. She’d pester you until
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    you at least faked it. We wanted her to manage us but she
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    refused. But she helped us fi nd someone. That’s how we met
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    Adrian and Erin, actually; we share a manager. To this day our
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    mom keeps an eye on our manager and the money people. She’s
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    smart about making sure we save for retirement and all that too.”
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    Mary had to admit she liked that he seemed close with his
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