Hearthstone Entertainment
7 Arrival
ADAM SWUNG DOWN from the driver’s door of the bus and came around the front. The ‘docking procedure’ had gone flawlessly after yesterday’s rehearsal. It was a partly cloudy day with no sign of rain, but the awning of the motor home extended to above the door of the barn. It even made the space a little cooler. It hadn’t quite reached eighty today, but the rest of the week was supposed to get progressively hotter into the nineties.
“Patrón,” Adam said, formally. He was still in his official driver’s uniform. Elaine had managed to borrow one from a local theater.
“Heaven isn’t feeling well. She’s asked to be excused from coming in for a while. She’d like you and Sarah to join her in the bus, though,” he said. I was a little sad. The whole clan looked its best and was looking forward to meeting our own supermodel this evening. But if she wasn’t feeling well… “The truth is that she’s scared, Brian. There was an incident in Chicago. I think you and Sarah are the only ones that can ease her right now.”
“Oh, shit,” I said. I turned to Rose and Hannah.
“Don’t worry, darling. We’ll take care of it,” Rose said. Hannah looked at me with her producer face.
“Get her healthy and ready to work, Brian. I don’t care if you have to fuck her into oblivion. Make sure she’s ready.”
“Shh. Shh,” Elaine said, putting an arm around Hannah. ’She“s a professional. She might be temperamental before the shoot, but she’ll be perfect during. Let’s go in and work on the intro again. I could use your help and Nikki is going crazy over the ‘Love’ monologue. Okay?”
Hannah giggled. “The director is supposed to comfort the star, not the other way around,” she said. “Come on, Miss Frost. Let me get you a cold drink and go over the first monologue with you. We can’t have you upset.” The two turned and walked arm in arm into the barn. Rose had circled around to the outside and other door to alert everyone else to the situation. Adam unlocked the door and knocked. A woman I didn’t recognize opened the door a crack.
“It is only the two she requested,” he said. “I need to show Brian the radio.” The woman nodded and let the three of us enter. Sarah was gripping my arm tightly enough to cut off the blood circulation. Adam gave us instructions on the radio quickly so we could call into the house when we were ready to move. Then he turned to introduce the other woman who hovered nearby. “Brian and Sarah, I’d like you to meet Amy Ward. Amy is Heaven’s personal assistant and chaperone.”
I finally had the opportunity to look at the woman. She was a bit older than Jessica—I’d say late twenties. She had a hard look and didn’t accept my offered hand.
“Go ahead with Adam,” Jessica said from the doorway in the back of the coach. “These are my best friends, Amy. And Brian is like Adam.” What? She was telling her chaperone I was gay?
“Yes, Miss Barnes. If you are certain.”
“Adam, there’s food ready in the kitchen and the casa will all be in there. Please make Ms. Ward comfortable. Mi casa es su casa,” I said. She finally acknowledged me with a faint smile and accompanied Adam out of the motorhome.
Jessica rushed to Sarah and me and wrapped her arms around the two of us. She dragged us to the sofa and we held her as she cried.
“They’ve upped the bounty again. That damned magazine. A photographer followed me into a restroom in O’Hare.”
“A guy walked into the women’s room?” I practically shouted. “Did you call the police?”
“Women take pictures, too. I can’t trust anyone. That’s why Amy is so protective. I’m sorry she wasn’t friendlier. She wasn’t exactly enthused about us coming here.”
“Is that why you told her I was gay?” I asked.
“Oh. That’s not what I meant. I meant you were trained. Amy is also a black belt. I suppose she might have assumed you were gay, though. I’ll tell her different,” Jessica mumbled.
“Don’t bother,” I said. “What she thinks doesn’t concern me. What can we do to help you, Jessica? You look a wreck.”
“Gee, thanks. I knew I could depend on you,” she snickered. “I wanted you here with me, but will you let me have a few minutes with my bestie? Sarah, I’ve missed you so much!”
“Let’s get you cleaned up and ready to meet the world,” Sarah said, hugging her friend. “If I can’t do it with makeup, Brian can do it with orgasms.”
“You’re so bad!” Jessica let Sarah lead her into the back that I assumed was the bedroom. I looked in the fridge and grabbed a Coke. We’d stocked it yesterday, so I knew there were some there. I plopped down on the couch again and waited.
Jessica was nothing like I remembered. Nothing like the last time we’d been together and spent the night pleasuring each other in bed. Certainly, she’d shown signs of increasing concern—checking the curtains and blinds, looking for cameras in lights, the closet, and behind mirrors. But she was safe here. She was with us.
She looked almost haunted. Well—hunted. I guess she was. We worked in media, but none of us had really been bothered by our popularity. I was popular among thirty-something housewives. No one was out to get naked pictures of me. Jessica had been on the cover of every major fashion magazine in the world. And she’d just turned twenty-one a couple months ago.
Damn! We’re leaving our teens. Granted, Hannah just turned nineteen, but Courtney just turned twenty. We were a month away from Jennifer’s twentieth. Mine was in October. I wondered if I needed to start acting like an adult now. Nah! That can wait till I’m twenty-one.
I dozed off. I had no idea what was taking them so long back there, but having so much tension built up around having her arrive and then having to wait so long just drained me. I had flitting dreams of cameras and flashbulbs—the life of a celebrity.
“Hey, Prince Charming. Time to wake up,” Sarah whispered in my ear. Mmm. That was twice in one day that I’d fallen asleep where I was sitting. “Your princess is here.”
I opened my eyes and Jessica stood in front of me. Holy shit! She’s beautiful. She wore a pair of black form-fitting slacks and a sleeveless pink blouse with a cami under it. I just stared at her.
“Is it okay?” she asked. She looked a little worried.
“Okay? Of course, it’s okay. You are stunning.” I stood and held out my arms to her. She hesitated but gave me a light hug and pulled away.
“You’d better call Adam and Amy. I’m ready to meet your family.”
“What do the colors mean?” Jessica asked almost as soon as we were inside. Only our casa was there to meet her when we started. That was almost overwhelming. Adam was with us, too, and had switched to his gi.
“The belts show which casa we belong to,” Rose said. “Red is Casa del Fuego. White are clan members without a casa. That’s Adam. I’ll introduce the other casa by name when we have them in. We didn’t want to overwhelm you. There are forty-six in the clan who are here on the ranch. Only sixteen of us in Casa del Fuego.”
“What about the colors of the outfits?”
“Red is the color of a person who is cónyuge with at least one other person in our casa. All of us in red are cónyuge with Brian.”
“Mates,” Jessica said. “Isn’t that what you called it, Sarah?”
“Yes. Those who have a long-term intimate commitment to each other,” Sarah said.
“But not you.”
“I keep getting closer, but I live five hundred miles away most of the year. We’ll see what happens after graduation.”
“Your producer, whom you have met before, is also cónyuge with Samantha. Jennifer and Courtney are also cónyuge with each other.”
“And the green? I don’t know any of you three.”
“This is Josh, Cassie, and Mary. Green is the color of a novia or fiancé. Mary and Cassie are novia of both Brian and Josh,” Rose said as they each greeted Jessica. “And that brings us to your friend Sarah, and I think you know Sora. This is Nikki, who goes to Brown and can’t be with us most of the winter, and our newest member of the casa, Angela.”
“I’m amazed. You are all so incredible,” Jessica said. “I mean, Sarah has described things before and I’ve talked to Brian, but to see you all in action. You really have quite a harem, Brian.”
“It’s not like I have sex with everyone!” I hastily jumped in. That started laughter. Well, the only ones I didn’t have all out sex with were Angela, Cassie, and Josh. And two of those liked to play around with me. Shit!
“You started this, Jessica,” Whitney declared. “You sat down with five girls who were already in awe of you and filled their little fifth grade brains with the story of a prince who would choose his court in the fall. He was enchanted and would never acknowledge that he was a prince. But we would know him by his guards. Then in walks Brian with Carl and Doug towering over him on either side. We fell over each other wanting to be the consort of the prince.”
“But there are only three of you!” Jessica said. “What happened to Brenda and Rhiannon? I thought sure that Brenda would pounce on him.”
“Oh, she did. Does,” Liz amended. “Brenda and Rhiannon sacrificed themselves to his bodyguards. In order to keep them around, you know.”
With introductions out of the way, we sat at the table and had dinner. It was light, with lots of fresh vegetables from the garden. Elaine had made up a batch of my gazpacho while I was waiting in the motorhome. It was our first batch of tomatoes from the garden. I noticed that Jessica was polite, but didn’t eat much. There were boiled eggs sliced up for addition to our salads. She separated out the yolks and only ate the whites.
After we’d eaten, Hannah and Elaine took charge of Jessica to introduce her to the sets and arrangements. I noticed that Amy was right beside Jessica with a notebook, just like Samantha was off the shoulder of Hannah with her clipboard. While they were engaged, I went around to every one of the rest of my hearthmates and gave them a hug and a kiss—well, Josh just got the hug—and thanked them for how considerate they were being.
“I’m jealous,” Nikki whispered in my ear.
“Oh, honey, no one is comparing you.”
“She’s more fucked up than I am,” Nikki giggled. “It’s not fair. I’m supposed to be the crazy one!” That set us both to laughing and I ended up in a considerably more intense kiss with Nikki than I’d intended.
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