Diamond, page 6
“Sort of, but not what you’re thinking. That lady has a near-perfect singing voice. I found her singing in one of the most god-awful places I’ve ever seen. All I did was offer her a chance out and a shot at a career she richly deserves. No strings attached.”
“Of course,” Henley agreed. “No strings at all, sir.”
Jesse frowned. “And I thought I told you to quit calling me ‘Sir,’ dammit.”
“I didn’t call you ‘Sir Dammit.’ I simply called you ‘Sir,’” Henley said. “If you wish to change your title, Mr. Eagle, all you need to do is let me know. I’d be more than happy to—”
Jesse started to smile. Sarcasm was thick in his voice as he sauntered toward the kitchen. “Just shut the hell up, Henley. You win. You always do. And that chicken and dumplings is making my mouth water. Hope you made plenty. The lady is—”
“Yes sir. I believe she’s starving.”
Henley retied the bib apron he wore over his dress pants and white short-sleeved shirt and adjusted his bow tie, readying for the meal he was about to serve. He knew people. From the bit that he’d seen of her, the lady was starving—but not necessarily for food, more likely acceptance. He’d seen the look in her eyes, and he’d seen similar looks on women’s faces a lifetime ago, half a world away. In Saigon, and again in the jungles of Cambodia. And they’d all meant one thing. A complete and encompassing distrust of the human race, with men at the top of the list.
Henley pushed aside these thoughts as he began to carry the food to the table. What happened between that woman and his employer was none of his business…absolutely none at all. And he kept his vow to remain neutral up to the time she asked for seconds. By the time he’d served her a third helping of his cooking, his opinion of Jesse’s guest had changed. She at least trusted his cooking.
Diamond smiled to herself, remembering the rich chicken and dumplings and the look of surprise that had swept Henley’s face when she’d asked for more. Sparring with the short, stocky man had taken the edge off having to converse solely with Jesse. In fact, now that she thought about it, she’d almost ignored him.
Diamond leaned against the porch post and stared across the meadow, grinning at the young foal’s foolish antics as he raced along the fences that held him at bay. His mother, the mare, grazed quietly on the thick green grass, always keeping her youngster in sight as she ate her fill.
Diamond stretched, stepped off the porch, and started walking toward the corrals. An evening breeze had sprung up only moments ago but was already well on its way to cooling off the heat of the day. A crow cawed loudly beyond the thick band of trees surrounding the house, while another answered from a distance away. She shaded her eyes against the setting sun and watched as it circled the skies before coming in to roost.
Even the crow had a tree to call home. Everyone and everything seemed to belong there but her.
She reached the fence and leaned over the top rail, gazing across it to the verdant beauty beyond, and watched the little horse play. “And you, pretty baby, you have someone who cares about you, too, don’t you?”
Diamond’s voice carried across the evening air. It startled the colt and stopped his play. He tossed his head and nickered, kicking his spindly legs out behind him as he headed toward his mother and security.
Jesse watched from the doorway as Diamond walked toward the pasture. The evening breeze lifted and tossed her long hair. He saw her twist it into a rope and then pull it over one shoulder as she folded her arms across the top rail of the fence.
He stepped off the porch and followed. It was instinctive. But the way he was feeling, it might also be a mistake.
“Have you forgiven me yet?”
Diamond jerked. Her heart thumped twice in rapid succession before settling back down into a constant rhythm. Darn him. She hadn’t even heard his approach.
“There’s nothing to forgive,” she said, unwilling to admit that he could hurt her in any way.
Jesse put his hands on her shoulders and turned her around.
“I hurt you. It was unintentional, but nevertheless it happened. I don’t like how it makes me feel, Diamond Houston. I need to hear you say you forgive me. I need to hear the words. If you don’t, I know I’ll lose sleep over it. And if I do, the boys will just think we’ve been carryin’ on together…if you get my drift.”
His slow smile and warm hands did things to her heart they had no business doing, but she couldn’t speak.
“You wouldn’t want me to go into the studio tomorrow with dark circles beneath my eyes and—”
Diamond ducked her head and punched him playfully on the shoulder. “Okay, okay! I get the idea. You don’t need to keep drawing me a picture of what the band thinks I’m doing at your house. It’s painfully obvious, even to a country girl like me.”
“Do you mind what they think?” he asked. “Even when we know it’s not true?”
Diamond shrugged. “I can’t help what they think. It’s what I think about myself that matters.”
Jesse slipped his hand beneath her chin and tilted her face up to meet his gaze. “And what do you think about yourself, shiny girl?”
Tears came in profusion without warning.
Jesse’s arms enveloped her before she could run, then tightened around her shoulders as she buried her face in her hands.
“My God, darlin’. What did I say? I didn’t mean to make you cry.” The soft, almost undetectable sound of her sobs made him sick to his stomach.
“It wasn’t you,” she said, unsuccessfully trying to regain her composure as a fresh set of tears began to roll. “It was what you called me, ‘shiny girl.’ It’s a name Johnny used to tease me with. I didn’t think hearing it again…from someone else…would hurt. But it does.”
Jesse rested his chin on the top of her head and stared blankly across the meadow. Something he hadn’t expected was happening here, and it had nothing to do with lust. He’d seen plenty of women cry. Sometimes in fury. Sometimes over him. But the knowledge that this woman hurt and he couldn’t fix it made him angry. He didn’t know why her happiness was becoming so important to him, but he had a suspicion that if he asked himself, he’d get an answer he wasn’t ready for.
“So,” he sighed, “I came out here to apologize for one thing, and it seems now I should apologize for two.”
“Oh hell,” Diamond said softly, allowing herself a moment’s weakness. “Forget the apologies and just hold me. I’m too tired of pretending.”
Jesse did as he was asked. It was his pleasure. He did some pretending of his own as he let himself enjoy the feeling of holding her against his body. He pretended that it was only the beginning for them. And when darkness chased them into the house, he forgot he’d been pretending.
He walked her to the foot of the stairs and leaned close. “’Night, darlin’,” he said, and kissed her gently on the cheek.
Long after she’d crawled into bed, Diamond could still feel the imprint of his lips on her cheek and the pressure of their bodies as they’d touched and then melded into each other. She rolled over on her stomach, wishing for the first time in her life that she owned a nightgown. Her bare skin burned, her body ached, and the tears she’d buried began to fall once again. Only this time she wasn’t crying for Johnny. She was crying for herself.
When Jesse walked into the studio with Diamond the next morning, the members of Muddy Road were already tuning up. Tommy glared. Some of the others whistled or called out gentle, teasing welcomes.
Mack Martin watched, silently assessing the fact that the same woman had shown up with the boss two days running. He couldn’t ever remember that happening. Either she was hell on wheels in bed, or Jesse hadn’t been shuckin’ them yesterday, after all. Maybe she could sing.
He turned away so that they wouldn’t see his grin. Just what he liked, little girls with stars in their eyes. They were the kind who’d do anything for a chance at the bright lights. Mack adjusted the strings on his guitar and readied for the session that was about to begin. He could wait until Jesse was through with her. He was a patient man.
Hours later, his wasn’t the only patience running thin as Jesse started a new rendition of the same song they’d been working on all day.
Don’t tell me lies, just say you love me.
Don’t try so hard to make me believe.
It’s not too late, if you really mean it.
But you can’t stay just to watch me grieve.
But the smiles and lies of a lying lover
go hand in hand like kisses and wine.
I’ve had my share of one or the other.
But like the fool I am, can’t get you out of my mind.
Jesse ended the song with a frustrated curse and dropped his guitar onto a chair.
“Dammit, Tommy, it doesn’t work. It just doesn’t work.”
“That’s not what you said when we bought the damned thing,” Tommy said, resisting the urge to shout.
Jesse shoved his hands through his hair and then turned to face his band. “Sorry, guys,” he said, “but let’s try it once more from the top, and this time when we get to the second stanza, I want to hear more fiddle on the melody. You got that, Al?”
Al nodded and cracked his neck to alleviate the pain beneath his shirt collar. The boss wasn’t near as pissed-off as he felt. He and his wife, Rita, had been trying to celebrate their anniversary all week. If something didn’t break on this song arrangement soon, he envisioned an all-night session that would have Rita fuming.
Diamond leaned against the wall just out of Jesse’s line of vision and watched him flex his arms as he worked out the kinks from sitting too long in one spot. The muscles rippled beneath his shirt, as did the ones in his thighs as he bent down to retrieve his guitar. She shivered, wondering what he looked like beneath the fabric, and then closed her eyes against the thought.
“One more time from the top,” Jesse said, weariness heavy in his voice, “and then we’ll call it a day. Maybe all I need to do is sleep on it.”
“Maybe that’s what’s wrong, Jesse. Maybe you ain’t gettin’ enough sleep. Maybe what you’re sleepin’ on—or with—is keepin’ you from—”
“Shut the hell up, Mack,” Jesse said.
The sharpness in his voice matched the look in his eyes. Mack got the message loud and clear and didn’t like it. He didn’t like it one bit that some easy fuck was coming between Jesse and the band. He wondered what Jesse was thinking, letting a woman like her matter, especially when there were a hundred just like her waiting to be had.
Diamond gritted her teeth and resisted the urge to shove Mack’s words down his throat. And she didn’t have to look at Jesse’s manager to know that he was smiling. She’d already heard his satisfied chuckle when Mack had started in.
Her presence was resulting in exactly what Tommy had hoped for. If Jesse saw for himself what trouble she could cause, he’d dump her himself and save Tommy the trouble of having to do it for him.
Diamond never knew what prompted her to do what she did next. Maybe it was frustration at being an unwelcome outsider, or the exhaustion she saw weighing heavily on Jesse’s face. But when the band started to play, she walked over to the table where Jesse had tossed his hat, slapped it on her head, and took the words of the song right out of Jesse’s mouth.
Her voice filled the studio, blending perfectly with his deep, husky sound until it seemed as if it were no longer a song. Every stanza Jesse sang, Diamond echoed right after him, in her soft, crystal-clear voice. Every plea he made in the song she repeated with heartbreaking pathos.
Al slid his bow across his fiddle and blinked back tears. He didn’t know who to believe was telling lies, the man or the woman. And then he caught himself and almost laughed aloud as he realized he’d been pulled right into the emotion of the moment. It wasn’t really happening, they were just singing a song. But hot damn, he thought, what a song. This was what had been missing.
Tommy wanted to kill. She was good…and he wanted no part of her. Her presence in their lives was the first wedge between him and total control over Jesse Eagle, and that was something he wouldn’t allow.
And then Diamond’s voice ended the song on a whisper as she sang, “…can’t get you out of my mind.”
Jesse stared. He couldn’t speak past the lump in his throat. Instead, he took his hat off her head, tossed it into the air, and yanked her off her feet and into his arms.
Laughter bubbled out of him, overflowing into Diamond’s ears as he swung her around and around. The shocked silence of the men in the room began to lessen as, one by one, the members of the band joined in. Jesse’s excitement was impossible to ignore.
“My sweet Lord,” Jesse said as he finally stopped spinning and set Diamond’s feet back on firm ground. He did not, however, turn her loose. “That was fantastic, lady.” He wrapped his hand in the tangle he’d made of her hair and tugged gently as he growled in her ear, “But what the hell kept you? If you knew you could do that earlier in the day, why did you let us suffer through six hours of rearranging that damned song?”
Diamond flushed but had nothing to say. She only shrugged. What she’d done had been on impulse. She’d had no intention of trying to make herself part of the song.
Jesse grabbed her by an arm as he turned to his manager. “Do you believe me now? I told you she could sing.”
Tommy shrugged and grinned. There was nothing else he could do, but inside he was furious.
“I want this on the album,” Jesse said. “I want her singing with me, just like she did a minute ago. She’ll have equal billing on the song and her credits listed on the album cover. Now…Tommy, don’t get that look on your face now. I’m right, and you know it.”
Diamond was in shock. “But Jesse, I didn’t intend for you to think—”
“I don’t care what was intended. I know what’s good, and so does the band. Right, boys?”
Smiles and a scattering of “You bet, boss” came and went. But the men were in shock. Granted the woman could sing. But equal billing for a complete unknown on one of Jesse Eagle’s albums? That was a bit much, even for a good song. To a man, they began to eye her differently. This Diamond Houston must be heaven in bed for Jesse to be so eager to share billing with her.
“Let’s call it a day,” Jesse said. “But tomorrow when we come in, it’s going to be down to serious business, ‘Lies’ was the last song on the album that hadn’t been arranged.” He grinned and tugged at Diamond’s hair again. “But thanks to her, that’s over. Tomorrow we start recording. Our schedule says this album has to be out before Christmas. Tommy, set it up.”
Tommy shoved his hand in his shirt pocket for a cigarette and then cursed as he remembered he’d given that habit up nearly a year earlier. He stifled the urge to break something and managed to nod in agreement to Jesse’s order.
Diamond was lost somewhere between elation and embarrassment. Her intention had been to lighten the moment. Instead she’d made the tension worse. Even she could feel the men’s disapproval, but she had no way of undoing what had already been done. And, truth be told, she had little desire to do so. After all, wasn’t this why she’d left Cradle Creek? Wasn’t this why she’d trusted a stranger?
She smiled back at Jesse and then went to retrieve his hat. Standing in front of Jesse’s band and his manager made her feel a bit like standing before a firing squad while she waited for someone to yell fire!
5
Jesse’s elation lasted until they walked through the door and Henley handed Diamond an envelope postmarked from Cradle Creek, Tennessee.
“My money!” she said, tearing it open and waving the cashier’s check in the air. She unfolded the accompanying letter and leaned against the wall, avidly scanning the page for news of her sisters.
Jesse watched the expression changing on her face and knew that he should leave her alone to read in private, but he couldn’t bring himself to do so.
“Should I postpone serving supper, sir?” Henley asked.
Jesse nodded. It was obvious that for once, food was the farthest thing from Diamond’s mind.
“Lucky left.” The words came out in a whisper. “Queen’s leaving in a couple of days.” Diamond looked at the date on the postmark and then back at the letter, trying not to cry. “I suppose by now she’s gone, too.” She looked up at Jesse, her chin quivering.
“Honey, don’t cry,” Jesse said, and then winced at himself as he realized he’d called her “honey” again. But this time she didn’t notice, or if she did must not have cared.
“I’m not.” Unaware of the tears running down her cheeks, she continued. “I knew they were going. I don’t know why I’m making such a fuss. After all, I was the one who left first. I didn’t expect them to sit there in that hellhole and wait for me to come straggling back.”
But in her heart that’s exactly what she’d expected, and now her last link with her family was gone. Johnny was dead. Lucky was on a bus heading west, and Queen was right behind her. Diamond had never felt so alone in all her life. The breath she took turned into a sob.
Jesse frowned and gathered her into his arms. He needed to take away her pain.
“It will be okay. They know where you are, remember? You may have lost momentary track of them, but they know where you are. They know you’re with me.”
She nodded, for the moment relishing the comfort of being held, but she wouldn’t allow herself the pleasure of prolonging it.
“At least my money came.” Embarrassed by her behavior, she shrugged out of his arms. “Now I can get a place of my own in Nashville, and whenever it fits into your schedule I could meet you at—”
“No!”
It was hard to tell who was more startled at the vehemence with which he grabbed and shook her. He stared at his hands on her arms and turned her loose as if he’d just burned himself.
“I’m sorry,” he said, unable to look at her face. “But it wouldn’t be a good idea.”
“Why?”
“Because,” he began, fishing for a reason that wouldn’t make him look any more foolish than he already did. “Because…we’ve just made plans for the album. Helping you find a place and moving you right now when we need to be recording would mess up the schedule.”
