Page 45 of California Love Songs (The Davenports, #4)

N ick Davenport sometimes wondered how he’d ended up in this family.

He looked around the crowded living area and watched the spectacle in front of him.

It was almost as though it was a stage show.

In fact, if you moved the people currently celebrating Crystal’s birthday to Vegas and put them on a stage, they’d fit right in.

Nick had never seen so much glitter and so many sparkles in one place.

He didn’t even understand why a thirtieth birthday party involved sparkles and sequins anyway. It wasn’t logical.

Nick understood logic and data. And streamlining.

That was how he’d made his fortune. He designed apps that basically got rid of the interference between moving from A to B, getting a task done, being efficient.

That was how his mind worked. He couldn’t think of anything less streamlined or efficient than a bunch of people jumping around in sparkles.

Yet, oddly, he was enjoying himself, even if he did feel more like a spectator than an integral part of the celebration.

He loved how much his family liked to come together and entertain.

His siblings could drive him crazy, but they always had each other’s backs.

Lately, it seemed they’d all decided that now was the time to fall in love and couple up.

Watching Damien and Crystal dancing cheek to cheek, he had to admit that the rock star and the party planner had come as a complete surprise to him.

Crystal had been part of their lives ever since she and Erin got friendly in high school.

He remembered her sitting at the kitchen table doing her homework with Erin, Crystal always the more scholarly of the two.

He could sort of remember glimpses of her through the years, changing hair styles, changing fashions as the pair of them grew older and grew from awkward teenagers to the beautiful women they had both become.

He remembered her getting Damien his first gigs in high school.

How proud of him they’d all been. While Crystal and Erin had remained close friends, Damien and Crystal had also forged a strong friendship and he saw at last what had probably been brewing for years.

They’d fallen in love.

He paused his reflections when Opal, the young musician Damien had been mentoring, walked in. She’d probably hoped to sneak in unnoticed, but Damien caught sight of her and, still holding Crystal’s hand, walked over to give his protégée a bear hug.

Crystal followed suit. “I heard the news,” Crystal said. “It’s fantastic.”

Opal looked both excited and scared. “Thanks. I can’t believe it. I got a record deal.”

Jay Malone swooped over. “I hear congratulations are in order,” he said in his booming voice. He stuck out a hand. “I’m Jay Malone. Arch’s agent. If you need help with anything, I’d be happy to meet with you.”

“Jay, man, this is a party. Stop hustling for clients,” Damien said, half laughing. “I’ve got my lawyers looking over the contract.”

“Excellent,” Jay said, unfazed. “I don’t need more clients, but I think every artist needs an agent. I could help you find the right fit.”

“Thanks,” Opal said, clearly overwhelmed by her new success.

Nick still hadn’t gotten over the shock of seeing Erin so happy with Jay Malone, who was wearing a gold cape, tight gold trousers, and a gold mesh shirt that looked like chain mail.

If the Vikings attacked Carmel, Jay would be ready to meet them.

And probably sign them to a contract as movie extras.

Archer was the only married sibling, though Mila was on her way, and it looked like Damien was a lifer.

Arch and Tessa were standing with some people that Nick didn’t know, probably Crystal’s friends.

They were holding hands. It seemed to him that everywhere they went they were holding hands, or one was touching the other’s back, or had an arm draped over the other’s shoulders.

There was no question they were a unit. Solid teammates, who were also deeply in love.

Arch dressed up all the time. It was part of his job, so it wasn’t such a shock to see him in head-to-toe glitter and sparkles. He and his artist wife were in sort-of matching outfits—she in a dress of gold lamé, and he in a suit of the same material.

But Tessa, being an artist, had written Happy Birthday Crystal around the hem and painted flowers and swirls on the fabric. Because obviously it wasn’t garish enough. She’d also hand-painted a sash like the ones beauty contestants wore that Crystal was now proudly sporting.

Erin came over to talk to Opal, probably to dilute Jay’s boisterous personality, and once more, Crystal danced with Damien. Damien—world-famous rock star, who’d dated some of the most glamorous women in the world—had found true love right here at home with a girl he’d known since high school.

That was the reason Nick stuck to data. And computers. And programs. There was logic there. They made sense. There were patterns. Human interactions were far too random and bizarre for him.

While he was musing, a diminutive older woman came toward him.

Margaret Percy lived in one of the fairytale houses in Carmel-by-the-Sea and had been a family friend since before he was born.

It was impossible not to like Margaret. She never let her age—which was well over eighty—get in the way of her zest for life.

She was currently dressed as though she were at Woodstock, and he had to wonder if maybe she had been and the outfit was a relic from the sixties.

Though probably at Woodstock their bell-bottom jeans hadn’t been covered in sequins.

And probably they wouldn’t have worn high-heeled silver boots in all that mud.

Margaret had threads of sequins wound through her gray hair and strings of fake diamonds around her neck that caught the light as she moved. “Nick Davenport,” she said, accosting him, “why aren’t you out there dancing?”

He knew how much she loved to dance, so he put out his hand. “May I?”

She chuckled, delighted with him. “I thought you’d never ask.”

He took Margaret out on the floor for a boogie.

She must have caught him eyeing the birthday girl dancing with his brother, because she twinkled up at him. “Were you surprised that Damien and Crystal fell in love?”

He liked that she’d asked a clear and simple question. No ambiguity. “Yes,” he answered. “I was. I did not see that coming.”

She chuckled. “I could have told you that girl’s been in love with him for years. But like a lot of men, Damien couldn’t see what was right under his nose. Fortunately, the years have made him wiser and he’s smartened up.”

“Do you think they’ll be happy?” Nick wanted to know. He had no data with which to answer the question himself.

Margaret tilted her head as though thinking about it.

She twirled on the spot in time with the music and then said, “I think some people are destined to be together. My beloved husband, God rest his soul, was the love of my life. I definitely think Crystal knew early on that Damien was the love of her life. Damien just took a little longer to catch up.” She twinkled at him again. “But then, men usually do.”

He laughed and swung Margaret around in a two-step. A dance with a pattern. He preferred those. When the song finished, he fetched her a sparkling water because he wanted to keep an eye on her and make sure she stayed hydrated. Then he got one for himself, for the same reason.

“When’s it going to be your turn?” Margaret asked him.

He wasn’t going to tell her that the software engineer he’d been dating had recently broken it off.

Said he spent too much time working. And that was the trouble.

He knew he did. And he spent far too much time online and checking out his apps, dreaming up new ones.

He felt safe there. The rules made sense in a way that human interactions just didn’t.

The thing about dating software engineers was that they tended to think the way he did. So for one of his own kind to tell him he was spending too much time online made him think maybe it was true.

He was trying to wean himself off his devices, but it wasn’t easy.

He pulled himself back to the present. He asked Margaret when her next travel adventure was going to be, because with Margaret there was always a new adventure in the offing.

“Your tie is askew,” she said, and then leaned forward to tweak the sequined bow tie his mother had forced on him. He’d also managed to find a sequined vest that slipped over his white shirt and jeans.

For Nick, this was as dressed up as it got.

When she’d straightened his tie, she gave a nod and stepped back. “I’m going to be cruising in Norway. I want to see the fjords, and I’ve never seen the Northern Lights.”

“That’s great,” Nick said, his enthusiasm genuine, although he never found time himself to travel.

“While I’m away,” she said, “I’d like you to do me a favor.”

He was a bit surprised. “Sure. Do you want me to water your plants or something?”

“No. My granddaughter, Rosamund, is coming to stay. It’s rather unexpected.” Her voice hinted at reasons that he probably didn’t want to know.

“Anyway, I can’t cancel my trip now, and Rosamund says she’ll be perfectly fine in my house by herself. Which of course she will. She’s a grown woman. I just wonder if you and your family wouldn’t mind keeping an eye on her. She doesn’t know anyone here.”

“Yes, of course,” Nick said. Then he pulled out his phone. “What are the dates she’ll be here?”

Margaret smiled at him as though there was something comical in his putting the dates in the calendar. It wasn’t comical at all. It was the practical thing to do.

She gave him the dates. “Rosamund is a knitter.”

Immediately he pictured a quiet young woman. Probably very shy. With glasses, maybe.

“A knitter?” he asked. “That’s her hobby?”

“No,” Margaret said. “That’s her job.”

“Oh.” His mom had gone through a very short-lived phase of knitting in front of the television or while listening to the radio. He hadn’t considered that you could make a living from it. No doubt this Rosamund worked in a knitting shop.

He glanced around at his family, dancing and laughing and glittering.

He wondered how this poor, unknown knitter would ever fit in.

Still, at least they always welcomed strangers.

He’d make sure she got invited to their family breakfast if she wanted to come.

And he made a note to check out where the closest knitting shops were.

“I’m on it,” he told Margaret.

She laughed and patted his shoulder. “I knew I could rely on you.”

And then his dad swept Margaret off to dance.

Nick drained the rest of his sparkling water and went back to observing the party.

Mila stopped dancing with Hershel Greenfield long enough to come by and say, “Nick. That girl in the emerald-green dress has been checking you out all night. Go ask her to dance.”

This wasn’t the first time one of his sisters had told him some girl was interested in him. He was usually oblivious. “Oh,” he said. “Sure.”

And headed over to ask the girl to dance. The green dress was figure-hugging and gleamed. It reminded him somehow of the skin of a reptile. Her name was Brie, and she was fun to dance with.

And then a picture flashed into his brain of a much quieter place than this. A young woman sitting, knitting.

Rosamund. It was an unusual name. It was pretty.

He’d try to make Margaret’s granddaughter feel at home when she arrived in Carmel-by-the-Sea.

Thank you so much for reading CALIFORNIA LOVE SONGS! We hope you loved Damien and Crystal.