Chapter 39

When we stepped out of the office, the hallway outside was empty, and I breathed a sigh of relief and hoped it had stayed that way, and no one had overhead what happened. The girls and Nancy were putting the last of the things in the car when we walked out.

I made plans with Dillon and Momo to rehearse early in the morning before we headed over to the recording studio, and then we all hugged him goodbye. He had a lot of work to do around the farm to set things up for being away so much the next week, and I knew he was stressing out about getting it all done.

The whole time I felt Heather’s eyes on the pastor and me and could practically feel the hurt feelings emanating from her. Twice she opened her mouth to say something to Dillon or me, but both times closed it after a second, with a frown and a pensive look. The young man’s head was still spinning from the wild encounter in the pastor's office and barely gave my daughter a second glance, causing her frown to deepen.

As I drove home, Jen tried to cheer the girl up, but between Momo and me chatting in the front seat and Nancy playing Dillon’s music on her phone, the girl couldn’t escape him. My daughter isn’t a woman who’s ever had to struggle for anything in her life. Always the most beautiful girl in the room, charming and smart, she'd rarely known struggle.

Despite my best efforts, she’d grown up privileged and with an air of entitlement. The rudeness had worn away after her teen years, but she was still learning. Heather is many things, but a quitter is not one of them. Halfway back to the house, she had a new attitude and was conferring with Jen about clothing or outfits they planned to wear to the concert on Friday. From the sparkle in her eyes, I knew she had something planned that would make sure the young man couldn’t fail to notice her.

Nancy called Morgan and asked her to come over so we could plan for the week. By the time we got home, she was just pulling into the driveway. Heather and Jen hopped out of the car, and both couldn’t help but stare at the gorgeous woman. Heather’s frown turned into a grimace when I told them Morgan would be working closely with Dillon as the label’s A&R person.

“Oh my god, you’re absolutely gorgeous!” Morgan said when she hurried up the walkways, heels clicking as she stared at Heather, “Amanda, you never told me your girl was such a heart breaker!”

“Thanks,” Heather said, and I was happy to see her jealousy and envy fade once she got to know Morgan and learned how cool and down to earth she is.

I opened two bottles of wine, and Morgan and Nancy got to planning. Heather and Jen had gone up to the girl's room to edit the footage they’d taken at the church, and from the excited giggles that made their way down, they’d gotten some good stuff.

“I wanted to go over the schedule for this week,” Morgan said, pulling out her iPad and bringing up a calendar, “If you two get out your phones I can share this with you, so we’re all on the same page. It’s going to be important, Amanda, that you keep Dillon up to speed on all major items on the schedule. We wouldn’t want him showing up and not being prepared or getting blindsided by something he doesn’t want to do. That’s the most important thing, that we keep Dillon happy and ensure this is a rewarding and positive experience.”

“I’ve started working on a rider,” Nancy said, calling up a document on her phone, “just a simple list of things we would want to be provided for the band at shows.”

“Perfect,” Morgan said, “Now, let's go over our goals for the recording studio tomorrow. I’ve talked with the odious man who runs the place, and he’s agreed to let us have full run of the facility as long as he’s noted as a contributing producer on the album or EP.”

“We can live with that,” Nancy said, “but I want to make sure he doesn’t get residuals.”

“Good idea,” Morgan said, making a note.

“I’ve been thinking about how to help Dillon’s farm while he’s away,” I said and dragged my laptop over and called up a local service. “I know the owners of the nursery in town and their daughters would be perfect for running Dillon’s farm while he’s gone. Both are really into organic farming and have been pestering their parents to buy them a plot of land. If Dillon’s willing to let them sell what they grow, and I’m sure he will be, they would jump at the chance.”

“That’s a big relief,” Morgan said with a smile. “To be honest, the mystique of a farm boy with a guitar is how we’re going to market him, but I had no idea how he was going to juggle everything. Are the girls cute?”

“Very,” I said with a crooked grin, my eyes sparkling with amusement to match Morgan’s.

“We really are a couple of wicked women aren’t we,” Nancy said with a rueful shake of her head.

“Everything we do is for Dillon,” Morgan said firmly, “We have to keep that at the front of our minds. It’s too easy to let the chaos and madness of fame and fortune steer an artist the wrong way. Dillon is far too precious an artist, and his art is far too important for us to let that happen.”

“Agreed,” I said at the same time Nancy nodded in agreement.

“Good,” Morgan said, pulling up another document on her iPad, “Now let's go over the initial schedule. Adeline’s assistant Carmen has given me a few dates for shows and festivals she can get us into. She doesn’t want to schedule anything definite until we have music recorded and uploaded.”

“I’m getting on that tomorrow,” I said, nodding.

“Excellent,” Morgan said, “There are a few more important details we want to lock down if we can: band name, style for wardrobe, things like that.”

“I can get started on most of them,” Nancy said, “but Dillon really should come up with the name himself, or the three of you together, Amanda.”

“I agree-.” I began but was cut off by a shout from the top of the stairs.

“Mom, come up here! You guys have to check this out!”

The three of us hurried upstairs into my daughter's room. The walls were still covered in collages of her high-school photos. Pictures of her and her large groups of friends at a football game with their faces painted or floating on the lake. Morgan, Nancy, and I squeezed around Heather’s small computer desk, where Jen sat before her laptop.

“Ready?” Jen asked, glancing around before hitting the play button.

The first shot was of Dillon, pulling back to slowly reveal the rest of the band just as he began to sing. I felt a hot flush of embarrassment for a moment when I came on screen but was transported a moment later by the scenes playing before me.

The camera never cut, and stayed focused on Dillon, and that was perfect. The young man’s charisma on camera was palpable, and I found my breathing heavy and skin flush before the song was over. Even the Christian song he sang filled my mind with images of his dominant form, taking me over and over again.

Glancing around the small group of women, I could see each of them was having similar thoughts. Nancy and Morgan had twin knowing grins on their lips, and I realized I wore the same. While Jen and Heather were both trembling with desire and fighting hard to mask that fact from us, older women.

“This is… wow, Heather… did you film this?” Morgan asked as the video came to an end.

“Yea,” my daughter said with a shake of her head. “We were going to cut together what we both filmed, but when we watched this…”

“Did you use a filter?” Nancy asked as she backed up to a still image of Dillon standing there, a flare of light covering a part of his face, “This is the thumbnail… god damn, look at him, mmmhmm!”

“No filter,” Heather said, and from the strain on her face, as she stared at the screen, I knew the girl was unfamiliar with her current emotions. “I just found a good angle and tried to keep the lighting right. I’m planning on uploading it to his insta feed tonight with a series of hashtags to get it to pop.”

“You won’t need many,” Morgan said, nodding, “loop me in on that post. I’ll have our social media people get on the promotion.”

“Perfect,” Heather said, and I caught a flash of envy in her face when she took in the former model’s slender body once more.

“Why don’t you three work together on a plan,” I said, indicating Morgan and the girls, “while Nancy and I finish scheduling the next couple days. It will give you a chance to get to know one another.”

“Perfect,” Morgan said, her grin widening as she took in Heather and Jen.

The two co-eds were intimidated by the older professional. It only took a few minutes for that intimidation to fade as they got to talking about different influencers and their strategies. Nancy and I left them to it, making sure that Dillon’s music played all night long on a loop for all to hear.

Morgan was an incorrigible flirt and soon had both girls doubled over in laughter and blushing as she, in turn, teased and complimented them. Nancy and I left them there after Heather brought up outfits for Momo and me, Morgan eagerly joining in and asking my daughter to model what she had in mind.

We worked on the dining room table, and if I'm being completely honest, I loved every moment of it. There is something about doing work that your passionate about that doesn’t make it feel like work. Everything tied in with Dillon’s music was a treat to handle. Even though I grew more and more nervous the closer we got to the concert, I was also becoming more and more excited to see what new songs Dillon could come up with.

“It got rather quiet up there,” Nancy said after we’d been going for a solid two hours, “I thought Morgan would be down by now. Think we should go check on the kids?”

“Yea,” I said, frowning, then a low thump caused me to tilt my head and a sly grin to form on my lips, “But let's go quietly. Just in case… I don’t want to disturb anything.”

Nancy frowned at me, and then realization dawned, and she grinned in eager excitement and hurried after me up the stairs. We left our shoes at the bottom so as not to make any noise and crept up. Halfway up, there could be no mistaking the low moan of pleasure that made it to our ears. I glanced back, and Nancy grinned up at me and shooed me forward.

Hesitantly I edged down the hallway, needing to see what was happening and also feeling shameful. Nancy clutched my arm as we moved into the deeper shadows, and my daughter's room opened up. The scene was exactly what I’d hoped and feared to find.
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