Chapter 17
CHAPTER 17
“ A re there truly a bunch of fans out there,” Tilly asked Marjo who was bringing the basket of breakfast pastries to the table.
The kitchen was sunny and bright, with a wide atrium-style window overlooking the garden behind, which displayed a lush flora in all kinds of reds, rusts, and golds. The environment was so quiet in the mid-morning that she felt completely disconnected from civilization.
She should have been up and helping Marjo, but she felt like dead weight, her back sore. It was nice to have someone do something for her for a change.
A flash of memory crossed her mind. As a kid, breakfast had been a rushed affair. She recalled cramped, messy kitchens, being yelled at to hurry and eat her sugary cereals before being packed up for school. The TV always seemed to be on and playing those awful commercials with the loud, tinny jingles that made her recoil.
The first thing she’d done as a student on her own was to get herself some decent headphones and linger at the dining hall table with some of her favorite beats in the background. Music that spoke to her heart.
“Yes, there’s a few fans out there.” Marjo paused to show Tilly a picture from her phone. “Here.”
A jolt of revulsion made her flinch to see the invasion of privacy right there on Marjo’s device. The image was of her with Cass on Chateau Briac’s back deck, admiring the view of the valley below. It had been taken just before sunset last night, a few minutes before they’d headed down to Ren and Rosalie’s cottage.
Their posture felt intimate. It was too far to see their full expressions, but she was standing very close and looking up at him, appearing completely at ease in his company.
“ Blast it,” she huffed at Marjo . “I knew he had no privacy, but this is disturbing.”
Nothing like this had ever surfaced in the media from their time on the Cape. No one had known about him being there. But this…
She shuddered, not liking it one bit.
“Better get used to it. It never stops.” Marjo returned to pour boiling water over the tea bag.
“Really? It never stops?” Tilly was surprised at how casually Marjo was taking this in.
The assistant shrugged. “I wasn’t there at the time, but I think he had a little more peace before the promo for the Resurgence Tour started. Now they can’t get enough of him.”
“That’s rough.” Tilly slid back into her chair and shook her head with dismay.
“Is it?” Marjo filled herself a cup of coffee from the machine and turned to Tilly, a genuine look of interest on her plain features.
“We have to raise a child.”
“True.” She brought Tilly her cup of tea along with her own coffee and sat across from her.
“It’s not the best environment for a child,” Tilly stated, reaching for her mug.
“I know. I have one of my own,” Marjo’s expression relaxed into a warm smile.
“You do?” Tilly stopped bobbing her tea bag up and down into the hot water to stare at Marjo with surprise. “I never heard you mention it.”
Marjo swiped her phone and showed Tilly a picture of a light-eyed little boy beaming at the camera with a toothy grin.
Tilly’s heart thawed. “You’re so efficient and focused on the job that I never thought you had something outside this life.”
“That’s good. It’s my goal,” Marjo confessed after taking a sip of her coffee. “I don’t want anyone to think I’d have a reason to slow down. I need this job.”
“What’s your boy’s name?”
“Tobias.” The pride was obvious in her voice.
“He’s with his father?”
“Grandma. There is no father.”
“Oh.” Tilly wasn’t sure what to say to that.
“He disappeared as soon as I told him I was pregnant.” She put her cup down with a resigned nod. “Wanted nothing to do with the baby. You’re lucky to have Cass so involved.”
“Huh.” Tilly had hoped to raise her child alone but seeing someone who had no choice in the matter made her sad. “Is it hard? Being single and having to care for your child by yourself?”
“Yes and no. What’s hard is having to provide for him by myself. He’s very happy at home with my mom in Longueil—that’s on the South Shore of Montreal. But I don’t get to see him enough. I do miss him.”
“There’s no job where you don’t need to travel so much?” Tilly leaned forward, sympathetic but curious. Marjo’s situation wasn’t ideal.
“Nothing that pays this much,” Marjo answered. “Tobias was born with a congenital heart defect and required a lot of corrective surgery. Cass knows about his health issues, and he compensates me well. In just six months I’ve been with him, I’ve managed to pay down my debts and cover the extra care Tobias needs.”
“Oh, I’m so sorry to hear about your son.” She hadn’t even considered the possibility of childhood illnesses and felt deeply for Marjo’s burden.
“Don’t be.” Marjo reached for Tilly’s arm, warmth chasing the worries visible in her eyes. “He’s much better now. And I consider myself fortunate. Without this job and my mom, I don’t know what I would do.”
“I see why you’re so loyal to Cass.” And Tilly was also seeing another side of Cass. Not just the showman but as someone who genuinely cared for his employees.
“I call my kid every night. I try to swing by the house every few days. He truly is my world.” With a friendly smile, she patted Tilly’s arm. “Just like yours will be.”
Her whole world. Love expanded in her chest. The family she never had.
“And once this tour is over,” Marjo continued. “I’ll have a good chunk of time where I can work from home and be with him.”
“Cass is okay with that?” Tilly was curious to know more about how he treated his staff.
“He’s the one who suggested it.” She nodded with enthusiasm. “I can do all his scheduling remotely for a while. Plus, he’ll be busy with his own child.”
“Yeah, that.” The topic had returned to the fact that Tilly couldn’t ignore that Cass wanted to remain in the picture even after any supernatural threat disappeared.
“You don’t seem super excited.”
Tilly pursed her lips and took a breath. She wrapped her hot mug with both hands. She’d never felt like sharing anything, having a hard time letting anyone get too close. But for some reason, the capable assistant made her at ease this morning.
“You said there’re fans and paparazzi outside,” she told Marjo. “How can that be good for a kid? And with what happened the other night, I kinda wish I was back home in Hyannis, where no one knows about me and my baby.”
“I see.” Marjo nodded, her sensible expression back on. “But trust me, being the only one responsible for another person is not easy. Having my mom helps so much. Is your own family in Cape Cod?”
“No,” Tilly frowned. “I have good friends there. But I don’t have any family.”
The Davenport connection was still too new for her to call upon them for real support. And she had done fine so far by relying on herself alone. Most people could not be trusted.
“Oh no, I’m sorry,” Marjo empathized.
“I was abandoned at a fire station in Boston at just two days old.” Tilly rarely told the story, but she felt a bond with Marjo. The woman would understand. She was a mom, too. “All that was left with me was a note with my first and last name. They looked for my birth mom, but she couldn’t be located.”
Tilly liked to believe that her mother had left her name so that one day she could be reunited with her banshee extended family.
“Oh my god, that’s awful.” Marjo was shocked, just like the few close people who had heard that story. “You see this in the news, but I never met anyone who had that happen to them.”
“Most of my toddler years are a blur. Maybe I blocked it all.” She winced and, as always, tried not to choke when explaining the details of her childhood. “I was told I was almost adopted by my first foster home but there were some legal hurdles that ended up being too much for them. By the time I was six, they no longer could keep any of us and I was bounced between foster families until I went to college.”
“None of these family you got close to?”
“The Andersons were okay. But once all her younger foster kids had left her home, Ms. Gabrielle had to go back to work. She was so overwhelmed with her two jobs, they transferred me somewhere else. I was twelve. They all thought I’d be okay. But that’s when I realized that I only had myself to rely on.”
“That’s so sad.”
“You can never trust that things will be okay.” Tilly stiffened her upper lip. The past was the past. “You need to take care of them yourself.”
“Karim told me how popular you are as a sound engineer.” She seemed to understand that the topic of family was too painful for Tilly to discuss further.
“I don’t know about popular, but respected, sure.” She smiled, glad the subject had moved to something she felt great about. “ That , I can count on. My work.”
“Everything will change when you have the baby,” Marjo offered. “Your work might no longer be your first priority.”
“Did it for you?” Tilly was keen to know. She didn’t have a chance to talk to many new mothers. Her friends in Hyannis were childless for now.
“It did. But in a good way.” Her expression turned dreamy as she explained, “I was so angry at Chad for leaving me like this, pregnant with his child. It swallowed me. But once Tobias got here, I let all that go. I couldn’t let my child be consumed by all that negativity. We made ourselves a nice little life where he’s thriving, and it makes me happy.”
Tilly wondered if she’d find something like Marjo’s convenient setup. She thought she had found it. Having the baby in Hyannis. Maternity leave for six months then going back to the studio part-time until the little one started pre-K. And once an artist’s studio recording was completed, there was so much of finishing the product that she could do from home.
Money would be tight, but she’d make it work. It was all arranged. Her friend Allie had an aunt who ran a charming daycare minutes from the center of town. She had never counted on Cass to be there. She hadn’t wanted Cass there. Too many feelings between them.
It was obvious to her now that she had feared rejection, no doubt about it. Afraid Cass would react to her news just as this Chad had done to Marjo.
Would she have been so cool about it if Cass had rejected his paternity? It’d been easier for her to reject him first. He was right when he’d told her last night that she was scared. It was hard to admit, but it was something she had to face. Her own abandonment had made her wary.
She took a deep sip of her fruity herbal tea, feeling restored.
“I guess we’ll see what happens when this child is born,” she said. “All that celebrity stuff…”
Tilly was shaking her head at the current situation with the invasive fans when the kitchen door opened, blowing brisk air into the space.
Cass and Karim walked in carrying cardboard boxes and a few canvas bags with the Resurgence Tour logo printed on them.
“So many fans, Marjo.” Karim huffed as he dropped the material on the floor. “You should have told me to bring a bigger selection of swag. I could have used the hats and bandanas. Maybe some buttons, too.”
“Damn, it smells nice in here.” Cass’s gaze connected intimately with Tilly, making her all kinds of warm inside. His presence near her truly had the ability to make the constant tension at her neck ease. Not to mention the small tingle of desire in the deepest part of her that just wouldn’t relent.
She had cried in his arms last night. She should have felt shame but could only feel relief that he’d been the one to soothe her.
“Yes, coffee is ready,” Marjo said. “I found pastries on the counter. There’re some croissants in there, Cass. You’re favorite.”
“That’s awesome of Mrs. Mercier. She’s a peach,” Cass noted. “She thinks of me every time I stay here.”
“This is a lovely estate,” Tilly said.
“You like it here, don’t you?” He grabbed a chair to sit beside her and patted her arm with affection. “We could raise a child here.”
“In this home?” Tilly blinked and she looked around. The garden was certainly big enough for a swing set, but it might destroy the elegant landscaping. And she’d hate to think of a toddler running through the imposing library upstairs and trashing everything.
“Well, this is Justin and Emme’s house,” Cass said. “But we could build nearby. This up here is all St-Amand’s land.”
“Really?” Marjo said. “I didn’t know you came from wealth, Cass.”
Cass exchanged a quick look with Karim before eyeing Marjo. He seemed to think a bit before answering. Tilly knew Karim was Cass’s disciple, assistant to anything an immortal may need, mostly his blood once a year, but Marjo likely didn’t know her boss was over three hundred years old.
“It’s been our family land for a long time. Passed down to the oldest St-Amand for generations. We just never did a lot with it.” He turned a bright smile at Tilly. “We could raise our child here.”
“And our jobs?” She couldn’t help but push back. He meant well but she couldn’t just throw away her entire life and plans because he was now in the picture. Everything would change when the baby came. And what if he tired of her? Did Tilly have to take that risk?
“You want to go back to work for Hyannis Sound?” Cass asked, not for the first time.
“The Cape is my home,” she insisted, avoiding addressing the question directly. “And what about you, with all your tours.”
“That only takes a few months. And not every year.” He seemed to have made his own decision. “I thought we could make Montreal our base. But this here makes sense. I come hide here quite a lot.”
“But—”
“I know. You don’t want to stop working and you shouldn’t.” A broad smile appeared on his lips. “We’ll build a studio here for you.”
“What?”
“The whole thing, just like they had in Moren-Heights.”
“Where the Beatles recorded?” Tilly vaguely recalled the Canadian place that had been popular in the seventies until its closure a couple of decades ago. It wasn’t far from here.
“Right!” Karim interjected. “Le Studio. That place was famous. Not just the Beatles but Bowie and the Bee Gees. Did you know, Cass, my mom was a custodian there?”
“Really?” Cass said.
“Yes, for real.” Karim nodded enthusiastically. “You should totally build something like that for Tilly.”
“Totally.” Cass looked pleased with his idea as he leaned toward her, trying to rally her to the idea. “You will run the whole thing. It will be super exclusive.”
“Where would the artists stay?” Tilly asked, still hesitant at the outlandish plan. “With us?”
“No. No way.” He frowned at the thought of having strangers stay with them. “But Briac Falls is lovely. We could finesse something with Rosalie to find a place in town.”
“Aren’t they super insulated there?” Karim commented, well aware that the town was mostly made up of Rosalie’s Domaine-Lassalle wolf pack. “They may not take to newcomers coming in and out.”
“We can build a small retreat at the riverside,” Cass suggested. “Some locals could tend to it if they wish. It would create jobs but be far enough from town. And there’s also the ski village higher up the mountain.”
Genuine enthusiasm mounted in Tilly. “I always wanted my own studio but never had the resources to start.”
“There you go.” He grinned at her.
“It’ll be expensive,” she cautioned.
“I have all the means to build it.” He reassured her. “Plus with your reputation, it’ll pay for itself in no time.”
“My own business, wow.” Her chest expanded as she overflowed with gratitude that he believed in her talent enough to want to fund a whole business for her.
“Which brings me to something I wanted to ask you that Karim and I just talked about.” He wore a look full of mischief, the corner of his eyes crinkling with pleasure.
“What?” She frowned, worries suddenly overtaking her.
“Karim, tell her.” He seemed giddy with excitement. “It’s just an idea. You decide.”
“What?” she asked again impatiently.
“Can you work Cass’s last show in Montreal this Friday?” Karim dropped the bombshell on her. “It will be his last before he takes his paternity break for your child.”
Karim took one breath before adding, “We’d like for you to do the sound.”