AN: I need a cover for this bad boy, you guys! Pls send to [email protected], and thanks!

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"Now this is what I'm talking about," Gary declared as he walked in the front door of Langton. "What a really great house, Drew, old man, and an absolute bird magnet, I'll bet." He slung an arm around Drew's neck, drawing him in for a hug and a kiss on the cheek. As usual, his brown hair was a little bit long, a little bit unkempt, and his smile reached his bright brown eyes. He wasn't known as "the flirty one" of Manderley Dreams for nothing.

"Hold up, Gars, hold up," Drew said, removing the arm from around his person. "I didn't buy this place to be a 'bird magnet.' I need a break from the birds, and from all that shite, that's why I bought a place way out here, yeah?" He looked over at Ned, shaking his head slightly.

Ned looked back with a grin. They were both used to Gary and his ways by now.

"Yeah, right, of course," Gary agreed, nodding. "But you could throw a hell of a party here if you'd a mind to, couldn't you?"

"Tell you what, Gary, why don't you buy a place and throw a party? I'll come, and so will Drew, and we'll bring the drink," Ned suggested, noogeying Gary's head.

"I'll stick to my London place for now," Gary said with a grin. "I'd love a place like this, but I'm a bit short of funds at the mo," he admitted.

Ned and Drew stared their friend as they sat at the kitchen table with cups of tea.

"You can't be," Drew said. "We just got the last deposits from the tour last week, right?" He looked to Ned for confirmation. "I mean, I don't know how your company's set up, but it's got to be thousands of pounds--"

"Ahh, I didn't drive all the way down here to talk business," Gary said, waving a hand airily in the air. "Come on, man, show me around, let's see this amazing music room and studio you're putting in, where the pool's going to go, where we're going to play tennis and that, yeah? And when's Lucas going to be here?" He took a sip of his tea and looked around expectantly.

"Luke will be here within the hour, his plane arrived a little after yours," Drew told him. "But seriously, Gary, what happened to your money? You can tell us."

Gary took a deep breath.

"It's not that big a deal," he finally said. "I finally reached a settlement with that LeeAnne girl, so that cost quite a bit, and HMRC finally twigged that I had a load of funds stashed away in my nan's name, so they came round asking for their share of it, that's all." He shrugged. "I'm just a little cash poor right now, nothing a little time won't cure."

He looked between his two friends, from green eyes to blue. "Come on, fellas, why the long faces, I'm fine, honest! I still have all my properties, my house in London, my co-op in New York, my mansion in Beverly Hills, all's well."

"What about your cars?" Ned asked.

Gary loved fast cars, and had many, bought and shipped to Los Angeles from all over the world.

Gary cut his eyes to his tea.

"Gars, what? What happened to your cars?" Drew was aghast.

"Nothing, I just converted a couple to raise some fast cash," he finally explained, raising his eyes to Drew's.

"You sold them?"

"Just two of them. LeeAnne needed a lump sum cash settlement up front right away, and that was the fastest thing to do."

Ned and Drew looked at each other.

"Erm, Gars, I know those cars are worth a lot of money, but how could you not have the cash? Where did your money go?" Ned asked the question they were both asking in their heads.

Gary shrugged, a casual, carefree gesture. "Dunno. I like to have a good time, you know that."

Drew put a hand on Gary's arm. "What about the baby, Gars? How did all that shake down?"

Gary's expression softened. "It's a girl, lads. She's a girl. I'm going to be the father of a baby girl in about three months, in December. I get to see her every other weekend, and for a month every summer, until she's five. After that, we'll renegotiate because of school."

"That sounds grand, just ace," Ned said, reaching across the table to put his hand next to Drew's.

Gary nodded. "We agreed on a name as well," he told his friends. "Sienna. Sienna Marcum Pillsbury. Isn't that lovely?"

"A beautiful name," Drew agreed, patting his friend's arm.

"LeeAnne's moving to Los Angeles, with her mother and sister," Gary continued. "That will make everything so much easier, you know? And the schools are so much better as well.

He drained his teacup and set it down. "So! Enough serious talk, I think," he concluded with a sunny grin.

They heard the front door open, and a voice call out, "Oy! Anyone home?"

"Lucas!" Drew answered back. "Coming!" He rose and went to greet his friend, the oldest member of the band Manderley Dreams.

"Wow, what a massive place!" he said as he entered the kitchen to greet the other two young men.

"Luke Adesso, as I live and breathe," Ned declared, rising to hug his friend. "Jesus, man, look at all that hair! It's almost as long as Andrew's!"

"I know, I know," Luke answered, pulling the tie off his wrist to tie his black hair in a very small pony tail. "Keep meaning to get it cut, but Mara's kept me jumping with wedding plans." Mara Davies was Luke's fiancée of one year, who's full time obsession was planning the perfect destination wedding. "Maybe I can get it cut while I'm here."

"Sure, there's a barber in the village," Drew told him. "He's about a hundred years old, but he'll do a decent job, I bet."

"So, now that Luke's here, how about a tour of the place? Inside and out?" Gary suggested, rising.

The four of them walked around the inside of the house, from the small rooms under the eaves where the attic used to be, to the luxurious bedrooms, library, and study underneath them, to the spacious rooms on the ground floor. In addition to the lounge, kitchen, dining room, formal front room and music room, there was also a room that would be set up as a gym, and another that would become a games room, and yet another that was going to be set up as a home theater. They went through the laundry room to a nice, tiled mudroom that had a large sink and cutting table where Chiara was washing some gardening tools and laying them out neatly on the counter. Rows of vases and wires for hanging cut flowers hung over her head, while a glass fronted refrigerator for storing the flowers stood in the corner. A low bench for sitting while removing muddy footwear stood along the far wall, and a convenient drain was set in the tile floor.

"Oh, hello," she said. "I'm sorry, I hope I'm not in your way?" She gestured to the accoutrements of her work. "I usually use this room because it's so much closer to where I do everything, but there's a gardener's cottage with a work room attached where I can go, now that you've moved in? Shall I--?" she left the sentence unfinished.

"No, no, you're fine," Drew assured her. "If you didn't use it, this room wouldn't get any use at all, I suppose."

"In the winter, though, in inclement weather, it's very convenient to have a functioning mudroom for taking off your boots and wet things, I think," Chiara pointed out."A mudroom is such a luxury, and something most so-called modern houses don't have. A room dedicated to being a bridge between the outdoors and indoors is such a lovely idea, don't you think?" Chiara smiled at the boys.

She realized as she looked at them that there were strangers in the bunch that she didn't know. "Oh, I'm so sorry, I didn't realize--"

"No, not at all," Ned interrupted smoothly. "Gary Pillsbury, Luke Adesso, bass and guitar player respectively, this is Chiara Cavuto, gardener and green thumb extraordinaire," he explained with a smile.

"I won't shake hands," Chiara said with a smile, indicating her dirty hands. "It's a real pleasure to meet you, though. I really enjoy your music."

Luke smiled. "Thanks. A real pleasure to meet a fan who says that without asking for a selfie or screaming or whatever, you know?"

"Ah, I'd be doing all that if I weren't up to my elbows in soap and dirt," Chiara assured him with a wink.

"We were just going to look around outside, is there anyplace we shouldn't walk?" Ned asked.

Drew shot him a look.

Chiara smiled at him.

"Well, I did just spray the roses and the back beds, but there's a bit of a breeze today, so unless you plan to lick the plants, I'd say you're okay," she replied. She laid the last of the tools out to dry and pulled the plug in the sink.

"Oh, are you finished? Would you care to join us?" Ned asked, gesturing toward the door.

Again, Drew shot him a look, but Ned pretended he didn't see as Chiara nodded acceptance. "Sure, if you like."

Gary, too, was looking between the three of them, amusement in his brown eyes.

"You can definitely explain what's going on outside better than we can," Ned assured her.

"Are you guys interested in plants and such?" Chiara asked, grabbing her hat and putting it on, much as she had when Noah and Ellie had been visiting.

"I don't know about the others, but I enjoy a bit of gardening," Luke replied. "And my fiancée is planning the wedding of the century, so I'm steeped in photographs of flowers from dawn to dusk at the moment."

"Wonderful," Chiara said, clapping her hands. "Sounds absolutely wonderful."

So they headed off into the late morning sunshine, into the birdsong and the buzzing of bugs, where the leaves were just starting to turn and the breeze was just enough to keep the day from being too warm.

"God, what a beautiful day," Chiara declared after a few minutes of walking the Langton property. She looked at the young men around her, dimple popping as she smiled. "You guys have traveled the world, I know, but truly, is there anyplace more beautiful than England in late summer? You'd almost expect to see Fiver and Hazel hopping along, looking for their new warren, wouldn't you?"

And Ned was the only one who understood her reference to the English classic Watership Down, by Richard Adams, which described the countryside of England so beautifully.

"I haven't read that in a few years," he said, smiling at her in appreciation. "I definitely need to crack that open again."

"I bet there's a copy in my library," Drew said, though he had no idea if it was so. He'd bought the house with the library attached, and hadn't looked at the books at all yet.

"Really?" Ned looked over at him. "I'll have a look tonight, mate, I'd love to have it next to my bed to read before I go to sleep."

"You have a library?" Chiara asked, looking at Drew.

"Yeah, quite a large one," Drew replied.

"Came with the house," Ned told her.

Drew shot him yet another look, shaking his head slightly.

They said goodbye to Chiara at her truck, and waved as she drove away.

The boys wandered back into the house, congregating in the games room to play some video games until it was time to order pizza for dinner. Gary, of course, had to have a go at Ned and Drew about Chiara.

"You two aren't into that chubby gardener, are you?"

What? Of course not." Drew was scornful. "She's a right stroppy cow, can't you tell?"

"All I can tell is you both seemed to be interested in grabbing her attention, though I can't for the life of me figure out why," Gary said with a chuckle. "I mean, she's plain as anything, slightly overweight, dresses like a frump, and is a gardener, for fuck's sake."

He again slung an arm around Drew's neck. "And you know what I always say, right, man? 'Don't fuck around with the help.' It can only get you into trouble."

"You're a mean, shallow fellow, Gars," Ned said, shaking his head. "And for your information, Chiara is a very nice person, and that's all. No one's interested in her. Drew really hates her, makes her cry practically every time he sees her, don't you, mate?"

"Not on purpose," Drew said, affronted. "It's not my fault that she takes everything the wrong way and is such an unmitigated cunt all the time."

The four boys laughed and continued to play video games, more comfortable with each other than they'd ever been with anyone, ever.