Melody of the Heart (27 page)

            The Present

Giovanni shifted the notepad on his lap and reached for a bottle of water. After he took a swig, he motioned to us. “Once again, any time you two need a break, feel free.”

I rose off the couch and stretched my arms over my head while Lily took a sip of her Coke. “Yeah, that last bit was a little intense.”

At the feel of Lily’s hand on my lower back, I turned around. “It’s hard reliving it all again. Isn’t it?” she asked, softly.

“Only the parts where I was such an asshole.” I cringed. “I’m still not sure I deserved a second chance.”

“The real you did, and I was happy to give it to him.”

“He thanks you from the bottom of his heart.” I winked at her as I sat back down. We turned to Giovanni who was watching us intently.

When I cocked my brows at him, he merely smiled. “I’m sorry. It’s just in stolen moments like those, I see that you guys really are the real deal, and this isn’t just some cleverly spun PR story.”

I couldn’t help laughing. “No, if I was going to have someone write this, I would sure as hell not have the part where I was a bastard in there.”

Lily swatted my arm playfully. “In the end, it’s worth it because we see how far we’ve come, and that what we had was worth fighting for. My dad always said, ‘Anything worth having is hard work’.”

“That’s true. It took some hard work to get us started, but once we did, it was pretty smooth sailing,” I replied.

Giovanni nodded. “Let’s see. So you guys got married in Vegas, but then I see you had another wedding a month later here in Georgia?”

Lily groaned as she buried her head in her hands. “Yes, that would be correct.”

Giovanni glanced from her to me. “Another tough story to relive?”

Peeking at him through her fingers, Lily replied, “Only if you consider that our families were furious with us for eloping and demanded we have a proper church wedding.”

“Preferably where Elvis did not officiate,” I added.

With a chuckle, Giovanni said, “Oh, I see.” His gaze met mine. “Does that mean your parents finally came around about you marrying Lily?”

I nodded. “Yeah, it took them fucking long enough to get with the program. When Paul died, I think they finally realized that there was never going to be another girl for me, and that if they wanted to be a part of my life, they would embrace Lily.”

“I think it also had to do with the fact that they didn’t want to miss out on any future grandchildren,” Lily said, with a smile.

“That is true. Hell, they’ve been better grandparents than they ever were parents to me.”

“That leads us to another one of my questions. Your son, Jude, was born a little over a year after you got married.”

“Fifteen months to be exact,” Lily corrected.

Giovanni nodded. “Since you had been together for so many years, did you intend on starting a family right away?”

I chuckled. “Not exactly.”

“We always wanted a big family, but no, Jude was a complete and total surprise. One of those birth control failure mysteries.” Lily made a face like she didn’t like her wording. “I mean, he was very wanted. It’s just it was a surprise.”

Patting her leg, I said, “At the time, I was only seeing her once or twice a month, so I guess you could say my stored up swimmers were really potent.”

Lily squealed, her hands once again covering her face. Giovanni and I both laughed at her reaction. “Hey, it’s what happened with the Baby Boomers after WWII. Kinda makes sense it would be the same way for us,” I rationalized.

“So you conceived when you weren’t actively trying?” Givoanni asked.

“That’s right,” Lily replied, fanning her reddened face with her hand.

“I like to call it, ‘That teeny, tiny .1% of birth control pills non-effectiveness’.”

Lily huffed at my side. “Yeah, well, I like to call it an unexpected miracle.”

I grinned at her. “Actually, we call him Jude, and even though he’s almost twelve and at that know-it-all preteen stage, we still love him.”

BRAYDEN

                                                    The Past

Rolling over in bed, I snuggled closer to Lily’s warmth. I lived for the weekends that she got to come along on tour with us. They seemed too few and far between lately. I was going to have to talk to her again about coming out every weekend, rather than every other one. More than anything, I wanted her to quit her teaching job, but she refused. I know it was because she loved what she did so much and had worked hard to earn her degree. But at the end of the day, I was a selfish bastard who wanted her with me twenty-four seven. And it wasn’t just my dick that needed her with me all the time either.

Even though we’d been together at least three times last night, I still wanted more of her. The old cliché that absence made the heart grow fonder was certainly true, especially when it came to my dick. Shifting her long, blonde hair off her shoulder, I then started kissing a wet trail along her neck. My hand slid around her ribcage to cup her breast. When I squeezed it, causing the nipple to harden, she moaned.

Her reaction caused me to buck my morning wood against her backside. Instead of warming up to me, she shifted away. Frowning at her back, I said, “What’s wrong?”

“Nothing,” she murmured, drowsily.

“Was I too rough last night?”

She shook her head. “I’m just tired that’s all.”

In our seven years together, she’d never refused me. She was always just as game as I was, especially when I had been gone on the road. Drawing circles on her back with my finger, I said, “Talk to me, Lily.”

She glanced over her shoulder. When I saw the tears pooling in her eyes, I sat up straight in the bed. “Oh God, I was too rough last night, wasn’t I? If I hurt you, I’m so sorry.”

“No, it’s not that.”

“Then what is it?”

“Please don’t hate me.”

Her words sent fear crashing from my head down to my toes. “No matter what it is, I could never hate you,” I replied honestly.

That statement caused her to burst into tears. Her body shook with the strength of her sobs. Unease prickled over me, and the worst thing I could ever imagine entered my mind. “Is there someone else?” I demanded.

Lily’s eyes widened. “NO! No, of course not. How could you think that?”

“You don’t want to have sex with me, then you ask me not to hate you, and then you burst out crying. What the fuck am I supposed to think?”

Lily opened her mouth to respond, but then she clamped a hand over it. Throwing back the sheets, she raced from the bed. “You can’t go out there naked!” I shouted after her. The last thing I needed on top of everything else was for my bandmates to see my wife naked.

At the slam of the bathroom door, I shot off the bed. When I got to the hallway, a bleary-eyed Jake and Rhys peered out of their roosts at me. Of course, I could still hear AJ snoring. He could sleep through an F-5 tornado. “Dude, what the fuck is going on?” Rhys demanded.

“I wish I knew,” I grumbled.

Motioning to the bathroom, Jake gave me a wicked grin. “I haven’t heard that much gagging since the last girl who thought she could deep throat me.”

I rolled my eyes. “You’re a disgusting prick who has delusions of grandeur.”

Jake chuckled and then disappeared behind his roost curtain. I rapped my knuckles lightly on the door. “Lils, are you all right?”

Her response came in the form of the toilet flushing. A few seconds passed before the door opened. While her eyes and nose were red from the crying, her face was white as a sheet. She had managed to slip on one of the bathrobes that hung behind the door. Of course, I was still butt naked in the hallway with my junk hanging out. “Babe, are you all right?” I repeated.

“I-I’m pregnant,” she stammered.

The world around me came crashing to a halt. Just like the first time I met her and she took me out, I felt the world grow dark around me. No, no, no. Surely, I had heard her wrong. Once I had managed to recover, I demanded, “What?”

“She said she was pregnant,” Jake called from behind his curtain.

“I didn’t ask you,” I growled.

“Then take it to the bedroom.” He poked his head out. “And congrats, Hot Mama.”

A nervous giggle escaped Lily’s lips at his words. “Don’t tell me you’re happy about me having a baby?” she asked softly.

“Why wouldn’t I be? It ain’t mine, so I’m thrilled.” He stared pointedly at the two of us. “Aren’t you happy?”

I threw up my hands in frustration. “This is so fucking wrong! Damn, this bus. There’s no fucking privacy!” My voice had risen an octave to where I was practically shrieking. Glancing down at myself, I shook my head. “Fuck, this is surreal. I’m standing here with my balls in the wind for one of the most important announcements in my life!”

“Bray, man, it’s—

”We are so not having this conversation with you!” I shouted at Jake. When Rhys poked his head out of the roost, I jabbed my finger at him. “Or you!” Taking Lily by the hand, I dragged her down the hall to the bedroom. After I slammed the door, I began pacing around the room.

Lily was pregnant. My twenty-two-year-old wife of seven months was pregnant. I was going to be a father. “Jesus,” I muttered, raking my hand through my hair.

At a whimper behind me, I turned around. Lily had sat down on the bed and drawn her knees up to her chest. She looked positively grief-stricken. She glanced warily up at me like she expected me at any moment to go utterly batshit on her.

And in that moment, I felt like the biggest asshole imaginable. I mean, what the hell was I doing making my pregnant wife feel like shit? It wasn’t like we were back in high school. We had the means to have and take care of this baby. Sure, things with the band were crazy and chaotic, but rock stars had kids all the time. Besides, there was nothing more that Lily and I had ever wanted than to be parents one day. I guess it had come sooner rather than later.

Striding over to the bed, I knelt down in front of Lily. “Baby, I’m so fucking sorry for reacting the way that I did. I was just so surprised.”

Her brows shot up. “You’re not mad?”

Shaking my head, I replied, “How could I ever be mad about one of my dreams coming true?”

“Oh Brayden,” Lily cried, before throwing her arms around my neck. I cradled her trembling body in my arms as she shed what I hoped were tears of happiness. When she pulled away, she smiled at me. “Thank you.”

“For being an asshole who made you cry?”

“No. Thank you for loving me no matter what.”

I brushed the hair out of her face and then stroked her tear-soaked cheeks. “I’ll always fight for you, Lily. I’ll always fight for us. Now there’s just going to be more of us to fight for.”

Lily hiccupped a laugh. “It’s still so hard to believe.”

“Why didn’t you tell me last night?”

“We hadn’t been together in so long that I didn’t want to ruin it.”

“What kind of asshole am I that would make you think a baby would ruin things?”

Her hand came up to cup my cheek. “It’s not that. I’ve been upset myself. We’ve only been married seven months. You’re touring all the time and hardly home. Not to mention, that I just got my first teaching job, and now I’m pregnant. It was like I worked so hard for what?”

“For a college degree that you’ll have all your life.”

“That’s true.”

“Besides, you know I hate that you’re teaching instead of coming out on tour with me.”

“Once again, you have your dream, and I have mine,” she countered, softly.

Turning her hands up, I kissed her opened palms. “I know, baby. But there’s one dream that we share, and that’s each other. Nothing can take the place of that.”