It could be everything I ever wanted, but what if I wasn’t good enough? What if Benton Wyatt had been right all along?
“You’ve been tossing and turning all night, baby. What’s going on?” I felt Jax wrap his arms around me, pulling me into him. He gently kissed my shoulder, and I felt myself relax, my entire body melting beneath his touch.
“I’ve been thinking about this whole thing.” I sighed. “You really think we should do this?”
“I do,” he said softly.
I rolled over so that I was facing him, his skin veiled by the moonlight that filtered in through the blinds. “You really think we’re ready? Not even musically, but our relationship?”
“Liv, I’m ready for anything as long as you’re by my side.” He tucked a piece of hair behind my ear. “Tell me what’s worrying you.”
“Bands break up over differences all the time, right?” I asked softly. “What if you start to hate me after working with me for a while?”
“You don’t actually think that’s a possibility, do you?” He chuckled and placed a tender kiss on my forehead. “We work well together no matter what we’re doing. It’s as easy as breathing for us.”
“You’re right,” I admitted, “but do you think it will put too much of a strain on us? I don’t want it to have a negative impact on our relationship.”
“I think that’s where we have to set some boundaries.” He traced light circles down my arm. “Work has to stay at work, and we come first. No matter what. If it ever feels like it’s causing tension, we take a step back and reevaluate, but I don’t think it’s going to be like that.”
“What if people hate it?” I groaned. “What if they hateme? What if people think I’m too old to be doing this? What if I’m not good enough?”
“Is that whatyoureally think, or is that a belief someone else put in your head years ago?”
I chewed my lip, lost in thought. He had a good point. I closed my eyes for a moment and imagined what nineteen-year-old Liv would do. I thought about how that Liv felt about herself before other people told her how sheshouldfeel. That Liv knew what she was capable of. She knewexactly who she was and what she deserved, and I knew what her answer would be. For her, this wouldn’t even be a question.
“You really want to do this?” I asked, opening my eyes to look into his.
“I really want to do this,” he whispered.
Once again, I didn’t think. I let my heart do the talking. “Me too. I think I’m ready to show Jax & Liv to the world.”
“Yeah?” His smile stretched across his mouth.
I took his face in my hands, kissing him soundly. “Yeah.”
The days between Thanksgiving and Christmas passed in a twinkly lit blur. Jax and I put up our first Christmas tree together as Mama watched disapprovingly from the sofa. She quickly forgave us when she realized she could knock all the ornaments off the tree in the middle of the night, one at a time. Jax also got to participate when Grace and I had our holiday baking pajama parties. I loved the tenderness he showed her as he carefully cut out the dough for our gingerbread men. I could tell by the way Ella gazed at them over her glass of wine that she loved it too.
Things were extra busy at the bakery for the holidays, but Jax and I still found time to rehearse and work on new material. Cash continued to speed things along, even managing to set up a mini photoshoot in my backyard on a chilly Sunday afternoon so I wouldn’t have to miss any time at the store. Cash had done everything he could to make this as easy on me as possible, and I was grateful. He’d even brought the final images by the bakery one evening later that week while Jax was there so we could see them together for the first time. Grace and the rest of the guys came, and we locked the doors and had our own mini viewing party, complete with cupcakes and champagne. Cash set up his laptop on the counter, and we all crowded around to see the final selections.
My hands flew to my mouth when Cash enlarged the images on the screen. Through the magic of the editing process, the photographer had managed to extract us from my backyard and put us up against the backdrop of a stunning sunrise. They’d taken my fence and made it look even more distressed than it was in real life. Then, there we were with our bodies turned toward one another. Jax looked down at me, his eyes smoldering, with one hand behind my head as though he were about to pull me in for a kiss. He had on a simple white button-up, dark pants, and a tie. I had one hand on his waist as the other pulled him toward me by his tie. I wore a long, silky sleeveless dress with a beaded bodice in the most beautiful shade of peach. Between the hair and makeup team and the miracle that was photoshop, I looked almost ethereal as I gave the camera a coquettish stare. ‘Jax & Liv’had been inscribed above our heads in a beautiful script. Ella and Grace shrieked with delight, pulling me and Jax into a series of hugs while the guys whooped and hollered.
Jax hadn’t been able to spend as much time at the bakery as usual because he, along with the rest of the guys and Cash, had been taking meetings with various record labels who were all in something of a bidding war for who would get to work with Midnight in Dallas. Several labels were interested, and the guys would soon be faced with a pretty big decision as to what label they would ultimately go with. Their current label had stepped up their offerings, should they choose to resign with them, making it an even tougher choice.
One weekend, Jax paid for us to go into the studio, and with the help of the rest of the guys, we recorded the song we would be playing for the New Year’s Eve special. Cash had everything prepared for the song to be released to the masses at midnight on January 1st. He felt certain that after the world heard our song, Midnight in Dallas wouldn’t be the only ones the record labels were fighting over.
Cash was already in talks with a couple of directors about a music video for our song, and everything was moving at warped speed. I was both terrified and thrilled by the fact that when the clock struck midnight on New Year’s Eve, my life would never be the same.
By the time Christmas Eve rolled around, I was thankful for a couple days of rest. Ella and Grace were spending time with Ella’s mom, and the guys had other plans, which left me and Jax alone for our first Christmas together. We watched movies, lazed about in bed, drank wine, and savored every second together.
On Christmas Day, we snuggled on the couch by the light of the Christmas tree, never even making it out of our pajamas. We exchanged gifts and reveled in the luxuriousness of having nowhere to be but with each other. We were slow-dancing in the kitchen, waiting for our lasagna to bake, when I found myself overcome with gratitude for the beautiful man in front of me.
“I have something for you,” he whispered in my ear as he held me in his arms. We stopped swaying, and he pulled a small wrapped box out of his back pocket.
I smiled up at him. “But you’ve given me so much already.”
“Open it,” he urged.
I gingerly unwrapped the small package revealing a black velvet box. I gently pried it open to find a beautiful, dainty rose-gold necklace with a shining round disc pendant. ‘Liv’ had been inscribed on the front in the same beautiful font from the images Cash had shown us.
