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During those days with her on tour, for the first time ever, he’d contemplated what it would take to balance life on the road with a family. With the amount of touring Free Fall had done for the first few years when they were making a name for themselves, Nate hadn’t even considered settling down.
Promoting an album meant grueling months on the road. It wasn’t the sort of thing where you dragged a wife and kids along. Well, some people did. But unless it was the right sort of relationship, traveling from one end of the country to another put a lot of strain on a couple.
And then he’d met Mia. She was used to long months of touring and being away from home. As Ivy’s personal assistant, she was on the go constantly. In fact, he wasn’t entirely sure if she had a home of her own. He’d easily pictured them working together in the studio and then going out on tour. If they had a baby, the whole family would travel. It had been an appealing fantasy.
The elevator opened on the lobby and the couple with the stroller exited. Nate’s mood, already battered by his anxiety about the surgery, took another hit. Damn, he was tired of being alone.
Suddenly every muscle in his body ached. He hadn’t felt a sweeping depression like this in ten years. Back then he’d fought off the darkness with pills, booze and sex. None of it had helped, but for a while he’d been able to forget.
Nate stepped into the lobby, calling himself all kinds of coward and idiot for trying to handle things on his own. He was always the first one to lend a hand if someone needed it. Why did he have such an awful time accepting help?
Shame. Admitting that he wasn’t strong enough to protect his mother when he was a kid or conquer an addiction to drugs when he was in his early twenties had led to both situations becoming worse. If he’d reached out for help, maybe his mom wouldn’t have been nearly beaten to death by his father and he wouldn’t have ended up burning bridges in the music business.
Nate headed across the hotel lobby and outside to where a car should be waiting to take him to the doctor’s office. He’d turned down Trent’s and Melody’s offers to help, and he wasn’t feeling great about his decision. But he hated being a bother. Trent was out of town with Savannah and Dylan. Melody was in Las Vegas. And while his mother would have happily flown in from Dallas to baby him for a few days, Nate didn’t want to put her out. The surgery was delicate, but not overly invasive, and he was perfectly capable of taking care of himself.
And then the most amazing thing happened. A familiar brunette got up from a chair near the front door and started walking in his direction. Her appearance was so unexpected that he rubbed his eyes to determine if he was hallucinating. If so, she was the most beautiful, wonderful, perfect figment of his imagination he’d ever experienced.
“Mia?”
“At last,” she said, gliding into step beside him. “I was worried that I’d missed you. How are you doing?” She peered up at him as the lobby doors opened with a whoosh and fresh air poured over them. “Are you nervous?”
“What are you doing here?”
“I’m here to take care of you.” She gave him a stern look. “Why didn’t you tell me you were having surgery?”
His first impulse was to tell her he didn’t think it would matter to her. But that was a crappy response. He also hadn’t thought she’d be available since her sister kept her so busy.
Instead he asked, “How did you know?”
“Melody told me. She said you didn’t have anyone to help you after the surgery and she was worried.” The look Mia shot him was pure accusation. “And so was I.”
“I’ll be perfectly fine.”
“Ridiculous. A doctor won’t release anyone going under anesthesia unless they’re being picked up and watched over by a responsible adult. So, I’m going to sit in the waiting room while you have your surgery. And then I’m going to bring you back here. Tuck you in. And keep watch over you.”
All that sounded like pure heaven. Having her fuss over him for the next few hours would speed his recovery along.
“You don’t need to wait,” he told her as they settled into the back of the town car. “The procedure could take up to six hours.”
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“I’m staying.” Her tone was firm. “I brought stuff to read.”
“Thank you.” Such simple words didn’t convey his full emotions. He was so damned glad to have her with him. But she smiled as if she understood.
Nate didn’t feel much like talking on the way to the clinic, so they sat in companionable silence. The surgery was the most terrifying thing he’d ever faced and that included the night his sixteen-year-old self had gone up against his drunk, knife-wielding father.
Singing was more than just Nate’s livelihood. It was how he’d comforted himself as a kid in an abusive home and the way he communicated who he was to the world.
No matter how successful he became as a producer and songwriter, he’d give up every penny he had to be able to perform on stage. This was something he hadn’t realized until he was faced with the grim prospect of throat surgery.
When the nurse came to take him into the back, Mia gave him a reassuring smile. It was her face that filled his thoughts as he was wheeled to the operating room and injected with something to put him to sleep.
And when he woke what seemed like seconds later—in post-op, he guessed, based on the dim lighting and hushed silence—her name was the first thought that popped into his head. He floated in post-surgery haze, happy that she was waiting to take him back to his hotel As the residual anesthesia wore off, Nate lifted fingers to his throat, but the discomfort was all on the inside. Had the surgery been successful? He wouldn’t know for several weeks, maybe months.
A nurse came to check on him and asked yes-or-no questions he could answer by nodding or shaking his head. She reiterated what the doctor and all the nurses before her had drilled into him: no talking of any kind for two to three weeks and minimal use of his voice after that. He’d start working with a vocal coach in a month, which would be a new experience. In all the years he’d performed, Nate had never had any formal training. He just got up on stage and let ’er rip.
They wanted him back in three days for a checkup, after which he could return to Las Vegas to continue healing. The nurse recommended Throat Coat tea with honey and gave him a prescription for pain meds.
