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“I love that idea.” He kissed her again. This time with focused passion, tempered by gentleness. “And can we go get married tomorrow? I don’t care if you want to have a big wedding down the road, but right now there’s nothing I want more than to make you my wife.”
“I think that’s a great idea.” Coming so close to losing him a second t
ime had finally driven home how much she adored him. “I don’t need anything, but you.”
And with a smile on her lips, she proceeded to show him exactly how much.
Epilogue
Day fifteen. Hire a professional photographer to take pictures of you as a beautiful memory of your commitment to and completion of this relationship revitalization challenge.
It took them ten months to reach the final exercise, but Melody had wanted a photo that reflected how blessed they were and insisted on including her entire family in the picture. Kyle had hired the same photographer who’d done Melody’s album shoot and Nate and Mia’s wedding photos. They were gathered at the home Kyle and Melody had bought in LA.
After Melody’s abduction, she hadn’t wanted to stay in Las Vegas any longer. She’d returned with Kyle to LA, only returning to Sin City to prepare for and then testify in Craig’s trial. Both Kyle and Melody had decided that their new family needed a house with more yard for their daughter to run around and sold Kyle’s Bird Streets house, opting for a sprawling Monterey colonial sitting on nearly a half acre with glorious gardens, sun-drenched rooms and a guesthouse.
Kyle balanced sleeping four-month-old Lily on his arm and watched Trent wrangle his active toddler back into the shot. Beside him, Melody let her head fall onto his shoulder. He felt as much as heard her soft sigh.
“Is ours going to be that bad?” Nate was on Kyle’s other side, glancing from Trent and Savannah’s bundle of energy to the bright-eyed infant in his wife’s arms.
“I hope so,” Mia murmured, kissing her son’s bald head.
He’d been born a month premature after she’d displayed signs of preeclampsia and the doctor induced labor. Although there had been a few tense hours after Mia had been rushed to the hospital, Aiden Tucker had been born without incident. And to hear his father tell it, the boy was perfect.
“You hope so?” Nate asked his wife as Trent tucked Dylan under his arm and carried him—with loud protests and flailing interspersed with giggling—back to the photo shoot.
Mia sounded amused. “Boys are supposed to be active.”
“There’s active,” Nate said, shaking his head in bemusement as Dylan settled like an angel onto his mother’s lap after being promised a cookie, “and then there’s wild.”
“Chasing after him will keep you in shape,” Kyle said as Melody adjusted the bow in Lily’s soft brown hair and smoothed the skirt of her pale pink dress.
He wasn’t sure how he’d been blessed with two such beautiful women in his life, but he wouldn’t trade his current happiness for all the no-hitters in the world.
“Are you sure you don’t want me to take her?” Melody asked, unable to stop fussing over her daughter.
“You know I have this.”
“You are the most awesome father ever.” She gave him a wistful smile. “It’s just that I’m going to be gone for two days and I’m going to miss her terribly.”
“We could come with you,” Kyle offered for the umpteenth time. “I can clear my schedule and we can all go up to San Francisco for your show.”
“As much as I’d love that, I need to see if I can handle these short weekends away from you and Lily.”
After releasing her first album, Melody had been booked into several small venues before her pregnancy advanced to a point where she complained that no one wanted to see a woman give birth on the stage. Once Lily was born, she’d let Nate talk her into performing three times over the course of three months. The first of those performances was this upcoming weekend.
“Maybe it would be better if you took both of us along and that way you will see we can make taking your act on the road work for our family.”
Becoming a mom had inspired Melody and she’d been writing furiously for the last several months. Nate was encouraging her to get back into the studio. Mia was excited to produce her friend’s music. So far Melody had refused to go forward while she and Kyle discussed how best to balance her career with their family life. Both were conscious of how an extended separation had affected their relationship last time. Kyle was confident that after the lessons they’d learned and the relationship work they continued to do each day, they wouldn’t fall prey to the same problems this time around. Still, he wasn’t all that keen on living without his wife or daughter for even a day.
Trent had taken a break from his business to spend several months on location with Savannah. There was no reason Kyle couldn’t do the same. In fact, he was looking forward to watching his wife live her dream.
“You don’t know how stressful all the travel can be,” Melody said.
“I know exactly how it is. I spent twelve years in the majors and we were on the road half the time.”
“You didn’t have a baby to worry about.”
“Are you kidding? I had a clubhouse full of big babies that were never happy,” he joked. Seeing she wasn’t convinced, he leaned down and kissed her lightly on the lips. “I want us to be together and I want you to become a huge star. Whatever I can do to help make that happen I will do.”
