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He gave me a crooked grin before he moved to stand in front of me, reaching up and tangling one of his hands in my hair and tugging my head back. He leaned down, and our lips connected as tingles ran through my body like they did every time we touched. We had an audience that included his parents, so he let me go sooner than either one of us would have liked. His gaze finally shifted away from me and locked onto our daughter, who was firmly snuggled in his brother’s arms.
“I’ll take my daughter, thanks.” True tried to reach for Phoenix, but Hale twisted to the side and kept her just out of reach.
“I’m not ready to give her up yet.”
True glared at his brother. “My daughter. Now.” He’d lowered his voice until it sounded threatening, but for some reason, the low growly tone was making me hot in all sorts of places. Too bad I couldn’t do anything about it for another four weeks.
Hale sighed. “Fine.” He gently passed True our daughter, and he kissed her head before cuddling her up against his chest. True glared at his brother. “Get your own.”
Hale scoffed. “No thanks, bro.” Despite his attitude, I didn’t miss the longing look in his eyes for a second before he shuttered it.
I turned back to my husband. “You ready for this?”
He nodded, a soft smile on his lips as he kissed our daughter on the top of her head. “More than ready. I can’t wait.” He lifted his eyes to mine. “How about you? This is a bigger night for you than it is for me.”
“I don’t know about that, but yes. I’ve had lots of time to prepare for tonight, and I’m ready to move on with our lives.” I rested my head on his other shoulder, and he wrapped his free arm around me.
Harrison came backstage, looking flustered, interrupting the moment. “It’s time, mate.”
True reluctantly passed Phoenix back to me and kissed both of us before turning away to follow Harrison to the stage. He turned back and grinned at me. “See you in a few minutes.” He moved through the side entrance, and the crowd cheered loudly. Phoenix stirred in my arms, and I grabbed Hale. “Can you hold her for a second?”
He scooped her out of my arms while I dug in her bag for her headphones. I moved them over her ears and then picked her back up. I walked toward the stage, standing just out of sight and watching True in his element.
“How’re you guys doing tonight?” he asked the crowd. They cheered loudly, and he laughed. “I thought you might like to be the first ones to hear some of my new music. I’ve been working really hard on this album for the past six months, but that’s not the only thing I’ve had going on. I’ve got a couple of surprises in store for you tonight, so sit back and enjoy the show!”
He adjusted his guitar strap and the microphone before jumping into his first song,Tomorrow’s Rebel.He told me this would be the second single he released from this album. If the applause from the crowd when he finished was any indication, it would be just as big a hit as the first single,Surfer Girl.
When he played the last notes of his first song, his eyes moved to meet mine, and he smiled. I knew that was my signal. I felt someone come up right behind me and turned to find Zen with a guitar slung across his chest.
True stood up, gripping the microphone in his hand. “I don’t know if you guys pay attention to the media at all…” the boos from the crowd drowned out the rest of what he was going to say.
He chuckled. “Sounds about right. Well, I don’t like to either. But, these past few months, there’s been a lot said about my private life, and I thought I could clear that all up for you right here, right now. What do you think?”
The cheering was deafening, and I was even more glad I’d thought to buy ear protection for little P.
“Let me introduce you to two very important people in my life, my wife Amara and our daughter, Phoenix.” The room was silent for about three seconds before all hell broke loose as I walked across the stage with Phoenix cradled in my arms. True grinned widely at me, kissing me and taking Phoenix into his arms before lifting the microphone back to his mouth as applause rang out, and flashes went off across the room.
“See, in this business, sometimes we do things that aren’t completely truthful to sell more records. I thought that by faking a relationship with someone more popular than me, my album would sell more copies. Now looking back, I realize that was a really shitty thing to do on so many levels. So, this is me owning my fuck up. This woman here, she’s the love of my life.” The crowdoohedandahhedas he gazed at me with so much love it made me breathless.
“So, let me be straight with you guys. I hate lying. I shouldn’t have done it, and I regret it, but I was never with Lexi. Everything she said in the media was a lie. Every damn thing. The entire time, I was with this amazing woman getting ready to welcome my daughter into the world and being lucky enough that she actually married me.”
The crowd cheered. “Now that that’s out of the way, I want to sing you the song I wrote about my wife. Right after we found out she was pregnant, I was determined to take her mind off the constant sickness and took her surfing with me. She inspired the song you all know and love. Give it up forSurfer Girl.”
Zen stepped up behind me and handed True the baby wrap. He tied it around himself, strapping Phoenix to his chest, so his hands were free and not gonna lie, I didn’t know if I’d ever seen anything sexier.
“I hope you guys don’t mind if I have a friend play guitar for this one,” he said as Zen stood next to him. People went nuts, and I could tell True was feeding off the energy. He hadn’t been on a stage performing in months, but he was a natural with all this. This was where he belonged, and I was beyond happy to see him back in his domain.
Zen started playing, and True sang every lyric with Phoenix sleeping against his chest. I hoped Kennedy was somewhere in the audience taking thousands of pictures because as much as I tried to commit every second of this to memory, I knew with time the memories would fade, and I wanted to have pictures to look back on.
* * *
The next morning,I woke up alone in our bed. It wasn’t unusual, but I smelled something delicious, so I slid out of bed and made my way to the kitchen. My heart melted when I saw True singing to Phoenix and cooking breakfast. She was strapped to his chest, and he was moving around the kitchen, dancing and singing.
“Someone’s in a good mood this morning,” I teased, wrapping my arms around my husband.
He kissed me and then moved to grab me a plate. “I hope you don’t mind, but I switched things up a little this morning.”
True slid a stack of pancakes across the island to me with a mischievous grin, and I laughed. “I guess just this once I can deal with pancakes.”
