I felt different about my chair these days, though. Now that my ankles were starting to swell, I actually appreciated being able to put my feet up while I watched my husband perform.
We’d been on the road for eight months this time. The Hollywood Bowl was our last stop before we went home—for good.
This show was the last one with this label. Jason was signing with a smaller independent one after this. The money wasn’t quite as good, and they didn’t offer as many frills, but the life balance we’d have would make it worth it, and they gave Jason complete control over his work and his schedule.
Jason was doing his sound check, so I sat down, hoisting my pregnant belly. Tucker plopped by my chair. Zane pulled up next to me as I extended the leg rest and handed me a warm Starbucks cup. She turned a metal folding chair backward and straddled it, crossing her arms over the backrest. “Ernie told me to tell you he’s on his way and he has the cupcakes.”
“He got lemon drops, right?” I asked. I was addicted to Nadia Cakes, and my pregnancy cravings were serious.
“Placed the order myself. Couldn’t let Ernie fuck that up. I didn’t want you pissed at me.”
“Like either of us could ever get pissed at you.” I smiled.
She smirked and we sat and watched Jason adjust his microphone stand. He sang a few verses to test his equipment and he tipped his head toward me, his lips to the mic, and winked. I blew him a kiss and his grin got so big I could hear it in his voice.
Lola—Nikki—joined him for the big cities, by our invitation. She’d be here tonight. She was actually pretty cool. She was mostly producing these days and doing really well. She only performed with Jason, and the two of them collaborated on writing most of his songs—except for the ones he wrote about me. Those just poured out of him.
He set his guitar down on its stand and walked over to us, pulling out his in-ear monitor. He put his hands on the arms of my chair and leaned down to kiss me. “Are you comfortable, sweetheart?”
“Yeeeess.” I smiled against his lips.
He put a hand to my belly and I moved it to the left, where the baby was kicking, and his eyes gleamed.
“She likes the music,” I said.
He held his hand to my wiggling stomach and grinned. “Are you hungry?”
“Always.”
“Almost done.” He leaned down and kissed my stomach. “Twenty more minutes,” he said to my baby bump. He reached down and ruffled Tucker’s head, then jogged back out to his sound check.
Zane chuckled after him. “You know, it wouldn’t kill you guys to be slightly less adorable.”
I smiled at her. “Probably not. But why risk it?”
We survived our last show of the tour and had a late dinner with my parents. Then we headed home—well, our version of home. A mini mansion we rented in Woodland Hills. It was close enough to Kristen and Josh for when we were in town between tours. It was gated and safe and we had a place to keep our stuff while we were on the road.
Both of us preferred Ely to LA. Jason’s fame was harder on us in California. We couldn’t really go out without getting approached.
Ely was small, and nobody there cared who he was. Everyone there had grown up with him. There was no paparazzi, and I’d gotten really close to Patricia over the past three years. With the baby coming, it would have been nice to live near her. But Kristen and Josh took priority for me, and whatever took priority for me took priority for Jason. So Woodland Hills it was.
Jason smiled at me from the limo seat across from me. “I have a little surprise for you.” He grinned.
I narrowed my eyes at him. “What surprise? I didn’t like the last one.”
He chuckled. “What? When I told you I want to get pregnant again right away?” He crossed over to sit next to me and leaned in to kiss me, putting a hand on my belly. “I just love you like this,” he breathed against my lips.
I jerked my head back. “And did you love all the barfing?”
“Well, no. But look how sexy you are right now…” He put his face into my neck and trailed his mouth across my skin.
“There is nothing sexy about this, Jason. I’m swollen and starving. I have to pee constantly.”
He laughed into my neck. “I think I can convince you.”
Yes, he was very good at convincing me to do things. Like getting me to agree to marry him just forty-eight hours after we got back together. I’d been wearing a ring since two days after the Forum.
“What if I had said no?” I’d asked.
“Then I was going to go into plan B.”
“Which was what? Subterfuge? Tell me I’m just your girlfriend but really we’d be engaged the whole time?”
He’d laughed. “No. Unwavering, unrelenting persistence.”
I hadn’t said no, of course. But I’d made him wait a year to marry me. I didn’t want something rushed. I wanted a real wedding—and I’d kept my last name. I wanted my own identity.
We’d gotten married at the Glensheen mansion in Duluth, on the shore of Lake Superior—home of the wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald. Tucker had worn a tuxedo Kristen had made for him, and he sat at our feet as we’d said our vows. Oliver had been our ring bearer. Ernie, David, Zane, and Josh had stood next to Jason, and Kristen had stood next to me—the way it was always going to be.
“So what’s your surprise?” I asked, closing my eyes as he kissed my neck.
“It’s at home.”
We stopped at Forest Lawn like we always did when we came to town so I could visit Brandon. Jason usually stayed behind in the car to give me some privacy, except for one time, right before we were married. He’d asked to have some alone time at Brandon’s grave.
He’d spent a half an hour there while I watched from the car. He didn’t tell me exactly what he’d said. Only that he was thanking him, and letting him know he was going to take good care of me.
It meant a lot to me that he’d told him that.
Jason and I both gave blood on Brandon’s birthday, a tradition we vowed to keep for the rest of our lives.
When we pulled up to the curb in front of the house, Kristen and Josh were out front with their kids and Stuntman Mike. “My surprise?” I beamed at Jason. We weren’t supposed to see them until tomorrow.
He winked.
I got out and Kristen ran to me. I hadn’t seen her in five months.
“Look at you and your sex injury!” she said, putting her hands on my belly. “Does Jason know what this baby is about to do to his favorite playground?”
“Yes. And can you believe he wants to do it again right after this one comes out?”
She arched an eyebrow. “That’s eighteen months without raw cookie dough and real coffee. Has he met you?”
We both laughed.
Jason and Josh hugged, slapping each other on the back. They saw each other as much as I saw Kristen. The guys flew out to Minnesota for the deer and duck openers and we’d all spent a week in Ely right before the tour so he and Jason could go ice fishing. They were practically best friends. Kristen said they were having a bromance.
I hugged Kimmy and Sarah, Kristen and Josh’s adopted daughters. They were nine and eleven now.
Two years ago Josh had gone on a fatal heart attack call at work. The man who’d died was the grandfather and sole guardian of his two granddaughters. Kristen and Josh stepped in as emergency foster parents. The girls’ adoptions had been finalized just a few months ago. They were amazing kids.