He knocked on the door and entered and saw her on the sofa next to Luke, her head resting on his shoulder. She looked anxious. One hand toyed with her necklace while her other rested upon a bouncing leg.
“Ethan!” she exclaimed, bolting up. Her eyes behind him and frowned. “Where are Pierce and Rory?”
“Oh, they’re hanging out with Allie and Kaitlyn.”
“Kaitlyn’s here?” she stammered, her eyes instantly turning glassy at that news.
Luke smiled at her. “Surprise!”
The tears fell like twin waterfalls from her eyes and Luke wrapped her in his embrace and kissed her head. “Pull it together,” he whispered.
“I will. Damn it! I’ve got my three favorite kids here. I’m so happy.” She wiped at her eyes and then laughed. “Good thing I haven’t done my makeup yet or Allie would be pissed.”
Ethan caught Luke’s eyes and jerked his head towards the door. Luke gave him an uptick of his chin and turned to Mia. “Speaking of Allie, I’m going to find her,” he said, giving her a quick hug. “I’ll see you in a little bit and I promise to bring Kaitlyn with me.”
“Thanks,” she said and kept her eyes on Luke until the door closed behind him.
“You look stressed out.”
“I feel stressed out.”
“Why?” he asked, wanting to know if it was because of him and also to help her calm down.
“Oh, lots of reasons. I mean, I shouldn’t be. I already did two shows and they were fantastic. I don’t know if it’s because I know it’s being recorded or what, even though I’ve had so many shows recorded …”
“Is it because you knew I’d be here?”
She surprised him by blushing. So it was him.
“I could leave …”
“Oh, don’t do that. Just be warned. You will not like my show’s message tonight.”
“I figured as much. And your message will be heard. I need to hear it. I want to hear it, actually. I need to know what you’re thinking. I haven’t talked to you in almost three weeks.”
“Yeah … I know. I needed to think.”
He wondered if he would get more out of her than that and decided to see.
“And did you?”
“Yeah. A whole lot.”
“Are we going to talk about that at some point?”
“Yeah,” she paused in thought. “You’ll be at my birthday party tomorrow, right?”
“Wouldn’t miss it.” Definitely not now.
“Cool,” she said, sounding like a teenager and then gave him a small smile.
His wife stood before him looking so much younger than her thirty-six years, especially the way she swayed back and forth with all her nervous energy. He needed to draw that away from her.
“The boys are so excited to be here. It’s all they’ve talked about this week. They wanted to listen to your music, which, by the way, you swear a lot! So if one of them says ‘fuck’ …”
She laughed from deep within her. God, he missed that laugh so much. It’d gone missing the past couple of years.
“You like that word.”
“Well, yes … I do,” she said with her lovely lyrical voice. “It’s my favorite word.”
Did she just try to flirt with him? He cleared his throat, needing to change the subject. He knew her game. She was trying to distract him.
“So, Rory is soaking this all in. He’s quiet, wide-eyed, and completely mesmerized by everything that’s going on around him. As he gets older, I see him growing into a male version of you. His love of music, his need to make sure his people are happy, those eyes of his so like yours. I swear if he knew how to write, he’d be scribbling everything down just like you.”
She smiled tenderly. He knew that thought made her happy.
“They may not look like me, but at least one of them will be like me. Hopefully without all the drama though. He’s so sensitive, Ethan. It scares me sometimes.”
He understood her fears. She went through her own parents’ divorce. She knew firsthand what that could do in the most extreme way. He needed to reassure her. If it came to divorce for them, it wouldn’t be like her parents. Rory wouldn’t go through what she had.
“His life won’t be like that, Mia. He has two parents who love him, adore him. We will be there to support him—always. And you are not that bad … actually, you’re pretty special.”
“Ethan.”
“You are. Just wish you saw it like I do, like Luke and Allie, like your bandmates.” He went to her and grasped her face between his hands.