but I always slept better when he was here. “Tell me how it went.”
He sighed. “They made me ride a horse again.”
I snorted. “You know, some big rock stars make their own music video decisions,” I teased.
“And have to be there for all the brainstorming and planning meetings, and then have to fight for my vision to come to fruition? No thanks. I’d rather be here with you and the goblins.” He nodded in the direction of the kids’ rooms.
“Is that what we’re calling them now?”
“Yes.”
I smiled. “Why were you riding a horse? I thought the shoot was in downtown New York City.”
“There are mounted police in Central Park.”
I popped up on my elbow and tried to look down at him through the dark. “Please tell me you steal a horse from an officer and go after some girl.”
He kissed me instead of answering, then pulled back. “You’re tired. Go back to sleep.”
“You’re avoiding the question.”
“Of course I am.” He forced my head back to his shoulder.
“You do realize that this music video is something that I—and everyone in the country—will see, right?”
He made a noise of disgust. “Maybe I’ll just refuse to do them altogether.”
“No,” I whined. “The kids love watching your videos. Joanie is going to go into kindergarten knowing the words to all your songs because of those things. And when Liam misses you, I turn them on for him.”
“Fine. You’ve convinced me.” He tried to sound put out, but I could hear the smile in his voice.
“Besides, now that you’ve taken a break from touring, it’s the only way your salivating fans can get their Sean fix. You have to give the people what they want. You know, at least a tiny bit.”
“All right.” He was starting to sound tired. “The people can have my music videos.”
“And I get the rest of you.”
“Exactly.” He kissed my head. “Now, go to sleep. You know Liam will be in here at six thirty wanting to watch a show.”
I groaned a little. “Don’t remind me.”
“Love you,” he murmured as sleepiness took over his voice.
I ran a hand through his hair and reached up to kiss his chin. “Love you back,” I whispered, then closed my eyes as contentment washed over me.
I never planned to marry my best friend. I never wanted to marry a rockstar. Yet I’d done both, and my life was beautiful because of it. Over the years, I’d run into people who lamented over the time Sean and I missed out on because of our mistakes and our choices, but I couldn’t agree. The road we’d traveled was the one we were meant to travel. It was the road that gifted me a few beautiful years with Jonas and gave me Joanie. It was the road that allowed Sean and me to build a relationship that could weather any storm. The path of our lives was never a straight line. How boring that would be. Instead it was filled with twists and dips, maybe a loop or two, sometimes a U-turn or a simple dead end.
Life is messy. But beautiful music can’t be made with one pristine piece of paper. In order to get it right, we have to have the cross-outs, the redos, the frantic scribbling and the misspelled words. Creating music is a beautiful thing. But creating a life with someone? That is a masterpiece.
The End
To My Readers
Thank you for reading! I’m so glad you took the time to dive into Sean and Libby’s story. Writing their book was wonderful and gratifying and hard, but these characters taught me a lot.
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It always surprises me which story ideas take hold and won’t let go. I dove into this story knowing it was going to be different, knowing that I wanted this book to be more. More heart, more depth,