my heart.
My dad was going to be crushed. That dampened my joy a little, but I also thought he’d understand. Ty and I had a future we needed to build. Dreams to make come true. I knew Dad would want that for me. My hand found Ty’s phone where I’d dropped it on the hay. I picked it up and handed it to him.
“Call my dad.”
And he did.
Cover Images: © Deposit Photos | golubovystock and iStock | Antonel
Eliza Waters and Brett Davies
Eliza is the baby girl of Mia and Derek from My Life as a Pop Album. She grows up in the shadow of a whole host of famous family members in a way that has caused havoc on her heart. Once she finds the one man who truly makes her feel whole, will those scars be the thing that tears them apart?
Still confused? Check out the “My Life as an Album Series Who’s Who.”
Eliza
WHEN I WAS A LITTLE GIRL
“I wondered who I'd give all my love to
I asked Santa who he'd recommend.”
Performed by Gwen Stefani
Spending Christmas with Brett and his boisterous, terribly chic, and welcoming family had been a dream come true. I’d spent the holiday reveling in the family I’d inherited when I’d started dating Brett. They were all mine. I hadn’t had to share them with or lose them to the rest of the rowdy crew I’d grown up in. It had been selfish of me to stay behind in Knoxville. I’d known it when I’d called Mama and told her I wasn’t coming home with my sister, Ginny. I’d heard the sorrow in her voice but hadn’t let it sway me from my decision.
For over a week now, I’d loved being in the little bubble my famous family couldn’t burst. But now, it was going to explode, and with each mile that brought us closer to my small town and my home on the hillside by the lake, I felt my blood pressure spike. I was known for my spur-of-the-moment, rash decisions, but this one… This one might cause a mile-long path of hurt and destruction to me, Brett, and my family.
I’d thought I’d taken the step as an act of bravery, but really, it had been cowardice.
Fear had driven me. Fear of losing him.
Impatience and anxiety filled me as I tapped my fingers and shook my leg, scrolling through the posts my siblings and cousins had put up the day before on social media. In my self-interest, I’d missed Khiley’s big moment―her and Stephen’s engagement and the baby announcement. It made my heart twist. I hadn’t been there for her because I’d been absorbed in me and the world I was making with Brett. The world I thought I’d been protecting by keeping it far away from my family.
Brett sensed my unease, reading me in a way not many people in my life had ever been able to do. I’d always been good at hiding behind a wall of stubbornness, smart-alec remarks, and my camera.
“It’s going to be okay, ‘Z.”
His deep baritone calling me ‘Z slid down my spine smoothly. He’d started using the nickname on our second date. The moment played in my head like a black-and-white film. I had all our moments glued there like a moving photo album. The old-school kind that Mama, Aunt Cam, and Grandma had on their shelves. Not the ones we called albums today, which were just digital collections of colors and pixels.
“They’re going to be upset,” I said, which was true, but only half of why I was as uptight as a cat in a thunderstorm.
“We should have told them,” he agreed, but there wasn’t even a twinge of I told you so in it when there could’ve been.
He’d wanted me to tell them. He’d begged me to give them an opportunity to show up, even when it would have been nearly impossible for them to do so from the time we’d made the decision until the time we’d made it happen for real. But I’d dragged my heels into the ground, listening only to the voice screaming inside me to build the wall between my two worlds as high as it could go before it all came tumbling down.
“They’re going to be pissed at me more than you,” Brett said, voice deepening with discomfort.
Guilt swarmed over me as I wondered if them being pissed at him was such a bad thing. Wouldn’t it do exactly what I wanted? Keep them all on separate sides of my