able to doubt it again, “I love you, Brett.”
I didn’t even get a chance to respond before she was breathing that love into me. But it didn’t matter because our actions would speak louder. My actions. The love and cherish that I’d promised her the day we’d married. The love and cherish I’d promised her father. We were meant to be together. I knew it in my soul. We fit in a way that was unexpected and beautiful. We were love.
Cover Images: © Deposit Photos | Kiuikson and iStock | Antonel
Mayson Abbott and Grace Carmen
Cam and Blake’s son, Mayson, was the first of the kids to actually be born by the Album Series crew, but right on his heels came Grace. PJ from My Life as a Rock Album told Seth about being pregnant in a love letter you may or may not have read because it was written well after the story was done. While Mayson and Grace grew up a country apart, they met as kids and then again as college students when Mayson flew the coop to attend the University of California, Los Angeles. This story tells about their friendship, romance, falling apart…and maybe…just maybe… their second chance.
Still confused? Check out the “My Life as an Album Series Who’s Who.”
Mayson
MISS YOU MOST (AT CHRISTMAS TIME)
“I miss you most at Christmas time,
And I can't get you,
Get you off my mind.”
Performed by Mariah Carey
Written by Afanasieff / Carey
The slamming of cupboards in the kitchen woke me. I rubbed my gritty eyes and tried to let my body ease back into slumber. I’d been up most of the night, long after everyone had left from the de-decorating-athon that took over our families’ homes on the twenty-sixth of December. I’d stayed up to help Mama clean up, but really, we were up because neither of us could sleep. I knew what my reason was, but I didn’t ask her about hers because I didn’t want her to probe into mine. I wasn’t ready to share.
More cupboards slammed, followed by the hum of voices. It was the downside to having the bigger bedroom with its en suite bathroom: the kitchen was right underneath, and you ended up getting more noise than you wanted coming through the vents.
I gave up any attempt at slumber, sliding into my sweats and the nearest T-shirt I could find before hitting the head and wandering downstairs to find coffee. I was surprised to find Aunt Mia in the kitchen with Mama because Aunt Mia and mornings were like the jackal and the lion. They just didn’t get along.
Aunt Mia looked like she’d been crying, and I instantly hoped she hadn’t heard from Dylan before I had a chance to talk to Uncle Derek. Before we finished the album. Before I was able to explain.
They stopped talking when I entered and watched me. I tried to ignore it as I put a pod in the coffeepot before turning back to them while I waited for it to brew. They were still staring as if I were the devil, and my fears rose.
“What?” I asked.
“Kids. You’re all an ungrateful bunch of louts,” Mama said.
“Louts?”
“Don’t even start,” Mama said.
Aunt Mia sniffled. “Don’t make him feel bad, Cam. It isn’t his fault.”
“I have a feeling he knew about Khiley being knocked up and didn’t tell me. He probably knew about Ty and Eliza as well. They all tell each other everything, even if they don’t tell us,” Mama said, the sarcasm unmistakable.
“Hey,” I interjected. “I didn’t know about any of it. I did know Khi wasn’t feeling well, but I was dumb-male enough not to put two and two together.”
I’d been too busy hiding my own secrets and waging a battle against silence with words that weren’t getting a response. I didn’t have time to really pay attention to anyone else’s issues. I was close to my sister and my cousins, but many of them were closer to each other than me. Maybe it was because I was a couple of years older. Maybe because I’d blown Tennessee as soon as I could to go to UCLA in California. I hadn’t wanted my life to be tied up in this small town.
Grace’s image flew back into my head. It had been torturing me all night. One of the last images I had of her. Naked. In my bed. In the apartment I shared with her cousin. Her curly dark hair flung out on my pillows. Her ice-blue eyes filled with lust.