“Your mommy is very busy,” Audrey says, leaning around her daughter to grab a strawberry.
“Like you.” Emily picks up another strawberry and hands it to her mom.
“My daddy is crazy busy finishing his album,” Fleur says, already on to her fourth pancake. “It’s going to be awesome.”
The girls love hanging out at the studio with the guys. Sometimes Dillon takes them there on the weekend when they’re not on such a tight deadline. It is housed on the grounds of Dillon’s old home. He ended up completely remodeling the place after they moved the label to a trendy high-rise in downtown L.A. Now the house is a fully equipped commercial recording studio with several plush apartments on the grounds so bands signed to the label can live and work there in privacy. He added a new bar, enlarged game room, inside pool with a sauna and jacuzzi, and a state-of-the-art gym. It’s like a mini luxury resort for rock stars, and it’s a big hit with his artists.
“He wanted Mommy to sing on it, but she said no.” Melody makes a face at me. “Daddy would be sooooo happy if you sing with him, Mommy. Please do it.” She glues her hands together and lifts them up in a pleading gesture, tilting her head back and fixing me with big doe eyes. “Daddy would love you forever if you did it.”
Ever since Dillon, Jamie, and Alex set up ourGrease-inspired karaoke the night of Halloween, the kids have been begging me to sing on the album. The guys decorated the room with themed memorabilia and banners, and they set up a makeshift stage. We all took turns singing, individually and as couples, and the girls got a huge kick out of watching me and Dillon sing together.
Dillon being Dillon, he used it to his advantage, recruiting the girls to help in his campaign to get me to sing on the latest Collateral Damage album. My husband has been trying to get me to sing on a track since Vegas, but I repeatedly tell him that was a one-time thing.
“Daddy already loves Mommy forever,” Fleur says, looking at me with a big, dreamy expression on her face. “When I grow up, I’m going to marry a rock star just like my Daddy and make smoochy faces at him all the time just like you do, Mommy.”
Audrey snorts out a laugh. “What’s a smoochy face?” she asks as warmth floods my chest, briefly eradicating the constant pain.
Fleur smiles and widens her eyes, tilting her head to the side and staring dreamily into space.
“I do not look like that!” I protest, smothering a laugh.
Audrey giggles, and my lips twitch.
“Just like that, Auntie Rey.” Fleur straightens up and returns to stuffing herself with pancakes.
“I think you might have a little actress in the making,” Audrey says.
“I think you might be right.” Our eldest daughter is definitely theatrical, but Melody is too. Easton loves drama as well, and I wonder if any of them, or all of them, will follow Mom and Reeve into acting.
“I’m going to be a singer,” Melody announces. “And I will sing with my daddy on every track.”
“Daddy would love that,” I say, darting down to press a kiss to her soft cheek. Both our girls have Dillon wrapped around their little fingers. He adores them as much as they adore him.
My husband is an amazing father. He somehow manages to be both playful and strict. If I want the kids to do anything, I usually have to ask repeatedly and raise my voice for anyone to take me seriously. Yet Dillon only has to say it once, in his stern disciplinarian voice, and they jump to obey. Even though he’s the fun one, I’m actually softer. Together, it works, and we get the balance right.
Or we used to.
These days, I don’t know if we’re getting much right at all.
“Mom.” Melody looks up at me with her big blue eyes, flinging her arms around my neck. “Please sing with my daddy. He loves you sooooo much, and you’re the best singer and the best mommy in the whole wide world.”
Her words bring tears to my eyes, and she can’t know how much I need to hear and feel her love.
“Do it, Mom.” Fleur clings to my arm and peers up at me with a matching pleading expression. She is the only one of my children to have my hazel eyes. The other three all have their fathers’ blue eyes.
In the face of such devotion to Dillon and the excitement I know it will ignite, I relent. “My two princesses have convinced me.” I kiss both their cheeks. “I’ll do it. We can tell Daddy together when he gets home tonight.”
There is much celebration and cries to call Dillon and tell him immediately, but I know they are busy now that Ro is back from Ireland and they can finish the album, so I don’t want to disturb him.