I CAN’T HELP but laugh as Dixie tries to juggle the four Grammys we won tonight. A song we wrote about Liam during our yearlong struggle to formally adopt him launched our career into the stratosphere and we still haven’t come down—though we all know we will one day. For now, we keep each other grounded.
Photographers are everywhere as we leave the awards ceremony. It’s a constant barrage of flashbulbs, almost like being in a club with strobe lights. Dallas has his hands full with Robyn and Denver, I’m carrying Liam, and my poor Bluebird is stuck with the relatively small but still heavy and somewhat cumbersome trophies.
“Congratulations on the twins, Dallas!” a reporter calls out. “When’s the due date?”
“June,” Robyn answers, glaring at Dixie, who grins maniacally in response.
“What about you two?” the same reporter calls out toward me and Dixie. “Any bundles of joy coming your way anytime soon?”
Dixie looks momentarily caught off guard so I answer.
“We have our hands full as it is right now,” I tell the female reporter standing up front. Nodding to Liam, who has his face buried in my shoulder, I add, “We’re focusing on our family and our music.”
She takes this direct answer as motivation to push on and shoves her mic toward me. “The history with the band, how it all began, how you two ended up together and with an adopted son, it’s all such a mystery to your fans. Do you ever think you’ll do an exposé on your backstory? For CMT or someone else, for instance?”
I glance over at Robyn, who does our PR and marketing and typically fields these types of questions. She’s busy consoling an exhausted Denver so I take a deep breath and face the reporter myself. Our backstory is messy and full of criminal records, complicated courtroom dramas, and disastrous tours in which things happened that I have vowed never to discuss. I’ve taken several oaths to keep specific incidents quiet—particularly those involving one band member peeing her pants and it wasn’t either a child or a pregnant Robyn touring with us at the time. Dixie would kill me dead if those details ever surfaced.
“Actually? uh, we don’t really have any plans at the moment as far as that’s concerned. We’re just kind of—”
“Moving forward,” Dixie breaks in, stepping between me and the reporter. “We won’t be doing any exposés on our past or our backstory because we’re focusing on our future.”
God, I love this woman, I think to myself while I watch her politely shield Liam and me from the remaining questions being thrown at us as we leave.
I have an amazing woman in my life and we have a son. And an internationally known award-winning band that is currently topping most of the music charts. Me, Captain Screwup, the guy who was once capable of nothing more than fucking up the one-man parade known as his life. I have everything I ever dreamed of and then some.
I was raised, I was born and bred, in complete and total darkness. Yet somehow I found the light. The same way Liam gravitated toward her, so did I. We both still do.
She is a beacon, shining relentlessly and guiding us out of the dark.
We get a lot of questions about getting married, but neither of us cares much about that. What we have is deeper than a piece of paper. Dixie Leigh Lark is my soul mate and nothing will ever change that.
Dixie glances over her shoulder and I see blue eyes full of love gleaming up at me.
“Forever,” I mouth at her.
“And always,” she mouths back.
My Bluebird is right. We are focusing on our future.
And what a bright, beautiful future it is.
Epilogue | Liam
“DUDE. SERIOUSLY. YOU have the coolest parents.” Malcolm Hastings fist-bumps me as we take our spots backstage next to my cousin Denver and his grandma.
“Yeah, they’re okay. I guess.”