Everyone has a different perspective on how they want their life to end up. There are things that we set ourselves up for, hoping that one day, that one dream can be accomplished. For Adilyn Michaels, she was already living her dream.

Her entire life consisted of one thing, music. She lived for the power of music. With her hand wrapped around the steel of a microphone, she was at peace. Words flowed from her throat and roared throughout a venue, coming back to her, it covered her body with goosebumps every time.

When she was offered a job that let her enjoy just that, she took it without hesitance. She wasn't the person that held the weight of a tour on her shoulders. She wasn't the person that had photoshoot after photoshoot. She didn't have to do any promotion. Being the backup singer for one of the biggest entertainers in the business, she was able to just step on stage and sing. She got to tour around the globe, performing for thousands, even millions but got to do it from a different view and was able to simply enjoy every moment of just singing.

But that all changed.

Everything changed in the blink of an eye. She never for a moment thought she would have to give up her dream job. She never thought she would be here, ever doing this, alone. It was something she always thought she would be sharing with a husband, who she was madly in love with and they had been married for years, counting down the days until that fateful joyous day. But instead, she was here, alone.

Her life was a little bit of a mess and chaotic at times; however, it was what she wanted. But that was nine months ago and counting down the days had more of a negative connotation than a happy one. That inevitable day seemed more daunting than enjoyable.

Now, now a new journey was about to start.

That day was now upon her.

"PUSHHHH" the doctor bellowed, "I can see the head, pushhh!"

Adilyn's nurse, Julie, watched her push again, throwing her head back on the pillow in frustration. The tears rolled down her face. "You can do this Adilyn." Julie had been at her side since she arrived at the hospital late last night. She caressed the side of her hand, and gripped it tightly. "You can do this." She continued to encourage her.

Strong willed and straight forward, Adilyn was determined not only was she going to be okay, she believed she was going to handle this with grace and poise, holding her head high in the process. But when her water broke late in the evening, with no one to call, with no one to help, she drove herself the twelve miles it took to get to Cedars Sinai. Her doubts and fears weighed heavy on her heart as the miles got closer to the hospital. The fear triumphed over her entire emotion; it was supposed to be a joyous occasion.

Admitting she needed help from someone had been a challenge for her, her entire life. Trey has always been the one person she let her guard down with. He was a friend that she held with the highest level of respect. He was her family. He was the person that never let her down. 

She was about to add another person to her short list of family members.

This day came three weeks earlier than expected, leaving her to do this, just her, alone with her panic and her fear. The one person that she'd counted on being there promised he would drop whatever he was doing and be there for this moment, was out of town.

"I can't do this..." she mumbled flooding her eyes with tears yet again. "I thought I could... but I can't."

Julie grabbed her hand, "Adilyn... you can do this." squeezing it tighter, "You can do this. You're just moments away from seeing your beautiful bundle of joy!"

Bundle of Joy.

Not the choice of words she would've used.

Everything she thought she was, everything she thought she could do in her life, changed in one night. Everything she loved in the world was gone, in one night.

"Congratulations!" The doctor looked up at her, "It's a boy!"

Two days and ten hours later.

The ink of the pen slid across the paper with ease. The blank lines, filled with a child's most important information. Filling in the empty spaces of this precious little baby's life was more difficult than she ever imagined it would be.  Jaxon Trey Michaels. Simple details of a life that has just begun, yet his presence changes everything about the person that brought him into this world. Born on the coldest day ever recorded in Los Angeles, January 31, 2011, all 6lbs 8oz of him wouldn't know the difference. He hasn't made choices that need correcting. He hasn't suffered a broken heart. He hasn't felt the pain of being let down.

Adilyn wasn't sure if she could give this child all the things that he deserved in life. She wasn't sure she could be his father and his mother. She wasn't sure she could be the mother that he deserved.

Printing her name on the mother's name line was easy, Adilyn Belle Michaels, signing it was just as easy. Her hand came to a standstill, starring at the question as if her life depended on it. "Father's Name:" It was a simple question. It had a simple answer. The blank line gapped a whole through her heart.

"He is absolutely perfect." Trey gushed, breaking the deafening silence in the room, pulling at the tiny fingers of the bright eyed baby staring back at him. "He is so alert. Should he be this alert already?" He questioned turning back to look at Adilyn wiping away the tears that began to stream an even flow down her face.

That wasn't a question she knew the answer to. She didn't know anything about babies. She had been the only child until she was sixteen, until one night when her world turned upside down. In one night, one moment, her parents were separating and her father was marring someone she had never met before. A couple months, a wedding, and lots of baby items later, he gave Adilyn the only sibling she would ever have. Just after her baby sister was born, his new wife insisted they relocate closer to her family in Dallas. Being the person her father turned into after he married her, he picked up his firm and move to Texas without thinking about how she would feel or how it would affect her life.

                She scribbled the name that belonged on that line, brushing the tears away as she handed the form to the nurse who was awaiting the formal signature on the birth certificate.

Trey was supportive, and he respected her wishes to not talk about the situation. But they both knew that the inevitable day would come and the questions would have to be answered.

In the darkness of the arena, she was at peace. Her hand was wrapped around a piece of her life that she always had. Her hand wrapped around her comfort zone. The chill of the steel as she gripped it for the first time of the night was enough adrenaline for her. She knew that feeling was going to lead to the feeling she needed when she stepped on this stage.

The roar of a crowd, so loud it was piercing even through the inner ear monitors. Night after night, the crowds seemed to get larger and more fan orientated than just another show they would attend. Her first note was big, probably the most defining note of the entire show. Once the wail reined through the venue and back at her, a smile plants on her face and wouldn't leave until the ‘star' of the show appeared, leaving the spotlight no longer on her.

It wasn't about the attention, it was about the power she knew she had to project her voice like no other and it was foreshadowed by the person who had gained the spotlight. She wanted badly to have the dream with the reality but it was too unlikely and was happy just stepping on that stage night after night, show after show, city after city.

She wasn't like most backup singers. Most fans knew her by her first name. She was asked for photos and autographs but never hounded by the paparazzi, never forced to record an album because they needed a new release and they would throw something together, good or bad. Luck was with that label, because single after single, the singer was being praised for the talent on the tracks.

Each live show brought more notoriety to the singer, each tour brought new fans to her.

Ten tiny little toes. Two little feet. Ten tiny little fingers. Two little hands. A healthy, beautiful, perfect baby. It's all a mother worries about when the child is born. Everyone hopes to have a healthy baby to wrap into their arms. But as the baby rested in her arms, Adilyn felt guilty because the only thing she could think about nonstop was his father. She couldn't help but think that her choices and her behavior were going to keep her son from ever knowing that part of his life. It was her fault, she was aware of that, but it didn't make the situation any easier.

"Have you decided what you're going to do?" Trey stood across the room leaning against the windowsill, arms crossed, and worry stretched all over his face.

                The gorgeous ocean blue eyes stared up at her once again, melting her heart. She shook her head ‘no'; knowing this couldn't be put off any longer didn't make the decision any easier.

                The day she decided to go through with the pregnancy was the last day that she spoke to her mother and her father.  Even though they had been distant from her life for as long as she could remember, they seemed to think they had input on a situation that didn't involve them. They didn't approve, not to Adilyn's surprise, but her decision couldn't be based off of what they thought she should do. This was something she was going to have to deal with everyday for the rest of her life. It had to be the right one for her.

                Here it was, days after the precious baby was brought into this world and she still couldn't make the decision. She knew what she should do, she knew what she thought was best for him, but the answer she kept coming back to was the opposite of what she thought she was going to do for the last nine months.

"After deep consideration, we have chosen to release you from your contract..."-

Sitting in the airport bay, she recollects the words she had been given in the form of a letter just hours before.

"This had to be the bottom of the barrel." She continued to mumble. "This had to be what someone's world around them crashing down feels like."

This was the last piece of her life she had intact. This was everything she was. Now, that piece crumbled into a million pieces. Her job was gone, her life changed, and her world shifting in a new, different direction with every moment that passed...

"I can't do it Trey." She finally admitted, swallowing the words for the first time. She knew she would never be able to go through with this.

Relief and a smile exuberated on his face, his eyes widened and lit up like the fourth of July as he rushed back across the room, "Really?"

She knew for weeks this wasn't going to have the same outcome she thought it was going to. She knew the moment she climbed into her car and drove twelve miles to the hospital. She knew when Julie was standing next to her, hold her hand, telling her she could do this... that it had nothing to do with the actual delivery of the baby.

"I'm going to need you... I'm going to need you to tell me over and over again that I can do this."

Trey brushed the falling pieces of hair out of her face he placed a gentle kiss on her forehead. "You won't need me." He gushed, "But as your best friend, and brother from another mother... I'm not going anywhere."

"Thank you" She muttered to him, embracing his hug. "I knew this wasn't something I could do." She shoved the papers away from her, leaving the dotted line on the adoption papers empty. "I guess I have a new dream to conquer."

"We'll conquer it together..."

Fourteen months later...

Adilyn sighed heavily, taking in for the last time the breathtaking view of Los Angeles from her apartment that she had been leasing for the past five years. The tiny apartment was perfect for her considering she wasn't home long enough to realize how small it really was but having Jaxon and being home more often that she thought she would; they had outgrown the space they had.

                She would miss everything about the apartment. The memories she made. The memories she thought she would make in this place. Sadness overtook her emotions, tears streaming down her face, again. Everything had changed. This was yet another beginning to a life she had chosen some time ago.

"MAMMMA!!!" his voiced echoed through the empty apartment. "I go!" he jumped up and down, dropping his favorite sippy cup on the floor, rushing down the now empty hallway. "I go. I go."

The sweet sound of his voice gave her the strength she needed to pull through anything. The love she had for that little man was greater than even she could have ever imagined. A love she never thought she could give to someone was all she thought about when it came to him. "We're going..." She picked him up, placing him on her hip as she had done countless times before, twisting her fingers through the little wave of curls that lay on top of his head. He didn't get much of her looks, but he got her defining curls. His piercing blue eyes were not hers, but they drew you in with just a glance. Smiling back at her, he placed his head on her shoulder, wrapping his tiny arms around her, melting her heart.

Things she never thought would become second nature were part of her life everyday life now. But she was okay with that. She wouldn't go back and change a single thing. The dream of being on tour now had a bouncing toddler in the road. The dream of a ‘happy family' was shattered, but Jaxon and Trey was all she needed. If anything she did have the happy family, she had the family that loved her unconditionally.

The galore of brown moving boxes filled the entrance area of her new condo. It took her hours making sure each box was label for an easy unpack mode she thought she would be in. But she didn't have the energy to do that. She saw the daunting task that it really was and opted against doing anything.

She tip toed across the wood floor, attempting to be as quiet as she could, walk towards her new view. It wasn't quite the same. She loved having the city lights as she sipped her morning coffee. It was something that was always there for her, something she knew.  Now, now she had the view of a backyard, green grass, and two patio chairs.

Growing up had its changes, this was one of them.

"Well..." Trey's voice spread across the empty space, Adilyn turned to see him standing in her new kitchen. He continued, "I took the liberty of agreeing that you would have dinner with a friend of mine." He said all nonchalant as if it were just a simple conversation.

"Ya... You did what?" She fired back in an almost panic. "I don't date."

"It's dinner. He is a nice guy." He gushed, throwing his smile at her. "I'm volunteering to watch Jaxon!" He made sure he added the only reason she could back out of this.

She rolled her eyes at him as she turned to walk out of the room away from him. The last thing she ever thought about was actually dating. She had been on dinner dates sporadically, but she never let someone close enough to even think about a second date. She had taken away so much from Jaxon, she couldn't take his mother away from the precious time they had together. 

She knew nothing about this guy but the pit in her stomach was telling her it was time to venture out there, actually have adult time and be happy again. She was at that point in her life where she wanted someone... she wanted that feeling of being loved again, and that was what scared her. She wondered if she would make the same mistakes twice. Could she let that piece of her heart out there again?

                Hiding away in her bedroom, she saw him out of the corner of her eye standing in the doorway. "When's the last time you went on a date? When is the last time you did something for you that didn't involve Jaxon?" His arms remained crossed, glaring at her, waiting for a response.

She shook her head, no.

"I don't think so missy..." he spat out, rushing across the room, pointing his finger at her forcefully. "Don't shake your head no at me. You don't even know this guy. Give him a chance. It's just dinner."

She hesitated to respond to him. A part of her wanted to do this, but she had already made enough selfish choices, this couldn't be one of them.  "Trey. I just can't."

"Adi..." he voice got louder, making her take notice of his tone.

"Shhhh..." she hushed him. "Jaxon is sleeping."

He sat down on her bed, "I guess that will be my problem if I wake him, since I will be watching him tonight."

She shook her head no again, "It's our first night in a new place. I can't do that to Jaxon. I will-"

"No. You will go to dinner tonight. Its dinner with Julie and Rob, there will just be someone else there for you to have dinner with."

She pulled clothes out of the box, placing them on the hangers, attempting to avoid him but it wasn't working. He was even more stubborn than she is. There was no way out of this and she knew it.

"Fine. I'll go." She finally admitted, exploding a level of butterflies through her body.

He jumped up off the bed. "Good. Now go shower and get ready, you have to be there at six. I'm going to run out and pick up some dinner for myself and Jaxon... I'll be back." Just like that Trey was out the door and in his car, making sure that she did just as she should do tonight.

She tapped her nude Yves Saint Laurent heels against the table, nervously she sat quiet. She was in this private room, secluded from the entire restaurant, alone. She kept running ideas through her head. Excuses of how she should leave. Excuses of why she was still sitting alone, when there was supposed to be three others having dinner with her.

 "Thank you" She heard a man's voice say to the hostess as the door finally opened behind her.

The mystery guy she was waiting for glided through the doors, the most endearing smile she had ever seen was on his face. She tugged on the hem of her dress as she stood to greet him. She second guessed the eggplant colored ruffle dress that rested a little too short on her long legs. But seeing the look on his face, the way his eyes followed the length of her legs up her stomach and finally to her face, she knew it was the right choice... or the wrong choice, depending on what she decided she wanted from this date.

 "Justin." He extended his arms out to her petite hand, "You must be Adilyn..."

"God, you seem so familiar." She joked. "Have we met before?"

He placed his hand over his chest, placing a grin on his face, "I'm Justin Timberlake. Everyone knows who I am."

"Well aren't you cocky..." she stated as she began to turn away from him. She was joking but he seemed to have serious tone that rubbed her the wrong way. "I see this was a bad decision..."

He reached for her wrist softy turning her body back to be flush with his. "Sorry... sarcasm." He flashed his gorgeous smile at her. "Sorry, I'm nervous."

"Me too." She admitted softly.

"Sorry, you wanna sit?" He pointed to the chair, waiting to push it in for her.

"Could you stop apologizing?" Adilyn asked.

"Sorry." His face turned red. "I don't do blind dates for a reason. I'm a nerd in glasses trying to have a conversation with a gorgeous woman... it's hard to be cool..."

"Stop trying." She smiled for the first time in what felt like forever, "Just be you."

They sat in silence for only moments before Justin coyly says, "Typical for Rob and Julie to be late... they were late for their own wedding."

"I wouldn't know. I wasn't there."

"Such a bad friend you are..." He chuckled, "Why did you miss the wedding?"

"Work." She says with embarrassment, "I had a show that night in Massachusetts. I couldn't even jump on a flight and go then come back. There weren't enough hours in the day."

"I hear that." he laughed, "What kind of show?"

"A concert..." She said with hesitance.

"Are you a dancer?" He asked sipping on his red wine, adoring her long, lean, and toned legs.

"No." She locked eyes with him. "I was the backup singer for Sarah Connor for several years, among others things..." She looked away from him. A piece of her still missed that feeling every night.

 "We have met before..." His face lights up, his hand goes to the air, "at an award show... I remember telling Rob... damn that girl has pipes."

"I remember now. I did speak to you for a split second before your security took you away." She watched the way his eyebrows would raise when he was trying to make a point. She smiled, exploring the man sitting next to her. His slacks fit him like a glove, his dress shirt tailored to fit him. She was surprised how well he looked. She had seen him on the covers of magazines an album covers for years, but this was different. She was seeing a different view of him. She loved his nervous habit of running his hand over his shaved head, leading her attention back to his gorgeous blue eyes that reminded her of the love of her life.

Jaxon.

Missing him tugged the strings of her heart. She wondered what he was doing at this very moment, did he eat his dinner? Was he crying? Did he need his mom?

                She suddenly felt guilty.

"You alright over there?" Justin asked worried because she had drifted off into almost a sad state.

"I'm fine." She adjusted herself back in her seat. She was determined to at least get through dinner. She owed that to Justin, Trey, and herself.

They were in deep conversation about nothing when Rob and Julie around nearly an hour late to dinner. They never touched on past relationships, their families, or even their friends. It was refreshing for both of them to be able to talk to someone about nothing.

Kicking off her heels at the door, she placed her keys on the counter. Trey was asleep on the couch with Jaxon resting his head on his chest. It was the cutest thing she had ever seen. She love to see the relationship that Trey had with Jaxon, he treated him as if he was his own son. Just another reason she loved and respected Trey as much as she did. The condo looked like a tornado had hit the boxes of toys but they both seemed to not be hurt and the condo was still intact.

She leaned down, picking Jaxon off of Trey and into her arms. She walked down the long hallway to his new bedroom, whispering how much she missed him and how much she loved him before she placed him in his bed.

Standing over his crib, she sees the best part of her at peace.

"How was dinner?" Trey asked in a whisper, yawning, stretching his arms in the air.

She ushered him out of the room and into the living room. "Please explain to me how you knew Justin freaking Timberlake? And how he was your ‘friend' and I didn't know that?"

"Well... you don't know everything about me Adi." They both laughed because they both knew everything about each other, even the things they didn't want the other to know. "I didn't really know him..."

Her jaw drops, "So you let me go meet a random freak..."

"He is Justin Timberlake Adi­ far from a random freak."

"Not the point Trey." She spat at him.

"He is friends with Rob... you've spent time with Rob and Julie... I knew it would be fine."

She plopped her elbows down to the tile of the kitchen counter. She had not only let her crazy best friend convince her she needed to do this but now worst of all, she enjoyed spending time with him talking about the most random things in the world.

She enjoyed being in his company.

She knew she was in trouble.

"You avoided my question..." Trey protested.

"It was dinner." She expressed, downplaying all the events that occurred.

"So, when is the second date? When do I need to babysit that little guy again?" Trey asked with an enormous smile on his face.

With a smile on her face she shook her head in disbelief at him. "He is ‘Justin Timberlake', it's not going to work."

"He is just a boy, standing in front of a girl, asking her to love him..." He sniffled as he expressed a line they had heard a million times.

Adilyn laughed, "Remind me not to make you watch Notting Hill again. You get too many crazy ideas."

"When do I need to babysit?" He asked again.

She half smiled at him, "Thursday."

A beautiful evening, turned into a magical night.

With the bill of his hat down over most of his face, Justin was comfortable walking without the constant worry of who might see him. His only real worry was that the attention would scare Adilyn away before she got to know him as a person and not this image there was of him. It was always his fear that he would fall for someone that would only be scared off by the world he lived in, which is why he always seemed to date someone that was in the industry and understood what he was going through. But with Adilyn, he knew nothing about her before this dinner. To his surprise, she was aware of the industry and she wasn't running away from him.

Hand-in-hand they walked along the Santa Monica Pier, enjoying the warm breeze coming off the ocean. It was that perfect spring weather, just warm enough for short sleeves and just cool enough to cuddle up next to someone.

Her stomach did summersaults thinking about him. She couldn't sleep with the excitement still reining from the moments they shared together. They were better than any dream she could have dreamt. Every fiber of her body wanted him to be lying next to her right now, staring at the ceiling, recollecting the events of their night together. Instead she was here alone, thinking about the things she shouldn't be thinking about.

His fingers, intertwined into hers.

His hands, wrapped around the curve of her chin.

His nails, scraping softly against her skin.

Jaxon bounced across the bed, "No ork mama." He shook his head no, crinkling his forehead, snuggling himself into the curve of her elbow, resting his head on her chest.

This boy knows how to make a girl melt. She thought.

"Is Ella here?" She asked, thinking that would be the only way he was able to be out of his crib.

"No ork, pwease." He puckered up his bottom lip, causing a chain reaction.

It broke her heart to hear her nearly two year old son ask that heartfelt question. She pulled him into her, caressing the side of his face, "Ella is gonna play with you all day! And when I get home, we will play together... I promise." She was lucky not to have to work too much. All the writing and producing she did for other artists kept her income flowing in. The royalties from the songs she'd worked on with Sarah continued to pay her bills with ease.

Ella stood in the doorway, smiling at her as she lounged on the bed. "So Trey tells me the mama in this room had a dinner date last night... how did that go?"

"Great actually. It was nice to have an adult only dinner." She said attempting not to gush uncontrollably.

"Trey strolled in a little after midnight; does that mean the date continued after dinner?" She asked suspiciously.

She sat up on the bed, pulling the blanks over her legs. "I didn't go back to his place, if that's what you are asking."

She stepped closer to the bed, sitting slowly on the corner. "That's not what I meant. Is this someone you could see yourself seeing again?"

"I don't know..." She tried to place a subtle look on her face, but inside she was screaming with joy. "Maybe, it's just..."

"He is Justin Timberlake..." Ella interrupted her.

"Well... yes." Before Ella could respond Adilyn laughed, "And I don't wanna hear that line from Notting Hill from you either."

They both laughed, they had seen that movie entirely too many times.

Jaxon began jumping on the bed until he got the glare from his mother. He knew better, but he was testing that level of sympathy he thought he created by melting her heart. He quickly sat down on the bed.

Ella stood and turned back to Adilyn. "Well, I'm here to watch this little guy anytime you need me! Adi..." Without hesitating she continued not waiting for her to respond. "He is just a guy. He just happens to be very well known..."

"I know." She expressed, a shade of blush covering all of her face. His glorious smile flashed from memory across her thoughts.

She watched his hand as it intertwined into hers, locking them tightly, helping her step onto the ferris wheel at the Santa Monica Pier.

"You got it?" He asked watching as her feet planted safely on the steel of the car.

"I'm good." She replied as he stepped in, sliding himself next to her. Adilyn's body quivered from the butterflies she had boiling in her stomach.

"Are you cold?" He asked as he started to remove his light jacket to give to her.

"No, I'm not cold." She smiled at him, looking into his blue eyes. Her body instinctively scooted closer to his as the lift started to move them into the air. Without hesitating, he pulled her as close as he could, wrapping his arm around her. She rested her head on his shoulder. "I'm perfect."

The city lights glimmered off the water, creating a view neither had enjoyed before. In all the years they had both lived in Los Angeles, they had never shared this moment or this view with anyone.

Trey saw his best friend sitting at the sound board, off in a daze. "Adilyn"

"Adilyn..." He says again, "Where is that head of yours today?" He asked looking at her in a way he had never before.

She was smitten and he knew it.

"Sorry." She blushed.

            Work became a sanctuary that Adilyn found herself hiding a lot over the last year. Recording demos of songs that she wrote for artists became her new thing to do. It was a place she was able to take Jaxon and the others would entertain him while she recorded in the booth but now he was up and moving around, interested in everything and everyone around him. Ella had been gracious enough to watch him while she was in the studio, giving her a choice not to put him in daycare.

Singing into a booth microphone wasn't the same feeling she'd hoped to feel again but it was as close as she was going to get to singing for someone again. Sitting down at the piano in the open space with a microphone was a better feeling, and she felt it the moment she sat down. With each key she would press, the more she knew she wanted more than anything to have that feeling back. She wanted pieces of her life that she missed so dearly back.

With the guys not ready to actually lay the tracks that needed done, she began to play a soft melody she kept hearing in her head. With the keys playing, she began to hum words out of nowhere. Finally the words began to flow out freely and powerful.

"All those words... came undone. And now I'm not the only one. Facing the ghost that decide if the fire inside still burns..."

Her head swayed back and forth as the melody she was creating became as heart-wrenching as the words spilling from her lips. Her converse sneakers rolled back and forth on the pedal. "Open up next to you and my secrets become your truth. And the distance between that was sheltering me comes in full view..." Her words came out without thinking about it. Never had she ever had words form a song without even thinking about it. "Hang my head, break my heart. Built from all I have torn apart. And my burden to bear is a love I can't carry anymore..."

"Did I depress her?" Justin asked Rob and Trey, watching her hands move over the keys, expressing words of pain and heartache. Her words continued as they listened intently.

"All I have, all I need, he's the air I would kill to breathe..." Her voice rose, carrying the notes as high as she could, feeling the passion of emotion she was feeling. "Holds my love in his hands, still I'm searching for something... Out of breath, I am left hoping someday I'll breathe again."

"That would be Adi opening up... in her way." Trey answered his question. "Listen to her words. She is telling you her entire story in those words..."

She hung her head low, looking at her feet; she knew in that precise moment, the impact of her own words was changing her. Knowing there was only one thing left to say, she pulled her head back to be leveled with the microphone, and in an almost whisper she finished her words.

Her head tilted back, words smoothly flowing out, "Holds my love in his hands, still I'm searching for something..." Her hands stopped moving, her foot stopped rolling on the pedal. Coming to a close, she delivered her final line. "Out of breath, I am left hoping someday I'll breathe again..."

Adilyn looked down at the keys that her fingers still rested upon. She felt a part the weight she carried being lifted off her shoulders. Where these words came from, she wasn't sure but she knew she had to write them down.

She turned slowly to look for the guys, wanting to get started on the track they were here to finish. As she turned, she saw Trey and Rob frozen in their seats, staring at her.

"Are we ready?" She asked but they continued to just look at her.

She was scared for a moment because in all the time she had known both of them, they had never been this quiet, this silent. As she entered the room where they were, they still remained silent. Rounding the corner, she could see Justin standing between the two chairs. He looked at her, refreshing eyes staring back at him. She was the tidal wave he had been searching for so long. She was his breath of fresh air.

"Hey" She said smiling at him.

He tilted his head slightly, "Hey."

Staring into his eyes, she melted into him.

Unlacing their fingers, his hands wrapped around the curve of her chin, bracing his thumbs on the highpoint of her cheekbone, his nails scraped softly against her skin. Their eyes never unlocked, their concentration on each other and the city skyline view from the top of the ferris wheel on that Santa Monica Pier disappeared. She saw the waves of his oceanic eyes, whereas he only saw the layers of hazel overlapping each other, creating the most gorgeous set of orbs he had ever seen.

Finally they allowed themselves to lean forward, touching their lips for the first time.

A fire in the pit of their stomachs set loose, twirling their emotions round and round.

She leaned back, pulling her lips away from his.

She needed to make sure this was real. She needed to make sure he was real. Instantaneously her lips were back on his, but this time she granted him access to the deeper the depths of the kiss. His tongue slid over hers like they had kissed a million times before. There was no awkwardness; there was no hesitation, just passion.

"Hey." He said again looking at her, the rest of the world vanished.

"How long have you been here?" She asked wondering if he heard her words.

"That song..." He said breathlessly. "Your words..."

Her face flushed from embarrassment. For the first time she was personally affected by her own words. She had never written a song this personal or this emotionally driven with others in the room. Writing songs was private for her, so private in fact that most of the personal songs never saw the light of day. This would have ended up one of them.

            Heat resided in her cheeks as his hand smoothed across her face, causing her eyes to flutter close, creating a swirl of butterflies within the depths of her stomach. He leaned in and kissed her on the cheek softly, trailing his fingers down her face, across her shoulders before wrapping strands of her hair around his fingers, pulling her in to embrace her in the most staggering hug she could have ever imagined.

He released his grip around her, still holding onto her hand. "I'll see you tonight, right?"

She nodded her head yes, unable to speak.

"I gotta go, but I'll call you with details!" He flashed his million watt smile before turning to leave the studio.

            Here one minute, gone the next. She thought. It was almost like he sweeps her off her feet and leaves her wanting more without even trying. She couldn't explain why she wanted to spend more time with him, but she also couldn't explain why she didn't want to spend time with him.

She was in trouble.

She had it bad.

"It's nice to see Adi shining through again..." Rob gushed.

Trey closed his eyes, having almost a frown on his face; he was both happy and sad for his dearest friend. "It's like she came back from wherever she was..." He watched his friend smiling in such a genuine way. It had been so long that he had forgotten what it looked like on her. It suited her well. Her flushed cheeks gave her character that matched well with the ecstatic look in her eyes.

Rob laughed, "Justin has that affect on women."

Adilyn smiled shaking her head at her friends' words. "I can hear you... you know that right?"

"Oh shit!" Trey jumped to his feet, "Totally thought you were still stuck in Timberland!"

Knowing she really was stuck in this alternate universe known as Timberland, she walked into the booth preparing to lay vocals on the song she had been working on with Trey and Rob for a week.

            The process of creating music was therapeutic for Adilyn, it always had been. Creating something from scratch was exactly how she liked it when it came to music. The melody's seemed to come to her when she sat and listened to everything and everyone around her. She would listen to the sound of buttons turning, footsteps walking around her, the tap of someone's hand on the desk. She listened to everything, intently, creating a beat in her head that would eventually become a melody and then an entire song.

Lyrically, she took you on a journey through every paramount emotion known to mankind. She was known to have this impeccable ability to make her audience feel the joy of her happiness or the bitter pain of her heartache. Passion was her ink and feeling was her pen. Her passion, birthed deep within her soul, bubbled through her vocal chords in a smooth blend of harmonies that stopped anyone in their tracks. Words, poems, songs of this caliber were not made-up. They were real. And, she'd written them. And every song captured your heart, ripped it to shreds, pulverized it, and slowly let it pour into your hand as an insignificant mound of ashes. And it was this raw and selfless delivery of every joy, every grief, every rage, and every sorrow that made her human. But, to her, she was merely a songwriter with an idea and a way with words.

Countless times over the years, she has sat with Trey writing songs that would take his breath away, he would have to remind himself to breathe; he wasn't the one going through the pain but her songs could make him feel each piercing stab in his heart. When he read her words, he knew that this was real. The intensity of the pain she was going through, but his best friend was stubborn. And, she liked to pretend, like a bad habit, that the lyrics she poured out weren't personal.

As Trey watched the look on his best friend's face in that booth, sunk down in that chair, scribbling on her infamous notebook, he knew this was one of those times. Her words were flowing out onto a sheet of paper, instead of expressing what she was feeling aloud. It was her way of processing the challenges in her life and it became her very own therapy session.

Amongst all the things she knew how to do, this, having a potential working relationship, wasn't one of them. This territory she found herself in had become something she didn't know how to conquer. She no longer suffered from a broken heart, there were no familiar scars. This territory was uncharted...

Her hand perfectly scripted each word on the paper, never backtracking; she wrote her thoughts out on the lines.

Just me, in a room sunk down in a house in a town, and I
Don't breathe, no I never meant to let it get away from me
Now, too much to hold, everybody wants has to get their hands on gold,
And I want uncharted.
Stuck under this ceiling I made, I can't help but feeling...

She looked at her words, foolproof of exactly how she was feeling.

I'm going down,
Follow if you want, I won't just hang around,
Like you'll show me where to go,
I'm already out, of foolproof ideas, so don't ask me how
To get started, it's all uncharted...

            Adilyn reached for her phone, noticing the blinking voicemail icon on her phone. She had missed a call from Justin. A smile appeared on her face at just the thought of him. She pressed the voicemail key and listened to it begin.

Two voicemails.

"Hey Adilyn..." His voice trailed off. "Unbeknownst to me, I have a work thing tonight that I can't get out of... I wanted to spend time with you... I feel terrible..." She felt her heart began to ache. It was going to be the first of many heartaches, she thought.

She ended the voicemail and walked toward the room where her best friend still sat.

"You okay?" Trey asked, "You seem to go from cloud nine to cloud negative nine..."

She turned back to him, "Reading between the lines again Trey?"

"You won't tell me, so I have to." He answered.

She shook her head, dropping her things into her bag. The pit in her stomach ached. "Why am I hurt that he wants to cancel?" She laughed at herself, pushing the door in front of her. "Silly me... thinking anything could actually... " She stopped herself, there was no point going into any details.

Trey climbed out of his chair and rushed through the door, attempting to catch up with her. "Justin? He cancelled?" He asked surprised.

She placed her bags down on the passenger seat in her car. "Of course he did."

"Why?" Trey demanded.
            "Does it matter?" She fired back before she realized she was taking it out on Trey when he didn't deserve the hostility. "Some work thing... I'm going to go home and crawl into bed with a man that hasn't let me down in my life."

Trey watched as she backed out of her parking spot and drove away. He stood there until her taillights vanished in the space between them. The guy he took a leap of faith with, the one guy he thought was going to treat his best friend with the respect she deserved, didn't even give her a chance.

Making a decision of what he had to do, he did the one thing he knew to do. He couldn't let his mistake, yet again, hurt his best friend. After all, he took the burden for Jaxon not having a father.

Timing. Timing was everything.

Adilyn was a firm believer of when something was supposed to happen, it would in time. She believed that with every decision made, it was another piece of a plan already in place. In the moment of heartache or happiness, the reasons are unknown, but there was always a reason. The timing had to be perfect for each puzzle piece of her life to come together.

Her entire life had been compiled of pieces she didn't understand but she knew somehow all the heartaches, the let downs, the happiness and the joys had led her to this place in her life. Her happiness and joy outweighed the heartache of her downs.

Adilyn watched as her son bounced around the back yard with Ella. That little spring in his step, that smile across his face, that simple kind of happiness was exactly what she needed to see. He was all she needed.

She gazed out at Jaxon, as he picked up the ball and threw it as far as his little arm could throw, spreading a shocked look of excitement across his face when he saw how far he actually made it go. "I did it. I did it!!" He yelled jumping up in down with excitement. His proud moment, made everything about this day okay.

            He was the piece of her life that she was most proud of. How he came to her, didn't matter. He was the piece of her that would always be perfect.

Ella walked towards the glass, picking up the ball Jaxon had thrown and tossing it back to him before sliding open the glass. "Hey..." She said confused. "You're home early."

"Yea, we finished the demo." Adilyn said in a short response.

Ella could sense that there was something wrong, but knowing how Adi would react, she tried to talk to her without prying too much "...Well Jaxon and I are going to get lunch, you wanna come?" Ella watched as Adi began to shut down again. It had been a while since she had seen her like this but she knew that it was exactly what she was doing.

"No. It's okay." Adilyn walked through the kitchen, picking up her bottle of water, squeezing it in her hand, crackling the plastic, her nervous habit that Ella knew too well.

"We can bring you something back? Have you eaten anything yet?" Ella peaked out the door at Jaxon, tossing the ball through the yard.

"I'm good. I'm gonna go take a nap." She expressed, trying to convince her friend there was nothing wrong. "It was a long morning in the studio."

"Adi, I'm a great listener..." She offered.

"I'm okay..." She lied. "Everything is just as it should be."

"That's not so convincing..." She said without thinking, "Remember that I'm always here, I'm always here."

Adilyn cringed at the idea that she had to be with someone to be happy. She couldn't lie, there was the want for companionship with someone but she didn't need someone. "I'm okay with just being that little guy's mom." She pointed out the door at her precious little boy, "I don't need to be someone's girlfriend or wife..."

Ella raised her eyebrows, perching her lips, listening to her friend gibber words as if she really believed them. "Adi... I'm not sure if you are trying to convince me or yourself of what you really want."

            Throwing her arms into the air, she walked into her bedroom, shutting the door behind her. She was frustrated with everyone and this was the best option she had at the moment.

Lowering the blinds to the floor, crawling into a cold, empty bed, she felt the weight of the world on her chest. He cancelled on me, yet I'm the bad guy. She thought shaking her head.

Her insecurities began to set in. He knew nothing about me, yet still didn't want me.

            She buried her head in the pillow, covering her head with the blankets. She was going to sleep, and then awake with a new outlook. Or at least she hoped she would.

####

"GET UP!" Trey forcefully roared through her bedroom, waking her from a not-so-sound sleep. She leaned up enough to make sure it was him, rolled to the other side of the bed, covering her face again. "Get your ass up." He bellowed again, but this time he was ripping the covers off her head and sitting next to her on the bed.

Adilyn sat up slowly, staring at the lines in the fabric of her sheets. Each thread, leading to another, wrapping together to become one large piece of material. Her fingers grazed over each one, "I..." her words began to break.

"Talk to me Adi." Trey pleaded, taking her hand into his, "Tell me what you're going through... this is deeper than today with Justin..."

"That's done." She shook her head, continuing to stare at the sheets. "Don't worry about it."

"Adi..." his voice broke as he thought back to the moment both of their lives changed. "I shouldn't have... that one night changed..."

"Trey don't...-" she began to speak. She knew that look on his face; she knew where he was going with this little speech.

But Trey wouldn't let her take the blame. "I should have never made you come with me..." he covered his face, the way he always did when he was stressed. "We would've never been that drunk..."

She took his hands down from his face; she wanted him to see the honesty in her eyes. "I made my own choices that night. You are not to blame."

"I can't let you give up on him because that one night changed our entire lives."

"I'll never give up on you..." She looked at the desperation in her best friends eyes.

"Not me." he interrupted.

"Then who?" She asks, now confused with everything.

"Justin." He expressed.

She rolled her eyes. "Justin cancelled. It's okay. It's just not meant to be. It's not our time."

"Call him." He demanded.

"I will not call him." She refused to even think about that option.

"Call him or I will have to... again." He admitted.

Her face froze, looking directly over at him, "What do you mean, again?"

"Call him." He repeated. "I'll be back to pick up Jaxon later. He will be excited about a sleepover at Uncle Trey's!"

"Trey, I don't need you to..."

He climbed off the bed, headed for the exit, cutting off her words. "Call him..." Just then her front door was shut and he was gone.

Frustrated at the world, she flipped over, pounding her fists into the mattress, screaming into her pillow. She didn't want to call him. She didn't want to face the facts, he just wasn't interested. Fighting her own demons was becoming a constant thing for her. She never made a decision lightly since the day Jaxon was brought into this world. She firmly believed that her life was about him now. She was determined to make him her world and she had done a great job at just that.

            However, against everything she wanted to do, she called him. There had to be a reason Trey was so insistent of her calling him. She didn't think that Trey would want her to call if it would hurt her even more.

 "Hello." He answered quickly and out of breath.

"Were you busy?" She asked.

"No... I mean well I was in the shower but no... it's okay." He paused, smiling, wrapping his towel around his waist a little tighter. "How was your day?"

"It was what it was." She expressed annoyed that he was pretending like nothing happened.

His tone turned to disappointment. "I guess that tone means you're not interesting in coming with me..."

She sat up on the bed. "Interested in going where?"

"You didn't get my voicemail?" he asked confused.

She runs her hands nervously through her hair, "I got your voicemail cancelling our date. Its okay, I understand. Business comes first."

He sat down slowly in his chair. "I didn't cancel..."

She cutoff the line she was sure he would come up with. "Justin... its fine. You don't have to make excuses."

"I want you to come with me Adilyn." A smile crept up on his face, "I don't want to not see you..."

Her face froze, her eyes wondered around the room in a daze. "Why would I come with you?"

"Well..." He tried to find the words. "I want to spend time with you."

"I can't come with you... too much press." She muttered.

"Come to the after-party with me... meet me after all the cameras are gone." He knew how much of a hassle it was for someone to deal with it. "I just want to see you."

            Her answer should have been no.

"MAMA!" he yelled, rushing through the house, leaping into my arms. "I miss you mama!"

"I missed you too" She held onto him for dear life. She stared into his eyes, feeling the innocent love of her flesh in love, making everything fall into place.

Jaxon bounced in her arms until she placed him back on the floor. "I seep over at Unkle Tey's." he stopped, "Un-cle T-r-e-y's" he said slower, correcting himself. Adilyn wasn't sure where he got his need for perfect grammar, but it was adorable watching him and his perfection. He bolted out of the room, heading into his bedroom when Trey appeared in the kitchen. He stood with his arms cross, waiting for her to say something. He knew she had two choices and he was hoping she had chosen the right one. He had made up his mind that he wasn't going to let her continue the way she had been living it.

"I was wrong." She confessed shrugging her shoulders. "He didn't want to cancel..."

"I know..." He reached his hand out for her to take it. As she gripped back, he pulled her in, wrapping his arms around her. Pressing her head against his chest, he inspires her. "It's okay to let someone in... it's okay to open your heart to someone again."

She exhaled a deep breath, taking in the power of his words. "It's just not easy."

He chuckled at her admission and how true her statement was. He closed his eyes, pressing his lips to the top of head. "I love you Adi. I just want you to be happy."

Should I stay or should I go?

            Adilyn asked herself that question only once before.

She could continue to pretend she didn't want to see him. She could pretend he was someone that had walked into her life, and was now gone, but that's not what she wanted. She wanted to see him, she wanted to know who he was, and she wanted to spend every moment she could with him.

Nerves weren't an easy feat for Adilyn. It usually resulted in her being rattled to the core, especially when she knew it was a matter of the heart. Against all the arguments she had with herself and her thoughts, she arrived at the club. Those nerves were getting the best of her when she saw him on the other side of the bar, in the middle of a large crowd of people, laughing and joking. Her hands started to tremble watching his face light up when he would smile, creating laugh lines across his forehead, dominating his features, giving him character. She wondered if she could make him as happy as he was with his friends.

His tie had been loosened, hanging around his neck, his jacket had been discarded, and a jack and coke resided in his hands. He was free of his obligations and it was time for him to take advantage of the free alcohol flowing through the building.

Long time friends and friends just for the night surround him. There were always women, gorgeous women that would flock to him. He would be flattered, if only they were interested in him, instead of what he could do for them. Tonight, that wasn't an interest to him. He didn't think twice about any female in the room. With his hand wrapped around the crystal glass, his friends talking up a storm around him, however, he wasn't really there with them. His eyes frequently wandered through the room looking for the one person on his mind, hoping when he would look away and then back at the entrance, she would be there. But time had passed and she was nowhere to be found. And just as he was about to give up on the idea, skip out on the party and go find her, she appeared in his view across the room. "She's stunning", he whispered to himself, his entire presence changing with her in the room. The smile on his face widened, she had come. Excusing himself from the group, he found his way to her.

His steady stride across the room drew her attention in on him even more. The flutter in the depths of her stomach caused the normally very sociable person in her to turn into a shy, timid, crushing-over-a-guy kind of woman. This was all new territory for her.

"You came." He reached out to take her hand into his, trembling with his own nervousness.

She smiled nodding, exhaling a deep breath. "I'm here." She still wasn't convinced this was a place they should be together. She wanted to be here with him, but there were many people that showed up to these parties just to find a story. Justin Timberlake with a mystery date, was not just a story, it was a headline. She was trying not to think about that part of his life, a part that wasn't going to disappear. It was something she would have to get used to, but whether either of them wanted to admit it, everything was going to revolve around this in his life.

Hours had passed, and in a room of full of wall-to-wall people, to each other, they became the only two. They were used to being around crowds all the time, everyone always wanting something, but this was different. It was about them and them only.

His hand was placed gently on her leg, his thumb softly caressing her knee, listening intently to everything she had to say. He studied the way her lips moved with each word, every flutter of her eye lashes, the smirk she pulled on her face when she was delivering a clever line, and her fingers as they brushed the hair out of her view, "I'm glad you came." he interrupted her.

His simple admission made her weak at the knees. If she had been standing, she would have hit the floor.  There wasn't any over-the-top fairytale moments; it was just the two of them, together and content in each other's presence.

She leaned into him, grazing the side of his face with her warm breathe and sensual touch, whispering into his ear, "You wanna get out of here?" She pulled back, full lust in her eyes staring into his just as wanting orbs.

Stunned by her request, her words couldn't register in his brain fast enough to make him respond. He stood and led her through the room, and out to the awaiting car, quickly arriving at the front door of his house.

**-*-**

Adilyn enjoyed watching his lips as he spoke to her last night as much she enjoyed them attached to every inch of her body.

Placing a gentle kiss on the perfectly perched lips of the man sound asleep in the bed next to her, she climbed out of the bed wrapping his satin sheet tightly around her, shuffling through the room. She turned back to look at the man she spent the night tightly wrapped around again. She knew that he was as perfect as it was going to get for her. She smiled as she lowered her head. There was something about this man that made her feel at ease.

She bounced down the stairs, attempting to find the kitchen. Rounding the corner of a long hallway, she sees a white grand piano sitting in the glow of the morning sun overlooking the view of downtown Los Angeles.

Her hands smoothed across the keys, the overwhelming passion for how she felt when she would play those keys made her miss the feeling of being on stage, singing to a crowd, listening to them sing her lyrics back to her. She lowered herself onto the bench beneath her, letting go of the grip she had on the sheet wrapped around her, resting her hands in a familiar starting position.

She stared at the keys, nothing she had ever played before was coming back to her. Everything she knew how to play was distant from her memory. Finally her hands shifted, pressing down her fingers, travelling over each key, playing something new. The keys were short and struck the chord of her heart. As each note released, she felt a piece of her falling into heartbreak mode, words flowing out as if she had sang them a ten thousand times.

"I thought I, thought I was ready to bleed. That we'd move from the shadows on the wall. And stand in the center of it all."

She was happy, but she feared it would all crash down around her with one simple confession. "Why am I hiding him from Justin?" She whispered to herself, staring out into the view. She had been hiding the most important part of her life from the person she wanted to be a part of her future. Her own demons were catching up with her. Was she embarrassed of the choices she made? Was she worried Justin would judge her for those choices? Was she scared of bringing someone into her life that would disappear, creating an issue for Jaxon? Was she protecting Jaxon, or herself? She wasn't sure who was benefiting from her secrets anymore.

"Too late, two choices..." Her eyes fluttered with the truth of her words. "To stay or to leave..."

Her tears bubbled over her eye lids and streamed down her face. Her guilt held a barrier over what should have been a glorious morning. She should have been basking in the glory of the gorgeous man she woke up next to but instead she felt the end nearing.

She scurried across the room, pulling the silky sheet along with her, covering herself up. She found her always reliable notebook in her bag next to the front door. She rushed back to the bench, making herself comfortable again. She scribbled down a few, along with a few lines she couldn't help but want to express.

"Leave unsaid, unspoken... Eyes wide shut, unopened..."

Her fingers alternated flowing naturally over the keys and over the previously blank sheet of paper. She scribbled more words down, creating a chorus and a bridge.

"You and me... always be-..." Her voice broke looking down at the words. "...So I've learned to listen through silence..."

Justin stood in the background watching her play in a way that he'd only seen himself play before. He could feel the passion in the way her hands flowed over each key. He watched as the golden satin sheet slid down her back, resting on the bench. Her hair swayed with her every movement against her bare back, the sun shining in on her bare skin, creating a glow around her.

Her hands stop moving, her words for the song came to a halt. "I have to tell him..." She finally expressed. The keys beneath her hands began to blur, she drops her head. She was going to put everything at chance, but she couldn't continue without him knowing what he could be getting himself involved with, what she was getting herself involved with.

"Tell who what?" He said almost nervous.

"Justin..." she said breathlessly, turning to see him sitting next to her on the bench.

He kissed her shoulder gently; looking at the notepad lying on top of the piano with lyrics sprawled across it. "Writing another depressing song?" He asked picking it up, glancing at the words before placing it back down on the piano. "I don't know too much about your past, but I know someone hurt you bad enough for you not to trust anyone, but know that I'm not going anywhere." He smiled at her, leaning in to kiss her on the forehead.

"Well..." She said nervously. "I guess it's now or never." She mumbled.

"Now or never?" He asked standing up, backing away from her. The past hurt in his life left him with the knowledge and awareness of when pain was headed his way.

"Sit." she tapped on the bench. "Sit next to me."

He slowly lowered his body to her level. Sitting next to her, she took his hand into hers, puckering up and kissing the outer palm of his hand. "It's time to tell you the truth."

He exhaled a deep, painful breathe. "Okay..." He said waiting for her response. She smiled at him. As warm and inviting as her smile was, he was panicking.

"There is someone else..."

He loosened his grip on her hand, swallowing the pain down his throat.

"His name is Jaxon..." her face lit up, smiling at just the thought of her little man. "And he is the light of my life."

Pain scattered across his now pale, lifeless face.

"No. No..." she grabbed his hand back into hers. "My son..."

The expression on his face wasn't so comforting.

Justin closed his eyes, dropping his head into his hands, rubbing his stressed-filled-face. A deep gasp of air caused his entire body to adjust.

The moment his head had fallen into his hands so had her heart, straight to the pit of her stomach. His lips had been all over her sun-kissed skin, yet she felt insecure sitting next to him with nothing on. Nervously, she pulled the satin sheet tighter around her body.

She realized they were only days into whatever this was and she had dropped something that he never wanted into his lap. She was asking for too much. She knew there was the option for him to walk away; but a part of her hoped he would stay. She could only hope that she was worth enough for him to stay.

Choices. One night of choices.

She shook her head, mad at herself, for her choices, yet again.

"Another shot!" Trey yelled shoving a glass with the palm of his hand into Adilyn's view.

"No more..." She shook her head, yet her fingers wrapped around the glass, obviously ready for another shot.

"TAKE IT!" He yelled again, raising his eyebrows in excitement, planting a smirk on his face. "You know you want it!"

She wanted it; she wanted to feel nothing in the form of the reality that was her life.

Lifting her glass into the air, opting to cheer with Trey, she took yet another shot of the smooth, bitter tequila that sat in front of her.

As she bit into the lime, she tasted the bitterness of her emotions...

She climbed off the piano bench, holding tightly to the satin sheet, staring out the window at the view of Los Angeles. Sex changes everything. She thought to herself, closing her eyes. Only this time, her choices, there was no level of intoxication she could blame for making the choices.

She turned back looking at him, she could nearly hear his millions of thoughts circling through his thought process.

That distant look in his eyes made her imagine the worst.

Maybe in the future when he is ready for this adventure, he'll come back to me. She thought to herself.

Exhaling a few deep painful breathes she finally builds up the courage to express words. "I thought with time, you'd realize or..." She gave up on analyzing what may happen or may not happen. Deciding it was here and now that a decision needed to be made. "It's not the way I choose to live but... it's gotta be all or nothing." The simple words tasted bitter as they left her vocal chords and traveled off her lips into the space between them for him to hear.

His face brightened, releasing a smile as he chuckled. "Please tell me you are not quoting a line from some 90's pop song..."

She wasn't sure what he was talking about at first but it quickly registered what he was talking about. She plopped her hand on her hip, bobbing her head back and forth "2001..." She corrected him.

"Oh... Oh..." He raised his hands in admittance of any wrongdoing. "I'm sorry, 2001."

"I guess you of all people would know your pop cultural facts, you lived the boyband era firsthand."

A smile crept up on their faces. Their bantering over pop music details was comforting and just what they needed to lighten the mood. She stared out onto the view through the glass, focusing on the sun shining down over the city. "Justin..." Adilyn finally broke the silence. As much as she wanted to leave the mellow bantering words in the picture, she needed a definitive answer from him. "You and me..." She pointed at herself, and then him. "There can be no between the lines." 

The color seemed to return to his face, and his heart rate came back to a level pace he nodded his head, agreeing with her. "I don't care for grey area."

Not focusing on the words he just agreed to, she continues. "My choices... my decisions... they influence Jaxon more than they do me... and he, he deserves the best life I can..."

She thought back to the question she asked herself just yesterday. It was a simple question that held an answer. She looked deep into his blue eyes, making a statement she had no option but to make. "You have two choices... to stay or to go." She was asking for all or nothing.

Justin stood, walking towards her just mere feet away. Placing his hand over hers, he pulled her closer to him, slowly caressing her hand with ease. He looked at her genuinely, "When do I get to meet this little guy?"

She felt the knots in her stomach begin to tighten with each millisecond that passed. The quiver in her throat as his words finally circled through her thoughts, she looked at him, eyebrows arched with confusion. "I'm sorry... what?" In her mind, she already heard him say the words and he was ushering her out of his immaculate mansion.

"I'm not going to lie... This is a lot to take in." He admitted, "But I..."

"It's okay, I understand." She said disappointed, dropping her eyes from looking at him. She didn't want him to see the pain in her eyes. "I know-"

He lifted her chin up to bring her eyes back to his, cutting off her words, "I wanna be the one to catch your falling tears, before they hit the ground." He wiped away the tears that began to stream down her face. "I can't promise you all... we don't know what the future holds. All I can say is that when the water comes, so will the horizon."

She was stunned. A great guy was willing to take a chance on her, and her son.

"And Jaxon..." he paused. "I will treat that little man as if he were my own."

She had built up this heartache and was ready for the fall, but the fall didn't come. With a shocked face, she could only stare at him. The words he spoke weren't exactly what she expected. As his words continued, it melted her normally shattered heart. "I'm interested in you. And Jaxon is a part of who you are. I wouldn't turn my back on you because of that."

Wrapped in his arms, she felt relief in her heart.

Pressing play on the stereo in the back yard, Jaxon bounced around shaking every inch of his body. If there was music on, he was dancing to it. His arms swayed from side to side, lips perched on his face... his hips moving at a rapid pace with the beat. "Dance Mama... dance!" He took a hold of her hands, helping her sway back and forth.

His face beamed with excitement, which made her feel incredibly happy. His happiness meant the world to her.

Derailing the obvious had always been an easy feat for Adilyn. With no time to push the idea out of her mind and no time to make an excuse of why she shouldn't get this over with, she was only minutes away from Justin meeting the love of her life. She was scared and couldn't deny that; nevertheless she wasn't going to let the ideas of what could happen, defeat her.

Spending the day with Jaxon, enjoying the gorgeous California sunshine, was a well-needed, nothing-on-the-agenda kind of day. It didn't happen too often, and she was sure to take full advantage of it. She enjoyed days like these when they only consisted of her and Jaxon doing everything, and yet nothing at all.

She was nervous for what was about to happen. She had asked Trey and Ella to come fill the awkwardness that she expected to be in the air, only to in turn tell them this was something she needed to deal with on her own. She was happy with her decision, but making that decision didn't take away the butterflies.

Butterflies... she smiled thinking about him.

His hands seemed to be the bearer of all things great.

His hands wrapped along her jawline, caused an eruption of butterflies to swirl through her belly.

"How did I manage to get so lucky..." he whispered in her ear, nuzzling his nose into the groove beneath her earlobe, exhaling his warm breathe along her neck.

Her hands took control of his face, pulling him into her view, holding him perfectly still, staring at familiar eyes. She seductively whispered back, "You're about to find out..." Slowly her lips went to his, teasing softly before she allowed full access to deeper depths. She felt her worries begin to fade with his hands wrapped so perfectly around her.

A kiss meant more the deeper the sentiment.

Justin made her as happy as that little man who had planted himself in the grass. His eyes closed, his nose, identical to hers, basking in the slight breeze around him. He lay there, perfectly still, breathing in and out.

Her perfect little man always brought a smile to her face. No matter how bad the knots were twisting in her stomach.

Jaxon lifted his head off the ground, turning back to see his adoring mother staring at him. "Mama... come..." he tapped his tiny hand on the ground. "it with me!" She couldn't ignore his adorable request, plopping herself onto the ground to sit next to him.

She closed her eyes, flashing memories of her thoughts.

"There's so much I need to tell you..." her voice trailed off as she exhaled a deep breath, feeling the guilt of the words she knew she had to say.

Justin sat relaxed, naked, next to her on the bed. "You don't have to tell me anything you don't want to. We've got time to explore everything..."

"Jaxon's father..." She began to speak, "I don't..."

Justin placed his index finger over her lips. He could feel her words hurt more than she led on. He didn't know her story, how big or small it was, or the pain and heartache it caused her but it didn't matter. Whatever her story was, he could deal with it in time. He didn't feel like he needed a definitive explanation at that moment in time.

"...Adi." Justin whispered leaning down to her ear.

Quickly lifting her head, she bounced her forehead off of Justin's. "Ouch" They both cried out laughing, her hand covered her forehead as she climbed up. "Hey."

Justin leaned in and kissed her forehead, where he had just collided with her. "Hey."

For a moment, the scared butterflies were replaced in both of their bellies with butterflies of happiness.

"HI!" Jaxon popped up, his hand immediately went into the air. "I Jax-on"

Justin bent down to his level, "Hi Jaxon. I'm Justin, it's very nice to meet you."

"Me, nice too!" He beamed from ear to ear, "Wanna dance?" He asked.

"Of course!" Justin answered him, expressing all over his face as if that was a silly question.

Jaxon raised he hand up, placing his hand into Justin's. "Come."

Adilyn watched her son's hand latch onto Justin's as they walked across the yard to where the stereo was still playing music. Her butterflies shifted into overdrive. The simple scene of her son and Justin walking hand-in-hand was enough for a lifetime of happiness.

"Yet's boogie!" Jaxon demanded.

She watched Justin follow suit, mimicking exactly what Jaxon was doing, facial expressions and all. If she had any worry about his motives, they were diminished. He spoke to him in a way she could only have dreamed he would. Jaxon took to him easier than she could ever imagined. Justin had an ease about him with children, which took Adilyn by complete surprise.

"I brought dinner..." Justin manages to escaped running back and forth, giving Adilyn a sure sign that he was ready to eat.

"Hey Jax... you ready to eat?" Adilyn yelled across the yard.

Jaxon popped his hand to his waist, pointing with his other hand. "Me. Him. Dance Mama..."

Adi laughed at him, "I think Justin is hungry bud... let's eat then you can go back to dancing."

"Fine." He raised his left eyebrow at his mother before turning back to Justin, "Ustin, you ungry?"

Justin smiled at him, "I'm starving."

"Come..." Jaxon expresses as he pulls Justin across the yard, into the patio doors of the kitchen.

Jaxon dragged his chair closer to Justin's, jumping up and down in hopes that Justin would put him in his seat. And just as he thought, Justin picked him up off the ground, spun him around like an airplane before placing his in his seat.

"Tanks!" Jaxon expressed smiling.

"You're welcome buddy!" Justin smiled, admiring the unique way children spoke, and how as adults, they can understand them.

Adilyn wasn't sure if she was pulling them together or if she just lost her son to her boyfriend, whom he had just met.

As Justin and Jaxon sat on the opposite end of the table, she watched how they mimicked what the other was doing, without fully knowing they were doing it. They would run their hands over their heads, the same way, resting their hands on their laps, the same way. She chuckled when she washed them pushing their food from side to side, without actually wanting to consume any of it.

Men, she thought. They all have the same patterns.

Except this man, seemed to be perfection.

With her always reliable notebook in hand, staring down at words she wrote, she slipped back into a memory.

She found herself studying him in the early morning sunshine. Every detail of him.

His short detailed curls.

He was blessed with many things, and his face was one of them.

Her fingers trailed over every groove of his face, examining every mark, every detail.

His eyes sat perfectly centered.

His orbs, which she couldn't see but would never forget, were that gorgeous shade of blue that no contact color could ever be.

His eyelashes, that any girl would be jealous enough to have, were full and a mile long.

His nose, which he admitted he is self conscious about, fit him more than he knew.

His lips, perched and waiting...

Her fingers smoothed over his chiseled jawline, before she placed a gentle kiss on the perfectly perched lips she climbed out of bed...

She came out of the memory of their morning together to see Justin carrying Jaxon across the yard.

"He fell asleep in the grass..." Justin whispered.

Adilyn climbed out of the chair, opening the door for Justin to enter the house with the sleeping toddler in arms. She led the way down the hallway to his bedroom. Remaining in the doorway, she simply watched him with her son.

Justin turned to see her watching him. He stepped in the doorway with her, pushing her easily against the frame. They stood there, hand-in-hand looking at each other. He closed his eyes, lowering his lips to the bridge of her nose, kissing her sensually. If she wouldn't have been propped against the doorframe, she would have been on the floor. He made her weak at the knees.

"Thank you." She said taking his hand, wrapping his arm around her waist. "That went better than I thought it would."

He leaned in resting his forehead on hers. Pressing his lips softly to the very spot he kissed her just earlier when they had bumped heads.

There was this moment of time, when everything stopped, when they both felt whole again.

"I'm good with kids, you just don't know." He smirked.

"Well... I was wrong. That's for sure."

Justin beamed. "He is amazing."

"That he is." She proudly admitted.

Adilyn and Justin picked up the toys that led a path through the yard to the deck. Jaxon was really great at making a mess, a perfectly detailed and organized mess.

Only my son. She thought.

His toys could be scattered throughout the entire house, but they were lined up perfectly, or in neat piles. It was a sickness she was sure would only get worse as he got older.

They made their way to sit down at the table in the kitchen, cracking open an ice cold beverage that they had waited for all day.

"What a great day." Adilyn expressed, intertwining her fingers within Justin's. "I owe that in part to you and how amazing you are..."

Justin pulled his hand back to his lap, twiddling his fingers with the glass bottle in his hand. He had something on his mind, it was written all over his face. "His father..." Justin asked slowly. "Where is he?"

She swallowed the lump down her throat. The dreaded question she knew was coming again, but she didn't expect it so soon.

He could see the resistance on her face. "We don't have to go there... I know I said I don't need details but I don't want my ‘world' to cause any problems for you, for your son, or even his father. The world I live in, it's crazy on a daily basis and I just need-"

"That's sweet of you..." She cut him off, "But you don't have to worry about that." A twinge of guilt rested in her eyes.

Everything in her life would always come back to him, to that question, to that one night and to only the answer that she knew.

"He's not in the picture..." She finally admitted.

He nodded his head, "I only have one more question for you tonight."

She swallowed hard, expecting the worst, even though in that moment she couldn't even think what the worst could be.

"I spent some time tonight doing something I wanted to be doing with you..." He stood, extending his hand to her. "Wanna dance?"

She smiled, nodding her head yes. "But we can't play the music loud, we will wake Jaxon."

"We don't need music to dance." He spun her around, wrapping his arms in a tight grip around her, humming a beautiful melody into her ear. There was no need for anything other than the two of them.

Adilyn woke with a smile on her face, the scent unique to Justin breezed past her senses. The warmth of his body beside her wasn't enough; his scent comforted her. She could grow accustomed to waking up this way every morning. She scooted closer to him, invading his space.

Comfortable, she closed her eyes and listened to the gallop of his heart.

In a perfect world, this was how it was always going to stay. But, knowing the twists and turns that her life had already taken, she couldn't expect utopia to last.

Case and point.

When her eyes opened again, he was gone and the bed was empty. This is the scene she was used to seeing day after day. Climbing out of bed she wandered through the house looking for him. She checked the living room, the kitchen, and the back patio with no luck. She knew he was still in the house, his shoes were still next to the door and his keys were on the kitchen counter.

Heading back towards the bedroom, she saw a shadow in the hallway leading to Jaxon’s room. Justin stood across the room, watching Jaxon sleep. Up until now, Trey was the only guy in her life that ever worried about Jaxon. It was an overwhelming warmth of emotions, seeing a guy genuinely worry for the welfare of the love of her life.

She stepped up behind him, wrapping her arms around his stomach, resting her head against his shoulder blade.

“Was it hard?” He asked in a whisper, continuing to watch Jaxon sleep. “Raising him alone?”

She exhaled deeply, remembering back to all the small details that she never thought she would ever have to deal with. The endless nights with a crying, hungry baby. The emptiness in her life. The bitter after-taste of her actions. The joy she finally found in the presence of that little man she never thought she would. Even with the stress of his father’s absence, she managed to overcome everything.  Her worry and stress wasn’t her being selfish, it wasn’t for her benefit at all. She stressed over the pain Jaxon would deal with as he grew up not knowing his father. The pain he would feel over his father not being there for the little moments… or the big events.

She thought, countless times, that it would be easier for Jaxon if he knew neither of his parents. He could have a fresh start, without the burden of his mother's mistakes resting on his shoulders. “Hardest decision of my life.” She whispered back. She knew Justin knew nothing about the potential adoption or the agony she went through to make that decision, but somehow she sensed that he knew it had to be an option. They were cut from the same cloth. They both knew what it was like being on the road; they both knew how much relationships are strained by the miles that separate.

“I can’t even imagine…” He trailed off.

She twisted him around until his body was flush with hers, and she was staring into his eyes. “It’s made me the woman I am today.” She smiled at him confidently, “Being that little man’s mom changed everything. And I wouldn’t trade any of it.”

He placed a gentle kiss on the tip of her nose. “You are a magnificent woman.”

Hand-and-hand, they walked down the long hallways towards the kitchen.

The joy of cooking for a toddler wasn’t always something that captivated an audience. But here was this incredible man, leaning against the counter, sipping on his piping hot morning coffee, watching his gorgeous girlfriend walk around the kitchen in only a pair of boyshorts and a paper-thin tank top.

Normally the kitchen was the least occupied room in the house, but it’s a place she could get used to spending some time in.

Justin was lost in his own thoughts as he glanced over the rim of his coffee cup. Who needed a television, when he had the best program strutting around him? He was trying not to stare, but it was a difficult task for him.

Adilyn walked across the room, disappearing into the pantry. “What do you want for breakfast?”  She peaked her head out.

You. Justin thought to himself, raising his eyebrows. “I’m not picky.”

Adilyn chuckled as she walked back across the room towards him, leaning into his chest. “I beg to differ.”

“Well, I’m not picky about breakfast food…” He admitted as his hands went to the ample part of her backside.

“How’s pancakes? Jaxon loves them.” She suggested.

“Yet another reason he and I are going to get along just fine.”

Adilyn kissed his lips gently, “You are amazing.”

He pulled her closer to him. “Are we talking dirty already this morning?”

She tilted her head sideways, “No, I’d prefer to act on the dirtiness versus just talking about it.”

A smile widened on his face and his hands were back on her body, gripping her waist as he lifted her to the counter. With everything she had, even though she wanted to do more, she knew it was always an option for Jaxon to come waltzing out of his room and see them in a compromising position in the kitchen. It took everything she had to stop but she dropped her head down to rest her forehead on his, catching her breathe, talking herself down from the adrenaline she was fueling off of him.

“Breakfast” she whispered. “Breakfast.” She hopped down from the counter and rushed into the pantry.

She couldn’t see him or feel his hands on her but she fumbled through the shelves, looking for all the ingredients she was going to need. Her mind was erased of everything she knew.

She couldn’t count how many times she had made pancakes for Jaxon, it was that high of a count, and she stood there with a blank thought on what she needed. Finally though, she figured it out. One by one the containers were bundled up in her arms and she was heading back into the kitchen.

“You need help?” Justin jumped up taking things from her arms.

“I got this.” She bumped her hip off of his. “Go sit, enjoy your coffee. Read the paper.”

Justin picked up the newspaper that had to be a least a week old, when he spotted a stack of legal paperwork with her name staring back at him. “Having second thoughts?”

Adilyn moves her eyes across the room to his face, glancing down at what he was referring to. “No. I just haven’t had time to really read through them.” Adilyn indeed though had second thoughts about signing the new contracts for Sarah Connor. She wasn’t sure what to do about that entire situation, but she knew that the only way she would continue to receive her royalties regularly would be to sign that contract. She didn’t want to have any involvement with the past at all. She didn’t want to have someone so negative about her pregnancy a part of her now comfortable life. But after all, those contracts and royalties paid the bills.

“Do you mind if I read these?” He asked, holding up the stack of papers on her counter.

“Sure, makes no difference to me.” Adilyn said poking her head out of the pantry. “I need to sign them and get them over to the label this week.”

Justin raised his eyebrows. Reaching for his glasses he placed them on his face, rereading the lines he had just read a couple times. “Adi…” He said with confusion.

Finally she reemerged with a final handful of ingredients. “Tennman…”

He shook his head at her new nickname for him. “This rate…” He points down at that the renewed contract she needed to sign. “Is this a typo?"

Adilyn dropped the items on the counter and scurried back across the room.

She pointed at the percent rate, “That?”

“Yea… is that a typo?”

“No. It’s actually a bigger number than before!” She beamed.

He spun her around and sat her down on his lap, kissing her shoulder. “I think you need to show this to your lawyer before you sign those…”

“Why? Don’t I want to sign if they are giving me more money?”

“As great as that sounds, there is something not right about it.” He glanced back over the pages, reading each line. “I think that something else is going on…” he flipped the pages again.

“I don’t understand.” She said confused.

“Adi… these royalties numbers are more than double what a ‘writer’ gets for a song.”

She climbs off his lap and walks over to the counter, mixing the ingredients. “I guess I will drop them off to the lawyer before I sign them. Last thing I need is to be sued later for them overpaying me.”

Justin sips back more coffee, “I don’t think that’s going to be the issue.”

Not wanting to talk business Adilyn diligently finished the pancakes just as Jaxon strolled into the kitchen. “Mama—Ustin!!!” His face lit up. He was happier to see Justin than he was his own mother. He bounced across the room to Justin, waiting patiently for him to pick him up.

“Come on buddy!” Justin tapped on his legs, “How was your nap?”

“Boring.” Jaxon expressed, causing Adilyn and Justin to burst out laughing.

“You hungry?”Adilyn placed a small plate on the table next to Jaxon’s seat, reaching out to pick him up from Justin’s lap.

Jaxon wrapped his arms around her as much as he could, resting his head on her shoulder.

“Tanks Mama!”

In simplest terms, that little man had every string there was wrapped tightly around his mother’s heart.

Adi placed Jaxon in his seat, picking up her coffee she watched him, the way he smiled, the way he used his tiny delicate fingers to pick up the pancakes instead of using the fork. Her thoughts lingered to the days that lead her to the place she found herself in now.

“Trey Daniels.” He extended his arm to shake her hand.

 Nervously she stood up from her chair of the lobby, reaches out her hand to meet his. “Adilyn Michaels... it’s very nice to meet you.” Her stomach did summersaulted as she tucked her arms back across her chest.

“This was it.” She mumbled to herself following Trey down the long dark hallway into an empty studio.

“The label said you have your own stuff to lay demos for… but I should tell you that I don’t work for the label, I work for you. If you think something is wrong or not sounding they way you have envisioned it, tell me.”

His words were exactly what she needed to hear. She didn’t want someone to come in and take away her thoughts and the way he heard something, to make the songs okay for someone else to sing.

“Are you ready?” He asks sitting down with his fingers over the buttons on the soundboard.

“As I’ll ever be!” She admitted as she dropped her ever-so-trusty notebook on the board.

“This should help us.”

Trey look up at her and back down at the frayed edges of the paper that filled the notebook. “Is that full?”

She smiled at him. “That one is.”

“You have more than one?” He asked.

 “I have a couple more.” Adilyn said proudly.

Trey shook his head with a smile on his face. He knew that she was the real deal from that moment. And from day one, Trey and Adilyn had an undeniable chemistry in the studio.

They became inseparable both personally and professionally.

The two of them could knock out a half dozen tracks in a marathon recording session in one night, but then there was times when they would spend all night stuck on one minor issue. Only resulting in it being thrown out completely because if they couldn’t fix exactly what they thought was wrong, there was no point in putting something together that was not perfect.

He was there for those long nights of not sleeping and accomplishing nothing. He was there when the biggest opportunity of her career was offered to her and it somehow managed to find them both in the city of angels.

And he was there, the night her life changed.

It only took one choice, at the end of one very bad week, to make one moment, on one night, change her entire being.

“Ugh.” Adilyn sighed heavily, frustrated with herself, forcefully slamming down the headphones. “Why the fuck can’t I get this right? Why has everything I touched seem to fail miserably lately?”

She exited the sound booth and slammed her body down in the chair at the board.

Tears, rare tears, streamed down from her eyes.

 “You need a break.” Trey expressed, watching the tears continue to steam down her face, even as she turned her head away from his view, he could still see her pain. In all the years

Trey had known Adilyn, he had never seen her cry.

“I don’t have time for a break.” She snapped, wiping away the tears with the back of her hand, “Sarah wants these tracks by Thursday. The label will have my ass if these demos are not finished before she gets here.”

 “Screw the label.” Trey announced. “If it’s not right, it’s not right.”

Adilyn hit the floor, sobbing into her hands. “I can’t do this anymore… I just can’t.”

Swallowing the lump in his throat, Trey hovered over her, wrapping his arms around her. Letting whatever was the real reason she was breaking down cry out of her. “Come…” Trey finally expressed.

He put her in the front seat of his car and they sped off to the closest bar he could find.

“Can I get a round of tequila please?” Jaxon asked the bartender.

“Make em’ a double!” Adilyn expressed.

“We are going to drink away whatever this issue is… deal?”

Adilyn tapped her glass off of Trey’s, “Deal.”

Drink after drink. Shot after shot, they sat there in their tequila fuzz.

“I goin in...” She slurred, pointing in a direction behind her. Her arm hanging out in the air made her body weight unbalanced and she nearly fell.

“Me, more drink.” Trey slurred back at her.

As she made her way across the bar a dark haired man stumbles to her, spilling his beverage in his path. “My buddy over th-there…” he stutters, “He… you should go talk to him…”

She squinted her eyes, trying to see clearly across the long room, “Which one?” She looked harder, but everything seemed to be a blur.

He extended his arm in the air, pointing in the direction of a man with two drinks in his hand. “Him…. in the plaid.”

Adilyn placed one foot in front of the other and headed in his direction.

 “Adilyn.” Justin asked. “Adilyn”

She snapped her head up and looked over at him across the table, but he was on the floor with Jaxon, chasing each other with cars around on the wooden floor. “I need to take Jaxon to Ella and get to the studio.” She responded quickly, disappearing down the hallway, collecting the things she needed for Jaxon.

Justin found her in Jaxon’s room, tossing things into a bag. “You okay…?”

“Yea… it’s just going to be a busy day. I need to get moving.”

“Are you sure… you seem like something just happened back there?”

She leaned up on her tippy toes, placing a kiss on his lips. “I’m fine.”

“Will I see you later?” He asked.

“Of course. Call me.” She delivered the line to him, but she herself wasn’t so convinced she would see him later.

Shaking her head like it was all wrong, Adilyn closed her eyes attempting to recollect her thoughts and get back to the work she so desperately wanted to finish. The studio was wrapped in an eerie quietness that she hated on days like today. She needed to keep her mind off her personal life. She had the potential to produce the best material of her career, but she couldn't do it like this. She couldn't put these thoughts out there for everyone to know.

Trey watched as Adi tried with everything she had to hide the pain on her face, but he could see it. There wasn’t much she could hide from him, even as much as she tried. The longing look in her eyes as she stared at the paper in front of her. The pen continued to make squiggles in the shape of the number eight was the sure sign that she wasn’t really here.

In her daze, she always seemed to come back to one scene in particular. She couldn't erase it from her memory. She thought about it more than she should, and on days like today, days when she needed her mom, the memory was vivid and alive. She longed for the comfort from someone that should show her no judgment. But, her mother was not that person.

“I'm pregnant,” sad tears rolled down her face from her eyes. It was only the second time she had verbalized the bitter words, and it was a hard pill to swallow. Adilyn knew this was the beginning of the end for her. Everything about her life, no matter what she chose to do, had changed forever. Nothing would be the same again.

She waited nervously for her mother to say something motherly. She waited for her to say anything. But nothing came.

Well, nothing came until the fury in her mother's face reached a boiling point. And only then did her mother's words start to escape her lungs. “YOU'RE NOT MARRIED!” she screamed at her, slamming her hands down on the table.

One night.

One too many shots.

One choice.

One too many attractions.

One result.

“Who is the father?” She bellowed, “Some random guy you met in a bar, somewhere across the country?” She watched the face of her daughter stay stone cold.

Adi wasn't sure what to say in response, the answer was obvious.

“You are not going to have a child by someone you don’t even know…” her mother’s words pierced a gaping hole into her heart, but they didn’t stop. “You are going to have a child out of wedlock, to a one night stand?”

That was enough for Adilyn. This situation had been stressful enough for her. She didn't need the one person that should just accept this choice to degrade her more than she'd degraded herself.

            “You’re divorced. To a man that cheated on you for how long?” Adilyn fired back, questioning her mother’s own choices. “So, I should be married, to someone I don’t know love because it’s the right thing to do? I should make the same mistakes you did?” She knew the words she was saying was going to make her mother’s dislike of the situation worse, but she knew that she couldn’t have an abortion, that wasn’t an option for her. And marrying someone that she didn’t love was even farther from her radar. “This wasn’t an easy decision for me… I have fought through my own demons for weeks to make this decision.” Tears streamed down her face. Her own mother was her worst critic. “I’m having this baby. You either need to get on board and be my mother or you need to simply leave me alone.”

            “If you have this child…” Her mother started to speak.

            “Then what?” She fired back at her, “You won’t talk to me? You won’t see me?”

            “I didn’t raise you that way Adilyn… I can’t be associate--…”

            “Sit back and be the mother you have always been to me… that person I understand.” She swallowed the lump in her throat. She began to whisper in the only tone she could escape. “That is the mother I’m used to.” Her tears streamed down her face, burning like acid as they skimmed across her skin. “I thought maybe just once, you would be the support system I needed…”

The front door of her childhood home opened, and her father entered. He flew in from Texas just for this meeting. He knew something major had happened for Adilyn to call him and say she had some news. He hoped for the greatest of options, but he wasn’t getting what he wanted.

            “There’s your father… ask him how he feels about it.”

With a worried look her father listened to what Adilyn had to say. The worry diminished from his face and he soon had the same look of fury on his eyes that her mother had.

“Adi.” Trey asked quietly. “ADI.” He raised his voice.

When the waters come, so does the horizon.

Justin’s words rang through her thoughts. With the darkness, comes the light. “I need your help.” She blurted.

            “Anything Adi, you know I would do anything for you.” He reached his hand, placing it over hers, “Are you okay? You seem like…”

She cut him off, “I need you to find Jason...”

            “Adi… I thought.” His face dropped in shock.

She stopped him, “I know this is something I said I was okay with just letting go… but I think Jaxon deserves to know his father. Even if I don’t.”

            “Why do you want to reopen this wound?”

Adilyn sat back in her chair, crossed her legs, and fiddled with the hem of her shirt. “Watching Justin with Jaxon… it breaks my heart. I want Jaxon to know his father, and I want him to have that kind of relationship with his father.”

            “This is your decision… maybe you should think about it some more. I don’t want to see you be hurt when we come up empty handed again.”

Her chest tightened remembering the feelings she felt when the last time, right before Jaxon was born, when they thought they had found him, only it came up short of nothing.

            “How can I not know who his father is? How can I be that person?” She shook her head, disgusted in herself for having a one night stand with a man she didn’t know. This guy either gave her a complete story with a false name, or this man never wanted to be on her radar again. Or maybe both.

            “We all make choices when we drink a little too much.”

            “That’s not an excuse.”

Trey reached over and took her hand again, “Jaxon is fine just the way he is. He has me. He has Justin. He will never be short of that male figure in his life.”

            “Who’s to say five years from now he won’t have either of you?”

            “You know I will always be there… did something happen with Justin to make you think about all of this? Is that not going to work out?”

            “Everything is fine.” She turned away from him. “Justin doesn’t even know that I don’t know who Jaxon’s father is. What will he think of me then?”

            “That man loves you. It’s not going to matter.”

            “He doesn’t love me. He doesn’t even know me.”

Trey sighed heavily. “If you would open your eyes, you would see how much love that man has for you just on the surface… And if you really look deep, you will see that he is madly in love with you.”

Adilyn rolled her eyes.

            “No.” Trey pointed at her. “You always do this. But this time it’s different. He is just as much in love with your son as he is with you. He would move heaven and earth for you or Jaxon… let him”

Several days and gallons of coffee later…

Trey sat in his home office, the glow of his laptop computer was the only sign of that someone was still up in the wee hours of the morning. Page after page, he scrolled quickly through the pages. He has been working on this mission for days on and off. He didn’t want anyone aware of what he was researching so he was attempting the searches at odd times in the day, mostly when he was alone in the studio.

            “Trey honey.” Ella walks into the office, sipping a glass of water. “What are you still doing still awake. Come to bed.”

            “I can’t… I need to find Jaxon’s father.” He typed another option into his Google search engine.

            “Jaxon’s father?”

            “Adi wants to try and find him again. I don’t think she can forgive herself for her actions.” He looked up at Ella and back down at the screen, “And I can’t forgive myself for leaving her there. If I would’ve just stayed there, maybe this…”

            “Trey, she is a grown women, you weren’t going to stop her.” She sat on the edge of the cherry wood desk. “Plus we wouldn’t have the amazing Jaxon if there were to have never happened.”

            “I do love that little guy as if he were my own.” 

She stepped behind him, watching him type in the name over and over again with different cities attached to it. “Jason Sharp?” Ella asked confused.

            “That’s Jaxon’s father.”

            “I never knew his name. This is news to me.”She crinkled her forehead trying to think of where she had heard that name before. She tilted her head to the side when she figured out where she had heard it before. She cracked a joke about some movie role where she had heard the name before.

            “Yea, Jason Sharp.” Trey answered annoyed that she was cracking jokes, when he was deep into a research that was hopefully going to give him some answers to share with Adilyn.

Ella took the strong hint that he was annoyed and she left the room.

Jason Sharp.

Slowly he typed a new name into the search engine, scrolled down the page, landing upon exactly what he feared he was going to see. He stared at the screen in shock. “Am I seeing this clearly?” He mumbled. “I… I… how could I have not…” he was at a loss of words. The mystery had been solved.

The sound of a car coming to a stop time and time again had become annoying. The sun was shining, and the temperature was rising, but otherwise the day had not started off so well. The traffic on the 405 was worse than ever. And if Adilyn could curse the person that determined a construction schedule she would wait in that god-awful traffic and drive straight to his front door. It never made sense to her why on Earth they would decide to shutdown lanes of this particular freeway down during rush hour, or for any hour for that matter.

It had already been a morning and for multiple reasons Adi was testy. The last thing she wanted to be doing was sitting in a car at a dead stop watching the people in the vehicles eating breakfast, finishing their makeup, or like this guy on the other side of her who couldn't resist sticking his finger in his nose, digging for gold. She had work that needed to be done and she was stuck.

Justin had been away from her in New York for days. But when she woke to a text message that said he was finally coming back to California, she couldn't wait to see him. Seeing the words, I miss you, on the screen of her phone warmed her heart. This man really did care about her. Even through her own insecurities, she could see and feel how much she wanted him in her life. Spending days away from him made her see how much she actually cared about him.

And to top things off this morning, Jaxon had been in a terrible mood. He whined and cried from the moment he woke up. The entire ride to drop him off at Ella's, he cried. He just wanted to stay with her. He had no real reason for being upset and that bugged her. She had to venture to work and leave her son that didn't want to be anywhere other than with her.

Adi looked down at her phone, it was ringing again. Trey had been blowing up her phone all morning. Even though she was on the freeway, not moving, she still resisted picking up the phone. She was trying to get to him as fast as she could. Whatever he had to bitch at her about was going to wait until she got there. And finally, after the longest hour and ten minutes of her life, she could see her exit. Granted it was going to take her twenty more minutes to get there, but she could see it. It was a start.

Annoyed, frustrated, and a still a little testy, Adilyn finally pulled into her normal parking spot. She slung her bags over her shoulder and rushed into the studio. But as she entered studio 4C, she stopped hearing something she had heard before. Something she thought no one would ever hear again.

"Can't ever get it right, no matter how hard I try. And I've tried..."

A voice similar to her tone and a beat she knew she had heard before reined through the sound system. She swallowed hard. "How did they find this?" She mumbled even more annoyed. Countless times Trey would find a demo she had started and would be determined to have her finish it. This wasn't one of those songs. This was a song she never wanted to finish producing.

Trey tweaked the buttons, changing the drum beat of the finished track, as he glared up to the glass to see her reflection standing behind him. "Why do you look so ticked off?"

"So many things this morning..." She pointed in the air, at the sound. "This song? Really?"

"I'm sorry Adi." He turned down the sound. "You know we still work for her. I didn't know you would­­­-"

Confused, Adi interrupted him, "Work for who?"

Trey confused as well, looks at her as if she has lost her mind. "... Sarah Connor. You should know her voice better than anyone." He chuckled, "You did sing with her for a very long time."

"That's my track." She blurted. "That's not Sarah, that's me."

"The label sent it over to me a couple days ago, wanting me to remix it for her first single."

First single? I never gave this demo to her. Adilyn thought to herself as she turned the sound up, replaying the track.

"As you break my heart again this time..."

Adi stopped the playback, but continued the lyrics. "Tell me a screwed mess. That I never listen, listen. Tell me you don't want my kiss. That you need distance, distance. Tell me anything but don't you say she's what you're missing, baby. If she's the reason that you're leaving me here tonight, spare me what you're thinking, tell me a lie..."

"How do you know those lyrics?" Trey asked."This is her top secret first single..."

She looked over at Trey, placing her hand over her heart. "I wrote those lyrics."

"How?" Trey mumbled.

"Remember that guy I dated that told me I was a screwed up mess? The same guy that had two dates the same night?" Trey nodded his head remembering that douchebag. "I wrote that song after that date."

"I didn't mean it that way... How did Sarah end up with it?"

"I don't know. I am the only person that had a copy of that demo."

"If someone brought it to her, she should have asked for permission."

Adi shook her head. There was something about the voice on that track that didn't seem right. She shook it off as thinking it was her conscious hoping no one would ever hear those words. She never wanted to be seen as that girl. As she turned around looking at the empty studio she asked Trey, "Where is everyone?"

"I asked them all to not come in this morning."

"So I just spent an eternity on the 405 for nothing?"

Trey walked around the studio, double checking to make sure they were alone. He flipped the lock on the studio door.

"You're scaring me."

"Sit." Trey demanded, pointing in the direction of the eating table.

Adi sat down slowly on the couch, dropping her bags to the floor.

"No, the table." He pointed again.

Completely nervous now, she sat down at the table.

When Trey began to speak, it did it in a quick tone. He knew the words he was about to tell her were going to be difficult, and they needed to be get out as quick as possible. "I was doing a little research on your mystery man last night when Ella looked at the computer screen from over my shoulder; she asked what I was doing..."

"Okay" She nodded her head, not understanding where he was going with this. "I'm going to need you to elaborate a little more because I don't understand where this is going."

 "She made a joke about the name I was looking up and laughed as she walked out of the room."

"What was the joke?"

"I'm getting there." He chuckled at her impatient hands fiddling with the hem of her shirt. "I did a little research." He sat up straighter in his chair, pulling a photo out of his folder, holding it in his view. "I found him Adi."

"You found who?" She questioned with both shock and worry across her face. Her throat instantly turned dry, her palms began to sweat. "You found Jason Sharp?"

 "Isn't it funny that Adilyn is dating the guy who played a character in a movie with the name of Jaxon's father?"

He replayed the scene in his head again. Hearing that name gave him chills. He knew this was crazy, he knew this was a long shot, but he was sure. He was sure he had found the guy Adilyn had been looking for, for nearly two years. The only bad thing, it was a person Trey didn't want it to be.

            He turned the photo around, placing it on the table in front of her. She immediately crinkled her forehead with discouragement, "That's an old photo of..." She stated. "I don't..."

He nodded his head, perching his lips closed, swallowing a lump of pain down his throat, pointing at the bottom of the headshot, interrupting her, "Read that." He pulled his arm back slowly.

            Her eyes traveled to the bottom of the photo, reading the words in black and white in front of her.

Model Behavior

Justin Timberlake as Jason Sharp

Her hands started to tremble. The name. A movie. A character.

Lies.

A dark haired man stumbled across the room, spilling resemblance of his beverage in his path.

"Hi, I'm Juan. My buddy over th-there..." he stutters, "He... you should go talk to him..."

She squinted her eyes, trying to see clearly across the long room, "Which one?"

He extended his arm in the air, pointing in the direction of the man in the back corner. "Him.... plaid."

"What's his name?"

"Uh... Uh... J." he fumbled with his words.

"J? Are you sure?" She questioned thinking she knew she had a lot to drink, but he should know his friends name.

"Yes." He said quickly, "J-Jason Sharp."

Adilyn maneuvered through the room, managing to not spill a drop of her drink, keeping it close enough to continuing sipping the alcohol, raising the level of intoxication to a new level.

Walking straight up to him, she leans into him, lightly pushing his against the wall, whispering in the sexiest tone she ever delivered in her life, "Hey." His body quivered underneath hers as his hands went to the small of her back, pulling her into him, lowering down to her height, his lips met hers.

"Justin?" She questioned. "Could it really be my Justin?" She wrapped her hands over her face, there were so many questions. There was so much blurriness of what this meant.

Even though Justin had claimed he wanted to stay with her even with Jaxon, she feared deep down this was not something that he really wanted and the moment he found out, everything would be over. Him walking away from her was the last worry on her mind. She wanted Jaxon to have his father. She wanted her son to have the love of both parents. If he walked away from Jaxon, her world would collapse.

"I need to go."

"Do you want me to drive you? Are you okay?" Trey begged.

"I need to find Justin. I need..." Her voice broke as she thought of the words she was about to say. When they settled into her thoughts, tears started to stream down her face. "Do you think he has known all this time?"

He shook his head. "I think he remembers as much about that night as you do." He paused, trying to collect the words he wanted to say, "Justin is a great guy. He has treated you and Jaxon very well." He paused again, looking up at her face, "I don't think he would run from something like this."

"Which explains why he didn't just leave us when he found out I had a child..." She paused, looking up at him with an empty stare. "We have a child." Her stomach dropped, she felt the bottom of the pit.

"Go talk to him. I have a feeling he is going to be just as surprised as you were."

She picked her bags up off the floor, turning back to Trey. "How ironic... the name of that song you are working on, it's called Tell Me a Lie." She lowered her head.

Back in her car she wrapped her hands around the leather of the steering wheel, gripping it tighter and tighter. "How could he be his father? How could this cruel world do this to me?"

Unlike her drive to the studio, not a single moment of traffic held her back. Mile by mile she drove with ease into his house where he buzzed her into long driveway, having his front door unlocked and ready for her.

"Hey babe!" He rushed across the room, bypassing his luggage that sat in the doorway. He must've dropped them off there only minutes before. "I thought I was meeting you at your place later?" He questioned pulling her into his arms. He could feel how tense her body was around and he knew there was something wrong. He leaned back, looking deep into her hazel, worry-filled eyes, "You okay babe?"

"J... I..." She attempted to speak.

He took her hand into his, caressing ever-so-gently the curve of her hand. "What's wrong?"

"Jaxon." She finally expressed, fighting back the tears.

His eyes became the size of saucers and panic surged across his face. "What happened to Jaxon?"

"Justin... Jaxon..." Her mind was stuck in her thoughts.

Justin. Jaxon. Father. That night...

Her daze seemed to come in clear when she remembered more of that night.

"Trace." She mumbled under her breathe, only causing Justin to panic even more.

"Adilyn, I am going to need you to use more than one word. You are scaring the hell out of me."

She covered her face before finally blurting, "You're Jaxon's father."

Silence.

The clock on the wall ticked for what seemed like hours before he finally spoke.

"How long have you been keeping this from me?" Justin fired words at her. "I thought you said his father was dead? That's why he isn't in his life..."

"I never said he died." She attempted to explain.

"How long have you been lying to me Adi? How long have you been using me?" He barked at her, word after word he continued shaking his head, pacing around the room. "I just... I'm not... I won't..." He turned to look at her, but in the midst of his tirade that had torn her to pieces, she had walked out his front door. She hadn't stuck around to listen to his hurtful words.

Words that started the day with I miss you, ended much differently.

Under the cover of darkness, people do things they'd never do under the harsh glare of day. Decisions feel wiser, people feel bolder. But when the sun rises, you have to take responsibility for what you did in the dark and face yourself under the cold, harsh light of day.

Are the answers to the questions that have kept you awake at night, worth the pain of the truth?

Sometimes, staying in the dark is a much better option.

The weight of her indiscretions and the reality of her choices lay on her chest. Her worst fear had come true and the pain Adilyn knew she would feel slammed against her. The question that haunted her night after night now had an answer. The blank stare in her water filled eyes showed how she really felt.  

Somehow she found her way to the other side of town, on the doorstep of Trey and Ella's apartment. Her hand felt like a ton of bricks as she attempted to ring the buzzer. She wasn't sure how she was going to explain to her amazing son that he was losing someone that he loved. It was the last thing she ever wanted to do. She never wanted to involve a guy in Jaxon's life for the scene that was about to unfold. This chapter of his life wasn't supposed to happen. She had suffered long, cold, empty nights alone so he wouldn't have this chapter in his life.

She stood silent waiting on Ella to buzz her in.

 "...Come on up Adi." Ella sympathetically answered through the intercom. Her tone was obvious that she was fully aware of what just happened.

Adilyn stepped on the elevator and waited patiently as each floor stopped, picking up passengers and dropping some off. She knew she had to pull herself together. She knew that Jaxon, her beautiful son, was waiting for her. 

A young couple being lovey-dovey on the far side of the elevator started playing with their daughter. The father had a hold of her hands bouncing along with her, spinning around, before she grabbed his leg and held on for dear life.

"Dizzy baby!" he joked with her. She clung onto his leg and looked up at him scrunching her nose.

Adilyn's hands started to tremble and she held the tears up until the very moment they stepped off onto their floor. She wanted that relationship for her son. She wanted her son to know the very best of his father. She wanted that level of love and admiration for one another. Jaxon was a mama's boy, but she desperately wanting him to be a daddy's boy.

"Can't I get one ‘get out of jail free card'? Just one time..." She mumbled to the sky.

She walked out of the empty elevator, dropping her head, making sure she didn't make eye contact with anyone.

Ella was waiting for her when she got their door. Adi could see she already knew the news, it was written all over her face. Instead of saying anything they grabbed a hold of each other and started to cry. Adilyn closed her eyes, her thoughts were racing. She was hoping, wishing, and praying that she could pull herself together. She had to find the strength from somewhere to stand on her own two feet, even with the reality around her. She had always believed the day she found out who Jaxon's father was she would be happy and overjoyed with emotion but this day was upon her and she was heartbroken and scattered into a million little pieces across that big ol' city.

 Adilyn looked across the apartment, seeing her pride and joy jumping around. That little bounce in his step, was Justin. His little hand propped on his hip, head bobbing back in forth, gaining the attention of everyone around him, was Justin. His attitude, well that was all her.

She didn't need a paternity test to know that curly hair beauty was Justin's son. It explained so many questions, but also created many more.

"Are you okay?" Ella asked placing her hand on her shoulder. "Trey told me..."

"I need to get Jaxon." She confessed, changing her entire tone. "We are going to get away for a little while..." She wasn't sure where, but she knew that she needed to be away from everyone and everything.

"I can keep Jaxon if you want to go..."

"My son is my only priority. I have to be strong for him." She wiped her tears once again from her face as she walked further into the room, Jaxon took notice that she was in the room.

"MAMMA!" He expressed, running towards her.

She kneeled down, picking him up, squeezing him tighter than she ever had before.

He was her life.

"Mama cry." Jaxon says puckering up his lip.

She brushed his curls off to the side of his face, revealing more of Justin than she had ever seen in him before. His jawline, was Justin. His eyebrows, was Justin. His ocean blue eyes, was Justin. The curls she thought were hers, was Justin.

How could she have missed the details? She thought to herself.

"I'm okay Jax... I'm okay."

He had a way of knowing she was upset and lying to him. He saw through her front. He laid his head down on her shoulder.

"Adi..." Ella's voice broke. It was hard for her watch her dear friend fall to pieces.

She turned back to Ella, "Maybe it would have been best if I would have let the situation go. Maybe I should have listened to Trey, because I not only reopened the wound, I bursted it at the seams." More painful tears streamed down her cheeks. "I wanted the answers, I didn't need them. I was selfish. And now my son is going to pay the price."

"... I'm so sorry."

Adi reached out and hugged Ella. "I love you. But this is my fault. Everything about that night is my fault."

"Adi." Ella gained her attention again, "Maybe this was in some weird way, this is fate. Maybe you and Justin were just destined..."

Shaking her head, Adilyn climbed onto the elevator.

Jaxon climbed into his car seat where he found his toys he had shoved into the pouch on his car seat. She watched him in the mirror examining every detail of the gadget in his hand. His attention to detail could have come from either of his parents. They both shared that god-awful nact for details.

Adi's felt like cement blocks had been attached to her feet. She couldn't see her son and not see all the things that were Justin. How it took her so long to see it she would never understand. It never crossed her mind to even put Justin in that category. But now, she was forced to see it.

Jaxon jumped out of the car and darted for the front door. "Come mama, come!"

"I'm coming buddy, I'm coming." She lifted her stone feet and made it to the door and Jaxon, full of energy ran into the house, heading straight for his box of toys.

"Wanna play cars wit me mama?"

Adilyn bent down to his level. "We are gonna go on a trip? You wanna go?"

His eyes light up. "Me go! Back to car!"

"How does a plane ride sound?"

His hands flew in the air, spread out like wings. "Plane! Plane!"

He jumped into his mother's arms and she began to sing to Jaxon the way she has countless times before. She loved having him tiny arms wrapped around her neck, she loved to watch his face when the sound of her beautiful voice would sing to him. "God gave me you for the ups and downs... God gave me you for the days of doubt..." Emotion filled tears streamed down her face. She slowly caressed the side of his face, swaying back and forth.  "For when I think I've lost my way, there are not words here left to say, it's true, God gave me you... He gave me you."

Jaxon's arms wrapped tighter around her body, whispering "I wuve you Mama."

That's what she needed to hear. His head on her shoulder reassured her that somehow they will stand on their own two feet again.

As she places his tiny feet on the ground and he runs to his little bag, shoving toys into his bag. "Me need these for plane."

"You can't take them all buddy."

"Ugh." He crinkled his forehead, "Fine."

Laughing for the first time she sees her stubborn son still trying to shove things into his bag, he got his packing skills from his mother. She had always been an over packer, which she was currently doing. Item by item she places each into her oversized suitcase. She was packing enough clothes for a month.

Hearing the front door open and shut, she stepped into the hallway and started towards the living room.  She could only assume it was Trey and he was coming to try and rescue her once again. Any other moment in time she would have fought him to the end, only this time she was ready and willing for him to rescue her. But when she rounded the corner she saw who was placing his keys into his pocket and walking in a daze that she herself has become accustomed to today. She quickly turned around and headed straight back to her bedroom.

Justin approached the door of her bedroom to see a suitcase placed on the bed, open and nearly full with clothes. "Where are you going?"

 "I'm taking my son out of this mess..." She selfishly admitted. "I'm going to take him somewhere we can just be alone. My son deserves..."

"Our son." He admitted interrupting her.

"Justin..." She said annoyed.

"Adi, don't shut me out. Don't run from this."

"Why not? You knew for a total of thirty seconds that you were a father and ran."

"I made the wrong choice. I screwed up." He took her hand, "I'm here now."

She pulled her hand slowly out of his, her motherly instincts kick in. "My son doesn't deserve someone that runs from him."

"Our son. That is my son as well." His facial expression changed looking across the hall, seeing for the first time, his son. He had seen Jaxon countless times, but it was different then, now this was his flesh and blood. He was no longer looking at his girlfriend's child, he was looking at his son.  "I have a son." Justin felt the instant pressure and responsibility of those words.

"USTINN!!!" Jaxon bolts across the hallway bouncing up and down.

Justin knelt down to his level, braces his knees on the floor. "Hey buddy!"

"I miss you." Jaxon expressed wrapping his tiny arms around him. "Where you go?"

"I had to work buddy." Justin smiled, "I'm not going anywhere anymore... I promise." His words spoke clearer.

"Justin..." Adilyn snapped at him.

Justin turned to look back at her, "Adi."

"Don't make promises you can't keep."

He stands up, "Adi, I love you. I love him. I'm not going anywhere."

"I don't want you to love me because of..."

He cut short her words, "I love you Adilyn Belle... I've always loved Jaxon as if he were my own, now... now it's just official." His long arms reached out and spun her around, pulling her back into his space, "My heart just races when I'm next to you..."

Her eyes locked with his, but she turned away from him. Her heartbeat picked up at a quick pace, she felt it as well. He was whisking her off her feet but her wall was back up. "Quoting yourself from something you've made public about someone else doesn't make me want to have you sweep me off my feet."

With a stunned look on his face he manages to say, "What?"

"Justin, your words, your lyrics may work on millions of women but they don't work on me. I have too much in my life to worry about then to have some uber famous pop star singing my praises."

"Adi, I..." Justin watched the pain in her eyes. He knew that this wasn't easy for her, but she was trying to be a mom. She was trying to protect her son. But Justin was determined to show her that she doesn't need to worry. "This is a lot to take in. Everything about that night needs to be figured out but we can take it slow, work out all the details... together."

"I won't involve someone in my son's life that is going to just disappear. I will give up my life, my career, my dreams, my world for him. My son is..."

"Our son..." He interrupted her again. "You keep saying your son like I'm not standing here."

"I just..."

"You're scared... you're worried... you're panicking... you're being a mom, that's your job. But it's my job to be there through all of this. It's my job as that little guys father to be the best dad I can be for him."

She stood silent, she didn't know if he was just saying the right things or was he really interested in being the father Jaxon deserved. "Anyone can be a father... it takes a real man to be a dad."

He took her hands into his, "I intend on doing everything humanly possible to be the best dad that little guy could ever have. He deserves that." He pulled her back into his chest, wrapping his arms around her, resting her head on his beating heart. "And I intend on being the best boyfriend to you as well."

Tears started to stream down her face once again. He was saying all the right things. She wanted to believe him.

He pulled her face back into his view, wiping away her tears, kissing her forehead ever so gently. "Let's go. Let's get away..." He smiled.

In the pit of her stomach, she only felt emptiness. The day was filled with so much emotion that she didn't know how to feel about his offer. She wanted to get away alone. She wanted her own time to think though the events of the day. But there was something that kept her from running away from him and maybe if she had the strength, she wouldn't have uttered her next words. "Let's go."

The sun sets from the harsh light of the day.