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.