Music of the Soul

“Can I help I married a woman who is sexy as hell?” Jake countered with a cocky grin.

Steve snorted. “Not touching that one, dude. You’ll just wanna kick my ass if I say anything about Abby.”

“Or tattoo ‘Property of Jake’ on her forehead,” another artist quipped.

Jake rolled his eyes. “She is mine. Aren’t you, Angel?”

I gritted my teeth through another round of needle pain before I responded. “You’re so cute when you’re a possessive caveman.”

Jake nipped my bottom lip with his teeth before giving me a lingering kiss. I guess most people would have found our one year wedding anniversary gifts to each other a little odd, but I was thrilled beyond belief to finally be getting a tattoo. I’d talked about doing it since I’d first met Jake, but like a lot of things, the time hadn’t been right. For some reason, I’d decided that my foot and ankle were the places I wanted to start with, which of course were the worst for pain.

“Okay, we’re done outlining,” Steve said.

Peeking open one of my eyes, I gazed down at my foot. “Oh wow,” I murmured, as I took it all in. It was a vine of flowers that also included a butterfly. The vine itself was made up of lines of song lyrics as well as scripture I liked. It started across the top of my foot and went all the way up to wrap my ankle.

“Think you’re going to live through the coloring?” Steve teased.

Oh God, there was more? I gulped. “I’ll be fine.”

“Maybe you should give her a leather strap to bite on,” AJ suggested from his chair across the room. When I glared at him, he chuckled. He and Mia were also getting more ink as well. For AJ, it was having Mia and Bella’s name written on his chest above his heart, and for Mia, it was an infinity symbol on her wrist with AJ’s and Bella’s initials.

“Don’t listen to him, Abby. He about pissed his pants when I did his half sleeve,” Becs, the only female tattoo artist, said with a grin.

“Whatever,” AJ replied.

As Steve started in on the pastel coloring of flower, I gritted my teeth. Focusing on Jake, I eyed the temporary tattoo on his pec. “It sure was luck that your left side was the side you hadn’t gone crazy with the tattoos,” I remarked.

“I knew I was saving it for someone special,” Jake replied, with a wink.

“Yeah, I bet.”

As the needle tapped along my skin, I stared at the cursive lettering over Jake’s heart. In a few hours, he would have Angel forever inked on him. It didn’t bother me that it wasn’t actually my name. Everyone knew who Angel was. There was no mistaking that it was anyone other than me. The very thought caused a surge a love to pulse through me.

When I looked back over the last year, I had so many wonderful memories to reflect on. It had sped by in a bliss-filled blur of mine and Jake’s love. We remodeled the house to make it more into mine and Jake’s home, rather than Susan’s. In between tour stops, we returned to our honeymoon island to have some alone time. Sure, we’d had our arguments and disagreements about everything from paint choices to my wardrobe. Now that we were married, Jake suddenly wanted my stage dresses to be longer and show less cle**age. Basically, he would have been happy if I had gone out on stage in a nun’s habit. That was probably the longest we hadn’t spoken to each other since our honeymoon blow-up. I’d even slept on AJ and Mia’s bus because I was so pissed at his Neanderthal ideas. He’d come around the next morning with flowers and a grand apology. Mia had snatched Bella up and taken her for breakfast in the diner before our vigorous makeup sex could scar her.

While it had been a wonderful year, it had also been stressful, intense, busy, and at times absolutely manic. Another album released and another cross-country tour had meant more and more time away from home. Jake had finally consented to bring furry Angel along with us because I was so homesick for her. Having a dog on our bus was definitely interesting, but it inspired Mia to bring Jack Sparrow along on hers and AJ’s bus. Miraculously, the two animals got along pretty well when we all hung out together. Both seemed united in their protectiveness of Bella.

Jake’s and my duet, Music of the Soul, shot to number one the day it was released, and everyone was talking about a repeat win at the Grammy’s. The label was looking into booking our European tour. While I should have been the happiest woman on the face of the earth, something was missing. Deep down I knew what it was, but I didn’t dare voice my longing to Jake or anyone else. I just tried to keep the faith that one day I would have the desires of my heart—one day I would have a baby of my own.

In the meantime, I channeled my maternal instincts into spoiling Jude, Melody, and Bella. I was also thrilled when Brayden and Lily announced that they were going to have a third, and final, child. Bray had finally talked Lily into buying their own bus and using her teaching degree to homeschool the kids while we were out on tour. The guys of Runaway Train were positively domestic now with their wives and children along. Only Rhys was still unattached. He spent his time on the bus with my brothers, and I didn’t even want to know what kind of bachelor debauchery they were up to.

Just when I thought I couldn’t take any more of the shading, Steve eased off. As he traded out colors, a sharp pain in my side caused me to grimace and suck in a breath.

“Hey now, I wasn’t even doing anything,” Steve said.

“I know. It’s not you,” I moaned.

Jake’s brows furrowed. “What’s wrong, Angel?”

“It’s my side, down low. I keep having these pains.”

“You should get them checked out.”

“I’m sure it’s just a cyst. I used to get them all the time when I was younger. Of course, I thought the birth control was supposed to stop them since I wasn’t ovulating.”

Now it was Jake’s turn to grimace. “Um, seriously, babe. TMI.”

I cocked my head at him. “Oh please. Like you can’t hear the word ovulation.”

“I’d prefer not to.”

With a teasing tone, I said, “Ovary…fallopian tube…uterus.”

“That’s enough,” he said, with a shudder.

“You’re too funny getting all riled about the female reproductive system.”

“Just promise me you’ll get it checked out.”

I held up my hand like I was swearing an oath. “As soon as we get back to Atlanta, I’ll go see my doctor.”