Page 94 of Lost Lyrics

This was what we’d worked for. We lived for. Were meant to do.

Play music. Tour the world.

I clutched my mic on the stand. My electric guitar hung from my shoulders. The hum in the air was alive. Electric. It coursed through my veins, coiled through my belly, and prickled my skin. But the vision standing offstage stole my breath...and owned my heart.

Sutton stood beside a small light. Others mingled around her, but I only had eyes for my wife.

Her long golden hair fell in waves across her shoulders.She smiled and twinkled her fingers at me. She blew me a kiss, swiveled her hips from side to side, then...patted her belly.

My breath skipped through my chest, filling me with warmth from my head down to my toes, like it had done every day for the past several weeks.

I’d never considered having a family of my own. It had never been on my radar. I wasn’t a never-say-never kind of guy. But when Sutton had said she wanted a baby, I was there.Wewere ready.

She was three months pregnant. We’d told everyone last week we were expecting. Our baby was due in spring, during the break between our European leg of the tour and our second run of dates in the US.

I was going to be a dad.

Fuck! That freaked me out. But I had a few months to prepare and couldn’t wait.

I unhooked my guitar and placed it on the stand. I rushed over to Sutton, caught her face between my hands, and kissed her. “I love you.”

“Love you too.” She swept her fingertips down my cheek. “But go. I’ll be here, watching every second.”

“Okay.” I bent down and kissed her tiny baby bump. “Love you too.”

With a skip in my step, I dashed back to my mic and picked up my guitar. The guys chuckled and shook their heads. Yep, they understood how stoked and smitten I was. They were just as bad over their wives.

I had my band. My friends. A gorgeous wife and a child on the way.

There was only one thing that could add to how happy, content, and grateful I was...and that was to sing.

Perform.

Play for this crowd.

I hooked my guitar strap over my head and swung my Fender into place. My pulse thrummed with a quickened tempo. My heartbeat thundered against my ribs.Night one. Let’s go.I gave the thumbs-up to Joel, our head stagehand who was standing stage left, down in our technical pit, surrounded by monitors, spare equipment, and racks of guitars.

He spoke into his headset, giving Tia in the main front-of-house control booth and our sound and lighting crew the cue to proceed.

The pre-show music ended.

There was a silence for less than a millisecond. My heartbeat filled my head.Thud. Thud. Thud.The lights in the auditorium went out. The audience screamed and shouted, clapped, and cheered. The video screens flashed to life. The metronome cues clicked in my earpiece.One. Two. Three.Cole struck his drums, and the curtain fell away.

As I hit the first note on my guitar, raw vibrations charged through my chest.

A sea of colored LED wristbands lit the huge stadium before me. Phones flashed. People jumped up and down. Arms swayed in the air.

What a sight!

I couldn’t stop grinning. Laughing. Dancing around. Savoring this epic moment.

This . . . was a dream come true.

I licked my lips. Swallowed hard. Drawing air into my lungs, I stepped up to the mic...and sang. We opened the show with our hit, “Feeling the Vibe.”

You kick-started my heart like no one else

The light in your eyes makes my insides melt

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