Page 83 of Love is a Drum Beat
“I don’t think Ali is all you have, Joey. You let Dax in here during the birth but not me.”
“I know. I’m sorry.”
“Don’t be sorry. That moment right then was you not needing me as much as you needed him. It’s when I knew.”
“Knew what?”
He smiled, the action reaching all the way to his eyes. “Dax is your person now, just like Melanie is mine. You and I… we came together at a broken time in our lives. We filled the holes in each other’s lives. But it was never meant to stay the same forever.”
“Dax is… When he’s here, I feel safe. Like I’m not scared of life. But you’ll always be my best friend, Noah.”
He nodded. “You’ll always have me, even if you need him more. You and I… we’re not done taking the music industry by storm. Plus, Ali is a Rockstars Anonymous baby. We’re here for you. Always.”
She nodded as her eyes glassed over. “I love you, Noah.”
“Joey, I will love you forever. It’s what family does.”
She wiped her eyes as another knock sounded on the door and Ben walked in.
“Hate to interrupt.” Ben shrugged. “But I didn’t want to wait any longer to meet our girl.”
Noah backed away so Ben could see Ali. “She’s beautiful.”
“Yes.” Jo smiled down at Ali. “She is.”
* * *
The hospital wanted to keep Jo an extra night to make sure she didn’t have complications after having the baby since she’d been somewhat high risk.
It was okay with Jo because it meant she didn’t have to move from this bed.
All day, there’d been a string of visitors. Drew, Ben, Noah, Melanie, Stella… even Mr. Snyder came by to wish her well.
But no Dax.
Ali slept in the bassinet, and Jo tried to sleep. It was no use. She pulled out her phone, hoping to find messages from Dax explaining his absence for most of the day. The song he sang played on repeat in her mind.
But there were no texts, no missed calls.
Her eyes navigated to the email app that said she had way more emails than she should. She tapped it with her thumb. The first ten were all from Devlin, her new publicist. He started each email in all caps as if yelling at her.
Something made him mad.
Under his message of “We need to clean up your mess” there was a link.
She clicked it and an article popped up. “The secret of Jo Jackson’s harem.”
“What?” she murmured. This was not good. She skimmed the article until she found a quote from Drew. “We’re her harem.” The article told a story of three rock stars claiming they were the baby’s father.
Jo rubbed her eyes. She had to be reading this wrong.
One person could tell her what was going on. She dialed Drew. He picked up on the second ring.
“Hey, baby momma.”
She could practically hear him grinning.
“Watch where you’re driving,” he yelled.
