About halfway through the day I'm beat.

When the music stops after the umpteenth time I collapse on the floor. Wade walks over to me.

"You still breathing?" he asks, pretty much out of breath himself.

I nod my head. "Barely."

He holds out his hand and I take it so he can pull me up.

"You're learning quick…just like your mom." He looks at his watch. "If you want we can take a short break right now. Replenish ourselves."

"That sounds good."

We walk over to the bench and I pick up a towel and start wiping my face and neck.

"How's your mom? I bet she's excited about this show," he says before he takes a drink of water.

I nod. "She's doing good and yes, she's very excited. I think she's more touched than anything. It will be overwhelming for her that night."

"I'm sure it will be."

"You going to be there?"

He slowly nods. "I've been invited."

"Good."

We both turn our heads to the new voice.

I smile. "Hi mama."

She comes walking over to us.

"Hey baby, how are rehearsals going?" she asks, kissing my cheek.

"Good."

Wade hasn't taken his eyes off of her.

"Hi," he says.

"Hi," she replies.

"You look great," he says with a shy smile.

She reaches over and clasps my hand. "Thanks…so do you. I'm glad you're going to be there. You were such a huge part of my career. It wouldn't make sense if you weren't."

He nods and then looks at the floor. "Well, it will mean a lot to me to be there so…"

"So, how's my baby doing?" she asks him as she shakes my arm around a little bit.

He looks up at me. "She's doing great. It's going faster than I thought it would. I have to admit, I forgot what it's like to work with a Spears."

"And a Timberlake," I add.

He nods. "Yeah…both quick learners."

"What time do you think you'll be finished today?" mama asks looking at her watch.

"Probably around five. Why? You're not staying?"

Mama shakes her head. "No, I want to be surprised the night of the show. I don't even know what song you're going to sing."

"You don't? You mean daddy hasn't mentioned it to you?"

She shakes her head. "No, I've asked him not to. I'll be back at five then and if you finish earlier, just call me okay?"

I nod and give her a kiss on the cheek. "Okay. Did you get your errands done?"

She nods. "Yes, I did. I'll see you later."

I walk over and grab a sandwich and sit down. I watch as Wade follows mama out the door.

"She's amazing."

Hearing those words makes Britney stop in her tracks. She turns around.

"Yes, she is. We've been blessed with a wonderful family."

He nods and then looks down at his foot, which is now playing with a rock on the ground.

"You happy?"

She cocks her head to the side. "Yes…very happy."

"That's good," he says softly. "That's all I ever wanted for you…is to be happy."

She places her hand on his arm. "I am. Our life together isn't perfect but it's us. It's our family…good times and bad. Thank God it's mostly good," she giggles.

He smiles when he hears her laugh. "Good," he says nodding.

"What about you?"

"I'm good." He looks back down at the rock on the ground.

"I was sorry to hear about your divorce."

He shrugs. "It wasn't meant to be. We rushed into it. I keep busy."

"So I've noticed. Your name is everywhere. That's great…as long as you're happy."

"I am. I love what I do."

"Wade…"

He looks up.

"I just wanted to thank you for agreeing to choreograph this for Adriana. The first person she thought of was you and I know you aren't doing this," she said with a sweep of her hand, "anymore but it really means something to her…to me."

"I couldn't say no. It's going to be a special night," he says lightly grabbing her hand.

She sighs. "I hope so. I do have to get going. I'll see you when I pick her up."

"Okay."

I look up as Wade walks back in the room.

"Tomorrow I'm going to have you singing with the choreography. I didn't think we'd get to that point until Thursday but you're moving along a lot quicker than planned."

"That's great. I'll have to work on that with daddy tonight then," I say with a mouth full of sandwich.

He nods. "Good."

"You going to eat?"

"I'll eat as you do another run through. I'll get a new view of the routine from down here," he says sliding down the wall to sit on the floor.

"Oh is that what you call it?" I kid him as I stand up, take another drink of water and walk over to the stereo.

He smiles and shakes his head. Yep, she had her mother's spunk.

Justin looked up from the soundboard and saw his wife walking toward him. He laughed when he realized she had her fingers in her ears.

"You can take them out, I'm not working on "the song"," he said making quotation signs with his fingers.

She moved her hands to her hips and said, "Good." She sat down on his lap and wrapped her arms around his shoulders.

"How is Adriana doing?"

Britney sighed. "She's doing great. Wade's really impressed with how quickly she's learning."

"You're just getting home now?" he asked looking at his watch. "How were you able to be there this whole time and not hear or see what was going on, Miss "I want to be surprised"?"

She laughed and gave him a quick kiss.

"I had errands to run," she said softly.

"Errands?"

She nodded.

"Brit, why are you being so mysterious?"

"I made a doctor's appointment this morning…but I don't want you to get upset that I didn't tell you," she stopped him before he could say anything.

"Okay…talk."

"Well, my periods have been very irregular lately so I saw Dr. Marsh."

"Okay…"

"So the first thing he asked me is if I could be pregnant…" She stopped when she saw the shock on his face. "I had to think about it for a minute. I mean I guess I could be…I'm on the pill but there's always the chance."

"Adriana…" Justin interjected.

Britney smiled. "Exactly…anyway I took a pregnancy test…"

"And?" he asked moving his hand to her stomach.

"I'm not pregnant."

He couldn't hide the disappointment in his face.

"So that means something's wrong?"

"He ran a couple of tests. I'll get the results in a few days. Most likely it's just stress."

Justin started to rub her back. "Do you feel stressed? You know if you are, you can talk to me about it."

She leaned forward so that their foreheads were touching. "I'm not stressed about anything more than normal. You know I worry about the kids." She shrugged. "I don't know maybe with Adriana being away from us I'm a little more worried than normal."

His hand moves up her back to her shoulder and he starts to massage it.

"Now can I lecture you about not telling me about the doctor's appointment?"

"I made it late yesterday…it was such a long day I never was alone with you to tell you. Then this morning, you weren't up when we left…"

He touched her lips to stop her from rambling.

"Cell phone…"

She sighed. "I didn't think it was that big of a deal. I figured I would just go and come back. He really shocked me when he mentioned pregnancy."

"How would you have felt about that?"

She traced the faint lines around his mouth with her finger.

"After I got over the shock…I think then I would have been worried. Justin, I'm thirty-nine."

"I know how old you are…and you're very healthy. I'm sure everything would have been fine."

"But there are risks."

"And in nine months we would have had a healthy baby and have been the happiest we've ever been."

She looked into his eyes and smiled. "I love you."

"I love you more. No matter what happens, we'll go through it together."

She touched her lips to his. He let her control the kiss at first. She took her time, tasting his lips. She moved her tongue across his bottom lip and then turned her head so that it slipped inside his mouth. His hands were gripping her hips as hers were on either side of his face. She worked her mouth slowly over his. He loved letting her do this. He nudged her legs so she moved around so that she was straddling his lap…never breaking the kiss.

"Where are the kids?" she whispered against his lips.

"Cody's in his room playing a video game and Ashleigh's at JC's," he said nipping at her lower lip.

She looked at Justin's watch and then returned her attention to his mouth. Her hands were on his chest now and she slowly moved them down to his jeans. She could already feel that he was just as aroused as she was.

"When was the last time we made love in here?" she asked looking around the room as she unbuttoned his jeans.

He was moving his hands up and down her sides and then he started to unbutton her blouse.

"I can't remember the last time…which means only one thing." He removed her blouse and bra at the same time and his mouth covered her breast.

She moaned and dug her fingers into the curls on the back of his head. She started to move her hips.

"What's that?" she asked breathlessly.

He started to unbutton her pants.

"That we need to do something about that right now."

As he unzipped her pants, she unzipped his and then stood up so they could both slide them off. Their underwear was removed just as quickly. When she sat back down she lifted the hem of his shirt and pulled it over his head.

"Then what are we waiting for?" she asked. She gasped when his finger found what it was looking for.

"I don't think we need to wait." He lifted up her hips and she slowly lowered herself.

She moaned into his mouth and started a rhythm that only the two of them knew. She clung to him…wrapping her arms around his shoulders and head as she moved up and down. He shifted a little bit and she gasped, grabbing on to the soundboard behind him to steady herself.

"Justin," she moaned.

"You like that?" he asked, trying to catch his breath.

She started to move a little faster and her mouth found his. She kissed him passionately. His hands were on her waist as he helped guide her faster…harder.

He could feel her tightening so he held off until she found her release first and then let himself go.

They both sat there, trying to breathe again. Britney was completely limp. Her head was lying on his shoulder. She could feel the perspiration on his neck with her nose.

"I love you," she mumbled.

"If that was an I love you then ditto," Justin chuckled. His hand was lightly caressing her back.

She moved her head a little bit so she could kiss his neck.

"I love your neck," she said staring at it. "I love the thickness of it and the shape of it." Now her finger was tracing his Adam's Apple.

He laughed. "Okay. There are too many things about you that I love for me to start now. What time do you have to go pick up Adriana?"

"By five."

"You want me to do it?"

She sighed. "No, you don't have to."

"I'd like to."

She lifted her head off of his shoulder and looked at him.

"Okay, if you want. Any reason?"

He shrugged. "I guess I just want to see how she's doing for myself."

"You want to see Wade?"

His eyes got a little darker. "I need to see him sometime. It might as well be today."

She touched his face. "Put the past behind you. It felt good to see and talk to him today."

He smiled. "I know. I try to forget what he did…or tried to do but it's still there."

"Justin, look at us. Look at our family. No matter what happened in our past, it doesn't matter now."

He stared at this beautiful woman in front of him. She amazed him everyday and she was right. It didn't matter now. His eyes wandered down her body. He traced a line down her neck and over her collarbone. He caressed her breasts. He moved a hand down her tight stomach and looked at where they were still joined together. She felt him hardening inside her again so she started to move her hips, which made him moan.

"Only this matters," he whispered into her hair.

She was already gasping. This time, she let him set the pace of their rhythm. She shifted a little bit as his hands on her waist helped to guide her back and forth. She grabbed the soundboard behind his head again for better leverage. He kept kissing her shoulders since at that moment it was the only part of her body his mouth had access to. He found a ticklish spot on her neck, which made her giggle. This only turned him on more and he guided her hips faster. They released together again.

"We need to take a shower now," Britney said.

"Okay…but I don't think we'll have time," he chuckled.

She sat back a little bit. "We can take a shower together without anything happening you know."

He gave her a look.

"Okay, maybe not. You've got to get Adriana so you can go first."

She stood up and started to put her clothes back on.

"This was a fun afternoon," Justin said, leaning down to pick up his clothes.

"Yes it was," she smiled. "We'll have to do it again sometime."

He smiled. "You can count on that."