The next morning my cell phone rang and woke me up. I groan as I reach my hand out to grab it.

"Hello?" I say in a muffled tone because part of my mouth is still on the pillow.

"Uh, Adriana?"

"Yes?" I say lifting my head up a little more.

"Oh hi, it's Brad…I didn't recognize your voice. I woke you up, didn't I?"

I sat up a little bit and rubbed my eyes.

"What time is it?"

"It's nine thirty. I'm sorry I should have realized with your family in town you would have been up later."

"No, it's okay. I should probably get up anyway. So, what's up?"

"Well I was wondering if you had anything to do tomorrow."

"Tomorrow…" I start rubbing my temple with my free hand. "I'll have to look. Tonight is the show and then I leave for LA tomorrow evening I think."

"So you might have a few hours free tomorrow during the day?"

"I'll have to check with Tony but I think I do. He calls it a travel day even though I'm not travelling until later in the evening."

"I was wondering if you would take me up on my offer."

"What offer is that?" I ask smiling.

"Remember you said we could go hang out when you had a few free hours."

I bit my lower lip. "That's right…I did. But things have changed a little now…."

"We can go where no one sees us. Wasn't that the rule?"

I cringe when he says the word rule.

"Yeah, I guess."

"If you don't want to…"

"No, I really do want to. I'm just tired of all of this dictating my life. You're right, we should go out and have fun…just as long as it's not in the public eye. Or at least the public that would care. Not that I can see anyone caring at all, but that wasn't my decis…"

"Adriana?"

"What?"

"You're take a breath," he chuckled. "We'll work on the details when we get to the venue."

I could hear the smile in his voice, which put a smile on my face. "Okay…sounds good. Good bye Brad."

"Good bye."

I stare at the phone after I turn it off. A slow smile creeps across my face and I throw myself backward and scream into my pillow.

"You okay?"

I sit up when I hear mama's voice. "Yes."

"Wow…I'll take one of whatever you took."

I hold out my hand so that she comes over to the bed and sits next to me.

"Brad just called…we're going to go do something tomorrow before my flight."

"You're blushing," mama says as she runs a hand across my cheek.

I giggle. "No I'm not."

"Yes you are. I guess that works out well since we're leaving tomorrow morning."

"You're going to see the baby aren't you?"

She nods. "Yeah but we'll only be in Louisiana for one night because Cody has a play he's trying out for."

"Wow…he's a busy guy."

"We're trying to let him do as much as he wants in Orlando. If he's mad because we won't let him try out for Broadway then we'll get him as much exposure to theatre that we can now."

"I'm sure he likes that. He just wanted something to pout about."

"Hopefully that's over."

"Now, what about Ashleigh. Mama, she's really good at drawing and painting. I mean I knew she drew well but that sketch she did from that book you gave her was really amazing."

"I know, it was wasn't it? We've already talked to her art teacher. She said she'll work with her more next year. There's always the option of going to an art school but your daddy and I don't know if we want to do that."

"I liked going to a normal school," I agreed.

"Oh guess what?"

"What?"

"Your daddy was talking to Uncle Joey yesterday and Brianna and Angelica are going to be in LA this week."

"Really? Do they know I'm going to be there?"

She nods. "Your Uncle Joey is supposed to tell them."

"God, I haven't seen Angelica since Christmas."

Mama nodded. "Yeah it's a shame she couldn't get away from school to be there with the rest of the family at Icon."

I nod and then look at my cell phone, still in my hand. "I have to call Tony to make sure my schedule is clear tomorrow. I also need to see what time I need to leave for the airport."

"You're really excited about this, aren't you?"

I nod. "Yeah…whatever we do I hope it makes me feel normal. Like I'm a sixteen year old girl who doesn't have schedules to worry about or videos to shoot."

"Or photographers snapping your picture while you're out on a date…"

I lower my head. "He said we could go somewhere where no one will know who I am."

She lifts my chin with her finger. "Good. So you're admitting that this is a date?"

I laugh and nod. "Yeah, I'll admit it. You like Brad, don't you?"

She smiles and nods. "He's a good young man. Your daddy likes him too," she whispers the last to me.

"He's been honest with me since I met him. I don't feel like I'm a prize."

"Does Marcus make you feel that way?"

"A little. He's so worried about what's going on around him…"

"Some people get wrapped up in that. Get up and get moving, daddy made pancakes."

She stood up and left the room.

"So if I pick you up at ten that should give us a few hours until you have to be at the airport."

I nod. "Will that give us enough time?"

"It should. Not as much time that I would like to spend with you but it will have to do for now."

I smile. "So, you guys have a few days off until the Summer Jam tour. What are you going to do?"

"I'm going home for a few days…visit my mom."

"That's good. I'm glad my schedule doesn't keep you guys too tied up that you never get to see your families. You know, you can bring her to one of the shows. I'm sure she'd like it."

"I think this next tour swings by my hometown so she'll get to see it."

"Good. I can't wait to meet her."

He takes my hand. "You'll like her, I think. I know she'll like you."

I smile at him. "I'm sure I will."

There's a light knock on the partially opened door to my dressing room and when I look over I see a bouquet of flowers appear, followed by Marcus. Brad drops my hand.

"Hi…these are for you," he says handing me the bouquet. "Hi Brad."

"Hello Marcus. Nice flowers."

I take the flowers and smell them. "They're lovely, thank you."

"I just wanted to thank you for being on the tour. You've been the best opening act I could have asked for."

He was smiling at me. "Thank you. I had a great time. Your audience was amazing."

"They have good taste," he winks at me.

I see Brad roll his eyes. I cover my smile with my hand.

"Seriously though, this was my first time out going solo and it helped to have an opening act everyone warmed up to. Thank you."

I smile and look down at the flowers. "You're welcome. So, what's next for you after the tour?"

"We're going to promote in Europe. I'll do a few shows over there…you know, try to get my name out there."

"That's great."

Marcus looks from me to Brad and back again. "Was I interrupting something?"

"Yes," Brad says just as I say "Not really." We look at each other. "I mean we were just talking about plans for tomorrow."

Brad smiles at me. "I think we're finished. I'll see you at sound check. Good bye Marcus," he said holding his hand out.

Marcus looks at Brad's hand and then grasps it in his own and shakes it. "Bye. I'm sure I'll see you around."

When Brad leaves, Marcus turns around to face me again.

"He seemed…different."

I shrug. "I guess. I have to get ready for sound check," I say walking over to the door. I hold it open.

"Will I see you before you leave?" he asks, standing very close to me.

I look up into his aqua colored eyes and almost loose myself in that cute dimple of his. "I don't know," I say softly.

He leans down and pulls me into a hug. Slowly my arms make their way up around his shoulders.

"I'll miss you," he whispers.

"I'm sure we'll see each other soon."

He pulls back a little bit…his arm is still wrapped around my waist.

"Good luck, Ana."

He leans down and kisses my cheek. I smile as he lets me go and walks out the door. When I close the door I lean back against it and put my hand over my heart.

"That was confusing," I say out loud.

Ten o'clock the next morning…

"Did you have trouble finding the place? I'm not that good with directions," I say as I let Brad into the apartment.

He walks in and looks around. "No, I just told the cabby where to go. Your parents left?"

My smile leaves and I look at the staircase. "Yeah, about thirty minutes ago. They're going to Louisiana to see my Aunt and baby cousin."

He takes a step closer to me. "I bet you could have gone with them. They have flights from Louisiana to LA you know."

I look back at him. "Yeah but…" I shrug. "It's okay. I'll see them in a couple of months." I need to change the subject before I start crying. "Tony let me have the limo today…I hope you don't mind."

"I thought we needed to be hush hush."

I hold up my finger. "He let me have the limo but I talked him into a car."

He laughs. "Sounds good. You ready?"

I walked over to the table and grabbed my bag. "Yep."

"This is so nice," I say looking at the yacht in the New York Harbor.

"My uncle knows the owner…he pulled some strings."

He started up the plank to the yacht and held out his hand for me to take. I grabbed it and let him pull me up. We walked around on the deck.

"It's such a beautiful day too. Did you pulls strings for that?" I ask as I twirl around to face him.

He laughs. "If that would have worked, I would have done it."

He goes over and talks to the captain.

"We're on our way," he says taking my arm and leading me to the bow of the yacht.

"Where are we going?" I ask as I let the breeze wash over my face.

"Just around. I told him how much time we had and let him do the navigating."

After about thirty minutes of watching the scenery he turns to me.

"You hungry?"

"I'm starving."

"Come on."

I followed him down to the small living quarters of the yacht. There was a picnic basket setting on top of the counter.

"Here you go…can you take this up to the deck for me?"

I look at the basket. "Okay."

He joined me in a few seconds with a bottle of sparkling white grape juice and two wineglasses.

I laugh. "You're so daring."

"I like to live on the edge," he winked at me before he sat down on the blanket that had been laid out. He patted the spot next to him and I sat down.

We opened the basket and made our sandwiches and drank the grape juice.

We talked about anything and everything…everything but about being a pop star and a musician who played for a pop star.

"So what do you think they mean?"

I leaned in closer to him, like someone else could really hear me. "Well, my hunch is that it's how we were uh…conceived."

He laughed. "Okay, too much information."

"I've pieced together things that my uncle's have said or that mama or daddy have let slip. I know they spent time at a lodge around the time I was conceived. I can only imagine how a snowball had anything to do with it."

He started to rub his forehead, but he was still smiling.

"Cody's is Slugger…uh, baseball season? I didn't know my daddy was that big of a baseball fan," I shrug.

"Maybe that's why it was so easy for your mom to distract him."

I laugh.

"Daffodil is Ashleigh's…my mama always was a sucker for flowers."

He sat there and shook his head. "I'll never look at your parents the same way again."

"I guess I'm used to them."

"They're very affectionate with each other, aren't they?"

I look down at the empty glass in my hand. "Yes. Always. They show their love for each other."

"I saw that one time…"

I look at him questioningly. "Saw what?"

"They had to say good bye to each other. I think your mom was staying with you and your dad had to go back. They said good bye outside your bus. I didn't intend to watch them but they were right there."

"Oh God," I say, covering my face. "Did they get all gross? I hate it when they do that."

He laughed. "No, it was sweet. They were looking at each other like they were never going to see each other again. It was…" He shrugged.

"That's them. They live for each other…and for us."

He takes my hand and brings it up to his lips. "That's nice."