Fireworks 3 and 4

Chapter Fifty-Seven

    "You should come over."

    "I'm working."

    "You just recently dropped an album," Drake reminded her. "You've earned some time off."

    "Is that what you do?" Mia countered. "Take time off once you've dropped an album?"

    "No," he admitted quietly. "It would just...be nice if you came over."

    What she was supposed to be doing was working with her team to plan her tour, a relatively short affair in mostly smaller venues, such as the House of Blues. Her assistant Tori was blowing up her phone, trying to schedule a time that they could meet and go over her schedule. A lot needed to be done today.

    "You can bring your laptop here, and we can work on some shit together."

    Working with him always wound up being beneficial. He would casually throw out ideas that resulted in some successful project or another, or say something that could inspire an entire song. "Give me a couple of hours," she said, giving in. 

    "Pull up to the front door and not the studio," he instructed.

    "I thought we were working together," she said, tapping the end of her pen against the corner of her mouth. Instantly suspicious.

    "We are."

    "Aubrey."

    "Front door," he repeated, and then he ended the call.

    Lord, what is he up to? she wondered, lowering her phone and resuming her work. She wrapped up the bit she was working on, then closed her laptop and slid it inside of her designer laptop bag. 

    The ride to Drake's residence was quite chaotic, but she made it in one piece. She was even kind enough to pull up to the front door, as he'd requested. While she was engaging the alarm on her car, the front door opened.

    Drake stood, filling the doorway. He beamed at her. "She follows instructions sometimes."

    "The keyword being sometimes," she said, securing the laptop bag strap on her shoulder and walking around the front of her car. She started up the steps, and hesitated when she saw a tiny arm circled around Drake's leg. Her eyes darted up from that arm to Drake's face.

    "Someone wanted to say hi to you," Drake announced with a grin.

    A head of blonde curls popped out from behind his leg. Deep blue eyes blinked up at her. 

    Overwhelmed with emotion, Mia knelt down to be eye level with the boy. "Well...hi," she greeted awkwardly. 

    The boy smiled shyly at her, then went back to hiding behind his father's leg.

    She raised her gaze to meet Drake's. 

    "I get to keep him for the week," Drake explained, all smiles. The happiness on his face was enough to melt her heart. 

    How did she even respond to this? Why wouldn't he warn her about what she was walking into? "That's great," she said, smiling back. "He's a beautiful kid."

    "Isn't he?" Drake looked down at his son. "Adonis, step back for me. We have to let her inside."

    Adonis took a few steps back, but he didn't move far.

    Drake followed suit, allowing Mia into the house. He wrapped his arms around her and held her tight. "Thank you for coming. I know it was a last-minute thing, but I really wanted you to see him."

    "I'm...glad that I get to see him," she told him, and she meant it. 

    "What were you working on?"

    "Tour planning."

    "You're...getting help with planning that, though, right?" Drake asked, sounding surprised. "Tours are a behemoth of a thing to plan."

    She nodded. "Yeah, of course. I just like to be hands-on. The team throws a bunch of locations at me. I like to do a bit of research. Look into the cities on the list, check to see if there is any political unrest there or other possible complications. Check to see what the country's rules are regarding curse words, looking into their traditions to make sure I'm not impeding on any cultural norms. Things like that."

    He pulled back from the embrace. "That's my smart baby."

    "What have you guys been up to? Did he just get in today?"

    His head bobbed up and down as he led the way into the living room. "Yeah."

    "Where is he and his mother staying?"

    "Here."

    And there it is. 

    He turned and caught the expression on her face before she could make it disappear. "You have nothing to worry about there, Mia."

    "Okay." She didn't have the energy to argue. Even if she did, she wouldn't have done it in front of his child. 

    "We've done a little bit of talking, a little bit of playing. I made some updates to the room I had prepared for him, and I got to show him those updates. He loves his room." Drake paused. "You should see his room." His excitement couldn't be contained; he was practically bouncing off the walls. It was a beautiful thing, the obvious love and happiness that he was expressing by spending this time with his kid.

    She followed the two of them upstairs and her mouth dropped open. "Oh my," she breathed.

    Adonis's room was enormous and boasted just about every popular toy known to kids in his age range. Immediately, the little boy ran over to a large, plush bear sitting in the corner. The bear was twice his height and thrice his width. He hugged the bear and giggled happily.

    "This room is incredible," she commented, walking the length of it. Colorful art was drawn on the walls, worthy of being included in a children's book. 

    "He's not comfortable enough to sleep in it yet," Drake explained while watching his son play. "So he sleeps with me. It seems like he's still trying to get comfortable with the house, which I completely understand. Soph-his mother says that he still sometimes sleeps with her, back where they live."

    "Nothing like being held by your parents when you sleep," she said quietly. 

    Drake turned his head and he stared at her. Then he walked over to her and moved to stand behind her. Wrapping his arms around her again, he said, "Well, you have me to do that."

    She leaned back into him and held onto his arms. They both watched his son, him excitedly encouraging the little boy to explore his room and her wondering what the next stages of her relationship with Drake looked like.