Grace Taylor Hudson

Chapter 19

Chapter 19

<Katy POV>

"Katy? You alright there?" Shannon's gentle voice interrupted my thoughts.

I shook my head a little then answered her. "Yeah, I'm fine." Grace was laying with her head on my lap and the fingers on my right hand were running through her hair gently in an attempt to lull her to sleep on the long flight home.

"Is she asleep?" I pointed to my daughter with my left hand. Shannon nodded from her seat in front of me. "Are her headphones in?" Another nod from my best friend, only this one was slow and she gave me a weird look.

"Good. I need to talk to you." I lowered my voice as an extra precaution to keep Grace from waking up. "It's about John."

Shannon's eyes grew wide and her mouth formed an O. "I'm all ears."

I licked my lips then began to tell the tiny woman in front of me everything that had gone on. When I finished about ten minutes later she had an unreadable expression on her face.

After thinking for a minute she spoke, "Meet up with him. Talk to him. Tell him. Tell the world. No more secrets for anybody. Your life will be easier, Grace's life will be easier, and you'll be even happier than you are now. Don't wait until it's too late. That's all I have to say." She folded her hands in her lap and leaned back against her leather seat.

I looked around the familiar private jet as Shannon's words sunk in. Nothing about it had changed since the Californian Dreams tour but I had completely transformed since then; my life had done a complete 180 then completed a 360 after that. A divorce, a child, and another rocky relationship later--am I ready for another drastic shift?

I stared lovingly at my sleeping daughter; her long arms hanging off the seats and her legs tucked close to her body. She seemed so small, so innocent. I couldn't bear to imagine the lies and filth that would pop up. Seeing her hurt or upset kills me and seeing lies would send me over the top. It's one thing for them to write about me because I'm used to it, but my baby, my daughter? Nothing could prepare me for that.

"Shan, I don't think the time is right to tell everybody. However, I do think it's about time I tell John. I love him and I'll be dammed if we can't make it work this time." I sighed wistfully, "He's the one I want here with us."

A cheesy smile grew as I thought of John spending time with Grace and I doing 'family things' like going out to dinner, watching movies at home, and teaching her guitar. Then an image of his strong arm around my daughter's slender shoulders and my delicate hand in his masculine one popped into my head and made me even more eager to tell him.

"I'm gonna call him as soon as we land. But I should probably look up his tour dates and pick a good one so he knows I'm serious about this. Oh, Shan. I hope this works out." Nervous butterflies flew around my stomach as I pulled my MacBook closer to me on the wooden tabletop to find the best date to fly out to John.

"Katy, I know I'm partly to blame for getting you all riled up. But, um, are you gonna tell Grace before or after you talk to John?" I didn't look up from the screen so I missed the frown Shannon wore on her face for a few seconds.

"She's gonna come with me you idiot." I rolled my eyes dramatically, "How selfish and sneaky do you think I am, Woodward?"

My best friend laughed, "Welllllll-" she started before I cut her off, waving my arms in front of me. "Never mind! Don't answer that you smart ass! You know what I meant."

After a few moments of silence and me navigating to the website I began to talk again. "But yes, if she's willing and ready I want her to come with me. I'm pretty sure she overhead my conversation with him on the phone the other day, she just didn't say anything. Bless her. I don't even think she realized John and I dated right before we met until she overhead the call." Shannon and I chuckled at how out of the loop Grace had been with my life.