Grace Taylor Hudson

Chapter 20

Two months later

<Grace POV>

"Wait, so here and here?" I huffed impatiently and tucked a loose lock of hair behind my ear.

"No, put it on this string." I moved it then strummed making a semi-decent sound. "There ya go kiddo!" John clapped three times then ruffled my brown hair. "You'll be replacing my guys in a few months. I'm proud of you! Another song under your belt."

Today was one of John's few off days so Katy had made sure to leave time in her annoyingly busy schedule to fly out and see him. Which seemed ironic to me since she wasn't even here at the moment. We actually had no idea where she'd gone when she mysteriously slipped away at ten in the morning and four hours later nobody had heard from her.

"Hey, have you heard from Mom?" I set the guitar and the pick back down on the coffee table in John's hotel room.

John shook his head and sighed, "Nope. No sign of her whatsoever Gray. You know how she is. Katy is Katy."

I sighed along with him and laid my head on the back of the couch. "I feel like I never see her anymore. She's been so busy and she promised we'd go places this summer but so far the only places I've seen are the inside of your tour bus, a ton of venues, hotel rooms, and good ol' LA."

Realizing how bratty I sounded I looked up sheepishly, ashamed of complaining when John sees even less of Katy than I do. "I'm sorry. That sounded really selfish and juvenile. You have more of a right to complain than I do."

He shrugged and waved it off. "Hey, I totally agree with you on that one. But I know what you mean. Let me guess? You feel like you're having to compete with her career for attention?"

I nodded slowly and sighed for the hundredth time. "Yeah, I do. I know I shouldn't feel like that at all because deep down I know I come first and she tries so hard to balance it all out."

"That's just human nature. It'll happen. And you have to remember, she's not used to having to worry about another person's needs. Especially a child's. Plus on top of that she's probably worried about me and my needs, which I don't need a whole lot. Just having you two around when schedules allow it is enough for me. I know what it's like to try and balance it out, and personally, I'd hope she'd put you before me."

That's what I liked about John, he's calm and cool. Always collected and he treated Katy and I like princesses. Getting to know him over the past two months has been pretty cool. Most of the time when we were together he and Katy would talk and cuddle while I'd be cuddled on Katy's other side listening. Sometimes it'd be about something really thoughtful and important and other times nothing at all. Other times, if John had time to stay in a hotel I'd wake up in our room without Katy, who would show up a few hours later with a lame excuse. When in reality she'd spent the night in John's room. Not that it matters; she's just a grown woman spending time with her boyfriend.

On days like these when Katy was nowhere to be found John would teach me a little bit of guitar or we'd sit and talk learning more about one another.

I laughed at the way he tried to lighten up the conversation, scrunching my nose in the process, "Yeah, I hope she'd pick me too. But really, thanks for listening. It's nice having somebody else's perspective on these things that experiences it firsthand too."

"No problem Gracie. I've got your back!" He thumped his chest and help up a peace sign sending us both into a fit of laughter at how funny he looked.

We were laughing so hard we didn't hear the click of the door, but looked up at the same time to see Katy staring at us with big blue eyes full of emotion. This happened often when she'd see John and I interacting in some way that could be considered a father-daughter moment.