Between the Sun and the Stars

Uncharted Waters

The opening night of the six week tour was just two weeks away. There was so much that needed to be done, mostly around packing for Sutton and practicing some new songs.

"Jenna, relax," Hunter smiled as he glanced over my shoulder at my seemingly long to do list, "We are going on tour, not a desert island. If we need anything, diapers, soothers, whatever, we can buy it."

"Remember when you flew me out to Myrtle beach? You know I started packing a week and a half ahead of time..." I laughed, recounting the memory of our first date turned real relationship, "I just want to know what we have and maybe I'll pick some new stuff up and keep it packaged and then it's there if we need it."

Hunter kissed the top of my head, "Whatever helps." He strolled over to the living room as Sutton began to make some noise, and as he came back into the kitchen with her, I began to see how much she was looking like Hunter. She had grown a tremendous amount in these past three and a half months.

"She looks a lot like you," I smiled admiring my husband being a dad, "I think she lucked out with your eyes."

"Think so," Hunter kisses her gently, rocking and singing to her, "Sutton tell your mama not to worry so much. You're a professional traveller."

In the blink of an eye I was doing Sutton's four month picture and we were loading our lives onto the tour bus. The tour was going to start tomorrow in Kentucky and we were going up to the east coast, across the part of the Midwest and back, closing at home in Nashville. I was opening, Lanco was the mid performer and Hunter was the main act. We scheduled a band between mine and Hunter's sets so we could manage Sutton and try to keep a routine as much as possible.

Hunter changed Sutton and put her down for a nap, he found me doing a word search on the couch. He sat down and strummed the guitar, "

I put my crossword down to sing along, "You know all of my favourites."

He smiled, setting the guitar down for a moment, "Anything to see you smile. I'm really excited that we get to do this together. Never in a million years would I have thought that I could tour with my wife."

"Never in a million years did I think I would be lucky enough to be your wife, the mother of your child and be singing as a job." He picked up his guitar again, all smiles, strumming away to what sounded like Blake Shelton's Sangria.

We arrived in Kentucky a day ahead of the first show. To help promote my exciting news, Hunter and I had an interview with the Louisville country radio station. We were asked mostly questions about navigating parenthood and music.

"This is Hunter And Jenna Hayes for Louisville best country, nintey-seven-five WAMZ"

Hunter and I headed back out of the radio booth to find Sutton perfectly content in Sam's arms. "She's so relaxed," he smiled, "and she grew again!"

We laughed, she was an easy baby. We had a sleep schedule down, she was growing a lot and becoming more of her own person every day. "Things seem pretty smooth so far" Hunter said with a chuckle as he scooped up the carrier, "talk to us in six weeks after this tour and we will see what's going on then."

We loaded up and headed back to the bus for dinner and games with the guys. We all turned in fairly early with a long day ahead of us. Sound check, press, Hunter's coffee house and our first show.

"Sutton, be a good girl for daddy," I kissed her on the head, made sure there was milk in the fridge for her and kissed Hunter, "I love you!"

"You got this babe, I love you too." I left the green room, got wired up and the band started playing  I went out and opened my set, I played three songs off my EP and did a new cover I had been practicing of Miranda Lambert's 'Heart Like Mine', a new song that would eventually find itself on my new album and my personal EP favourite, 'In Case You Didn't Know'.

The amount of cheering and singing along filled my heart with so much excitement. "Thank you to all of you for supporting myself, the next group, Lanco and of course, Hunter. Thank you Louisville - good night!"

I left the stage to see Hunter sitting on a speaker, smiling - the same way I used to watch him back when he took me on tour. His arms were wide open for a hug, "You were amazing," he said in my ear, "I am so proud of you." He kissed me and we walked back stage hand in hand. 

While Lanco performed, we put Sutton to sleep together and Hunter went back into the arena to play. I was missing seeing him perform, but mommy duty came first. I know Hunter would do the same if the roles were reversed. By about eleven, I heard a patterned knock on the door, and Hunter's voice, "Hey," he said barely above a whisper, "How is she?" I gave him a thumbs up and we made our way to bed. We were going to drive early tomorrow morning to Charleston, WV before climbing up the east coast.

"Sweet dreams babe," I said to Hunter, "thank you again for everything."

"You deserve the world Jen, I'm so proud of you  I love you too."