Between the Sun and the Stars

Mine

Life after the tour felt quiet, and it was so nice. We had the holidays in Louisiana before flying to Toronto. It was Sutton's first ever plane ride and she only cried a few times. Spending the holidays with the family was just what we needed after touring. 

While I was home, Sutton and I met up with Stephanie to talk about wedding details. I remember when she sprung her engagement on me just hours before I gave birth. "You are the cutest," she said, bouncing Sutton on her knee, "how do you do it? Working, singing, being a baby mama?"

"Honestly - it's no cake walk. The first week after ya'll left I think I got a combined twenty four hours of sleep over seven days. Lots of naps. Hunter worked from home which was a life saver." I sipped my coffee, "Touring was okay, I opened, went back to put her to bed and stayed on the bus or whatever then Hunter came back after his set. I missed seeing him play but my parents came down for the Grand Rapids and Indianapolis shows so that was a special treat."

"You're honestly amazing. And you guys made a cute baby. Any plans for a second?"

I shook my head, "We haven't talked about it. I feel like I worked hard to get back to where I am physically and mentally, and I want to do my record first." Stephanie nodded, "Tell me - what's going on with the wedding planning?"

"Well, my sister is my maid of honour, you, Sarah and Lizzie are bridesmaids. We have our colours, date and venue picked out. The wedding will be Saturday, September fourteenth. Hopefully it's going to be outside on the golf course over at Rattlesnake."

"That will be gorgeous." I was so excited for Stephanie to get married. She showed me pictures of the dresses, deep red - almost burgundy strapless chiffon floor length dresses. "I love those - so simple and sweet." 

"Yeah," she continued scrolling through he camera roll to show me the outdoor venue set up, "there's an indoor alternative should the weather not cooperate, but I'm being optimistic."

"That's fantastic. I'm so excited for you." We gathered up our things and parted ways, hugging and promising we would see each other soon. 

I made sure to put the important dates Stephanie gave me in my phone and told Hunter. It's hard to say what's going on in nine months time but if we know well enough in advance, we can make plans accordingly. After two weeks of travelling, we were back in Nashville. A dusting of snow covered the ground and Hunter and I pushed Sutton in her stroller for a walk around the neighbourhood.

"I can't believe it's a new year," I said, thinking of everything that had happened since last year, "we have so much to look forward to..." My voice drifted off, thinking about planning Sutton's first birthday, to the record, and then I thought about us approaching a year of Joelle being gone, and everything that has changed since.

"What's on your mind beautiful," Hunter placed his hand over mine as we continued walking, "you're thinking about something."

"Oh you," I smiled, "you know me too well. Just thinking of everything that changed this past year."

He nodded, "I know it's tough moving forward when parts of the past still hurt." 

"Nailed it," I said, guiding the stroller back up toward the house, "there's a sheet pan in the fridge for dinner, can you put that in and I'll feed her." 

"Absolutely." He kissed my cheek and we made our way inside. Dinner conversation flowed from Stephanie's wedding to album work. "I know you're in a fine balancing act, and I want to be able to help you iron out the hiccups. If that means you record here with your team, or we can work on it at night, anything you need." He reached across the table with his hand open. 

"I appreciate it." I squeezed his hand before getting up and getting a notebook off of the counter. I placed it in front of him, his face was puzzled. It was basically a book of different songs, most of them were incomplete thoughts but it was a start. He flipped through them, focusing on the pages with sticky notes, a small smile escaped his lips, his eyes scanning line for line.

"These are all good places to start Jen," Hunter placed the book on the table, "maybe we can work on a few?" He cleaned up the dinner plates and got our guitars. I placed Sutton in her play chair as I opened up the book.

"I like this one, I was going somewhere with it but got distracted and lost my train of thought," I laughed, writing wasn't my strong suit, but I had a lot I could look back on and write about. The song didn't have a title but I wrote it thinking about Joelle, and how I would always remember her and everything we went through. I played what I had so far for Hunter, I could tell he knew where I was coming from. The line that stuck out the most to me was 'I try to keep it simple/ You know I hate goodbyes/ I try to keep it simple by telling my self that/ I, I will remember you'

Hunter opened his mouth to speak but it appeared that he couldn't find the words, I laughed, "Did I just make Hunter Hayes speechless?" He smiled.

"Jenna, that is beautiful, and soulful - I absolutely love it. Play it again, we can finish this one." Determined, I pulled a new page out of the book, and with in an hour, we had a song. We wrote a song, and we couldn't be happier. I looked over to see Sutton happy as ever bouncing, watching her daddy and I.

"I hope she sees more of this and remembers it," I said, nodding toward her, "Sutton, you're making a great supervisor." I looked at the time, "I should probably feed her, then we can get back to this before she goes to bed." Hunter nodded, reading over what else was hidden in my book.

That night, we wrote, titled and recording the first song. I decided to call it, 'I Will Remember You', I feel like it could be a song that anyone who's lost someone can relate to. Hunter and I went to bed happy, all those musical endorphins got us feeling a little frisky under the covers. Now that Sutton was sleeping through the night, and having solid afternoon naps, we were able to get close on not have to stop to tend to her as often. "I am so proud of you Jenna, that song is going to make some waves." I kissed him, trying to get him to stop talking and start touching.

Our bodies entangled, and everything was feeling much better than the first few times we tried getting back to this. Between the kisses, the muttering of sweet nothings, we both reached our peak, collapsing beside each other, hearts beating fast. I wiggled back into my pjs before falling asleep in Hunter's arms.