Between the Sun and the Stars

Stars Aligned

I pulled up the cemetery, a bouquet of white daisies in hand and found Joelle's headstone. The sun was shining, completely opposite of the day she was laid to rest. "It's been a hell of a year. I got my record deal after touring - me, singing in front almost twenty thousand people..." I sat in the quiet for a bit. "We had a little girl. Sutton - she's a doll, you would've loved her. Sam is doing okay. He stayed with us for a few weeks after. I miss you. I know you're looking over us." A tear escaped my eye, but I just let it fall. I was just replaying everything of the past year in my head. I placed the flowers in the vase on her headstone and filled it with water. I wiped my eyes dry and drove home.

I pulled up to the house, fetched the mail and saw a big funky coloured envelope that was addressed to Hayes. I unlocked the door and found out rather quick that I was home alone. Hunter must have gone on a walk. I placed the weird envelope on Hunters table spot and flipped through the bills and junk mail. I made myself a tea when I heard Hunter come in.

"Hey sweetie, want a coffee?" I called, "and you have mail."

"A coffee would be great," he strolled into the kitchen with Sutton in tow. "thanks babe." He sat Sutton in her highchair and gave her a teething ring, looking over the envelope, "I think this is from Nickelodeon," he laughed, opening it, "yeah it's for the Teen Choice Awards. It's actually for both of us."

"What?" I laughed, grabbing a seat on his lap. The letter read,

Dear Hunter & Jenna Hayes,

The Teen Choice Awards would like to invite you to the award show taking place in California on Sunday, June Third of this year. We would like to extend our invitation for you to perform your duet, "Better Than This". We are happy to announce the following nominations:

Teen Choice New Female Artist (country): Jenna Hayes

Teen Choice Country Album: Hunter Hayes: Greatest Hits

Teen Choice Male Country Artist: Hunter Hayes

Please RSVP no later than May 25th of this year. Your friends from TCA

I jumped up from Hunter's lap "Oh my gosh!" His arms were outstretched for a hug.

"Jenna! That's amazing!"

"I know - for both of us! I can't believe it!"

"We need to find a baby sitter." He laughed, covering his eyes, I added, "maybe we can bring someone with us? Your parents?" He nodded.

"Let me call them, can you figure out who we need to RSVP to," he handed the envelope back to me, "congrats on your first nomination." He winked as he left the room to call his mom.

"Thanks mom, we appreciate it." Hunter came back into the kitchen, "My parents said they can be there for that weekend. Did you email Byron." I nodded, Byron knew and the tickets and hotel were being handled. 

"I reminded him to get a hotel room with a crib," I gave Sutton a new teether and scooped her out of the high chair, "Sutton - mommy and daddy got nominated!" I danced with her in the kitchen, "This is exciting. We need clothes - I need to find someone."

"Jenna, relax - it's a month away." 

The month flew by, my album dropped and made it into the Billboard Country top 100 within it's first two weeks out. I did a podcast with Bobby Bones for his radio show, and visited a few of the local radio stations. Hunter and I virtually swapped roles - he was taking care of Sutton while I was in and out of radio stations, doing call-in interviews as often as possible.