nashville reborn (sequel to NN)

Chapter 3

After an incredibly long writing session, I finally was able to drag the girls home. Tuck had dinner ready already. I walked into the kitchen and saw him finishing up the chicken he was cooking. Everytime I looked at him, I always went back to when we were kids. He still looked the same, but he had longer hair that went down to his shoulders that he liked to wear in a man bun. He looked so good.

"Man, I forgot how handsome you were" I say hugging him around the waist from behind.

"And I forgot how lucky I am to have you as my wife" He says turning around to properly hug me.

"I love you" I say kissing him.

"How was writing?" He asks. I pour myself a glass of wine to drink with dinner.

"It was good. Ridge is writing a song for Isaiah, so she worked on that" I say.

"How in the world has our baby girl been dating Isaiah since she was barely a teenager and now they're celebrating four years together?" He says.

"I have no clue. Then the other one has been dating Jase for two years. It's crazy" I say. Rocky walks in.

"And theres our little baby that will never, ever leave her daddy's side" Tuck says. Rocky smiles.

"The only guys I'm around half the time are taken by my sisters. Jacob is too old and Kane is in love with Riss" Rocky says.

"Do you like Kane, baby?" I ask.

"Uh, no" She says. I could tell she was lying, but she was so shy that I didn't want to embarrass her. Ridge and Ryne walked in while I was talking about him to her.

"It's okay if you do" Tuck says.

"I don't like Kane" She says. She was just as shy as I was at her age.

"Oh, please. You're in love with Kane, but Kane loves Marissa" Ryne says. Ridge hit her in the arm. Rocky rolled her eyes and pushed Ryne out of the way.

"Now, you stop that. You know she hates talking about stuff like that" Tuck says.

"Ridge and I were obsessed with boys when we were fifteen. I don't know how she isn't" Ryne says sitting down at the table. Rocky walks back in.

"Correction: you were obsessed with boys, Ridge was obsessed with Isaiah, and I'm not obsessed with boys because I don't want to be like you" Rocky says sitting down next to her.

"I'm so in love with Isaiah" Ridge says.

"And I'm in love with Jase" Ryne adds.

"I'm glad I'm not obsessing over boys like you two" Rocky says finishing the conversation.

"Okay, enough. Are you girls getting ready to start tour in January?" I ask.

"I'm still compiling what I wanna sing" Ryne says.

"Me too. And I'm writing some more stuff" Ridge says.

"Rissa and I are hanging with Daddy" Rocky says.

"Sounds good. We start January 2nd, so that's not that far away" I say. "Rehearsals start up in two weeks, I want everyone to be ready and on point, okay?"

"Yes, ma'am" The girls say.

We finished dinner and Tuck and I cleaned up. Every night, we always liked to go talk to the girls. Each of us took a different girl each night. It was just our way of staying connected with them. Tonight, I was going to see Ridge because I knew she was struggling with her songwriting for Isaiah. I walked in her room and found her ar her desk that was in front of her window. She put it there because her window looked into Isaiah's. Carrie and Mike lived across the road and Tae lived next door on the right and Maddie was next to Carrie, across from Tae. I sat down on her bed.

"How you doing, baby?" I ask.

"Still struggling" She sighs. She had her favorite acoustic guitar in her hands. It was all white, even down to the fret board and strings. Ryne had one too, but hers was all black.

"You want it to be the best one yet, don't you?" I ask.

"Mama, four years together is so long. I mean, I've written about him before, but that's school girl stuff. I'll be eighteen soon and he's going to be twenty two. You and daddy were seriously writing about each other when you were younger than us, you just didn't know it. I want to be able to do that" She says.

"Stop trying to do that, and just do it. Your problem is you're trying to hard to make it perfect. Don't try to make it sound pretty or catchy. Write your true feelings and that will be the most beautiful thing" I say. "How do you feel when you see Isaiah?".

"I...I feel like I'm a fragile house made out of like...a card deck. And when I see him, it hits me like a hurricane, and I'm completely mesmerized by him. Like sparks literally fly when he smiles because of how perfect his teeth are" She says. She lit up talking about him. I couldn't help but smile. "What are smiling at? It ain't funny. It's true". I shake my head and stand up.

"Oh, baby girl. You remind me so much of me when I was young. Completely in love and didn't even know what to do with myself" I say.

"You felt that way with Daddy?" She asks. I smile reliving my youth with Tuck.

"I sure did" I say.

"Well...what did you do about that?" She asks. I paused for a second before holding up my left hand.

"I married him".