Page 71 of Rock On

“You’re still a sweet talker.”

“I try.”

She plucked a roll from the basket and breathed in the smell. “I don’t remember the last time I drooled over something.”

“Fresh bread always makes my mouth water.”

“Remember Paris?” she asked, grinning.

“Which time?” I asked. “Our honeymoon or one of the stops on tour?”

“I never ate as much bread as on our honeymoon!”

I laughed. “Me either. Baguettes became our love language.”

“I miss those days,” she said. “When the only thing that mattered was how much fun we were having.”

“We can have fun again, Harley.”

“I’m a mom now. River’s needs have to come first.”

“In general, sure, but you can still have fun.”

“Yeah, but I can’t leave him to go on tour for a year, like we used to.”

I cocked my head. “Of course not. We’d bring him with us.”

She frowned, as if that hadn’t occurred to her. “Would you… I mean, is that a possibility?”

I hesitated. I didn’t want to have a conversation this serious yet. We still needed time to find our footing, but I also wanted her to know I was all in.

“Babe, I don’t know what we’re doing yet, but assuming we want to be together, of course it’s a possibility. We’re not just going to leave him at home with a nanny.”

“But he has to go to school and have friends. He has to have something of a normal life, no matter how crazy yours is.”

“Sure. But he’s only three. We have time. He won’t start Kindergarten for almost two more years, right? Until then, we can do anything we want. I mean, Z has a kid now and he’s bringing the family on tour. The deal is that we’re going to go balls to the wall for this tour, and then once it’s over, probably not for eighteen months, we’ll reassess everything. Maybe do European tours in the summer and figure out the rest as we go.”

“I didn’t know you guys were talking about all that,” she admitted.

“We have to. Z and Kellan are ready to slow down a little, King and Devyn have a dozen side projects in the works, and I was planning to do some of that too when the time came. I’ve been writing my own songs and playing guitar again, so there’s plenty for us to do individually if the band slows down.”

“I never thought about it like that.”

“We’re committed to the tour that’s going to start in the new year, but the plan is to not make any plans beyond that so everyone can figure out where they are personally and professionally.”

“You don’t plan to stop touring, do you?”

“We’re not going to stop playing and performing, but it’s not like we need the money, so slowing down makes sense. I know Kellan and Jesse want a baby, and Z and Presley are talking about having another, so the writing is on the wall. Things are going to look different going forward. For all of us.”

TWENTY-EIGHT

Harley

I couldn’t imagine Tommy slowing down or retiring from music.

He would hate that, and I hated it for him.

“You’ll be miserable if you stop touring,” I blurted out.

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