Page 12 of Born To Be My Baby

She swallowed and nodded her head. "I've never had a father either, and I know this is all fresh and new, but we have to get through this without raising so many eyebrows."

He grinned. "You're right, Mina. You're right."

He took a deep breath and blew it out. "Okay, I'm ready. Let's talk about a couple of fun things before we dig deep into the personal stuff again. Gloria, are you good with that?"

She'd been staring at her fingers the entire time he and Mina spoke. When she lifted her eyes to his, he saw the glassiness in them.

She nodded slightly, scooted back in her chair, pulled her shoulders back, and huffed out her breath, "Yes, I agree, and I'm ready. We can do this."

Mina stepped back into the darkness of the room to her position, which was close to where Boon manned his camera, and typed something out on her phone.

Within a couple of minutes, Boon and Dylan came back into the room.

Boon nodded at him as he walked in, Dylan right behind. They both took their places, near the camera and recording mixer.

He looked at Mina as she watched her mom for a moment. She softly said, "Mom."

Gloria looked up at her and nodded. It was a curt nod.

He could see the emotion all over her. Her body was tense. Her jaw was tight. His probably was too.

Mina looked at Boon and nodded. "Go ahead, Boon. Give us the countdown."

Boon counted once more. "Four, three, two, one."

He pointed at Gloria and she continued. Her voice was tight when she asked, "Sammy, can you tell me about a time that sticks out in your mind in which you had an odd encounter with a fan?"

He recounted a time when a group of girls had waited outside a hotel for them to show up.

It was mayhem, but it was the first time they had had a little crowd waiting for them and they were so excited. A crowd was waiting for them. They couldn't believe it. But it turned weird fast, and they had a little chuckle out of it.

Gloria asked him a couple more questions about things that didn't matter before she dug into one more personal question.

"So let's talk about your personal life. What do you do when you're not writing music or with the band recording or traveling?”

He nodded and sucked in a breath. "I honestly don't have any downtime. I have spent every waking moment working on my career. At first, Tony Baluco was the lead bass player in the band. I played along with him. We were a good pair. But we realized a few years ago that if we wanted to make it big, and we started writing our own songs that Tony couldn't do both. So he backed away from playing guitar and he set himself up to be our full-time manager and he has done a bang-up job. So Jami and I write most of the music, and the songs. Axel, our drummer, has written a couple songs, also. We've got some songs that we write together. And our backup singers, we have two fantastic backup singers. Maddyn Nolan, we call her Mads, and Livia Carroll-Baluco. Livia and Tony are married now. Livia and Mads have helped us write some songs, too. Let's face it, we're all humans with feelings and emotions and we kind of help each other out with our music. So we've been able to put our feelings together and come up with some kick-ass songs. Some just wild kick-ass songs."

Violet nodded at him. "That's fantastic. As a creative, that's got to feel fantastic to work in an environment where you all get along. At least it sounds like you all get along, do you?"

He laughed. "Yeah, we get along. There have been times, of course, like in any other group. We have little skirmishes here and there. Normally it's just about stupid stuff because tensions are high. It's either we're getting ready to go on the road, and we're all a little worried about certain things. Did we get this done? Did we get that done? Is this song right? Are we ready to go with this? But for the most part, we all love each other, and we mesh well together. And we don't hold any grudges."

Violet nodded. "How do you keep..." She shifted in her seat, "So you said Tony and Livia are married. How did that come about? It's got to be hard working in an environment where you all are creative and working so hard together and not let personal relationships destroy the band."

Sean chuckled a little bit and nodded his head. "Jami's always had a rule. No relationships within the band members. He's always been very strict about it because of that very thing. But Tony met Livia, and he fell instantly in love with her. And he told Jami, 'Too bad. I love her. And we're together.' Jami and he talked about it and basically Jami said, 'If the relationship goes sour, one of you has to go.' And they both agreed. I'm happy to report they're strong as ever and we don't have problems. So there's that, anyway."

Gloria nodded and took a deep breath. "One more question, then we have to get to your Crossover concert with Chris Stapleton." She swallowed and leaned slightly forward. "Any regrets in life?"

That question made the air whoosh out of his lungs. He stared into her eyes as she waited for his reply. Was she asking because she wanted to know if he'd ever been sorry about the way things ended? He'd already told her how that affected him. Of course, he didn't know she was pregnant. He didn't know he was a dad. So, yeah, he had that regret.

Mina stepped forward and her movement made him snap back to the moment. "Yes. I have regrets."

Mina yelled, "Cut."

11

At the end of the interview Gloria smiled. It was actually going to be an exciting interview. It was going to take one hell of a long time to cut and paste it together, but she got a good interview through all of the turmoil. Sean was every bit himself. At least the Sean she'd known back in the day. Her Sean.

But she was wrecked. That had been the absolute most nerve-wracking and emotional interview she'd ever done. Of course, she'd never interviewed a former lover before. One who popped back into her life without warning. One who had fathered her daughter.

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