Page 67 of Backstage with a Billionaire Rockstar

“Ready, darlin’?”

“Three,” the crowd hollers around us, and I tighten my hold at the bottom of my cannon. “Two.”

“One!”

I look at Mia, a bright smile on my face, and we shoot off our cannons at the exact same moment without looking away from each other. It takes a few moments, but as soon as she sees the pink falling around us, she jumps up and down, clapping.

We’re having a girl.

Liam is cheering from between us, his hands in the air, and he does a happy dance that has the guests surrounding us laughing. I lift him into the air, then walk over to Mia and press a chaste kiss against her lips.

“Looks like I’m going to have my work cut out for me,” I say.

She arches her brow. “Is that so?”

“Our little girl is going to be breaking hearts, but I’ll never give anyone the chance of doing the same to her.”

“We’re having a girl,” she whispers before looking down at the pink puddle at our feet. “I thought for sure it was a boy.”

“That’s what you get for going crazy with the old wives' tales.”

Mia swats at me, then tearfully accepts the hugs from our friends and family. Julia and Brent walk over, blue powder caked in their hair from their balloons, and I clap him on the back.

“You ready for this, man?”

Brent scoffs. “Not by a long shot, but I can’t wait to watch her be a mother.”

I can’t help but think the same thing about Mia. Although she already has Liam, I never got to watch her belly grow with him inside or cuddle with him as a baby before she put him down for bed.

This is going to be a new experience for me, and I can’t wait to watch it.

“Are you kidding me?” Mallory grumbles from a few feet away, her eyes narrowing on Jace’s form behind her. “Do you ever give up?”

Jace smirks at her. “Nope. You like that?”

She groans in frustration, then walks up to her best friend and rolls her eyes. “He’s unbelievable.”

Brent eyes Jace curiously, then shrugs his shoulders. “He’s only messing with you, sis.”

I’m sure he’d like to believe that, but I’ve seen Jace looking at her, and there’s no joke in his eyes. He wants Mallory, and he’s not going to stop until he gets what he wants.

A couple of minutes later, I notice Mallory and Jace going at it again by the refreshment table. Their faces are close, tension crackling between them. Suddenly, Mallory laughs at something Jace says, her hand resting on his arm longer than necessary. I smile to myself, sensing something is happening between these two.

Mia is deep in conversation with my mother when I turn around. Tears roll down her cheeks, and she quickly wipes them away when I come to her side.

“What’s going on?”

My wife sniffles, then shakes her head.

“I got a gift for the baby, that’s all,” my mother says with a bright smile. “Your father and I are heading out before traffic gets too bad, but we’ll be in touch.”

As they walk away, I look down at the blanket Mia is holding and smile. My mother got into crocheting a while ago, so it doesn’t surprise me that it’s homemade, but it also includes our daughter's name on it.

Kennedy.

I pull Mia into my arms and hold her for a moment, letting the love I feel for her and the life we’ve created swim through me.

There’s still tears in her eyes when she looks up at me, the blanket clutched in her hands. “Can you believe we made it this far? We’ve been through so much.”

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