Page 107 of The First Chord

I had one hand resting on her belly, while my other arm rested on the edge of the bath with hers, our fingers laced together. She was so damn precious, and I was determined to keep her safe. Never again would she feel pain from another human being, physical or otherwise, not if I had anything to do with it.

“I can’t quite believe we’re going to be parents.” She turned her head to look at me. “Can you?”

“Ah, so you’re admitting now that everything is going to be okay?” I grinned and dropped a kiss to the tip of her nose.

She sighed contentedly and nodded. “Yes, I think so. We still should keep it quiet, though. I don’t want to tempt fate.”

“I agree. Plus, I like it being our little secret.”

Sliding further down into the water, she lifted my hand on her belly and wrapped my arm closer around her. “Me, too. Just us three in our own little bubble for a while.” When she looked up at me she was smiling, and I didn’t think I’d ever seen a woman more beautiful. “I love you,” she whispered, her eyes shining.

“I love you, too. So damn much. I just wish I’d been able to protect you from the last few months.”

Amber shook her head. “No. Don’t say that because it’s made me stronger. It’s made me realise that I’m not the weak woman he told me I was. You’ve helped me to realise that, too. Love is precious and I won’t ever waste it again.”

“That sounds like a good line for a song.”

“Do you think?” She giggled and it was so amazing to hear. So good that she wasn’t broken by what had happened. “What would we call the song then?”

“What’s it about?”

“I told you, love being precious and not wasting it.” She pulled on my hand, giving a little squeak of excitement. “It could be like one of those Country & Western ones, you know, the ones that tell a whole story.”

“Okay, so what would the story be?” Smiling and enjoying her joy, an idea began to form in my head.

“Us,” she replied on a sigh. “It would be about us and our love story. All the gritty details and the perfect happy ending.”

“Or the new start,” I replied, gently rubbing her belly.

“God yes, our new start, not our ending.”

“Perfect, and we’ll call it The First Chord.”

“Hmm I like it. Why that?” she asked, a huge smile shining up at me.

“Because when you hear the first chord you know it’s time to start again.”

“Oh wow,” she whispered, turning to me and sloshing water all over the tiled floor. “You’re so good. I think I want to have sex with you now.”

“You do?” I said with a laugh. “What about your ribs?”

“I’ll go on top,” she said breathlessly, manoeuvring herself over my already hard dick. “And while you make me scream, you can think up some more lyrics.”

My breath caught as Amber lowered herself and when she started to roll her hips, I knew I was going to writethebest love song ever written.

EPILOGUE

JOEY

The last couple of months had been crazy for us, personally and as a band. We’d finished off the final leg of the tour and had spent the last week starting to prepare for our contract talks with Concepta. Every day had been spent at Beau’s house, in his office that was bigger than most people’s lounges, getting ready for battle.

We wanted out the minute they’d condoned Fox’s behaviour, but Ali had made us see we needed to play the long game. We needed to ‘play nice’ and finish the tour, ready for when we dropped it on them that we were leaving. Or at least we were going to fight to leave. Besides which, the fans deserved to get the shows they’d paid for, too. The last leg in the UK was therefore going ahead, delayed, but happening.

There’d already been ideas floated around about our proposed record company and it’s working title was WC Music. We all fell about laughing when I suggested our tag line should be, ‘making music to piss by’. But as much as I loved it, I had a feeling the final name would be something different. We just couldn’t agree on what.

Ali and our lawyer, a posh guy with the amazing moniker of Richmond Bishop, seemed to think we had a good case. It had to be water tight, though, so all of us, along with Richmond, were going to go through every single line, word, and full stop on the contract to find our way out.

Alongside all that, Beau and Simmy had been dealing with Beau’s adoption of Ethan. To be honest, it had been plain sailing after the initial hearing, which was why we were all sat around their dining table. We were celebrating Ethan’s adoption which had been finalised the day before. The only person missing was Sylvie, Beau and Belle’s mum, as she had Covid, which Beau swore blind he hadn’t arranged on purpose.

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