Stealing Kisses

Chapter 3

Faith POV (Six Years Later): 

A tug on my arm slowly awakes me, before I feeling little hands on my back. The little hands and quickly followed by boney knees, digging into my waist. I groan, pushing my face in the pillow before he slowly pushes on my shoulders in pulses, completely waking me up. 

"What?" I groan, flipping over onto my back as he rolls onto the bed beside me. He pops onto his knees, placing his hands on my stomach and pushing again. "What, baby?" I repeat, growing closer to losing my patience. 

"I'm awake." He says, as I sit up. I glance over at the clock, fairly surprised with the fact it's already 8 am. I grab onto his small hands, gliding my thumbs along his palm before smiling his way. I smooth back his brown hair, just studying him for a moment. "Momma, what are you lookin' at?" He giggles, before I wrap my arms around him. 

"I'm just lookin' at my baby boy." I say, giving him a tight squeeze as he continues to laugh. The sound of his laugh gives me the needed motivation to begin my day. He leads me down the hall toward the kitchen, clinging to my hand the entire time. His father sits at the counter, his laptop popped up beside a steaming cup of coffee. I walk over and give him a kiss, before walking to the fridge to grab my smoothie for the day. "So what's on the itinerary today?" I ask, as he pulls up his calendar on his computer. Most artists wouldn't believe me, but being married to my manager actually makes life easier. We can arrange things around Jake when we need to, and he knows me well enough to know when I need a break. 

"You have a meeting with Rolling Stone at eleven to talk about the new album, then we have press ahead of the Grammy's tomorrow night." Dan lists off, before clearing his throat. "I also got those consideration packets sent out to the radio stations. Some of the country stations are teetering, but I think they'll give in after your performance tomorrow. Once the requests start to mount, they'll play it." He continues, while I nod, taking a sip of my smoothie while Jake plays in the family room. Dan follows my eyes, looking back at him and smiling a bit, before looking back at me. His laptop chimes, causing him to click on a new notification. He shuts his eyes, before taking a deep breath. 

"What?" I call, wondering what's causing such a dramatic reaction. Dan massages his forehead before shrugging. 

"Curb is just throwing boulders on our path." He releases, before taking another drink of his coffee. "They're releasing a single for McGraw, and of course he'll be performing it tomorrow too." He informs me, while I sigh, feeling my head ache a bit. 

"He'll be performing at the Grammy's?" I ask, surprised by the news. 

"Yeah, they're working to improve as an even showcase of all genres." He says, before typing something up quickly. I'm working on a crossover album, which has been a hard sell from the get-go. My last project had a few tracks that were treading on the edge of soul and pop, and it was my best selling album to date. We decided, on a whim, to take it a step further by creating an entire album. Of course, country radio isn't exactly eager to play pop on their stations, and pop radio stations aren't quick to do business with a country singer, so we've had to get creative with how we sell the project. This Grammy performance is our best shot at convincing all audiences that it's worth a play. "Real Good Man" Dan spits out, before rolling his eyes. "Probably will be the same as Down on the Farm and I Like It, I Love It." He mocks quietly, making me laugh. 

"What? You're not a fan of Indian Outlaw?" I remark, as he smiles a bit. 

"I just think it wouldn't kill him to put in a little effort." He says behind his laptop. I shake up my smoothie, before taking a sip. My phone starts to ring, signalling that my day has officially started.