by Shandi Boyes
Our perfect daughter, Maddison Grace Taylor, was born on the Twelve of June, weighing in at eight pound nine ounces.
Chapter 43
Epilogue
Noah
I can feel the sweat dribbling down my back before it gets absorbed by the waistband of my jeans. I am not joking this time when I say I need to remove my shirt because of the heat the lights on stage produce. The spotlight following my every movement causes it to feel like I am standing directly on the fucking sun. I lift the hem of my black shirt to rub away the lines of sweat that is running down from my hair to my face. When the crowd catches a glimpse of my bare skin, and some of the new tattoos I have collected the past two years, they let out a loud roaring chant requesting for me to remove my shirt. I continue to sing the lyrics to “Hollow” as I look over towards my wife standing in the wings. She is holding our daughter Maddie in her arms. Maddie has on little pink baby earmuffs to make sure her hearing won’t get damaged while listening to her daddy’s band play. Maddie has been to every concert I have performed at, she has never missed a show, just like her mommy.
As my gaze turns back to Emily she smiles brightly before she nods her head, giving me permission to remove my shirt. She isn’t silly, she knows her job as the publicist for ‘Rise Up’ requires her to make sure our band gets the best amount of publicity and exposure. She also knows that sex sells, so she is willing to allow others to ‘ogle my assets’ as long as she is the only one that gets full access to those so called assets after the concert. There is nothing I love more than watching Emily’s eyes fill with lust as she watches me perform on stage. I am glad the concert series was scheduled for us to perform two to three shows a week. As now I have multiplied days of the week that are my favorites, instead of my normal Friday night at Maverick’s.
I quickly whip my shirt off and throw it out into the crowd, causing several women in the front row to start fighting over it. They haven’t become any less vicious in their approach to capture my attention. It seems that the concerns Delilah had about needing to remain attainable to fans was nothing more than a crock of fucking bullshit. My wedding photos were splashed on the front cover of every gossip magazine in the country and I bare my wife and daughters name inked on my chest, and I still have women proposition me at the end of every concert.
It is lucky that Emily trusts me, but there has been a couple of close calls that required me to pull Emily away from some over eager fans. Some fans overstep the mark when they ask for a photo and a few times I have been caught unaware when they attempt to ram their tongues down my throat. Emily was onto them quick smart, telling them how disrespectful they were for attempting to steal a married man away from his family. She has said on multiple occasions that she can’t understand why groupies act the way they do. I don’t think I will ever fully understand groupies, but it is unfortunately part of our industry. But I fucking love that even after four years Emily still gets jealous and protective.
It is still the same with me too, I don’t just have to be cautious of the roadies and crew members trying to hit on my wife, I had to deal with the likes of guys like Isaac. It became pretty apparent after his debt was repaid that Isaac didn’t help the band for his brother Nick, he did it for Emily. It only took that hour of dancing with Emily for him to become attached to her.
I think he was hoping I was going to succumb to my injuries and he could be the knight in shining armour to come and sweep Emily off her feet. Well I fucked with his plan majorly when I came back to her. It was only when I saw the expression on his face when he first noticed Emily was pregnant the week after I left hospital, that I realised his feelings for Emily were deeper than I had originally suspected. Isaac is a great guy, but he needs to keeps his grey eyes on someone other than my wife. I told him that exact thing when Emily went into Jacob’s kitchen to get Isaac a drink. She seemed confused when she came back out and realised that Isaac had left without saying goodbye. She is completely oblivious to her appeal to the opposite sex.
Tonight we are performing at AT&T Park in San Francisco, it is just liked how I dreamed it would be. But we are no longer signed on to be a supporting act. We are the main event, and tonight we have over sixty thousand attendants at our show. The vibe is fucking electrifying as the swarm of bodies all move in sync to our music. Our second album “Next Coming” sky rocketed up the charts. It didn’t stay in the number one spot as long as our first album, but our single ‘Eyes like her Mothers’ went straight to number one the instant it was released.
It is the song I wrote for our daughter Maddison. She is the spitting image of her mother, except for her dimples, and she has the attitude of her father. She loves being in the spotlight and craves the attention. Even when we occasionally get hassled by the paparazzi, she smiles at them and gives them the peace sign like Jacob had taught her. Everyone falls instantly in love with her, which has shown me another side to the paparazzi. I have had the occasional run in with a few of the more aggressive ones, but for the majority they have been respectful and courteous when I have Maddie and Emily with me.
I had originally wanted to keep Maddie out of the spotlight, but she thinks she is the rock star of the family, so I can’t stop her doing something she loves. She has just turned two years old and has more attitude and spunk than both her mother and I combined. As I get towards the end of our set, Emily places Maddie down onto the ground before she comes running over to me, her brown curly hair bouncing with each step she takes. We finish every concert the same way, every time we perform.
“Say hello to our fans Maddie” I say, as I lift Maddison up to the microphone.
“Wello” she greets, as the crowd all coos over her cuteness. She hasn’t quiet worked out her H sound yet.
She gives the crowd a peace sign, before running over towards Jasper, who is standing shyly behind his dad’s leg. Jasper’s personality is completely opposite to Maddie’s. He is shy and she is dominant, but he follows every command she gives him. That poor kid doesn’t even know what he is in for. I should probably warn him, but that would be like Emily trying to warn Jenni away from Nick. You could tell them until you are blue in the face that it wasn’t a good idea, but they will never listen. You can’t help who you fall in love with, and I think Jasper is madly in love with Maddie already.
I wave to the fans as I make my way off stage, to give Emily a long shimmering kiss, while the fans shout a request for an encore performance.
“Have you heard from Jacob?” I ask Emily, as I pull away from our embrace, noticing that she seems a little flustered from our kiss.
“No” she replies sadly while she shakes her head.
Everything in my life has finally worked out the way I had planned. Now it is my turn to help Jacob to get his life back on track. He is my brother and I will fight alongside him every fucking day of my life, until he gets the life he deserves too.
The end
Part three in the ‘Perception’ series will be released in April 2016.
It will be Jacob’s story – book title ‘Fight of Life’.
Table of Contents
Dedicated to:
Prologue
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Chapter 21
Chapter 22
Chapter 23
Chapter 24
Chapter 25
Chapter 26
Chapter 27
Chapter 28
Chapter 29
Chapter 30
Chapter 31
Chapter
32
Chapter 33
Chapter 34
Chapter 35
Chapter 36
Chapter 37
Chapter 38
Chapter 39
Chapter 40
Chapter 41
Chapter 42
Chapter 43
