Blended Notes

by Lilah Suzanne

  Then his heart stutters: There’s another photographer with a reporter in the back, Hannah, the one who did his most recent magazine interview, and next to the reporter is his Uncle Clay. Next to Clay stands Lillian. Grady sways on his feet; then Nico is there, standing shoulder-to-shoulder with him at the arch made of vines. The minister raises her hands and starts, “Dearly beloved…” Blood whooshes in Grady’s ears; vertigo captures him, this is happening, this is happening, this is— Nico takes his hand and squeezes. Grady’s heart slows; his breathing deepens. This is happening.

  When it’s time for their vows, Nico goes a little stiff, pulls a folded piece of paper from his pocket, and turns bashfully to the audience. “I know everyone here is shocked that I struggled to come up with heartfelt sentiments,” he jokes. Everyone chuckles, and, clearing his throat, he turns to Grady. “I’m not the romantic in this relationship, or the one who has a remarkable way with words. But I think you know what’s in my heart, and will understand my clumsy attempts here.” His suit is a contrast to Grady’s; white pants to Grady’s blue on darker blue on green plaid. Nico’s coat is green, complemented by a tie and shirt both white with blue pinprick dots. Grady’s shirt and tie are blue with blue stripes, and his suit coat is white. The effect is coordinating, not matching, with Grady’s style more subdued and classic and Nico’s a bolder step from tradition. It’s perfect, of course.

  “I guess what I want to say is that I hope you can see how loved you are,” Nico looks out at the people gathered among the benches, then reads from the paper he holds with trembling hands. “I hope that right now you can feel some of the good you put out into the world reflected back at you. I have never met anyone who can take a punch and come up, not swinging, but smiling, quite like you can. At first I didn’t quite get it.” He blows out a breath and glances up at Grady before continuing. He’s so damn beautiful, Grady is woozy with it. “But then I realized, you know what it’s like to be hurt, and it doesn’t make you angry or hateful, it just makes you kinder and more loving and more determined to make other people hurt a little less. Grady, you are the most compassionate, and passionate, person I have ever known, and I still can’t quite believe that you picked me, of all people, to spend the rest of your life with.”

  Behind him the girls start to sniffle, and Nico’s cousins wipe at their eyes; even Lucas looks moved. And if Grady can’t kiss Nico soon, he’ll go right out of his mind or pass out standing here in front of everyone so he blurts, “Can we get to the part where we’re married yet?”

  They audience laughs and cheers, and they do. They do.

  32

  Grady Dawson Ties the Knot. Get the exclusive photos and inside scoop here!

  Entertainment News Now

  by Hannah Jordan

  Grady Dawson and celebrity stylist Nico Takahashi exchanged vows in a surprise ceremony just outside of Nashville on Sunday, and Entertainment News Now got the exclusive invite. You’re probably wondering why we got the chance to attend after the pair were so hush-hush about the engagement. As Nico told me at the downtown rooftop reception—where we were served gourmet sushi and mason jars of sweet tea—it’s because, “Grady’s fans loved him long before I came along, and I wanted to share some of our love with them in return. I can only be grateful for the support they’ve given him.”

  To see what your support of Grady earned you, scroll down to see the photos we snapped of the ceremony, glamorous maid of honor Clementine Campbell, the sealed-with-a-kiss I do’s, the first dance, and the cutting of their wedding pie. Yes, pie.

  Grady Dawson Takes On Stomp

  StarzBuzz.com

  The court date has been set for Grady Dawson’s showdown with Stomp Records, coming just hours after he married his long-time stylist boyfriend in a secret surprise ceremony. Was the wedding rushed to take the heat off Grady and cast him in a positive light? The timing is hard to argue.

  Stars at the Airport

  StarzBuzz.com

  Grady Dawson heads off on an international flight with new husband in tow. Honeymoon or running away from the controversy? What is your favorite airport look for Grady? Take our poll!

  Somewhere in the Pacific Ocean, after taking a plane and a smaller plane and a boat, they are in a hut just off an island, where it seems as if the only thing that exists for days on end is their little thatched hut on stilts, him and Nico and a bed, and the endless blue sea all around them. “What do you want to do?” Grady asks, as he has every morning this week. He stretches his arms and legs and spine above the kicked-off covers. His bare skin is caressed by the breezy sea air, and he tastes salt on his lips when he licks them.

  “Sleep,” Nico says, still twisted halfway in the sheets. He’s said that every morning so far, but soon he’ll rouse lazily, call room service to order fruit and rice and fried plantains, and then consider scuba diving or hiking or renting a boat or just relaxing on the private beach. For now, he slips back into a peaceful sleep. Grady leaves him there, and pads across the bamboo floor of the hut to dive off the deck into the blue, blue ocean. And then he writes. Being so relaxed and at peace has released an easy flow of creativity; he’d worried, a bit, about losing his creative edge, that Stomp Records is right and no one wants to hear about his happiness. He’s written from sadness and longing and heartbreak; if art comes from pain, then has he run out of things to say? But the scribbled words and notes and chords in his notebook and his voice and guitar carrying the rhythm of the waves say otherwise.

  Nico blinks open hooded sleepy eyes, curls on his side, and watches Grady play his guitar and sing out on the deck before rising languidly from the bed. He slips on a satin robe and shuffles off to the bathroom. Grady plays a little louder while the water runs. The stronger late morning sun on the deck is turning Grady’s shoulders and knees pink. When Nico returns from the bathroom, he’s left the robe behind, and he settles back on the white linen sheets on his stomach, pillows his head on his bent arms, and looks at Grady from beneath his thick, dark lashes. Grady sets his guitar down and goes back to bed. He knows when he’s being beckoned.

  Grady starts with his mouth open against the dip of Nico’s sacrum, kisses slowly up his spine and neck and curls his tongue around one warm earlobe.

  Nico hums a sigh and says, “You smell like the ocean.”

  “Went for a swim,” Grady replies, deep and husky. “I can shower.” He nips the lobe with his front teeth.

  Nico shivers. “No. You’re— Good.”

  Grady mouths up the shell of his ear, then to a spot behind it, where Nico is so soft and sweet and hot, kisses along his jaw and neck and cranes to get at his mouth, then moves back down the same path. Nico smells like soap and shampoo and the salt in the air that’s already clinging to his scrubbed-clean skin. Grady pauses at Nico’s lower back where his spine ends, grasps both high, pert globes of his ass, and parts them. He waits for Nico to protest—only sometimes is he in the mood for this—and, when he doesn’t, Grady drags his pointed tongue down the center of him.

  Nico breathes out quiet moans; his hips grind a little on the mattress as Grady licks him. It’s a mellower way of winding him up; he doesn’t enjoy it quite as enthusiastically as Grady does. He does, however, suggest, “You should fuck me. I’m feeling lazy.”

  That he likes Grady to do even less often; it’s harder for him to relax and he usually only wants Grady inside of him when he’s half asleep and groggy, and even then will want Grady to hurry up and get it done with. “I’m happy right here,” Grady says, with a broad swipe of his tongue against his hole. “We don’t have to.”

  Nico pushes up on his elbows and twists around to send Grady a sharp look. “I want you to. Take a hint.” He flicks his eyes up, then settles back down.

  Grady laughs against his hot, smooth skin. “Yes, sir.” But under Grady’s tongue, Nico is too tight, too wound up. Grady pushes off the bed to find the honeymoon basket this resort was
so kind to put in their room with that massage oil he’s been wanting to try. Grady oils his hands, straddles Nico’s waist, and digs his thumbs and fingertips into the tight muscles at the join of his shoulders and neck.

  “Oh, god,” Nico says with a real, deep-chested groan. Grady massages his neck and all down his back, while Nico moans and goes lax beneath his hands. “I’d marry you twice if I could. God.” Grady grins, kneading Nico’s muscles until he’s pliant; his lithe body is putty in Grady’s hands. Then he scoots back, squeezes out more oil, and massages first Nico’s lower back, then his glutes, then slips both slippery thumbs past the first rim of his hole.

  “Okay?” Grady checks in; his breathing is picking up in time with Nico’s. His thumbs slide out, back in, and Nico emphatically nods his head. His face is buried beneath one bent arm. Desire pulls tight in Grady’s belly, his cock rises stiff and ready, but he isn’t in a hurry. He bends and tastes Nico’s skin while he carefully spreads him open. Grady’s fingers are the waves lapping in and out; his lips and tongue are the lingering caress of the wind.

  Nico is patient, too, only lifting his flushed face and gasping out, “please,” when Grady settles his cock just once between Nico’s cheeks. He pulls back, pressing the blunt tip where Nico is open now, wanting. But he hesitates, looking at Nico prone on the bed with his face hidden. Not like this. While Nico clumsily reaches for lube and condoms dropped onto the floor by the bed, Grady stretches out on his side, pulling Nico back against him.

  This way he can kiss Nico’s jaw and ear, can watch his lips part and eyes roll back as Grady first pushes in, can grab the inside of his thighs and his hip and pull as he inches in and in and slowly in. Can work Nico’s cock in time with his long, slow thrusts.

  The first time he touched Nico, the first time they made love, Grady wanted to saturate himself in it, wanted to draw it out as long as he could, because he was so sure it would be the last time, too. This moment is like that, and, just like then, no matter how much Grady tries to draw it out, take his time, and let their pleasure flow honey-slow and just as sweet, their bodies take over and demand more. Nico reaches back to twist his fingers tight in Grady’s hair, grunts and curses and warns that he’s close, “so close, baby, please,” and, in response, Grady’s hips snap and his hand jacks faster and faster. Nico gets bumped up higher on the bed, causing Grady to be in danger of slipping out, so he releases Nico’s cock to yank him back by the thigh, settles his ass snug in the bowl of Grady’s hips, and drives in and in.

  Nico takes his own cock in hand, then, and it’s sexy enough watching him jerk himself off, but the glint of the wedding band on his finger as he does it sends Grady gasping over the edge. Nico comes over his own hand as Grady’s hips still and his cock gives a few last pulses of release.

  Grady catches his breath, gets rid of the condom, walks back on wobbly legs with a towel for Nico, and collapses back onto the mattress. “Now we nap,” Nico says happily, and Grady can’t imagine anywhere else on Earth he’d rather be than with this man, in this bed, in a thatched little hut on stilts stuck out somewhere in the wide blue sea.

  33

  One week later Grady is jolted back to reality when they hit a patch of turbulence in the air and the overhead seatbelt light flashes on. Grady pops his earbuds out and twists against the dull ache in his back.

  “We’re starting the descent soon,” Nico says, scrolling through something on his tablet just the way he was before Grady went into his music trance. He doesn’t know how Nico can sit still for so long.

  “Thank the lord,” Grady says, tucking one leg beneath him and shifting around. “What are you looking at?”

  “Oh, some of those sites you hate, some fan forums.” He powers the tablet down. “It’s nice to read about everyone being happy for us. Mostly.”

  Grady rests his cheek on the seat back and smiles crookedly. “I’m happy for us, too. I still can’t believe it.”

  Nico looks at his ring finger and spins the new wedding band with his thumb. The action sends a fierce rush of love and want through Grady.

  “I can’t, either,” Nico says. “I can’t believe I pulled it off, five weeks earlier than I planned.”

  “Wait, really?” Grady thought that the fake brunch and surprise wedding that day had been the plan all along.

  Nico’s eyebrows raise. “Well, you sprung my parents on me, and then I found out some fans had pinpointed the date. The CIA needs to hire fans for top secret intel, seriously. It was only a matter of time before my Plan B was discovered so—” The look he gives Grady is one of being defeated, but then it becomes bemused. “I know I was kind of being an asshole about the wedding planning and everything being perfect, but you weren’t the only one who wanted to just get to the end part already.”

  Grady’s chest beats with warmth. He takes Nico’s hand and presses it to his mouth; the cool band is hard against his bottom lip. “It was perfect. Any wedding where I got to marry you would have been perfect.”

  “You know, you say these things, and what am I supposed to—” Nico shakes his head as though he can’t cope, as though Grady is just so much, but not in a way that makes Grady feel bad about himself. He feels loved and wanted, officially and legally, and maybe it is just a piece of paper, their marriage license, but the message behind it is what matters: They went into this with eyes wide open, still chose each other, and promised to keep choosing each other, no matter what. Grady cups Nico’s chin and pulls him in for a lingering, dragging kiss.

  The turbulence settles, so the flight attendants make one last sweep of the cabin before they swoop down into Nashville. Their lunch dishes are cleared, and the attendant gives them each a gooey, fresh-baked cookie, which they tap together like champagne glasses. “I may not be able to give up first class,” Nico says, stretching his long legs in the generous space in front of him.

  “We can use Clem’s plane,” Grady says between bites of chocolate chip cookie.

  “Mmm, that’s true,” Nico replies. “We should probably let her know that she’s taking us on as dependents should everything go to shit.”

  Grady chews slowly, furrowing his brows. “Do you think it will?”

  “No,” Nico brushes crumbs from his hands. “You know me; I need to be prepared for all eventualities.” He does sort of have to be, in his line of work, Grady supposes.

  “Maybe you’re right about coming up from a hit,” Grady says. What has his life been but a series of punches to the gut? He’s always just figured he has two options: lie there in the dirt and give up, or dust himself off and keep going. And if he does it with a smile, well. “It’s like Granddaddy used to say: You can get glad in the same britches you got mad in.”

  Nico arches one eyebrow and sets his mouth flat. “What does that even… You know, even after living here, I still just do not understand the South.” He sighs.

  Grady gives him a sly grin. “Attitude is everything, sweetheart.”

  He’s always believed from the beginning of this strange and surprising career of his that he’s just a guy from a trailer park who picked up a guitar and got lucky. And if that luck runs out, well, he’s got a lot going for him these days without it.

  The day of the court date rolls around, and, when Grady comes out of the shower, Nico is setting out clothes on the bed. “Okay,” he says not looking up, fluttering his hands over the clothes. “The idea is to look subdued and casual. The label’s lawyers will all be wearing slick Italian suits; I’d put money on it. So you’ll look like a humble, regular guy who got caught up with these sharks who just want to screw him over.” He straightens and, almost manic with purpose, looks over at Grady. Then he narrows his eyes. “You’re naked.”

  Grady looks down at himself, sets his hands on his naked hips and replies, “What do you want me to shower in? A scuba suit?” He smirks, making Nico huff and roll his eyes, so Grady sidles up close and tries to wiggle against him
. “Am I distracting you?”

  “We have to leave in thirty minutes, at the latest,” Nico warns.

  “That’s plenty of time,” Grady murmurs in his ear.

  But Nico smacks his hip and darts away, points at Grady and reprimands, “Get dressed. Big day today.”

  The outfit is the sort of thing Grady would have worn to a court hearing before anyone knew his name and he’d have picked up new clothes at Sears for the occasion, which was likely Nico’s exact intention. Plain white button-down, bland tie, khaki slacks. He could swear Nico once put a ban on any and all khaki in their home, yet here he is. He checks out Regular-Guy-Grady in the mirror and fiddles with his new hair cut; his curls are neat and short after Nico trimmed his hair last night. He’s too restless to sit and wait, and after Nico denies him another attempt at fooling around to the take the edge off his nerves, he goes to the garage.

  “No ATV, Grady. And don’t get grease on those clothes,” Nico calls after him, pulling the phone away from his ear and covering the end. “They aren’t as cheap as they look.” He moves the phone back in place and says into it, “Mom… They aren’t going to let me livestream the proceedings for you… Yeah, I’ll see what I can do.”

  Grady makes a cross over his heart, promising not to get too dirty. If he does get a little grease under his nails, it’ll just help his image as an average Joe, right? In the end, he just sits on the Superbird’s newly upholstered front seat after getting a text message from Lillian: Helping Clay out next week after his surgery. Can I come by?

  Grady flips the phone over and over in his hand. He still doesn’t know what do about her—how much to forgive, if he should. She’s making amends and giving him space, and it’s not fair for him to hold on to his resentment of her, only— It’s all he’s had of her for so long, his righteous anger. Vaughn is gone now, for good, and if she’s gone, too, and he’s given up his anger toward her, what would he have left?