"You OK?" he asked softly.
I sniffled as I nodded and gave him a soft smile. "I love you."
He smiled broadly at that. "I love you, too, Sunshine." He dropped a kiss on my forehead and hugged me again before releasing me.
"I want to get a little footage of you guys to post online. The buzz is really growing for the album release, especially since tomorrow night's show at the Live Wire sold out within minutes of being announced," I said, picking up my camera. "Michaelforwarded me an email he got from the label execs, and they are really putting the pressure on to maintain the pre-release hype. Lana and her PR team will be all over you guys for the next few weeks."
At their collective groan, I just laughed. "That's what you get for being rockstars, gentlemen. It's a rough life, but somebody's gotta do it."
"When I called Lana and Michael to give them a heads-up that I was coming out tomorrow, Lana wanted to tip off the tabloids to make sure that I made the news. I told her no." Tony rolled his eyes and shook his head. "I'd rather let it happen naturally. If nobody takes the bait tomorrow at The Grove, I'll just wear the shirt at the concert tomorrow night. Hell, I'll probably wear it then anyway. She seemed OK with that."
I spent the next half hour or so snapping photos of them just goofing around in the studio, along with video of them doing a cover of Stairway to Heaven. Nico did an intro to the song and explained about Gracie's version of the lyrics. They tried to sing it Gracie's way, but they were laughing too hard to continue by the end of the first verse. I stopped recording after Tony yelled"We love you, Gracie!", followed by the rest of the guys chiming in to yell it as well.
The other three left shortly thereafter, and Nico volunteered to go pick Gracie up while I did a quick edit on the photos and video and posted them online. I made a start on dinner - fried chicken with mashed potatoes and gravy - before they came home a little while later. Gracie was chattering non-stop as they walked through the door. It was clear that she had been excited to show off her Uncle Nico again to the friends who hadn't met him that morning.
She was still telling us about her day by the time we sat down to eat, regaling us with a story about her friend Talia. I had just taken my first bite of the chicken when her next words almost made me choke.
"- and then Talia said that Uncle Nico couldn't be my uncle anymore when you guys get married. She said he would haf'ta be my daddy then, or my stepdad. She has a daddyanda stepdad."
She kept chattering away, oblivious to the fact that both Nico and I were frozen in our seats. My eyes flicked toward Nico, to find him staring at me intently. I was trying to decipher the look on his face as she continued.
"She calls him Steven. Just plain Steven though, he's not an uncle. She said she can't call him Daddy, since she already has a Daddy. Since I don't have a Daddy here anymore, can you be my Daddy now, or do you haf'ta be just plain Nico?" At her innocent request, my heart skipped a beat, and I felt the tears welling in my eyes. Nico and I had talked about this, in a roundabout way. He'd said he wanted to raise her as his own, but we hadn't really discussed specifics.
I tried to blink away the tears so that I could focus my gaze on the two most important people in my world. Nico grabbed for my hand and gave it a squeeze, and I realized that I wasn't the only one with tears in their eyes.
