“Where did the summer go?” Nikki asked, a forced lightness to her voice as she folded my shirt to put in my suitcase.
“It went to promo shows, and wonderful days spent in the sunshine with you, Everette, and Monroe,” I said.
“Hmmm, it was a nice summer. Now I have two little men to keep me company when you are away on tour.”
“And hopefully you will feel up to coming out to visit when we are on tour,”
“I don’t know, some of the places up north might be a little cold for Monroe since he is only a few months old,” she said.
“He’ll be fine. Penny was younger than him when Natalie took her out for the first time. Everyone pitches in and helps.”
Nikki looked up, “I’m not Natalie. She is supermom. I can’t be like her,” she started piling my clothes in the suitcase without bothering to fold them. I came and took a pair of slacks from her.
“That’s not what I mean. I love you. I don’t want you to be like any other woman on this planet. You aren’t like any other woman on this planet. I was just trying to make you feel more comfortable. But I fully trust you to make the best decision for our family. “
“I know. You’re right, I’m sorry,” she sat down on the bed and spread a t-shirt out smooth in her lap, then started to fold it again. “I just thought that watching you leave on tour would get easier eventually, but it gets harder every time,”
I sat down behind her and put my arm around her waist. “It does for me, too. Before I married you, it was easy to just pack up and head out. But now I know that I am leaving the best part of my life when I go out on the road.”
“Do you think that touring will ever stop? With all the new technology you could just play a show here and make a video for all of your other fans.”
“I don’t know. I think that people will come to see going to a live show as a unique experience, so I think that touring will become more important. Plus, if we only played one show, we would only bring in the revenue for that one show. Not to mention the loss of revenue from merchandise sales.”
“Oh well, it was wishful thinking, I guess.”
“This fall will go by so fast, and then Christmas will be here before we know it.”
“Monroe’s first Christmas,” she smiled at that thought. “I will have to get him a special ornament. And I think that Everette is old enough to understand what is going on and what all the excitement is about.”
“That’s right. He will really have fun this year.”
“I’ll have to get a head start on shopping for your family, it is getting bigger every year!”
“I know. I think we might have to pick names soon. My grandmother had a big family, and by time Zac was born we drew names and only brought one present each, instead of everyone bringing a bunch of small presents.”
“That is a good idea. We had a pretty small family, so we just did the one present each thing. I want to pick out something really special for my mom since she helped so much with the kids last year and this.”
“I think that is a really good idea. If you don’t find anything in Tulsa maybe you can come out to one of the bigger cities and we can go shopping together.”
“I wouldn’t mind seeing LA again,” she said.
“We aren’t going to LA until the end of tour. What about New York? That’s just a little over a month away and we have a day off after that show.”
“New York could be fun.”
“And there is a direct flight from Tulsa to NYC, so you won’t have to worry about changing planes if you want to bring the boys.”
“Yeah, I don’t want a connection when I’m carrying them. I don’t really want to take them in a New York cab, either,” she said.
“Oh, we’ll get you set up with a private car to meet you there. We have a company we use a lot when we go, Becks will have the details.”
“Alright, I think that sounds like a good plan,” she stood and closed my suitcase.
“I’ll see you in New York in a month,” I said, wrapping my arms around her. “I’ll be thinking of you every day.”
“Not as much as I’ll think of you,” she said.
She followed me into the nursery to say goodbye to the boys, then out to the car. We embraced one last time, and then I was off to play rock star with my brothers. I said a silent prayer that we wouldn’t have unexpected trips to the hospital this tour and that the next month would fly by so that I could my love again.