You punched the code into the gate and waited for it to open before pressing on the gas petal again, moving the car through the gate and up the long driveway before circling the fountain and putting the car in park. You glanced up at your house and smiled. When you’d first bought this house, years ago, it had felt empty and cold. The décor was sparse and not welcoming in the least. You’d been young and let some interior decorator make all the decisions for you. It hadn’t suited you at all, but at the time you hadn’t been home long enough for it to really matter at first.
Then, when you finally did have time to be home, you began to hate the house. It was too big, and far too lonely. You’d come close to selling it, had actually looked into it. But then you’d gone on tour again, you and JC had gotten together, and suddenly, once you had time to spend there again, it didn’t seem quite as big and lonely. Slowly, it had become warm and comfortable, even if the décor was still sparse.
When you and JC had finally decided to officially move in together, you’d sold your house in California and kept his out there but you’d kept this house, here in Florida. With some help from JC, and a new interior decorator, you’d remodeled the entire house, moving away from the plain white walls and adding some color, trading the trendy, yet uncomfortable furniture for more personal things: big, overstuffed couches and chairs, a large four poster bed. It had made a drastic difference in just entering the rooms, but you knew it was more the fact that JC was there with you than anything that had been done to the house. He made it feel like a home, a place you truly wanted to be.
Since then, the two of you had talked about moving, more than once, but this house just held too many wonderful memories for the two of you. It was your home.
Climbing out of the car, you made your way to the front door and unlocked it, slipping quickly inside. You’d been up since very early this morning, before either JC or Sean had woken up. You’d had meetings for the better part of the day, discussing the new album you were going to begin working on soon, discussing the prospects of a tour, discussing contracts and promotion and everything else that went into releasing an album. It was all second nature for you by this point, after seven albums, but you knew it was still necessary.
The sounds of “I Wanna Hold Your Hand” filled your ears instantly. And you could hear JC singing along with it, his voice blending with the voices of The Beatles joined voices coming out of the stereo speakers. Moving through the entryway, you peered around the corner into the living room. A grin lit up your face instantly at the sight in front of you. JC had your nine month old in his arms and he was dancing across the room, singing along with the song, and making faces at Sean. Sean’s eyes were trained on JC as he laughed giddily, hands splayed across JC’s chest, a look of pure excitement on his face. It took everything in you to not step in there and join them, but you wanted to watch.
JC spun and twirled across the living room, gracefully maneuvering around the furniture, oblivious to everything else around him besides Sean and the song. You leaned against the wall and crossed you arms over your chest, smiling at the two of them. This song brought back memories of the two of you performing this song, once upon a time, with your three best friends during the Celebrity Tour.
The song was over too quickly for your liking and JC’s dancing came to a halt. He smiled at Sean, leaning in to kiss his forehead as he spoke to him. It was said too quietly over the sound of the music for you to hear, but it made your heart soar just the same, seeing the happiness on his face, on both their faces. When your two favorite people in the entire world were happy, you were happy. It didn’t matter that you’d just spent hours sitting in a stuffy conference room, that you were boggled down with ideas and suggestions for the album. Seeing the two of them erased any negative feelings from your body.
JC looked up and jumped slightly, his face showing shock before it gave away to a smile when he saw you standing there.
“How long have you been there?”
“Long enough to see that incredible performance. That right there would sell more tickets than any show we ever did, Josh.” You saw the blush creep up his neck and spread over his cheeks and it floored you that still, after all this time, he still got shy around you at times.
“I think you might just be bias.”
“Hmm, maybe. Considering it is my absolute favorite two people in the entire world. But you have no idea how warm that just made me inside.” Sean had turned in JC’s arms when he’d heard your voice and was smiling happily at you, murmuring in gibberish to get to you. You walked across the room and reached out to take him from JC, hugging him close. “Hey kiddo. You and papa having fun?” He cooed happily as he snuggled into your chest. “Looks like you wore him out, baby.” You leaned in to kiss JC, your lips closing over his own, his tongue coming out to swipe at your bottom lip before slipping inside, sliding his tongue across your own. You moaned into the kiss and leaned into him a little more, careful of Sean in your arms.
His kisses were incredible. Still, after all this time, just a gentle press of lips against your own was enough to make you’re gasp and search for air, enough to make your knees weak, enough to make your heart jump in your chest.
He wrapped his arms around you, pulling you and Sean close, as you rested your head on his shoulder and sighed in contentment.
“Long day?”
“Mmm,” you mumbled into his neck, “Very long. But we got a lot accomplished.”
“I’m really going to miss you when you go on tour.” JC sighed, the air escaping from his mouth brushing over your cheek. You shook your head against his shoulder, smiling to yourself. He pulled away from you, chuckling slightly. “You trying to tell me I’m not going to miss you?”
“I’m trying to tell you you’re not going to have to.” You smiled again, reaching up your free hand to run across his cheek. He sighed.
“Justin, we’ve talked about this. Now that we have Sean I can’t go on tour with you. He’s too young, I won’t do that to him. I thought we agreed on this?”
“We did, sweetness.” He caught your smile and looked at you, tilting his head to the side slightly, questioningly.
“You have a secret.” He’s eyes twinkled slightly and you nodded. “You gonna tell me?” You nodded again and he waited, bringing his hand up to rub Sean’s back lightly as he slept in your arms.
“I made a few stipulations at the meeting today.”
“A few stipulations?”
“Yes. A few stipulations.”
“What kind of stipulations?”
“Well,” you started. “First of all, when the album is released, I told them I was only going to do a weeks worth of promotion. At least all at once, the week leading up to the release. I mean, there might be a few more interviews here and there, but the longest I’ll be gone all at once is a week.”
“Ok, what else?”
“During the tour, I’m going to do five shows, five nights in a row, then have three days off to come home and be with you and Sean.” You knew your smile was ridiculously large, but you couldn’t care less.
“And they just said ok?” JC asked, slight shock apparent on his face.
“Of course they said ok. Jace, not to sound conceited, but I’m still Jive’s biggest artist. They do what they can to keep me happy. Besides, Johnny was on my side. He understands what it’s like to have kids and have to be away from them. I think they all realized it wasn’t something I was going to budge on.”
“So five days is the longest I’ll have to be away from you through the whole tour?” You nodded and he pulled you into him, letting his lips rest against your forehead in a soft kiss. “I love you, so much. I was really dreading three months or so without you.”
“Now you don’t have to baby. I’ll be home so much you’ll get sick of me.” JC laughed, his eyes shinning as you chuckled.
“If I do, I’ll just send you back to your bus.”
“I’ll make sure it’s parked right outside in the driveway,” you said, capturing his lips with your own. Finally pulling away, you took Sean up to his bedroom before joining JC back in the living room. He had a cold beer sitting on the table, waiting for you, and you grabbed it before sitting down on the couch, curling up against his chest, kissing him in thanks. The TV was on low, but neither of you were even paying attention to it. The sound was eventually almost drowned out by the wet, slick sounds of your lips on each other, your skin sliding against each other. You slipped his shirt up and over his head, tossing it across the room as he worked on the buttons of you shirt.
You could feel his hardness, pressed up against your hip and you ground down into him, causing a soft moan to escape his lips as his head tipped back, allowing your mouth to attach there, licking and sucking. And then, just as your hands reached the waistband of his pants, fingers dipping below, caressing the warm skin, a loud, shrill cry startled the two of you, pulling you apart.
Sean had woken up and was crying for one of his parents. You sighed and buried your head in JC’s neck for a moment before climbing off of him.
“You going?” JC asked, letting his hand run along your bare back for a moment. You nodded, twisting around to kiss him one more time.
“Kid sure has good timing. Knows just when to interrupt,” you said, grinning as you made your way quickly upstairs to Sean’s room.
“That’s your kid, baby,” you heard JC yell from the living room and you could just imagine the grin on his face.