Love is Nothing
...Love is nothing like they say...You gotta pick up the little pieces every day..."
"There you go, sweetie." Callie said, pulling up the covers of her youngest son's bed.
"Thanks mommy." he muttered, sleepily yawning.
"See you in the morning." She said, reaching over to ruffle his shaggy, blonde hair.
She was about to slip out the door without the old floorboards creaking when he spoke again.
"Mommy?"
"What sweetie?"
"Why didn't daddy tuck me in too?"
She was silent for a moment. She looked into her son's deep blue eyes, so much like his father's. "He's still at work, sweetie."
"With uncle Zac and Ike?"
"Yep. They're writing songs."
"Oh." The four year old said with another yawn.
"Night."
"Night mommy." He said quietly as his heavy eyelids closed. She quietly shut Nathan's bedroom door and tiptoed down the hall to check on his nine year old brother Alex, and his six year old twin sisters, Hallie and Hannah. When she was satisfied, she walked back to the family room and picked up her book. She frowned as the main charachter elaborately described a love scene in an airport bathroom.
Ulgh.... She thought. Who would have sex in a bathroom? An airport bathroom no less? How crude....
"Then again, I wouldn't know." She said outloud, reading the cover of the book. "Hmm...'The vixen in flight'....trashy, trasy, trashy..."
She glanced at the clock, which read almost ten. Taylor had been gone all day. He had been gone most of the week too. She hated recording time. He would be in the studio, eighteen hours a day, five to six days a week, twenty weeks of most years. She wasn't even the one doing the work and she felt exhausted.
Callie tried to go back to 'the vixen in flight' and her mysterious lover, though she couldn't help but not think about her husband. Anymore, he would come home, give her a quick, mindless kiss on the lips, have a beer, maybe shower, and then go to bed. Most nights he wouldn't even make it all the way out of his work shirt before falling to sleep he was so tired.
She missed her husband. They had only been recording about a month and she already missed him like crazy. One thing she wasn't sure she liked about marrying a rock star was the crazy schedule. He was almost always gone half of the year, he was strung out and tired, and sometimes near crazy with lack of sleep. He would be gone all day, locked up in the small studio with his brothers and the few people helping on the album.
One thing the 'Vixen' did have was mystery. There was no mystery left in her relationship with Taylor. He knew everything about her, she knew everything about him. He knew that the most embarassing time of her life and she knew the worst thing he had ever seen. She longed for the days of their first few dates, when he would fly home on his private jet just to come to her dorm room and see her for three hours. She missed the jealous looks girls would give her when she was seen out with The Taylor Hanson, holding hands. She longed for thier first, nervous but drunkenly romantic first kisses and long-stemmed red roses. She longed for the look Taylor would give her when she would teasingly refuse to let him come up to her apartment.
It was all over now. She was a mother of four, she had lost her size three hips, there had been no sex for a week and a half, and she was over thirty. But that was okay, right? She was happy. She loved her kids, and she still loved Taylor as much now as ever.
"Course it is. I love my kids." She said outloud, trying to reassure herself.
The one thing she didn't like about being married to The Taylor Hanson was the fact that she always had to and always would have to share her husband with millions of other people. It was hard knowing that there were millions of other women out there who would gladly take Taylor from her at any second. Prettier women, thinner women, younger women.... She tried to shake any bad thoughts from her head as she heard the front door open and quietly close.
She heard Taylor sigh quietly as he locked back up. She heard his quiet footsteps down the hall and to the family room where she sat, curled in his armchair, surrounded in his scent. A few seconds later, she saw his dark blonde head poke inside the doorway.
"You're still up." He said, giving her a tired smile as the rest of his body appeared.
"Yeah. I guess I wanted to see you." She said, putting down her book and stretching.
"I wanted to see you too." He said, entering the room. They smiled at each other.
"Commere." He mumbled. She grinned and willingly lifted herself out of the warm chair to wrap her arms around his sides. She could smell the smoky studio on him and she could still feel the chill on his jacket from the late winter air. She breathed in his familliar and comforting scent. "I missed you today." She said, her voice muffled into his jacket collar.
"I missed you too. How was your day?"
"Alex had a book report he needed help on, and Hannah and Hallie wanted to bake cookies, and Nathan was wild all day. I was about to go nuts."
"My day wasn't much better." He said, pulling away to look at his wife.
"Things are just so crazy right now." She said.
"They'll be done with soon."
"I know."
"I never get to see you anymore."
"I was just thinking the same thing." She replied, leaning her forhead against his. She looked into his deep blue eyes, savoring the look of them. He smiled weakly and gave her a lingering kiss on the mouth. They broke apart and she smiled, stroking the pieces of hair around his face. She kissed him again, and he opened his mouth wider, deepening their kiss. She smiled. That was the first time in days she had felt his tongue in her mouth.
"Fiesty, huh?"
"Yeah." he replied, taking a breath.
She laughed and kissed him again.
"It feels so good to kiss you." He mumbled when they broke apart.
"I know. Same here." She replied. Taylor yawned and rested his head on her shoulder.
"You need sleep."
"I know."
"Let's go to bed."
"Let's sleep here." He suggested.
"Here?"
"Yeah, on the couch." He said, pulling her over to the couch.
"Taylor-"
"Nah, come on." He kicked off his boots, threw his coat on the floor, then stripped down to his boxers. He got a blanket from the back of the couch and put it over himself, then pulled his robe-clad wife over to him.
"You're nuts."
"I'm fine."
"I know."
"I love you."
"I love you too."
He turned out the lights and wrapped his arms around her, and soon, all she could hear was his light, tired breathing. True, niether one of them looked like they did twelve years ago. They weren't as young, nor were they as energetic. They didn't have a lot of time for one another, and there wasn't sex five or more times a week. She didn't see him for more than an hour everyday, and they were apart more than they were together. Even if everything wasn't exactly the same twelve years later, some things were. He still had the same blue eyes, she still had her thick brown hair. He could still serenade her on anniversaries, and she could still make his favorite meal. And as she listed to her husband's steady breathing and his heart beating almost in time with hers, she knew that some things the same were enough.
...Love is nothing like they say...you've gotta get up and work the people every day...