Music of the Heart (37 page)

              “Baby, can we go yet?  I’m ready to take you to the honeymoon suite upstairs and christen you as Mrs. Hamilton.  I have many plans for you tonight.  I mean, you might as well just stay up all night until our flight because I plan to make love to you, to fuck you and to make you beg for more tonight.”

              “As much as I want that right now too babe, we can’t leave the reception for a while still.  I promise you, you can keep me up all night as long as you promise to let me sleep the entire flight to whatever secret location you’re taking me on our honeymoon.  Now come on, I have a surprise for you.”

Chapter Forty

ASHLEIGH

              Walking back out, I locate Merritt and let her know I am ready.  Cross isn’t thrilled yet again to let me out of his sight but he has no choice.  Merritt heads up on the stage and gives an amazing speech in our honor.  After her speech, she gets ready to introduce me.

              “Ladies and gentleman, as if things weren’t already perfect, the bride asked me if she could do a special surprise for her new husband.  Who am I to deny my best friend anything?!  So, please welcome our bride, Ashleigh, to the stage!”

              I walk up on the stage and take my place on a stool and walking out behind me is my very dear friend in the music business, Matt Davison.  I am debuting a very special song that he helped me write just for this occasion and he also helps me sing it.

              “Hey guys!  First, I want to thank everyone for being a part of mine and Cross’s day.  You cannot even begin to imagine what it means to both of us.  I know how cliché this is with me being a singer but I have a very special song that I would like to sing tonight.  If you don’t recognize already this awesome guy, this is my very close friend, Matt Davison and he helped me write this song and will also be singing with me tonight.  So, here goes my new song, ‘How Could I Want More’.   I love you Cross Hamilton.”

              I begin singing and as I look down at Cross, his eyes actually looked glossy like he is going to cry.  By the end of the song, I see smiles everywhere and quite a few tears from people.  I thank everyone again and head back to the reception floor.  I don’t even make it off the stage completely before Cross has me in his arms.

              “Do you know how much I love you, Ashleigh Hamilton?”

              “I’m pretty sure I do Cross Hamilton.  But just in case, when we get upstairs, why don’t you remind me over and over again.”

              He throws his head back and laughs then kisses me senseless.  The reception is finally over and we get our big send-off.  We leave on a decorated golf cart and drive around the resort to a different door to be lead up to our honeymoon suite.  Our families are all staying at the resort as well but Cross made sure their rooms were on the total opposite end away from us.  We finally make it to our room and when we walk in, there is a huge tray full of chilled champagne, chocolate covered strawberries, more fruit and of course, it is complete with a bowl of whipped cream.  I instantly feel when Cross walks up behind me. 

              “As beautiful as you look baby, I want to see that dress in a puddle on the floor and not on your body.  As for your body, I want to see it naked.”

              I hear my zipper going down in the back and the dress does as he wants, puddles to the floor in a giant heap of fabric.

              “Holy fucking shit.  What in the hell do you have on?”

              My back is still to him and I just start laughing.  He begins to walk around to my front to take it all in.  I’m wearing this tiny thong that Merritt bought me.  On the front, she had Mrs. Harper done in crystals and the back of the thong is a string of pearls.  I am wearing a lacy, white strapless bra that barely holds in my big breasts. 

              Needless to say, he holds true to his promise and makes loves to me, fucks me and definitely makes me beg for more. 

CROSS

              I swear I love her but if she asks me one more time where we are going, I might go nuts.

              “Baby, you will know where we are going when we get to the airport.  I promise you will be happy.”

              We arrive to the airport after about an hour of sleep.  We are both so tired and we will have plenty of time to sleep on the flight.  I’m surprising her with her trip to Tahiti that she has always wanted to take.  We are staying for two weeks not including our flight days.

              It only takes her a few minutes to realize where we are going when we reach the counter.  The smile on her face makes me happy.

              “You, my amazing husband, are kick ass.  You definitely deserve a prize for taking me to Tahiti.  Oh, please tell me we’re sitting in First Class.  No offense, but I don’t want to spend my honeymoon in Coach around other people.  I want privacy with you.”

              “Okay, my spoiled rotten wife, don’t worry.  You’re in First Class and if you’re a good girl, I’ll grab us some blankets and make you feel very good on the flight.”

              We finally start boarding the plane and after take-off, Ashleigh asks the flight attendant for a couple of blankets and pillows.  I can tell how tired she is but I plan on pleasing her one more time and then she can go to sleep for a while.  After we get the blankets and pillows, I let the flight attendant know that we will both be trying to get some sleep and if possible, not to bother us.  Ashleigh immediately lays her head down but before she falls asleep, I lift our armrest and thank God she wore a dress today.  I slowly put my hand down and hear her gasp as I reach inside her panties. 

              “Cross, what are you doing?  We’re on a damn airplane.”

              “I told you I was going to make you feel very good on this flight and I fully intend to do just that.  Don’t worry.  Just sit back, lay your head on the pillow and let me make you come before you go to sleep.”

              She does what I say and I do exactly as I promised.  About an hour later, she is completely out and I pull my laptop out to catch up on e-mails and some work while she sleeps.  I know, I know, who works on their honeymoon?  But I’m gone for two and a half weeks so while she sleeps, I’m going to work.

              Halfway through the long trip, we land in California for a layover.  We have about an hour before our connecting flight so we grab some lunch and thankfully, they have a First Class lounge so Ashleigh isn’t spotted and can stay out of the public eye for a bit.

              Scrolling through my phone, it beeps with an incoming text.

Dixon: I see you’ve made it to California.

Cross: What the hell?  You got a tracking device on me?

Dixon: Ha, ha!  No, asshole.  Someone just posted a picture of you two walking through the

              airport on Instagram and Twitter. 

Cross: Shit.  I was trying to keep out of the spotlight of everyone.  I have us in a private

              lounge until we board the next flight now.

Dixon: Sounds good man.  Stay safe and just check in when y’all get there so we know

              you’re all good.

Cross: Will do man.

              I look over at my wife while she scrolls through her phone.  I really am a lucky guy.  She turns her head and catches me looking.

              “What?  Do I have something on my face?”

              “No.  I just wanted to look at my beautiful wife.” 

              Leaning over, I kiss her just as they announce we are about to begin boarding our flight.  The next six hours go by with the two of us mostly sleeping.  Before I close my eyes, I glance over to my sleeping wife and wonder how I got to be so damn lucky.

Chapter Forty-One

ALMOST THREE YEARS LATER

ASHLEIGH

              “Cross, I love you so much.  Look at her, she is perfect.”

              “Hell yeah, she is.  Perfect just like her mom.”

              Looking down in my arms, we just stare at our precious baby girl, Sutton.  We welcomed her into the world an hour ago, joining her big brother, Cullen, who is 22 months old.  The nurses are getting ready to wheel me up to my room from the OR recovery room since I had a c-section.  I cannot wait for everyone to meet her.

              Once we get settled in our room, or I guess I should say the presidential suite of hospital rooms since Cross pulled every string he had with the hospital, our families are practically beating down the door.  Cross steps outside the room and tells everyone they have to wait a few minutes because we want to introduce Cullen to his baby sister first.  We do allow Ellis to come in with him because she is taking pictures for us.

              The day is a long one and I am exhausted by about 5:00 p.m. and ask Cross if he can make everyone leave and come back tomorrow.  He does just that and now it’s just the three of us since Cullen went home with my parents.  I look over and can’t help but just sit back and stare at Cross holding our sweet baby girl.  It makes me think back over the past four years at everything we’ve been through and how far we’ve come.

I can honestly say I never thought once my career kicked off that I would ever live in Alabama again.  Cross made the decision to move us to my hometown right after our son, Cullen, was born.  He opened up a branch of CTH Enterprises in Birmingham and became part owner of Southern Play, a venue for music acts as well as a recording studio. 

              I continued with my music and toured throughout my entire pregnancy with our son who was born right before our first anniversary.  It only took thirteen months before I found out I was pregnant again and here we are welcoming our daughter into the world.

              Cross still travels a lot for work but not near the amount he used to.  I still sing but have cut my touring down a good bit but when I do go, the kids travel with me and love it.  I plan on picking back up on the touring after the Summer.  Cross is not too thrilled with it but it is still my job and one that I love.

              Our friends couldn’t handle being apart from us so much since they were used to being with us or around us every single day so all eight of them came over to Birmingham and found homes in our area as well.  Merritt and Mason actually bought the house across the street from us because she just couldn’t handle being far away.  The other three bought houses a few streets over.  After planning my wedding and having it in Birmingham, a lot of friends from home started asking about Merritt and her business for their events and weddings.  It took her a several months but she ended up opening a Birmingham branch of Bello and she actually works out of this office more than Atlanta.  She asked her assistant, Peyton to take over in the Atlanta branch and she hired on more staff in the same positions as the girls.  They all four still travel back and forth to Atlanta doing evens and weddings when requested but they all seem very happy with how things have worked out.

              Having the girls start their business in Birmingham, that meant the guys had to figure things out for them as well.  Dixon uses a floor in the building Cross bought and opened a branch of his law firm.  Reed easily found an awesome space for his dental practice and opened this location turning the reins over to his cousin in Atlanta.  Mason had some connections in one of police departments here so after a year of patrol work, he joined on as a detective and couldn’t be happier.  Jake easily got a teaching job at one of the universities in Birmingham and occasionally goes to Atlanta to guest speak for his old classes.