A Place to Land

Epilogue: Karen

It's 2017 and Aubree is thirteen and Elijah is seven. Jimi and I have been married for eleven years now. Aubree is in seventh grade and Elijah is in first. We are crazy busy all the time with the band, Aubree's dance and Elijah's sports. I've started a clothing line and the designers I work with trade off coming to Nashville and me going to New York. Usually when we have something going on in New York with the band is when I work on the line, but sometimes it doesn't always work out that way.

A few years ago, we moved into a new house. Jimi and I wanted to have more space for the kids. It's still in the same area just a little more out in the country. It's in a secluded subdivision with the whole yard fenced in and a huge backyard with a pool. We gutted the house when we bought it and remodeled everything. We also just got a little puppy not too long ago. The kids named her Honey and they absolutely love her.

It's summer time and the kids aren't in school. The CMT Awards and CMA Fest was last week so things were crazier than usual. It's times like these where we really rely on Emily to get the kids to where they need to be. Aubree is in dance all year long with two week breaks between sessions and she has one more class left before her break. Elijah is in Karate right now since his basketball and soccer leagues are over for the summer. Elijah is the type of kid that likes to be in sports all the time.

Aubree found out about Jimi not being her biological father when she was ten. We didn't necessarily want to keep it a secret from her so we kept the picture from the day Jimi adopted her on the mantle and waited for her to ask about it. She had finally asked about it one night after Elijah had gone to bed and it was just the three of us. We told her that it was the day her daddy became her daddy. We told her that she had a different daddy, but he wasn't ready to be her daddy when she was born, but Jimi was. We told her that Jimi was there for everything. He had been there through my entire pregnancy with her, he was there the day she was born and has been there every day since. We told her that he's always been her daddy. She was satisfied with what we told her and hasn't really asked about Mark since. She knows I was married to someone else and she knows that it was Mark. I've told her a little bit about him, but not too much. She knows that he's the band leader for Carrie Underwood and that he got remarried. I'm not sure if she's done her own research on him, but I hope she doesn't. I know that he and his wife have a baby and I think that will hurt her when she finds out if she hasn't already. The funny thing is, is that she's actually met his wife, Ivey, before when Kimberly took the kids to her bakery one day. I have no idea what Mark has told her, but Ivey does know that Aubree's mine.

We've told her stories about what it was like when I was pregnant with her like the cravings I had and how she would keep me up at night because she would be kicking like crazy and how I basically ripped the heads off everyone in the delivery room the day she was born. She always finds those stories hilarious. But overall she was an easy and happy baby.

It's Monday night and Aubree is at her dance class. I usually run a few errands and then watch the rest of her class since it's two hours. It goes from five to seven. The older she got the longer her classes are. It's just reaching seven now and the girls are doing their stretches before they leave. They finished up and came out of the studio. Aubree had a big smile on her face when she found me.

"How was class?" I asked her.

"Really good. I'm getting a solo for the summer recital" she said excitedly. I know she's been working really hard to get a solo in the next recital.

"That's amazing sweetie" I said and gave her a hug.

"Ready to go?" I asked her and she nodded.

She changed her shoes and grabbed her bag. We walked out to the car and she threw her bag in the backseat and climbed in the passenger seat. I started the car and headed home. She took her hair out of the bun she had it in and shook it out and adjusted it in the mirror. She's got long dark brown hair, about as long as mine with long layers in it. Her hair is a bit wavier than mine so she usually straightens it every day.