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ease. “You were saying?”
    “I worried
about you for a long time…” He paused as though he wanted to
consider his next words carefully. “First with the modelin’ thing,
then when that bastard cheated on you. You were so unhappy, so
lost. I thought you married Liam to fill some kind of void, but it
didn’t take me long to realize you’d found the real deal with
him.”
    Alisa smiled
at her father’s assessment of her marriage. “How could you
tell?”
    “You guys
looked at each other the same way your mama and me did. Hell, still
do.” He grinned before his smile fell. “I’ve been a lot of places,
met a lot of people, but I knew only one person could be everything
I needed. That was Sierra.”
    It used to
embarrass Alisa to see her parents kissing and hugging like
teenagers, especially in front of her friends, but now she realized
how lucky she’d been to grow up in a home with two parents who
loved each other as much as they did.
    “Baby, the
reason I’m tellin’ you this is because I don’t wanna see you make
the same mistakes I made.”
    “What do you
mean?” Another contraction wracked her body, and it was even more
intense than the last. “Sweet Jesus…” she whispered.
    Trey glanced
at his diamond wristwatch. “Where the hell is that midwife? She
should be here by now.”
    “Relax, she’ll
be here soon.” At least Alisa prayed she would. She didn’t know how
much longer her baby would wait to make his or her grand entrance.
“You were saying something about mistakes?”
    “When your
mama and I first married, I got so caught up in bein’ the next big
thing in country music that I lost sight of what really
mattered—our marriage.”
    Alisa knew her
parents had divorced after they lost their first child, but Trey
never discussed the details with her. “But that’s all behind you
now. You learned your lesson.”
    “Yeah, but I
sure wish I hadn’t had to learn it the hard way. Those five years
without Sierra were the toughest of my life. I was drinkin’ every
day, goin’ from one party to the next ’cause I didn’t want anyone
to know how bad I was hurtin’. Hell, I couldn’t even write
music.”
    Music had been
a part of Trey’s life for so long. Alisa had trouble imagining how
difficult it must have been for him when his gift was suddenly
taken away. “How’d you get it back?”
    He smiled.
“The only way I knew how—by gettin’ your mama back. I knew that my
life would never make sense without her. She brought out the best
in me and never judged me for the worst. She made me believe I
could be a better man.”
    “Why are you
telling me all of this now?” Alisa asked. “Not that I’m
complaining. I could certainly use the distraction.”
    “Honey, your
life’s about to change in a big way. I just want you to remember
what your mama and I went through.”
    “You’re not
saying you think that could happen to me and Liam, are you?” She
couldn’t even conceive of a life that didn’t revolve around her
husband and family.
    “I know you’ve
got big plans to expand the boutique, and I think that’s great. I’m
all for followin’ your dreams. At the end of the day, you don’t
wanna feel as though you left anything on the table…”
    “But?”
    “Take it from
someone who came out on the other side of makin’ the biggest
mistake of his life. Put your family first, ’cause nothing else
matters if you don’t have them.”
    Liam appeared
at the doorway with Maria standing just behind him.
    Alisa looked
up at her father. “I expected you to come in here and try to talk
me out of having the baby here. Why didn’t you?”
    Trey brushed a
fingertip over her cheek as he looked into her eyes. “My baby
girl’s all grown up. It’s time for me to let her make her own
decisions. Just remember one thing, sweetheart. I’ll always be here
for you. Anything you need, anytime, you just call on me.”

Chapter
Five
    Alisa had been
in labor for several hours. She was