Nick's POV

My first day back at work has been rough. Not because I don't like my job, in fact the new artist that I'm working with- a young man named Jack- is really good and I enjoy my job, but there's a problem.

I miss Miley. After being attached at the hip (and more often than not, other places too) for the past week, even being away from her for a few hours seems devastating. On our honeymoon we didn't even shower separately and now it's been three hours and I'm itching to call her or, even better, see her. I can't get her face or her goofy little giggle out of my mind and it's driving me insane. But for now, I need to concentrate on work.

The cool thing about working with this new artist is that we're actually writing songs together. He's a fifteen year old who was discovered on the Internet by the record label and he has a lot of raw talent and instinct. He has a decent voice and has a pretty good grasp on the guitar even though he only taught himself about a year ago. Plus he's handsome for a 15 year old and I know the girls will just adore him. I remember being in that position so it's cool that I get to mentor someone who's heading in the same direction I was. Except this kid is doing it all alone, not with his two big brothers. Hopefully, he's happy to have me there though.

"Do you have to make a phone call or something?" Jack asks, suddenly stopping the chord progression that he was doing on his guitar. He looks at me with his striking green eyes and raises an eyebrow in an accusing way.

"Huh?" I ask confused, shaking thoughts of Miley out of my mind.

"You keep glancing over at your phone on the table over there. I thought maybe you were waiting for a call or a text."

"Oh, no," I shake my head, "Sorry… I'm just a little distracted."

"Nah, I get it," he says with the relaxed drawl of a teenager, "You have a hot wife waiting at home, this is the last place you want to be."

I shake my head at him and chuckle even though he pretty much just read me like a book.

"I don't know if I appreciate you calling my wife hot."

He grins mischievously, "Maybe you should introduce us so I could see for myself in person."

"Yeah, yeah, keep dreaming," I roll my eyes and punch his shoulder gently. Although actually I was planning on asking him and his parents to dinner when Miley and I get more settled. His dad seems a little wary of this whole thing, but maybe getting to know me will help. Plus it doesn't hurt to get close to the person you're going to be working with. And I bet Miley will get a kick out of this kid.

"What about you?" I ask, "You got a girlfriend?"

Jack's shakes his head, dark hair swinging back and forth, "Nah. We broke up before I moved out to LA."

Jack is originally from the Chicago area, but he moved here a few weeks ago. I met him once or twice before this session, and I watched his videos online, but I don't know much about his life. But maybe this is what we need to get a good song out of him. Sometimes it's better to think of the idea first, then write the music around the lyrics.

"Yeah?" I ask casually. I remember myself at 15. If I actually sound interested, he won't want to tell me, but if I act like I don't care that much, he'll spill.

"Yeah. We dated for a little over a year. She said she 'didn't want to get hurt' so she broke up with me. Or some crap like that. I don't even know. I don't understand girls."

"Not many guys do," I chuckle.

"I guess you do since you're married."

"I understand Miley, but that's about it. And sometimes I can't even understand her. But don't tell her that."

Jack laughs at that.

"So this girl, was she special?"

After a moment of silence he nods, "yeah, she was. I know we were young but… I wasn't ready to let her go."

"Want to hear my advice?" Jack nodded again. "Let's write a song about it."

A grin sneaks on his face and I can't help but let one cross mine too. I know that we've stumbled upon some great material and I can't wait to get started.

I'm already grinning before I even get to the entrance of our new house. It's kind of strange owning my own home. I mean, I've had the penthouse for a few years now, but it felt more like a huge hotel room than an actual grown-up house. In a way it makes me feel a lot older, but then again so does being married.

The house is everything Miley and I wanted and then some. It's a three story Spanish inspired exterior complete with a tiled roof. It's extremely luxurious but the interior designer did a great job of making it feel homey and warm as well. The bottom floor has a huge state of the art kitchen with a bar area for four people which is attached to a large, more formal dinning room. It'll be perfect for entertaining as will the two living spaces, one casual and one formal, that also occupy the downstairs.

The middle floor contains the master bedroom and I swear it's about the size of the entire penthouse, which was by no means small. We each have our own closet and bathroom space, which I know Miley really enjoys. There's also an office type space which has been set up as a music room and a smaller bedroom that attaches to ours that will one day be a nursery.

Upstairs are four more bedrooms and three bathrooms, now set up as guest rooms, but that will one day house our children. There's also a small in-home movie theater.

Personally, my favorite part is the backyard though. Maybe it's because in the penthouse I didn't have a backyard, but I know it's where I'm going to be spending the majority of our time. It's built up with these concrete walls that match the house so that there's privacy for our pool, with built in hot tub, and patio with an outdoor kitchen and eating space. And, of course, we have the whole beach to spend time on as well. It's absolutely perfect.

Perfect home. Perfect wife. Perfect job. Perfect life. I couldn't be happier.

I turn the car into the dunes and put in the code that opens our gate. Luckily the dunes make a nice natural barrier although there are trespassing signs every few feet as well.

I pull around the circular driveway that has a fountain in the middle and park right outside the front door. We have a garage on the side of the house, but I'm too excited to get inside to park there.

"I'm home!" I call loudly when I get into the main entrance.

"I'll be right down!" Miley calls back and I smile.

I picture this moment in a few years. I get home and instantly three kids are running to greet me with eager looks on their faces while their little voices cheer "Daddy's home!". I'll pick up a little girl with my curls and Miley's blue eyes and give my two boys hugs. And then down the stairs will come Miley with a bulging belly, but still looking beautiful in her pregnancy. I sigh. Yeah, I can picture it. And I want it. Badly. I've always wanted to be a family man and now I'm getting that chance.

"Hey, babe! I missed you today."

I look up and see Miley descending the stairs. She's wearing a pair of girly boxers with a blue bra. Over it she has an unzipped bright yellow sweatshirt.

"Did you just wake up?" I ask her as she hops off the last step.

She shakes her head, "no, I just wanted to be comfy today. Plus I was doing some work so it was kind of hot."

"Well, I approve," I let her know and then bring my hands under her sweatshirt to land on her bare lower back.

"I thought you would," she says bringing her hands to my belt, "I missed you when you were gone."

"You have no idea how much I missed you."

"It's so hard not being around you all the time and get to kiss you and touch you and-"

"Stop," I groan, grabbing her wrists and pulling them away from me.

"Are you hungry?" she asks after laughing at me.

I shrug.

"I'm starving. I forgot to eat lunch and then I thought I'd wait for you. What are you in the mood for?"

"What do we have?"

"Not much," she says going into the kitchen and looking through the cabinets, "Kraft mac and cheese. Pasta; but no sauce. Pancake mix. Eggs. Milk. Salad. Some Chinese leftovers from last night."

She closes the fridge then looks at me with a frown, "I'm sorry, baby. I should have gone shopping today, but I didn't realize..."

"Hey, it's fine," I tell her before she gets worked up, "We should eat the Chinese before it goes bad anyway. It's not a big deal."

"But today was your first day back to work in a while and I should have-"

I put a finger up to her lips, "Shush. I love Chinese. It's perfect."

A little while later, we're eating the reheated food right out of the container while sitting on the couch. It was my idea to sit in here and I can tell it's making Miley nervous by the way she's watching me like a hawk as I feed myself.

"You better not spill, Nick," Miley warns, "I will kill you if you mess up the new couches. It took the designer and I weeks to find the perfect ones."

"Relax, I'm not going to... Crap!"

"Nick!" she shrieks and sits up glaring at me.

I laugh at the expression on her face, "I'm just kidding. Now be a good girl and bring those noodles over here."

"How about you be a good boy and not give me a heart attack like that?"

"Come 'ere," I tell her again and pat the spot next to me. Reluctantly she comes over and shares the food with me. I tuck her under my arm, feeling so content to just be here in this moment with her.

"I love you," I say, just because I can. She smiles and gives me a kiss before letting me know she feels the same. If this is the way the rest of my life is going to pan out, I'm completely satisfied. Well, I'd like to add kids to the mix, but for now, I'm happy.

"So what do you want to do now?" I ask her after we clean up our dinner mess.

Miley yawns and stretches. She zippered up her sweatshirt halfway before but the movement makes her chest thrust out in an appealing way.

"I'm kind of tired. Let's go upstairs."

"How could you be tired? I bet you slept all day," I tease her as she heads up the stairs.

"Actually, I organized our closets. As much as I appreciate our family moving our stuff in for us, I needed to organize it my own way."

"Did you organize my stuff from—"

"Casual to formal? Yup. I even organized your ties by color."

It's so cute seeing her take on a domestic role like that. When I go into my closet and look around, everything is perfect. Well, actually I might have put the undershirts next to the dress shirts instead of in the "casual" section, but whatever. I can fix that later when she's not around. No need to upset her.

I take off my clothes and throw them in the laundry basket, leaving just my boxers on. It's a little chilly in the house so I throw on a t-shirt as well.

When I come back into the bedroom, Miley's already under the covers. I slide in next to her and turn on the TV to the news, lowering the volume so it's background noise.

"So how was the studio today?" Miley asks, cuddling up under my arm.

"Good. I think Jack has a lot of good song writing material to work with even though he's young. We've already got most of a song finished and a bunch of interesting chord progressions. Plus I talked to Kevin about maybe getting him back in the studio with me to work on some new personal stuff."

"Oh yeah, I heard he was finished mixing Jesse's record."

I stiffen at the mention of that guy. "Where'd you hear that?"

"Well, actually…" she starts in a tone that makes me want to sit up and brace myself for bad news, "I got a call today from my manager. I'm going to go have a meeting with her tomorrow, but the main thing she wants to talk about is releasing 'We'll Be A Dream' as a single, since the band finished their album and it's set to release in a month."

Okay, that's not bad. It's a good song, especially since Miley's on it. Not that I'm biased or anything. She's seriously that talented.

"… And they're wondering if I'd be interested in doing the music video."

She bites her lip and looks at me with wide eyes as if begging me not to be mad at her. I don't know why though. It's not like it's her fault they want her to be in the video. She agreed to do the song before Jesse went after her.

"So what it's not like you—"

"I kind of want to do it!" Miley blurts out and then gives me that look again.

"Why?"

I blurt it out before I even have time to really process what Miley said. And judging by the look on her face she's not really impressed with my response. But I honestly don't see why she would want to do it. Jesse clearly has no regard for her feelings and I doubt he would have any problem trying to convince her to stray again. Not that I think she would, but why would she want to put herself in that situation?

"Well, I just think it would be strange if I didn't do it. I don't want to make it seem like I have a problem with them."

"But we do have a problem with them."

"Jesse made a mistake in thinking I was still interested in him, but now that I'm married he—"

"Still has a huge crush on you? Wants to use this as an attempt to get with you again?"

Her casual attitude is seriously annoying me. Maybe it's the way that it's like she's not even considering the possibilities of what could go wrong. Sometimes it's like she lives in this fantasy world where everyone is good and kind and perfect.

"Please, Nick. Be mature."

Something about that sets me off even more.

"I need to be mature?," I say harshly, "You need to be mature and realize that Jesse tried to stop our marriage. I'm not comfortable with you spending time with him."

"Well, maybe you should realize that I married you! Not him. He's not a monster, Nick. He had a longtime crush on me. I'm sure he sees now that it's not going to happen. You can't have it out for everyone in the world who might be attracted to me. They deserve a good single with a nice video and no drama about whether I like them or not."

I go to open my mouth, but Miley shakes her head to silence me.

"Honestly, I don't even want to talk to you anymore right now. I'm going to go practice piano in the music room."

She throws the covers off and is out of the room before I can even react. I slide my leg off the bed to follow her, but then decide against it. She obviously wants time to relax. I know better than anyone that the piano is a great way to settle your mind. Sure, this is the first fight of our marriage, but it had to happen eventually. We couldn't stay on the honeymoon for forever. But at least it wasn't a huge fight. She'll just go play some chords and then realize what a mistake it would be to do this with Jesse. I mean, it would be like leading him on, which would be completely wrong. Then she'll come back and we can make up.

But while I wait for her, I might as well make myself look busy. I grab the remote again and change it the Sports Center, so I can see the highlights of the day.

I must have fallen asleep because the next thing I know I feel Miley's hands on my back and the TV and lights are out in our room.

"Nick," Miley murmurs softly. I grunt in my sleepy haze. "I just wanted to let you know that I understand your concern, but you can't try to make decisions for me just because we're married now."

"No," she says when I try to turn over to talk, "You're tired. I'm tired. Let's go to sleep, we'll talk again in the morning."

I don't want to end it like this. With us going to sleep without completely solving the issue, but my eyes are already closing again as she kisses my jaw gently. By the time she's on her side of the bed, I'm already out.

Hope this isn't too awful. Adding some more drama back in there because we all know stories are boring without it. Still not 100% sure on how I'm going to end it, so if you have any suggestions, keep them coming.

Anyway... 1000+ reviews! You guys are so fabulous and I adore you. You never cease to amaze me. I can't believe that I have two stories with 1000+ reviews. I know that's not a lot for some people, but for Niley stories on this site, it really is and it just makes me feel so happy and like I'm doing something that means something to people and that's just amazing to me.

Not to get all sentimental, but I still remember reading my first reviews on my first story (which is so embarrassing now haha that whole story has less reviews than some of the chapters of this one) and I was soo happy and excited and I literally still get like that when I get reviews. I know I've been sucking at updating lately, but you guys still have faith in me and interest in my stores and I love that.