sounding ridiculous. “This is in the contract.”
“I understand all of that. But I don’t think Karsen will. She just had his baby. She needs help and they need time to bond,” I set my glass down, I’m a bit warm and woozy. What the hell is in this shit?
“My parents were never around. Erica and I got used to it really fast. We all did.”
I look at him prepared to argue parents are important when my vision blurs. I shake my head, fighting off the dread flooding through me.
“You okay?” He steps closer. “Usually you are telling me to go fuck myself when I disagree with you.” He grins, studying me.
I take a seat on the stool and hold my head in my hands. The more Slade talks the less any of it makes sense. I squeeze my eyes shut because I hear nothing Slade is saying but I can hear his voice—my dad.
What the hell?
He’s singing, singing that damn song about Jolene like the day we moved to Cherry. It repeats over and over.
The glass shatters at my feet. And it’s gone.
“What the fuck, Hope. You’re bleeding.” Slade grabs me by the arm jerking me out of the glass collected at my feet. “What were you doing?”
He picks me up and carries me into the living room putting me down on the couch. I drop my foot into his lap and let him fish glass from the top of my foot.
“I don’t know what I was doing,” I tell him. “Do I need stitches?”
He presses his thumb into my skin examining my cut. He rubs his hands together fixing me himself instead of taking me to the doctor. Magic rules.
“Are you going to tell me what the fuck happened?” He waits. He’s not going to let this go.
“The other day, I came inside the house and I smelled cigarette smoke.”
Slade sighs, a loud angry sigh. “I’m going to fuck them up.”
I touch his arm. “It wasn’t Elliot or Easton.” He relaxes. “And just now I heard him singing. Am I crazy?”
Slade shakes his head. I can see it in his eyes, he’s as concerned as me. But he doesn’t admit it. He touches my face and shakes his head. “You’ve been through a lot of shit. You’re human, sometimes things are harder to get over.”
I let him hug me and rest my head against his chest. The only thing I can do is believe him. I would rather do that then lose my mind. I don’t want to lose my mind.
The Road
I hate tour buses.
But I hate being without my husband even more.
We bounce down the dirt road pulling into the next stop of the tour.
“This is going to be awesome,” Oz announces to the entire bus. Oz is the only one pumped up about tours and performing.
Slade is concerned with my mental health and Kidd is concerned Karsen will hate him if he ever admits to enjoying himself.
Karsen struggles with getting Xavier into his swaddle so she can follow everyone off the bus to watch the guys prepare for the show.
“You okay?” Slade asks, kissing me on the cheek.
He’s so goddamn beautiful. How could I not be okay standing next to him? “Of course I am. Now please for once enjoy the show. We have everything under control.”
Karsen finally succeeds at swaddling her baby and nods in agreement. “Everything will be fine.” Kidd kisses her and touches the baby’s head, placing soft kisses on Xavier.
“You are a superhero, sex kitten.” He shakes his head in disbelief. “And you look amazing.”
I roll my eyes. No matter what these two are so goddamn sweet to one another.
“Hey, hey, keep that up and you two are going to have another one in no time,” Slade says, pulling Kidd away before he can slip Karsen anymore tongue.
“What’s that supposed to mean, Slade?” Karsen says, settling into the sofa. “Would our procreation get in the middle of your plans for taking over the music industry?”
I raise an eyebrow. It seems like a dig.
“I’m saying with how long you took to swaddle that baby you need all the practice you can get.” He opens the refrigerator and takes out two beers. “Not to mention we’d never make