26. Jace
JACE
I’m out the door before I’m fully awake. “What’s wrong?”
Frank’s marching to the front of the bus. “Follow me.”
I turn to Rory, but she’s waving me off. “I’ve got Layla.”
“Thanks, babe.” I jog after my manager, not bothering to grab shoes. When I reach the stairs, I find my bandmates outside, staring at the front of the bus. “What’s going on?”
Shane points at the tire where there’s a knife sticking out of it. But creepier? There’s dried-up, dead rose petals all over the ground. “It’s the Cherry Smasher.”
I fold my arms across my bare chest. “Not necessarily. Could have been some asshole who thought we did a shit job of covering a Rolling Stones classic.” Last night wasn’t our best performance, but a knife in our tire seems harsh.
Frank’s vein looks like it’s gonna burst out of his forehead. “Where were you when this happened?” he barks at Edmond, one of our security guards.
“I had to take a piss. I was gone for, like, ten minutes.”
Our driver Ozzie kneels down to inspect the tire. “Gonna need to call a tow truck company. See if they can replace this.”
Cooper nudges me, and I look up to find Marlowe and one of her friends headed our way. I’m about to go inside but Frank makes eye contact with me and shakes his head. “Be nice,” he mouths.
He’s still pissed about the label event yesterday. He thought I overreacted to the pasta incident. I rub the back of my neck, wishing I was wearing more than a pair of shorts.
“Hey, Jace,” Marlowe says as she surveys the mess. When she turns to me, she scans my body before she gives me that wide-eyed look I used to love. “Who’d y’all piss off to get a knife in your tire?”
“If I knew, he’d have my foot up his ass.” Or her ass. Though I have a hard time believing a woman stabbed our tire.
Marlowe swallows and tucks a strand of red hair behind her ear. “Could we talk a sec?” She’s not wearing any makeup or fancy performance clothes. She reminds me of the girl I used to consider a friend.
“Maybe later. I need to get back to my daughter.” As the words leave my mouth, I see Frank shooting me daggers from his squinty eyes. I scrub my face and turn to her. “I have a few minutes. What’s up?”
Taking my arm, she moves me away from my friends. “Listen, I wanted to apologize for yesterday. I swear I wasn’t trying to do anything to your nanny. I wasn’t paying attention when I got out of the booth. That’s it. I need you to believe me.”
“Rory’s my girlfriend, not my nanny.” She’s my damn wife, but I bite the words back.
“Oh.” Her brows furrow. “I didn’t know. That makes me feel worse.”
Good. She should feel bad. Rory looked like she was gonna catch the first flight home. In my peripheral vision, I see Frank glaring at me. I sigh, annoyed. “It’s fine. It was an accident.”
She squeezes my arm. “Just don’t be mad at me, okay? I really do feel bad. I wanted to apologize to your girlfriend face to face.”
No, let’s not do that. “She’s in the shower right now. I’ll pass on the apology. I’m sure she’ll appreciate it.” I force myself to smile because I’ll do anything at this point to get back on the bus.
“Great. Thanks. And I just wanted you to know that I loved your set. You sounded great as always.” Marlowe twirls a strand of hair. “I’ve, uh, I’ve missed hanging out.”
What’s the polite thing to say to that? I probably shouldn’t mention that she fucked me up for a good long while. “Thanks. We’ve been having fun. I’ll catch y’all on the next stop.”
I return to the guys. Frank’s already called a mechanic to fix the tire, and with any luck, this won’t cause too much of a delay.
When I get back on the bus, I find Rory in the kitchen feeding Layla.
Seeing her instantly makes me feel better.
She’s wearing shorts and a Wayward Sons t-shirt and has her hair pulled into a high ponytail.
“Hey.” Before she can respond, I pull her into my arms and kiss her.
She tastes minty. “Morning. This shirt looks good on you.”
That gets me a shy smile. “Morning.”
Her cheeks turn pink, and I laugh. “Why are you blushing?”
That pink turns to a deep flush. “No reason.”
As I hug her, I nibble the shell of her ear. “Is it ’cause I licked your pussy or covered you in my cum?”
“Jace!” She smacks my arm like she’s scandalized, and I laugh harder. We’ll have to see how many times I need to do that before she can wish me good morning without turning the shade of a beet.
“Remember that candy, Tootsie Pops? Remember their motto? How many licks does it take to get to the center?”
That gets me an eye roll and another chuckle. I let her go and sit at the table and grab my daughter’s yogurt to feed her. “Hi, kiddo. Wanna bite?” I get a scoop of food and airplane it into her mouth, complete with sound effects. She grins and gobbles it down.
“What’s going on outside?” Rory asks as she sits across from me.
“Knife in the tire. Dead rose petals on the ground.”
Her lips twist. “Like the song.”
I chuckle. “That’s what I thought too, but the guys are convinced it’s the Cherry Smasher. Whatever the case, Frank’s on it. We might have a little delay, but hopefully the tire change won’t take too long.”
“So you’re not worried?”
“There’s nothing I can do about it, and I’m guessing Frank will ramp up security. Besides, we’ll be in a new town tonight, so unless this person is planning to drag his or her ass all over the country with us, we should be good.”
“And Marlowe? What did she want?” she asks quietly.
“To apologize to you.” I relay everything we talked about, skipping the part about how Marlowe misses hanging out. No need to make Rory jealous over nothing. Because there’s zero chance I’m spending time with that woman.
“That was nice of her.”
Or it was a bullshit excuse to talk to me. “Enough about Marlowe. I need to do some laundry, so I was thinking we could do that when we reach Fort Lauderdale and then go for dinner. Just you and me. Well, you, me, and my little ladybug.”
Rory’s sweet smile makes my heart beat a little faster. “Do you mean like a date?”
Reaching across the table, I take her small hand in mine.
“We’ve done this all backwards, but I was thinking we should do this right moving forward.
Go on dates. Get to know each other. Have fun.
” Because life on the road is intense, and I think we need to carve out some time for ourselves without my bandmates, manager, and security hot on our heels.
“I’d like that.”
God, she’s pretty. Her eyes are bright hazel this morning, like the sun is shining in them. “I’m gonna go brush my teeth before I kiss you again.”
She takes the yogurt from me, and I head back to our bedroom to get dressed. After a quick shower, I check my messages and realize I have a ton of texts in my family convo. I don’t have time to read them all, so I just scan the ones from this morning.
Baylee: Have y’all seen Jace’s social media this morning? He’s blowing up.
Rhett: So fucking proud of him.
Maverick: Has anyone heard from him yet?
Beau: It hasn’t been that long.
Paige: It doesn’t take Jace long to get into trouble. lol
True. I chuckle.
Me: Happy to report I’m alive!
Me: I met Garrett Gamble, and he fucking knew my name. I nearly shit myself.
Rhett: Damn, bro. Look at you.
Me: The festival went great! Rory killed it with our social media posts.
Baylee: You’re welcome.
Me: I owe you.
Baylee: I know. lol
Smiling, I shake my head. I’m about to track down Frank for an update about the tire when I realize I could use the fam’s help.
Me: What should I do if I wanna take a girl on a date? Besides dinner? That seems kinda boring.
Baylee: And who exactly would this girl be? *eyeballs emoji* I need all the info to make an informed decision.
Me: Always so nosy.
Baylee: Damn straight. I have fifty bucks on this being Rory.
I roll my eyes, hating how intuitive she can be.
Me: Fine, yes. It’s Rory.
Baylee: I FUCKING KNEW IT! WOOHOO.
Rhett: No shit. Really?
Maverick: Are you questioning my wife, bro? Bay always knows.
Paige: Take Rory on a picnic. Or a walk on the beach.
Baylee: Go stargazing.
Honey finally gets in on the action.
Honey: Take her to a bookstore. She’ll love you forever if you get her some books.
Those are all great ideas. I make a mental note to look up where we can do some of that stuff on our off days. I bet Rory would like to go look at albums too since she likes vinyl.
Beau: When you come home for a visit, take her for a ride. On the horses, in case I need to clarify.
Me: Perv. I fucking knew what you meant.
Baylee: Aww, look, he’s all protective of her.
She’s not wrong. I do feel protective of Rory.
Rhett: How’s the kid doing? Do y’all need anything?
Me: Layla’s a champ, and Rory is the baby whisperer. I’m so grateful for her help.
Rhett: We’re getting the rest of the custody paperwork ready for you. By the time you reach Austin for that concert, I should have an update.
Me: Thanks, bro. You’re the best.
Maverick: I thought I was the best.
Beau: Nah, I’m the best. I can carry any of y’all out of a burning building on my back.
Honey: You’re so strong, babe. Maybe we can play fireman later? *winky face*
After everyone responds with puke faces, I decide to wrap this up.
Me: Okay, weirdos, I love y’all. Gotta go.
My family is crazy, but I’d be lost without them. I toss my phone on the bed and reach for my notebook. I need to work on those songs, but my attention snags on the messy blankets on the bed, and my blood travels south.
Having Rory spread out like a decadent dessert made my fucking night, and I can’t wait to do it again. The look on her face when I made her come. The sounds she made when she unraveled. Her quiet sigh of surrender that followed. It was everything I could’ve hoped for.
I wanna make this good for her. I know she doesn’t let people get close, and I plan to prove to her that I’m worthy. That I’m not like her ex. That she can trust me.
And that means not rushing the physical stuff. I meant what I said—we’ll do this at her pace.
I’m busy reliving those moments between Rory’s thighs when Frank texts me: We gotta talk about Marlowe.
There goes my good mood.