“You look like you should be naked on that couch over there.” I jab my finger at the narrow piece of furniture across the room, but then shake my head. “But yes, you’re the best thing I’ve ever laid eyes on. The best thing for me, period.”
“And then you have to say stuff like that.” She takes a few steps backwards. “I’ll see you after the show.” Her gaze remains locked with mine as she backs out of the room, and I don’t turn back around until after she’s gone.
I stare at myself in the mirror. Lucas-f.u.c.king-Wolfe. I stare at the man I was and am, and the one I want to be with her. Then, I get up and leave the dressing room, too.
Cal and Wyatt are mulling around the backstage hallway, with Wyatt talking s.h.i.t about my sister’s friend Heidi leaving Cal tied up somewhere a week ago. When Cal sees me, he runs his hand over his face in embarra.s.sment and directs his eyes down to the gray concrete floor.
“You got something to add?” he finally challenges.
“Only that I wish she’d left you in public like that.” When he mouths a “f.u.c.k you” I grin and shrug it off. “Sin and I’ve got 500 bucks on who’ll come out of this thing with Heidi ahead.”
As I take off down the hall to the stage entrance, Cal calls after me, “So which one of us are you betting on?”
“My money’s always been on Heidi,” I say before ducking through the backstage exit.
What do you do when all your secrets come to light, just to be buried again?
You keep f**king playing.
Even though I already know the rescheduled Los Angeles show is sold out, there’s still no denying the amazed satisfaction of knowing that thousands of people have dragged their a.s.ses out here tonight to see my band. Still, through the screams and the music blaring around me, and thousands of faces, only one stands out to me in the crowd. Sienna’s sitting between my sister and her friend Tori in one of the floor seats closest to the stage, beaming up at me.
As Cal kicks off the show with “All Over You,” her lips move. I can’t read them, but it doesn’t stop me from murmuring into the mic, “I love you, too.” The crowd goes wild, and I give them a c.o.c.ky grin before I open my mouth to perform.
Two hours later, when we reach the second song of our encore, and my fans are starting to get up out of their seats, I stop them. “I don’t do a lot of acoustic s.h.i.t,” I say into the mic as two members of the stage crew bring out a stool and my guitar. A hush falls over the crowd and then there’s shuffling as they try to get back to where they were sitting. I put the mic on the stand and lean into it. “And I sure as f**k don’t usually do covers. But this is the last stop on a tour that seems like it’s gone on for months.”
Sitting down on the stool, I start to pick the beginning of a song slowly, waiting until the audience picks up on what I’m playing. Ten seconds in, the applause begins to erupt across the stadium. It’s deafening, and it gives me that shove I need to move forward.
“I don’t think I need to explain why I’m doing this song. Just that it’s for the woman I f**king love.”
Her blue eyes never leave mine as I sing a Tonic song about doing anything for love and the beautiful blue-eyed woman I’d do it for. When I’m done, and the audience is screaming, I lean back over the mic again.
“I’m going to be a d.i.c.k and put you on the spot, Red,” I growl. “Marry me.”
This time, when her lips move, I can easily read what it is she’s trying to say.
“Yes.”