that godsdamn picture and text, I knew that hope would turn to dust.
I paced the dressing room, begging her to just pick up the fucking phone. When she sent me to voice mail, I jogged out to the side stage to see if maybe she was with the parentals. Spotting her mom and my dad, I snuck around the side and up to them. Seeing me coming, Aunt Dallas grinned at me. “Great show, kiddo.”
“Is Shaw with Uncle Ax?” I asked, glancing around for either of them.
“Ax is in the bathroom,” she said with a frown. “We haven’t seen Shaw since you two left for dinner earlier.”
“Fuck,” I groaned.
“What’s going on?” Dad demanded as he stood and took me aside, away from Aunt Dallas and the crowd.
I scrubbed one hand over my face. “She was watching my phone while I was busy. But I got a text, and she misunderstood something. I have to find her.”
“Is this about that stupid game those girls are playing at school?” he asked. I nodded. After the first few pictures had started blowing up my phone, I’d told my parents about them. One of the girls who had sent me a nude was only seventeen, and I didn’t want to suddenly be accused of having underage porn on my phone.
Noticing that some people in the crowd were paying way too much attention to us, I told Dad I was going back to the dressing room. I still had one more performance to do closer to the end of the show, so I couldn’t leave yet. But I wanted to say fuck it and go after my girl then and there.
Only a few minutes after getting back to the dressing room, Dad and Uncle Ax walked in. “Shaw’s at the hotel,” Dad told me, and I was able to relax a little. At least I knew where she was now and that she was safe. “Dallas left to talk to her.”
“What happened?” Uncle Axton asked as he took a seat on the couch, his hazel eyes on the message his daughter had left me earlier.
Muttering a curse, I told him about the game the girls at school were playing with me. “Uncle Ax…” I hesitated and clenched my jaw. Fuck it. If he killed me, he killed me. “I love Shaw.”
He didn’t even blink at my confession. Dad was sitting beside him on the couch, and they both looked up at me as if I’d just said it was snowing outside—a fact that wasn’t news to them and didn’t bother them in the least. The two older rockers shared a look then burst out laughing.
“Dude, we’ve all known that for a while now. Fuck, we probably knew before you did,” Shaw’s dad said with a grin. “I’ve watched you your whole life, Jagger. I love you as if you were my own son, and you’re less of a fuckup than him. I know what kind of man you already are. Of all the guys in the world who could love my little girl, it’s kind of a relief that she fell for you. Not only do I know you’ll be good to her, but I know if you aren’t, your parents will help me bury your body.”
“Fucking right, we will,” Dad confirmed, bumping fists with his friend.
Uncle Ax lifted a brow at me. “But maybe you should be telling this to her and not me.”
“I have,” I groaned and dropped down into the makeup chair. “But that whole thing with Violet and Luca scared her. She thinks if Luca could so easily hurt Vi, then she can’t trust that I won’t do the same. Then she saw that fucking text, and it probably only reaffirmed for her that she was right.”
“Shaw is a stubborn girl,” her dad said with a sigh. “But she’s smart as hell. Give her some time, kid. She’ll figure it out. You just need to have some patience and keep showing her you’re in this for the long haul.” He narrowed his eyes, and suddenly his voice was laced with steel. “You are in it for the long haul, right?”
“Yes, sir,” I assured him without hesitation.
“Are you planning on one day coming to me and asking to marry my baby?”
I swallowed hard. “Yes, sir. When she’s ready, I hope to put a ring on that girl’s finger. And give you both as many grandbabies as she is willing to bless us with.”