her reasoning and I respected it. I knew I could trust her not to freak out and bail while I was gone.
“Now I really don’t want to be apart from you for six months,” I groaned, pressing my forehead against hers.
“We’re going to make good use of the next two days and then we can video chat. But no recording. The last thing we need is for that to get out.”
It made me happy that she could find humor in our situation. That spoke volumes.
“Fine. We should start now,” I said, nuzzling her neck, and grinning against her skin when she moaned.
“Mommy,” James’ voice came from the hallway.
“Crap,” Evie said, shifting off my lap and shoving a pillow over my hard cock.
I couldn’t stop my groan when she pressed it down over me.
Fucking hell. Toddler chaperone strikes again.
“Tristan,” James exclaimed, popping up in front of me.
“Hey, little dude,” I said, pasting a smile on my face.
“Can we have pizza tonight?” he asked.
Evie and I both chuckled. Maybe I could get him to eat turkey on a pizza. Turkey made everyone sleepy.
“Sure,” Evie said, stepping away from the couch and guiding James toward the kitchen so I could get control of myself.
Once that kid was in bed, Evie was all mine and I’d work on convincing her to come on tour again.
Two days later, I stepped onto the tour bus alone. I’d tried my hardest, but I got why she wasn’t ready to come on tour. Now I just had to get through a four-hour bus ride so I could video chat with her. She’d already sent me a picture of what she’d be wearing.
I desperately needed the next four hours to fly by.
Chapter 26
EVIE
“Just go on tour already,” Mac grumbled as I mentioned how much I missed Tristan while finishing off another glass of wine.
That was three for me tonight. We’d just watched a live feed that Josh had sent me for tonight’s concert in Connecticut. Dammit, Tristan was beautiful on stage. And off. And I missed him more than I’d thought was possible. He’d only been gone for a week. Video chats and phone calls weren’t enough. I had no idea how I was going to make it six months.
“You know I have obligations here.”
“They’ll be in Chicago for two days next weekend. Fly out there and surprise him,” Cassie said with a grin.
We were having a girls’ night at Cassie’s place. Comfort food, loads of wine, and Steelwolf on her laptop. Cassie and I had grown even closer now that she knew I wasn’t going to freak out and bail on Tristan. She was helping me deal with the media since they’d been a pain in her ass since Steelwolf first took off years ago, and again when she’d started dating Bash officially last year.
I was getting better at it. We’d found a private park with an even bigger climbing structure for James, and I had security assigned to me whenever I needed it. I still had moments where I couldn’t believe this was my new life, but one smile from Tristan and a few sweet words from his mouth and I knew there was no going back for me. I would fight through my frustration because at the end of the day, I loved him and trusted him.
We were building a life together—one I hadn’t pictured—but I wouldn’t trade what we had for anything.
“I don’t want to bring James into that madness,” I said.
“He can stay here with your mom or I can take an extended weekend and we can have an awesome auntie-nephew sleepover,” Cassie said, with a bright grin.
“I mean, I’d offer, but I’m more of a let’s have fun and hang out before you go home to the actual adults,” Mac said, shrugging.
I barked out a laugh. “Don’t worry. I wasn’t going to suggest he stay with you, Mac.”
“I should be offended, but let’s be real,” she said.
“So, you’re going to go? Tris will be so excited. Bash said he’s a little mopey because he misses you,” Cassie said.
Warmth burst in my chest. I mean, I knew he wanted me there. That he missed me. But I still loved hearing it from an outside source.
“I have to look at my schedule,” I said, but the idea had fully taken hold of me and I didn’t have clients on Fridays, so I could easily swing it.
I wasn’t back up to my full schedule due to a handful of clients bailing, but a few of Josh’s