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She must have sensed I was awake, because she started stroking her fingers through my hair again. “Well, just tell him to give her a little time. She’ll talk to him when she’s ready… You go back with them tomorrow. Shaw and I are going to stick around for another day or so. Do a little shopping, have some girl time.”
Fresh tears spilled from my eyes, and I pressed my face harder into her stomach to hide them.
My mother, she was a hard-ass at times, but fuck, she was the best mom in the world.
Chapter 18
Jagger
I knew before I even saw the angry red lipstick on the mirror that she was gone. I could feel her absence all the way down to my soul, as if the life had been sucked out of the room. But then I saw the words on the mirror and had to ball my hands into fists to keep from smashing the damn thing.
Spotting my phone on the makeup table, I grabbed it and opened my text messages. Seeing the picture that was still open, I swallowed a curse. For months now, I’d been getting texts from the girls at school. They were all seniors and apparently had been daring one another to send me nudes. Their game was to see who could tempt me into fucking them. The first one to do so was the winner.
It had started a few weeks after the party, once Gretchen told everyone she hadn’t hooked up with me when rumors had started floating around that she had. She’d shut them down, but it had gotten the girls wondering why I hadn’t fucked the easiest girl in our school.
I’d known Carmen since the fifth grade, and other than me texting her a few times in the past to get notes for a class I might have missed, we didn’t talk much. She was hot, I’d admit I’d always thought that. But I’d never felt anything for her, and I’d honestly thought she was smarter and more confident than to pull something like this. But now it looked like she was following every other idiot in our grade.
I’d thought the game was stupid but kind of funny. Because there was no way any of them was going to win. I wasn’t interested in anyone but Shaw.
After deleting the picture, I tried to call Shaw. I had to explain and hoped she would listen. Before I’d left her earlier, I’d seen something on her beautiful face and thought she was going to put us b
oth out of our misery. Maybe she would put her fears aside and let me show her how good it could be between us.
Now, unless she gave me a chance to explain 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?”
