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 Ithink 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.
