Page 38 of Not the Punk

Then we went by the stuffed animals. Joe seemed interested, but not overly into anything until he saw a big white goose. It looked like its wings were arms stretched out for a hug, and that was exactly what Joe did. He hugged it. “So soft and squishy.”

The second he put it back on the shelf, I grabbed it. “To take on tour with you.”

“I don’t want to think about the tour yet. I want to enjoy being with you, Daddy.”

“We can do that, rocker-boy.” He was starting to open up to the Little thing, and I wanted to encourage it. “Having a stuffie doesn’t mean you’re Little, but it could if you wanted. Maybe from time to time.”

Joe shrugged. “I get what Kay and Don see in it. Especially when I was freaking out last night.”

I kissed his forehead. “Let’s go home.” I really liked having him in my space, even if it wasn’t grand. He made it better. I was going to hurt like hell when he left.

Chapter seventeen

Joe Back on Tour

After three or four more cities, I had no idea where I was anymore. I rolled out of the hotel bed and grabbed a shower. I pulled on clothes, missing the hell out of my Daddy.

I packed up my things, including my new binkie, goosey stuffie, and the quilt I got from Kay and Don. Someone would come load it all onto the bus later. My job was to go downstairs to meet everyone for an interview. I couldn’t remember where I was supposed to go, so I dropped a text to our manager, Marci, to ask. She replied pretty quickly.

I headed down, seriously not wanting to do the interview, but they were important. Plus, Marci would kill me if I didn’t show. Brax was my constant shadow, but I didn’t forget he was there. There was no way I was doing it without some heavenly brew, so I stopped for coffee at the little bistro at the front of the hotel. I bought one for Brax, too.

With a to-go cup in hand, I checked Marci’s directions again, turned myself around and headed to the ballroom.

Inside, Marci had us all lined up per usual. We answered a bunch of questions, which were the same as every interview. How’s the tour going? Are you happy with how the album is trending? What’s your next single? Then they dropped in with more personal questions, like who we were seeing, etc. But thankfully, Kai helped run interference, not letting anyone dig too deep into that.

Then we loaded up in limos and headed to a local radio station. They’d been doing a big giveaway for backstage passes, so we were going to announce the winners live. At least that was a little different and fun. The winners would get time with us at the meet-and-greet before the show, before everyone else.

But first, we had a sound check.

All of it blended together by this point in the tour, and through it all, I only wanted to go back to Colten’s house. He was my home, and I was feeling really sick for it. I dropped him a text on the way to the venue.

I wasn’t sure if he was at work or home or what. I couldn’t keep track of me, so there was no way I could remember his schedule. Plus, he could get called in at any time.

We finished sound check and went to the dressing rooms to relax before the big meet-up with the fans. I checked my phone, but there was no text back from Daddy Colten.

Soon enough, we met with the radio winners, and we signed a T-shirt for each of them. We took photos and then the organizers let everyone else in. The time blurred by as we chatted with strangers. I was nearly worn out by the time we headed to the stage. I was waiting for that adrenaline to kick in any moment.

The day wrapped up with us being on stage again as usual. If Colten wasn’t around, I considered that my second home. It had always been my sweet spot, and really, it didn’t matter what city we were in. Getting under the lights with the guitar and my bandmates was all I ever needed. Even Pierce, who just pulled some chick on stage.

He pulled off his shirt and gave it to her before security helped her down again, and we wailed the next song.

I wasn’t feeling it earlier in the day, wishing for the tour to be over already, but now, as my fingers flew over the strings, I was on. The music flowed, entwining as Kay and I battled each other riff for riff. We instinctively turned away and leaned back, so we were shoulder-to-shoulder, ripping it. The crowd went wild, and when the song was over, we both flicked our picks out into the audience at the same time. We were totally in sync. It was one more element that made Bramble Punk special.

I hadn’t imagined us being like this when Kay first suggested we have two guitars and a different lead singer. I thought he was trying to take my job or kick me out, but we were tight now. And us playing together was fucking hot and selling records. Thank the rock gods of the world that Jinx had agreed with Kay on it, because that was what had me going along with it when I could have kept balking. It was fucking hard to tell Jinx no, and I sure as hell didn’t regret it now. He had great instincts in the music world.

The show was fucking incredible. The only thing that could have been better would be if Colten was there. I was kind of jealous that Don and Saxon were watching. They made most of the shows, but then again, Don was a part of the team. I loved Kay like a brother and wouldn’t begrudge him anything anyway. I just missed my Daddy.

After our last encore, we were headed straight to the buses. This time we were driving through the night to get to the next city to do it all again.

I’d barely set foot on the bus when my phone binged. Hoping it was Colten, I opened it up and looked. Fuck me.

It had to be Trent, and it sure didn’t seem like jail did him any good. He wasn’t giving up. I started shaking. Fuck waiting, I called Colten.

“Hey, Joe. How was the show?”

“Fine, but I…fuck. He got my number again. Sent me a text.”

“Forward it to Don and Jinx. You need to document all of it, everything and every time.” He was right about that, so I flipped over to the text messages.