Dallas shook her head. “No, of course not. I’m more than happy to help out.”
Emmie gave her a beaming smile. “Thanks, I really appreciate it. Other than that little bit of time, the rest of the day is yours to do with as you please.” The smile dimmed as her gaze went to the rest of us. “I expect you to be where you are supposed to be in the timeframes listed. They know when you are supposed to appear and have been instructed to let me know if you don’t follow through.”
Her gaze went straight to Devlin as she said it. He hadn’t shown at his last signing duty two days ago. Instead he had gone to some bar and gotten shit face drunk before trying to push his way onto the other bus where Natalie had been asleep. If Linc hadn’t been there to keep Dev out, who knows what kind of shit would have hit the fan. My drummer was a freaking ghost of the man he had been at the beginning of the tour. Not only had things turned ugly between him and Zander as well as Natalie, but Dev’s relationship with his son was tense. As close as Dev and Harris had been since the death of Harris’s mother, it was heart wrenching to see how things were now.
“If I get a call from anyone, no one will be able to protect you from my wrath.” The nostrils of Emmie’s cute little nose flared. “So don’t go crying to Nik or Axton thinking they can save you.”
With the last of the itineraries handed out, Natalie stepped back next to Emmie. “If you need anything, Natalie will be on hand to assist at each tent. Except for the merchandise tents. You will have the roadies to help you there. I will be over at the Monster tent most of the day if you need me for anything.”
“And I get to crowd surf with my daddy!” Mia exclaimed, effortlessly putting an end to any other admonishments we might have gotten.
“The hell you say?” Emmie narrowed her eyes first on Mia then on Nik, who was trying to look innocent but not able to pull it off with his three-year-old enthusiastically nodding her head. “Let’s have a talk.” She grabbed his arm and pulled him away, already muttering curses under her breath so that Mia wouldn’t hear.
Dallas turned to glance at my schedule. Thankfully the time marked off for Gabriella wasn’t titled as such. It just said TB, which I was pretty sure meant Troll Bitch. Emmie was subtle like that. “Looks like we both have something to do at five. What do you want to do until you have to go over to the Monster thing?”
I wrapped my arm around her shoulders, pressed a kiss to the top of her head, and started stirring her toward the smell of food. “I want to pig out on the best noodles in the freaking world, grab you a Jack Daniels punch, and me a Monster. Then we are going to check out some bands with the other fans, before I take you over to the merchandise tents and buy you a bunch of crap that you don’t need but that I want you to have anyway.”
She stopped and glared up at me. “Really?”
“What?” I hoped she wasn’t going to get mad at me for wanting to buy her things again. A few weeks ago we had had a fight over my buying her random things that she didn’t need. I didn’t want to start this day off with a fight when our relationship had been so blissfully fight-free for so long.
“The best noodles in the world? Not possible.” She smirked and grabbed my hand, entwining our fingers. “But I’ll let you try to convince me.”
“You’re such a bitch sometimes, you know that?”
“I know. What’s your point?” she asked with a sassy wink.
I sighed with mock exasperation. “I really enjoy that part of you, baby.”
“My bitchiness?” She raised her brows. “But just the other night you said you enjoyed-”
I jerked her around and sealed her lips with mine, stopping the very inappropriate words that were about to come out of her saucy mouth in front of my bandmates, roadies, and God. After a long moment I pulled back a little. “I enjoy them both equally. Now shut up and let me feed you.”
“Ah, babe. You’re so romantic.”
We were in the middle of the crowd around stage two, listening to Thousand Foot Krutch and sharing a beer. The crowd was getting a little rowdy so I arranged Dallas in front of me and wrapped my arms around her waist from behind. Around us, fans were watching the stage intently or crowd surfing. If they noticed me they didn’t show it, and for that I was glad. I just wanted to relax with my girl for a little longer.
After taking a sip of the beer in her hand, Dallas handed the bottle to me with a grimace. “I’m not feeling so good all of a sudden,” she yelled to be heard over the music.
I downed the rest of the beer and tossed it in the closest trash can before taking her hand and leading her out of the crowd. When I reached a more private spot I turned to check her over. Her face was pale and she had sweat on her upper lip and across her forehead, even though it was only in the sixties today because of a rainstorm that had been working its way across Ohio and West Virginia the last few days.
“Was it the noodles?” Had I fed her one of my favorite things at ROTR only to give her food poisoning? But wouldn’t I have been sick by now too if that were the case?
Dallas shook her head. “This doesn’t feel like food poisoning and you aren’t feeling bad, are you?”
“I feel fine. Let’s go over to the medic tent and get you something for your stomach.” I tugged on her hand, but she shook her head again. “Baby, I don’t want you to be miserable. They have Pepto and other things that will make you feel better.”
“I have some on the bus. I’ll go grab some and maybe lie down for a little while.” She hugged her arms around my waist and leaned her head against my chest for a moment. “You have to be over at the Monster tent in a little while, babe. Don’t worry about me.”
“I don’t want you to be alone if you aren’t feeling well.” My heart clenched at the thought of having to leave her when she was sick. What if she started throwing up? Damn it, I wanted to take care of her.
Dallas raised her head, and I could see that she was starting to feel worse by the way her eyes were looking. “I’ll text Linc and he will come take care of me until you can, okay?” She kissed my cheek before stepping back. “Go. Don’t make Emmie have to hunt you down,” she said with a small smirk. “I don’t think you want to get on her bad side.”
Emmie was the least of my worries right then. My girl needed me, and I wanted her to pout and ask me to take care of her. If she did, then I would blow off the entire rest of the day for her. Fuck everything else. Fuck ROTR. Fuck Gabriella and anything else that needed my attention.