My Heart Is Yours

I don’t think I’ve slept this well since I left Vegas. It was amazing, to be able to wake up in the morning and not feel like I never went to sleep to begin with. But being able to get a full night’s of good sleep was making me wonder why the hell I’d ever left Max in the first place. Lily and I had been on tour with Escape the Fate for the last week. We were now in Baltimore, about fourteen hours away from Alex and Tallahassee and the life I had lived for six years.

It seemed the farther away we got from that place, the more I missed Alex and Derek. But I couldn’t complain too much because I was happy here with Max and the guys. It was almost like old times again, except we were on a bus, all older, and Max and I had a five and a half year old to take care of.

I almost died in Atlanta, though. Because Max insisted that Lily and I hang out on the side stage while they played. And, of course, that ass hold couldn’t leave well enough alone and just had to go and give us a shout out. Which caused Craig to come over and drag the two of us on stage. That wasn’t embarrassing at all. But Lily ate up the attention, albeit rather shyly. It was cute how she bounced around when her dad did. It only served as a reminder of how alike they both were.

After that, Lily and I pretty much just stayed on the bus while they played. It wasn’t that big of a deal, I had to do my own online schooling and I also had to go through “home schooling” Lily during the majority of the day while the guys slept. So we were still going to school, it was just…different that we couldn’t actually go to classes.

But I got to spend a lot more time with my daughter, so I loved that aspect of it. I’d missed being able to do that because of school and everything. It just made me feel like a failure as a mother that I couldn’t be with my kid all the time for the first few years of her life. Even though I knew that other parents didn’t really do that either…

Gab was supposed to show up in a day or two with Leila. Lily was incredibly excited about her “bestest ever friend” coming on tour for a couple days with us. I was excited, too. I would get to see my best female friend once again and actually have another woman on the bus that could go crazy with me.

Not that I was actually going crazy or anything, but I needed a little more estrogen on my side…

Lily and I were on the bus while Escape the Fate played on stage. I was reading a book on the couch while my daughter drew on a piece of paper at the table. A yawn escaped my lips as I turned the page and tried to fight back being tired. I hated being tired because it meant that I wasn’t going to be able to spend every waking moment with Max and Lily like I’d wanted to.

“Babe! Get out here!” Max’s voice sounded from outside the bus and I raised a brow as I closed my book, keeping a thumb between the pages I was on. Lily hopped away from the table and went running to the door with a grin on her face. I smirked, shaking my head and rolling my eyes as she threw the door open and jumped in Max’s waiting arms. Who carried her up the few steps to grin down at me as I bookmarked my page.

“Come on, Wendy. Come hang out with the fans?”

“Why? I’m not important or anything…” I told him, sitting up and setting my book down beside me. He rolled his eyes and sighed.

“Bu-” he stopped, his eyes widening as he shut his mouth and looked at Lily briefly before back at me. “But you’re important to me. And all the other guys. And this one chick keeps trying to get in my pants and it’s creepy.”

“A chicken wants to live in your pants, Daddy?” Lily asked, all innocence. I loved her so much because she was such a dorky little child. Just like her father. I had to bite back laughter from that one, snickering to myself quietly as Max sighed and shook his head. I think he found it rather awkward when she’d get things all mixed up and everything like that.

“Um…no…”

“Don’t worry about it, Lily. Come on, Maxie, I’ll take care of her.”

“Yay!” he exclaimed with excitement, grinning at me as I stood and went to his side. His arm wound naturally around my waist as we walked off the bus together.

What I saw when I stepped off the bus and into the view of the “fans” was not a gathering of fans at all. But instead it was Craig, Robert, and Bryan all gathered around two people.

Two people that I hadn’t seen since July and two people that I had missed quite a bit. I grinned as I unhooked myself from Max and went running over to shove my way through the three boys. I wrapped my arms around the shorter girl and squeezed tight, grinning like a psychopath. “Gabby! You're here!”