My Heart Is Yours

Max’s pov

So far, I’d been trying my damned hardest to keep what I had planned for Wendy secret. Only Craig and lily knew about my plan. And Gab, but I didn’t count her since she and Leila had stopped touring with us after we played in Cleveland and before we got into Canada.

Lily’s been really good at keeping her little mouth shut, surprisingly enough. I was worried after that first scare after we’d finished shopping for that surprise that I was getting her mother. I was proud of her, and kind of glad that she took after her mother in the respect of keeping a secret. For me, it wasn’t really hard for me to do that, but it was a little difficult because I didn’t normally have to keep secrets. That’s probably why no one ever told me them… Huh…

Well anyway, we were in Denver right now for the next day or two and I was sitting in the bus waiting for Wendy and Lily to get back from visiting Shannon, Wendy’s mom. They’d left before we went on stage, and so I wasn’t able to go with them… Which kind of made me a little upset, but whatever. I’d get over it as soon as they both came back, honestly…

Which, according to the text that Wendy had sent me fifteen minutes ago, should be any minute now. I was lying on the couch in the main area, staring up at the ceiling as I waited. I was kind of bad at being patient when it came to things like my girls…

We had six more dates left to play, and another week on the bus before we got to go back home to Vegas and relax for a week before we had to go to Los Angeles and work on recording stuff for a couple of weeks or so before getting to come back to Vegas to play a hometown show and then taking a break for the Thanksgiving holiday. After two weeks of that, we were going to be in Europe for three weeks before coming back and having a three week vacation at home into the new year. And then we went to LA for a week before going over to Japan and Australia for a month until the beginning of March.

Yes, we had a busy schedule. But that was my life now that Escape the Fate had gotten big and everything again… Which was way cool… But still, I wished that I had some more time off before having to go off to LA to be with my girlfriend and daughter… And just have more time with them in general, honestly.

Sighing, I ran my hands through my hair. “Chill out, broski. They’ll be here soon,” Craig told me as he walked in from the back. He and Robert had been having another Halo tournament in the back. He stopped at the little fridge that we had on the bus and pulled out a couple of beers for, I’m guessing, Robert and himself.

“But I want them to be here now…” I whined, sighing as I stared up at the ceiling in slight frustration.

“Have you decided when you’re gonna do it?”

“I wanted to wait until we were back in Vegas, but I don’t know if I can…”

“Just do it already, man. The longer you wait the more it’s gonna suck when she says no.” I sat up quickly, turning to glare at my best friend. He laughed shortly before he shook his head and grinned at me. “Puh-lease, bro. You really think she’s going to say no?”

“Well she might…”

“Bull shit she will. She hasn’t smiled this much since before she left, dude. Trust me. There is no way in hell she’s going to say no, don’t worry so much.”

I sighed and sunk back down on the couch, staring up at the ceiling once more, going back to thinking.

“I don’t want to have to go to Europe and be away from her and Lily, though…” I muttered, sighing. Craig didn’t say anything, so I craned my head back to see that he had already disappeared back through the bunk hall and into the back room. Damn it. Sighing, I settled down again and frowned at myself. What if that stupid vocalist was right and Wendy did say no? I mean…I know that we haven’t been together again for that long, but I’ve already made the decision in my mind…

The door opened and I shot up to a sitting position, a grin replacing the frown on my face as my two favorite girls in the world walked on the bus. Wendy was carrying a sleeping Lily and smiled as she saw me. I hopped up and walked over to her side, wrapping my arms around them both and pulling them into a hug. They were kind of cool from the air outside, but I didn’t really care.

“Lemme put her to bed for just a second, okay babe?” she said, turning in my arms slightly so that she could press her lips against mine with a smile briefly. I let her and our daughter go, watching as she walked back to the bunks and placed Lily into her bunk. I sighed contentedly, smiling to myself as I continued to stand in the middle of the living room like the fucking idiot that I generally tended to be.

Wendy returned to me and hugged me tightly, to which I responded by hugging her back. “How’s your mom?” I asked, enjoying the feeling of having her in my arms again. I liked having the physical proof that she was all mine all over again. There was no way in hell that I was going to let myself fuck this one up…

“She’s good. She was happy to see Lily again and…yeah.”

“You told her about us…” I guessed, wondering how that had turned out. She nodded, nuzzling into my chest slightly.

“Yeah. She wasn’t too thrilled but she saw how happy Lily and I were and I guess that kind of killed whatever doubts she had…”

“That’s good…” I said, feeling doubt rising in me again. What if her mom’s doubts about my being good for her daughter and granddaughter kept Wendy from saying yes? Oh god… Now I really couldn’t go through with it…

But I really wanted to…and kind of secretly knew that I should and needed to…

I squeezed her one last time before I stepped away from her. “Do you want to go to dinner with me?” I asked, smiling at her slightly. She smiled and shrugged, nodding slightly.

“Sure. Subway?”

“Um…I was actually thinking somewhere a little nicer. Like an actual and legitimate date restaurant.”

“…Babe, you don’t need to spend that kind of money on me, you know,” she told me, a single brow raised at me. I smirked and nodded, bending to kiss her before pressing my forehead against her.

“I want to. You know where nice places are here, where do you suggest?”

“I don’t know…I haven’t actually been in Denver again since Mom and I moved back to Vegas… So I’m not really sure…”

“Well then let’s walk around until we find somewhere nice to eat,” I said smiling at her before kissing her again. She smiled and pulled away, nodding before stepping back towards the bunks.

“Okay. Not too expensive, though. I’m gonna throw a jacket on and make sure Craig’s okay with keeping an eye on Lily, okay?” I nodded at her as she disappeared down the hall and into the back room. I quickly dashed over to our bunk, grabbing my bag and pulling it out, digging around in it for the box that I had shoved in there after getting it in New York.

I looked over to the bunk room, I heard laughter and I quickened my search as much as possible. Finding it, I kept in my shout of joy so as to both not give myself away and not to wake up my sleeping daughter. But I’d found that, with the guys being quite loud at night after she went to bed, she was a pretty heavy sleeper. Which was a really good thing.

I managed to get it stuffed into my front right pocket and zip up my bag, shoving it underneath my bunk before Wendy came out. She looked at me suspiciously, as if she knew that I was doing something behind her back. It probably didn’t help that I, more than likely, had a guilty look on my face as I stood back up from the floor in the bunk hall and grinned at her.

She grinned back before rolling her eyes and walking over to the bunk. She pulled a hoodie out from behind the curtain, along with my leather jacket. She grinned at me as she handed me my jacket before pulling the black hoodie over her head.

“Thanks, babe,” I told her before I turned around and pulled it on, quickly moving the box from the pocket of my pants to the inner pocket in my jacket. I turned around and smiled at her, getting a smile in return as she grabbed my hand and began leading me off the bus.

“Which way, Princess?” I asked her with a grin. She looked up at my with a raised brow and a smirk.

“So it’s princess now, huh?” she retorted, I just continued to grin at her as I nodded. “’Kay then, Prince Charming. Let’s go…” she paused, looking both ways down the sidewalk we were on before she looked to her right and lifted her left hand to point towards that direction. “That way,” she declared with a smile, her eyes sparkling. I nodded eagerly and continued to hold onto her right hand, squeezing it gently as we took off ‘that way.’ My left hand I stuffed into my jacket, feeling the box press into my palm softly.