“Last night Dev and Z got into a fight. Em is going to be here just before the show starts tonight.”

Dallas rolled her eyes. “That doesn’t surprise me.”

“The fight was over Nat…”

“Again. Not surprised.”

“…because they had a bet who could nail her first,” I finished, then stepped back when I saw her face cloud over.

“Excuse me?”

“I just found out about it myself, baby. They apparently made the bet before the tour started. I don’t know if Dev and Nat actually hooked up, but they obviously have gotten closer over the last two months. Or they had.” I grimaced for what felt like the hundredth time in the last few hours at the rage in Dallas’s eyes. “You should go find her, baby. See if she needs to talk.”

“I’ll find her as soon as I take care of Summer and Eve.” My face obviously showed my confusion because she rolled her eyes. “The douche twins. Devlin and Zander.”

“No,” I said, stepping between her and the path she had been about to take in search of both my bandmates. “Don’t do that, baby. Look, they beat the fuck out of each other last night. Z can barely stand and Dev looks like he might even have a concussion the way he was playing so shitty earlier.”

“Are you seriously protecting those two dickheads right now?” she snarled.

“Of course not. I’m trying to protect you. Neither one of them is in a good place right now, and I don’t want them to do or say something to you if you confront them. If they did something that hurt you in any way I’d have to kill them, and honestly I’m too pretty to survive prison.” That last part produced the smile I was hoping it would, even if it was smaller than I wanted. Leaning forward I kissed her, long and hard.

“Fine,” she conceded, pushing me away after only a few seconds of enjoying my kiss. “I’ll go check on Natalie. But if they cross my path I’m not going to hold back on telling them what I think of their sorry asses.”

“Fair enough.” I kissed her again before letting her go. “I’m going to go relax a little before the show. If you need me I’ll be in my dressing room… that has its own bathroom.” I wiggled my brow at her and she snorted but couldn’t hide the obvious need the thought of us putting my private bathroom to use caused in her. With a wink and a slap on her perfect ass, I left her to find her friend.

“Uncle Ax. Uncle Ax. Uncle Ax!”

My head snapped around at the sound of Mia’s voice. I didn’t say a word to the roadie I’d just been talking to as I broke into a run toward the running three-year-old who was hell bent on reaching me as fast as her little legs could get her to me. As I scooped her into my arms and twirled her around, I couldn’t help the stupid grin that spread over my face.

After only a few twirls I stopped and kissed her cheek. “Wow, look at my pretty girl. You’ve grown since I last saw you, beautiful.”

“Guess what?” she demanded with an excited expression on her face that made her big green eyes shine up at me.

“Umm… You are running away to become a trapeze star in the circus?”

“No, silly.” She rolled her eyes at me like I was the incorrigible toddler while she was the adult. “I’m going to have a brother!”

“Really? Does Daddy know?” I pressed another kiss to her cheek before turning to a very pregnant Emmie waddling instead of walking toward us.

“Pretty sure Daddy had a good idea before we left this morning.” Emmie sighed as she paused long enough to let me drop a kiss on her cheek. “Hey, stranger.”

“Em, we talk every day,” I reminded her.

She shrugged. “I haven’t seen you since January. That seems too long for me.”

“You’re right. It is.” I put Mia on her feet and wrapped an arm around Emmie’s shoulders. “How was your flight?”

Her eyes narrowed. Apparently I’d asked the wrong question. “Oh, it was wonderful. Considering that I had to listen to the cow behind us criticize the fact that I had my three-year-old in first class while her son had to sit in coach with his sister. The best part of the damn thing was when Mia finally turned around in her seat and asked the woman why she was so bitchy.” That produced a laugh from us both. Mia might only be three years old, but she took after her mother in more than just looks. “I kid you not, Ax. Mia used the word bitchy. And she was asking the same question I wanted to ask, but hadn’t because I didn’t want to cause a scene in front of my child, so I couldn’t exactly scold her for it.”

“Sounds like you had an eventful day.”

“It’s only getting started. I’m going to seriously bust some balls tonight.”

“You said balls, Momma,” Mia called from where she was jumping over a thick cord. “Daddy said that balls is a bad word.”

I coughed to hide my laugh and went over to pick Mia up. “Let’s find somewhere for you to play, Mia, before Momma’s head explodes.”

Mia glanced at her mother over my shoulder. “Oh. Okay. She does that a lot lately. Daddy said it was the baby doing it to her and that I shouldn’t take her too seriously. You shouldn’t either, Uncle Ax. She loves you too, ya know. But like she loves Uncle Jesse and Uncle Drake and Uncle Shane. Not like she loves Daddy. Daddy said that he would cut your balls off if she loved you like she loves him.”

I had to bite my cheek to keep from grinning. I couldn’t believe the words that came out of this kid’s mouth. She missed nothing and spoke her mind. She owned just as big a part of my heart as her mother did. “Sometimes you shouldn’t repeat what Daddy says, Mia. Sometimes it can make Momma’s head explode for real.” Chancing a glance at Emmie I saw that her face was blood red and she was muttering something under her breath. I tried hard to keep my grin at bay, but it broke free. “I’m gonna take her to Marissa. She will be in Wroth’s dressing room if you get worried.”

“I’m sure she will be fine,” Emmie said. “She likes Marissa. It’s me I’m worried about. I’m wondering what else Daddy has been saying lately.” She rolled her eyes and crossed her arms over the top of her very large stomach. “If I didn’t love that man so much I would cut off his…” She broke off, but it was obvious that she had been about to say ‘balls’. “Be a good girl, Mia.”