“Hi, Cynda, it’s me again, just checking to make sure you went home and are okay. Please call and let me know.” Beep
“Cyn, c’mon, I’m sorry. Don’t torture me like this. Please talk to me.” Beep
“I’m sorry, baby, you have no idea. I’d give anything to make it up to you, please call me.” Beep
He sounded so sad, and as heartbroken as me. Was it possible? I wouldn’t know unless I talked to him. My mind made up, I dialed Michelle and told her we were going to Atlanta to see the show.
Chapter Twenty-Nine
Chaos…
Everything was ready, at least I hoped it was. Joe left to pick up Michelle and Cynda from the airport. The sound check had gone fine. Last night’s show was fuckin’ amazing. Even with it outside, the acoustics had been great and tonight’s show was going to blow everyone away. Only the band knew about the surprise. I didn’t even tell Green Sky Rising because I didn’t want it to leak out, we’d had enough secrets exposed on social media already.
I’d gotten the lyrics to the song and tweaked them to fit in with the changes in the music. Once they got here, Joe would give Michelle and Cyn their backstage passes. It was as good as it was going to get and my stomach was one big fuckin’ knot. I wanted to see her so badly, to hold her, to tell her I was so fucking sorry, and beg her to forgive me. Joe said she was hurt badly and it’d been a struggle to get her down here, which left me wondering how it’d go whenshe saw me. I half expected her to slap me across the face, and I wouldn’t blame her.
I needed to get ready, but I was hoping for a glimpse of her first, just a little peek. I wondered if she still had the blue streaks in her hair. How would she react to everything was a big question. It could make things wonderful or push her away forever. But I was playing my hand, and I hope she called my bluff and I’d win the hand. Then, maybe, finally, she’d believe me. I loved her, and wanted to make this work. This had to work out.
My phone rang and I pulled it out of my pocket. “Yeah?”
“Hey, are you going to get ready or go on like that? Oh and he’s here.”
“Fuck. Yeah I’m coming. Be right there.” I was disappointed I didn’t see her, but I would soon enough. I hurried backstage and down the long hallway to the private suites. Everyone including Cynda’s surprise was ready and waiting. Fuck, I hadn’t thought about how I’d feel coming face-to-face with my idol, but there he was in our dressing room—Preston Mitchell.
“Hi.” I reached out to shake his hand. “Thanks for coming.”
“Bloody ‘ell, of course I’d come,” he said, his cockney accent still strong after all the years he’d spent in America. “It’s my daughter. When I get done suing Dixon’s ass there won’t be anything left of him. To tell me she didn’t want to see me and had disappeared. Fuckin’ bollocks on that guy.”
“When Joe told me all he’d done I couldn’t believe it. I’m sorry you didn’t get to see Cynda’s mom again.”
He reached into his back pocket and pulled out his wallet and showed me a picture he’d tucked inside. From the looks of it, he’d taken it out often. Wrinkled and bent edges and faded with time. It was a picture of Cyn and her mom from when she was small. Very small. Maybe two or three. “It’s the only picture I ever had of them.”
“Fuck. If Cynda doesn’t believe you, show her that. She’ll have to believe you then.”
“Maybe. I can’t imagine what she thinks of me.”
I laughed. Michelle had told Flame exactly what Cynda thought of him and none of it was good. “You probably don’t want to know.”
I went to get ready and read over the lyrics one more time. We’d only rehearsed it twice, but tonight would be the debut of our new balladSinning for Love. One last quick check to make sure I had everything I needed and I went to join the rest of the band. Soon we got the knock on the door and the five minute warning. This would be our last show with Green Sky Rising. Rod scheduled a different band for the Midwest states and another one for the West Coast. I planned to stay in touch with GSR and I hoped we’d tour with them again. They fit real well with us and it made for a great transition from opening to headliner.
My hands were sweaty and my mouth was dry, it felt like I was a little kid before the first day of school. Chugging a bottle of water, I couldn’t believe how nervous I was. It was crazy, I hadn’t been this nervous before a performance in years. There was a lot riding on this one and it had nothing to do with the band, it was all about Cyn. I just hoped bringing her father here wasn’tanother fucking huge mistake, it seemed right and Joe had agreed. I prayed we were both right.
Another knock and we were out the door. Still no sign of Michelle or Cynda and I wondered if something happened. Flame came up beside me and smacked me on the back. “They’re here. Chill, bro. We have a show to do, right?”
“Fuck yeah we do,” I shouted so he could hear me above the roar of the crowd, and for the first time in almost a week I smiled and meant it.
Preston would come out after our first song and he was going to join us on stage for the rest of the set, then the plan was for him to have some alone time with Cyn and get her back to the wings before we played the new ballad.
Our name was announced, I had Eleanor in my hands and I was fuckin’ ready. No more time for thinking, for the next hour only the music mattered. Preston came out on cue. The crowd which had already been off the charts went crazy. Preston Mitchell was a legend and he was on stage with us. We performed one of The Hurricanessongs—53rdStreet—and he played the rest of our set with us.
I’d avoided looking off stage until then but when I turned there she was, a little thinner than I remembered but the most beautiful woman in the world. She wasn’t smiling but she didn’t look like she wanted to kill me either. I took that as a fuckin’ good sign.
It was harder for me to get lost in our second set, knowing Preston and Cynda were somewhere talking. I tried to focus and Wrath was by my side hamming it up. There was always the chance she’d leave and not stay for the ballad, but we still had a job to do. The music would always play on.
Chapter Thirty
Cynda…
Joe met us at the airport and drove us to the amphitheater. The weather was perfect for an outdoor concert and the place was packed. Another sold out performance for Raining Chaos. Joe handed us the backstage passes but the opening act was already playing. We stayed off to the side on the lawn and waited for them to finish. Joe got us sodas and hung with us. I was a wreck, Michelle was wired, it’d been almost a week since she’d seen Flame and ever since she found out we were coming it’s all she could talk about. It was a good thing Joe hung with us or one or both of us might have imploded.
