How could I not? Mom would come back and haunt me for sure if I said no. “Yes, I will.”
“Saints have mercy,” he whispered. The hint of tears glistened in his eyes, and then he pulled me into his arms and held me tight. My first father-daughter hug ever. I thought it’d feel strange, but it didn’t, it felt like home. Somewhere I knew my mom was smiling.
I was just about to say something when there was a knock at the door.
“Oops, we almost missed our cue. We need to get you backstage.”
“We do?”
“Yes, and no dawdling.”
Joe was outside to lead us back to the wings. Michelle mouthed to me ‘how was it?’ and I nodded okay. She flashed me a big smile, then turned back to the stage to focus on Flame.
Chaos held up his hands and the crowd quieted down, then he turned to me and smiled. “Tonight we have one more surprise. It’s the debut of our new songSinning for Love. I wrote the music but the lyrics were written by Cynda Pearson. We hope you love it.
I was shocked. How did this happen? Then I looked at Michelle. She was grinning so much I thought her cheeks might tear. Did he just say what I think he said? Oh My God yeah, he was playing the ballad. But how did he get… I narrowed my eyes at Michelle and she nodded and shrugged.
He was playing his song and singing my lyrics, did that make it our song? His voice was so beautiful and the words fit perfectly. I heard the changes he made as they played the ballad and by the time he was done, tears streamed down my cheeks. It was more beautiful than I could have ever imagined. I wiped the tears away as he walked off stage to thundering applause.
“Cynda, I’m so very sorry. I was a fuckin' asshole. Will you ever be able to forgive me?”
Hearing the song, the new words he’d added to change the lyrics just enough to make them for me, filled the hole in my heart, I was overwhelmed. “Yes I’ll forgive you, and thank you, Chaos.”
“Nope not, Chaos. Trent…for you I’ll always be Trent.” With Eleanor between us he took me into his arms and his lips possessed mine. The kiss was gentle at first, then filled with all the passion I’d thought we’d lost forever.
Wrath came to drag him back on stage. “C’mon, dude, they’re going to tear the place down.”
He kissed me one more time and with a smile and a swat on the butt, he headed back on stage to say goodnight.
Epilogue
Cynda…
After the show we all went back to the suite, but this time no groupies were there, none anywhere except for Sapphire who seemed to be Wrath’s girlfriend at least for now. Chaos explained what had been going on with the lawyers, and how Rod would be receiving dissolution of contract papers soon. My father helped them build the case after Joe contacted him.
“You were really busy weren’t you?”
“You have no fuckin’ idea but you will. I’m not letting you go again.”
I didn’t know what to say, of course he had to let me go, I couldn’t just follow him all over the world like a groupie. He had a lot of touring to do and I’d just have to wait for him to get done.
“I’m glad you’re getting rid of dickman. If he were here right now I’d probably kill him myself.”
“Baby, you’d need to take a number and stand in line. Even the record company is dropping him. They’re worried about their reputation. Now there’s only one thing left to settle.”
“What’s that?”
Chaos turned and looked around the room. “Hey, Joe?”
“Yeah?
“I have a job offer for you.”
“I already have a job.”
“We want you to have a better one. Would you be our manager? We talked about it and it’s unanimous—which is tough for this group—there’s no one we trust more to watch over our career.”
I was thrilled. Joe being their manager was like a dream come true. He’d know exactly what to do and how to take care of them. I watched the emotions change on his face from surprise to happiness and there were definitely tears too when he said yes.
