He answered immediately, “I want a healthy family. Mom, Dad, kids, whatever way they come.”
I also answered immediately, “God, I love you.” He tilted his head and rested his forehead against mine.
“Don’t get soft on me, I married a bitchy woman. You get soft, I’m gonna have to find me another bitchy woman.” I smiled at him and lied again, “Okay, I’l try to be a bitchy woman.”
He grinned at me, not halfway but ful on this time. I felt that in my nipples too.
That’s when the lights went low and the crowd went wild.
I jumped out of my seat, ran forward, and, per usual, joined the Rock Chicks at the edge of the stage.
Stel a walked out and I held my breath at the sight of her.
She looked great, didn’t even look like she’d had baby Tal ulah only six months ago. She was wearing jeans, cowboy boots, a kil er belt and a light blue, teeny little t-shirt that said “The Gypsies” in cool, electric-blue glitter script across the boobs.
“I want one of those shirts!” Roxie yel ed to no one.
“Right on, sister,” Al y yel ed back.
Stel a strapped on her guitar, walked up to her mic and she was so close, we could touch her boots.
I’d seen Stel a play a lot before she got famous and al the girls had caught every concert she did close to home after. Every time since she made it big, just like tonight, she pointed down to us, wrapped her hand around the mic and, first thing, told the crowd, “My girls are here tonight.” The crowd went wild. Indy, Al y, Jet, Roxie, Jules, Sadie, Daisy, Annette, Sissy and I jumped up and down and screamed like we were fifteen year old groupies.
“Rock Chicks, wouldn’t live without ‘em,” Stel a muttered into her mic with a smile down to us and the crowd roared again. Stel a looked away from us to the arena. “Seeing as we’re home…”
She didn’t finish, the crowd didn’t let her; they belted out a whoop that was deafening.
When they calmed, she went on, “As I was saying, seeing as we’re home…” Another deafening whoop but Stel a kept talking this time, “we’re gonna do it like we did it before. None of this new shit we’ve been doing, we’re going vintage.”
The crowd went absolutely nuts.
“Holy fuck, they’re gonna tear the place down,” Vance shouted from behind us but the Rock Chicks ignored him, mainly because we’d likely be right in on any “tearing the place down”.
“Though, not that vintage,” Stel a went on. “Just a little something I like that says it al .”
Stel a looked behind her to Pong at the drums then to her left at Leo and Hugo then to her right at Buzz and she nodded. Then Stel a, Buzz, Leo and Hugo al stepped up to their mics in a line at the front of the stage.
“This is for Kai,” she told the crowd and, since everyone knew Mace, being hot as he was and being famous in his past and being famous for what went down with Stel a in Denver and being famous because those books came out and, wel , again being hot, the crowd descended into bedlam.
The minute she finished saying Mace’s name, the guitars and drums started. They started hard and they started loud and I felt the thril of them in my toes, straight up my body to the very ends of my hair.
Stel a lifted her mouth to the microphone and started to sing Blink-182’s total y kickass, rockin’ love song, “Al the Smal Things”.
The Rock Chicks banged our heads and jacked our hands in tandem with the beat, arms lifted high in the air and when the boys in the band took to their microphones and sang, Na na, na na, na na, na na na-na, na na, na na, na na, na na, na-na, we sang it with them.
Stel a had stepped back from her mic to jam, her own head banging with the “na na’s”. Then she riffed, dancing graceful y, swaying her body, so cool it was unreal.
Then she stepped back to her mic to sing as everyone in the entire stadium sang with her.
Leo, Buzz, Hugo and Pong went into the “na-na’s” again and we al danced and sang with them as Stel a went off, working the stage, working the crowd, nodding and smiling to her fans.
“Jesus,” Luke muttered behind me. I turned to him and his eyes were locked on Stel a.
He’d never been to one of her gigs except the ones where he was protecting her and al the Rock Chicks and he’d been kind of busy during those.
“She’s the shit,” I shouted at him and his eyes moved to me.
Luke was about to speak when something caught his eye and he looked up again.
I turned back around and saw Stel a at the mic. The music had slowed in order to own the crescendo and her eyes were looking to her right, not to Buzz but offstage.
“Get out here, babe, I wanna kiss you,” she said into the mic but she most definitely wasn’t talking to the crowd.
She stepped back from the mic, once, twice, her body facing forward, her head twisted to the side, al the while she played her guitar and then, al of a sudden, the smile on her mouth went radiant.