All The Wild Ones | Wildfire Series

A Wild Performance - Bonus

G R A Y S O N

People often didn't understand how I could have two interests that seemed so widely disconnected. But music and sports were linked in more ways than one.

They both involved coordination and fluidity. Teamwork, too. Even solo artists had to know how to work collaboratively; after all, the backstage crew needed to run plays behind the scenes so the mainstage could deliver.

But most notably, as an athlete and a musician, I had to perform. It didn't matter which stage I took. When I walked out onto the field on game day in front of thousands of people, I had to deliver one hell of a performance. And it took a fair amount of preparation to get into that mindset.

Nessa was going through the same thing right now. Except she didn't have nearly as many years of practice as I did, and she was falling apart.

It was killing me.

It had been nearly an hour since she'd refused to let me into her dressing room, and the start time of her first show on tour was quickly approaching. I'd heard the tears in her voice, the panic when she'd called through the door that she just needed some time. But for some fucking reason, she didn't want me in there.

Madie was allowed to enter, though. And while I was grateful Nessa wasn't alone, I'd never been more jealous of Madie than I was at this moment. I wanted to be the one who held Nessa's hand. All the time.

"She'll be okay, man. She just needs a minute."

Bren crossed one leg over the other while sitting on a leather couch that had seen one too many backstage days. I was sure that it was only a matter of minutes before Bren's ass sank all the way to the scratchy traveling floors.

I sighed. "Can I hold Emery?"

It might be a bit amusing to see Bren fall through a couch, but the least I could do was save his daughter from the same fate.

Bren nodded, and when the strawberry-haired toddler made a face at being passed away from her dad, Bren whispered something that made her smile while being placed in my arms.

"Hey, Em," I said, touching the tip of her nose in a way that made her giggle. After that, she wrapped her arms around my neck, and I hoisted her into a comfortable position on my side.

"Where's Gabriel?" Bren asked.

The question didn't require answering. On cue, Beau walked backstage with a baby carrier strapped to his front. My son slept soundly against his uncle's chest. I smiled.

"Beau stole him again," I said wryly.

Although Beau did like stealing my child away from me any chance he got, it wasn't exactly the truth. This time, though, I'd asked him to take Gabe on a little walk so I could focus on helping Nessa. But then she hadn't let me help her at all.

I frowned.

"What's with the face?" Beau waved an accusatory finger in my direction.

"My wife is shutting me out."

Bren jabbed a finger over his shoulder toward the dressing room. "Madie's in there with Nes."

"Oh." Beau leaned back against the wall. "And that's a problem because...."

Because it wasn't me.

I didn't say it aloud, though, because I realized how ridiculous it would sound. Which should have been my first clue, but still.

This was a huge moment in Nessa's life, and I wanted all her huge moments. This was part of why I went pro—so we could afford to make all her dreams come true. This was why we'd decided to hold off on having more kids. We wanted time to make Nessa's vision a reality. This was everything we had been working towards as a team.