At the door to her room, I stop him with an elbow to his gut. “Do not, and I repeat not, hit on Cindy tonight.”
“Who me?”
I glare at him until he stops with the sad clown face.
“Fine, fine. I won’t say a word.”
Inside, Cindy’s busy twirling sections of Shelby’s hair around a hot iron. I set the tea and honey on the counter in front of Shelby and give her a quick kiss on the cheek.
I pass out sandwiches to Heidi and Trinity before taking a seat at the table to eat my own sandwich while answering some emails.
SHELBY
I’m buzzing with more energy than usual as I walk off stage. That has to be my most enthusiastic crowd yet. I don’t know if people are finding me through streaming charts, word-of-mouth, the Glow article or something else, but Lord, please let it continue.
Rooster’s waiting for me in his usual spot and I practically knock him over in my excitement to get into his arms.
“You sounded really good tonight,” he says against my ear.
I pull back and stare up at him.
“You sound good every night,” he adds with a flicker of amusement quirking his lips.
“Sorry I need you to tell me how awesome I am every—”
He silences me with a kiss. “Love saying it. You are awesome,” he whispers against my lips. It’s loud and noisy backstage so I feel his words more than hear them.
“Thank you.” I wobble a little as he sets me down.
“Tired?”
“Nope.”
Heidi and Trinity rush over to congratulate me on the show. “I got great shots tonight.” Trinity tilts her camera so I can check out some of the photos.
I barely recognize myself. Must be the tiny screen. If I squint, I almost look like a younger Miranda Lambert. “Damn, you take good photos.”
“It’s the subject.” She touches my shoulder. “That’s you. Raw. No filters or retouching.”
Jigsaw hands me a hot pink hand towel and I immediately press it to my face and chest. “Thank you.”
“Working hard tonight, songbird. I was exhausted just watching you.”
“Did you watch?” I always assume Jiggy’s bored and busy trying to pick up chicks during my set.
“Always.”
“Aww.” I pat his arm. “Thank you.”
“All right.” Rooster cuts in between us. “Let’s get you to your dressing room.”
I’m itching to leave or do something to burn off this extra energy, but I have a meet-and-greet to get ready for.
Inside my dressing room, I peer into the mirror and cringe at the raccoon smudges under my eyes. Cindy’s long gone for the night. I pull out my makeup bag, but Trinity takes it from me.
“Here, let me help.”
“You don’t have to.” She’s already done enough tonight.
“I don’t mind.” She finds a small container of Q-tips, dips one into some makeup remover and gently swipes under my lashes. A few dabs of concealer and a fresh stroke of black liner and I’m almost good as new.
She picks up my hair, pulling it into a ponytail and I let out a sigh. For some reason it felt especially hot and heavy on my neck tonight. “Do you want me to braid this off your face?” she asks.
“I can do a quick braid.”
“Let me try out this waterfall, fishtail braid I’ve been trying to learn.” She smirks at Heidi. “I tried to do it for Alexa but I can’t get her to sit still for me.”
Heidi shrugs. “Murphy’s the only one who can get her to sit still for braids.”
“Aw, that’s so sweet.” I let out a huge yawn. All that energy I had comin’ off stage seems to be disappearing fast. “I’m more likely to fall asleep on you.”
“Perfect.” Trinity pushes me into a chair in front of the mirror and gathers all my hair in her hands, gently combing through the sweaty bundle of sticky curls. Heidi sets a few hair elastics on the counter, then takes a seat on the couch to watch.
“You’re pretty good at this for someone who’s trying to learn,” I comment after she has about a third of my hair woven into a neat piece. Wild sprigs of hair still poke out around my ears but there’s not much we can do to tame ’em.
“I can do it on myself but haven’t practiced on others a lot yet,” she murmurs, not taking her eyes off her task.
When she’s finished, I hem and haw over changing out of my dress. Everything feels tight and uncomfortable. What I really want is to burrow into my jammy pants.
“Change if you want to, Shelby. You’re the star. I don’t think anyone will care,” Trinity says.
“Honestly, if I was meeting my favorite singer—besides you—after a show, I’d think it was pretty cool and down to earth of them to show up more casual,” Heidi adds.
All right. Can’t argue with that logic. I pick out a pair of black lounging pants with rainbow stripes down the sides and the flamingo shirt Trinity gave me. In the bathroom, I sigh with relief when I slip into the pants.
“Feel better?” Rooster asks when I emerge.
“Yup.”
The guys whisk me down the hall. By now everything is moving smoothly. They keep the line moving but back off when they sense I want to spend a little extra time with some of the younger fans.
A little girl wearing a Dream Makers T-shirt is the last in line and I move around to the front of the table to greet her. “Lorna, right?”
Her blue eyes light up. “Yes, that’s me.”
I squat down so we’re eye-level. “How’d you like the show?”
“It was so good!” She claps her hands in front of her and executes a little spin. “I danced a lot.”
“You’re pretty good too.”
“Thank you.” She curtsies for me and my heart melts. She’s the cutest darn thing.
“Ooo! I like your shirt. Pretty.” She taps the flamingo on my chest.
“Thank you.” I lift my chin toward Trinity who’s talking to the girl’s mom and showing her some of the photos she took. “My friend Trinity made it for me because she knows I love flamingos and cowgirl boots.”
She tugs on the hem. “I want it.”
“No, honey.” Her mom hurries over to us, taking her daughter’s hand. “You can’t have Shelby’s shirt.” She gives me an apologetic laugh-smile.
“I can have one made up and send it to her,” Trinity offers.
The mom protests but Trinity wins in the end, jotting down their information.
“You didn’t have to do that,” I say to Trinity after they say their goodbyes. “I’ll pay you whatever it—”
“It’s fine,” Trinity cuts me off. “I was talking to her mom. They’ve been through so much. I wanted…” Her voice trails off for a moment. “I don’t know how you do this on a regular basis.”
“All right! Clear out!” one of the security guards yells. “We need to set this up for Thundersmoke.”
“We’re going!” I wave at the guy. “Sheesh,” I mutter under my breath. “Every dang night.”
Heidi’s busy collecting my stuff from the table, while Trinity packs up her camera equipment. Wrath scowls at the guard who yelled at us and I tap one of his tree-trunk arms to get his attention.