There was never a repeat of The Dressing Room Incident as it came to be known, though none of the Rock Chicks, not even Indy (and Stel a never spil ed, no matter how hard Al y pushed it) knew what happened. But also he was so good at it and such a tough guy, badass, macho man that other rock stars and movie actors heard of him and now he was in high demand. He moved Stel a and his home base to Los Angeles, started his own security business based in LA and had even more tough guy, badass, macho men in his employ than Lee did.

The crowd was getting restless, beginning to chant and stomp. The Gypsies were half an hour late taking the stage (they were probably fighting, as usual).

Al of a sudden, Luke slid his arm around my shoulders and kissed the side of my head. I looked at him and my heart jumped when I saw his face.

One could say my husband was pretty damned happy I was having his baby.

“Don’t get al squishy on me. I married a tough guy, macho man. You get squishy, I’m gonna have to find someone else,” I told him.

This was a lie. I’d seen Luke (almost) squishy a lot with Gracie and I didn’t mind it in any way, shape or form. He didn’t do baby talk or any of that crap but his soft, sweet looks for me were nothing on the way he looked at his daughter. I thought he’d be pissed he didn’t have a boy but he didn’t care at al .

Luke wasn’t fazed by my lie.

Instead, he said, “If you get those f**kin’ headaches again, I’m movin’ out of the house for three months and livin’

in the cabin in CB. I don’t even want to hear about them from Daisy or Shirleen.”

I just stopped myself from smiling. “Vance refuses to take assignments out of state when Jules is pregnant. He won’t even miss a single day of her pregnancy,” I informed Luke, pretending to sound hurt.

“I’m not Vance,” Luke informed me, not pretending anything.

This time, I couldn’t stop myself from smiling. “No, you aren’t.”

He bent his head and kissed my neck. I felt the thril of it from neck to ni**les.

When he lifted his head and looked at me again, I asked, “Do you want a boy this time?”

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 ni**les 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 f**k, 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.