I need validation. Someone to tell me what’s right or wrong because my brain’s got it all muddled up. And who better to tell me than a fuckin’ rock star?
He leans back and gives me a hard stare. Not judgmental, but thoughtful. “And how old are you?”
“Way older than eighteen, obviously.”
He lets out a low laugh. “If you’re just chasing after a piece of ass, then yeah, I’d say it’s wrong. Really wrong in every way.”
Shit, if I only wanted to get laid, that’s easy. But that’s not what I want anymore. “I’m not interested in a piece of ass. I mean yeah, she’s cute as hell, but man, I think I’m in love with this girl.” Damn. I finally said it out loud. And it didn’t kill me. “We fuckin’ click in all the right ways. I want to take care of her, spend my life with her. Like your songs, man,” I say, remembering I’m talking to the king of rock ballads. “You get what I’m talkin’ about. She makes me feel like I’m worth something.”
He tugs on his beard. “Sounds like it could be love.”
“Can a chick that young even know what love is? She’ll probably break my heart and hand it to me on a platter while she’s walking off with a younger guy.” Like that ring pop dude she told me about. At least he saved her life without making a mess of it like I have.
“Lemme tell you a little story, Jude,” Asher says. “About my best friend and my only daughter and how age doesn’t always matter.”
We go through another round of drinks and a bowl of pretzels as he tells me all about his best friend, who started dating his daughter, when she was just eighteen and the guy was thirty-two. Asher admits he was so furious when he found out that he beat the shit out of his friend and didn’t talk to him for months.
“Once I cooled down?” he says. “I sat and took a good, hard look at all the years I watched them grow closer and closer. This dude is like my brother. I know him, in and out. He’s a good guy. He doesn’t fuck around—he doesn’t play games. I couldn’t deny what was right in front of me—they really loved each other. So, I got over it. Now they’re married with a baby.” He grins over the rim of his glass. “I’m more pissed off that he made me a grandfather than I am that he’s fifteen years older than my daughter.”
“I’d kill for that,” I admit, after he proceeds to tell me his entire life story—how he fell in love when he was fifteen and how he waited eight fucking years for his wife while she was in a coma. “A love like you have, like your friend and your kid has. A best friend to go through life with. That’s what it’s all about. You don’t just walk away from that, right?”
Only a dumbass would walk away from something good like that.
“No,” he says with conviction. “You don’t. You hang on to it, fight for it. No matter what. But you gotta believe in it yourself first.”
I run my thumb over my wedding band, lost in thought, wondering if me and Skylar can have something real. If I let go of my fears of getting hurt, ignore the judgement, and finally just went all in one hundred percent in every way, could it work?
I think it could. I think it’s what we both deserve—to be happy and have love.
“I’m gonna tell her how I feel,” I finally say. “I’m gonna stop pushing her away.”
“What about your wife?” he asks. “You better end that before you do or say anything to another woman. You seem like a good guy. Don’t be a cheater. You’ll get yourself in a bigger mess.”
At first, I’m totally confused, then I realize he thinks I’m having an affair with a younger girl while being married to someone else.
I finish off my drink and plunk my glass on the table. “Trust me, it can’t get any messier than it is. The girl? The eighteen-year-old? She is my wife.”
His eyes widen with surprise, and he raises his hand to get Uncle Al’s attention. “Can we get two coffees?” he asks. “We’re gonna be here a while.”
Turning back to me, he says, “Man, I did not see that coming.”
“Yeah, me neither,” I reply.
Chapter 42
Jude
I spent the night with Asher Valentine.
Hold up—not like that.
Even though the guy’s a famous, multi-millionaire rock star, he’s the most down-to-earth person I’ve ever met. We stayed at the bar until two a.m. talking, and then we sat in my truck and talked for a few hours more about music, life, and relationships. By then I was too exhausted to drive. We fell asleep in my truck and I dropped him off at his house this morning.