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Digging into the plate of bacon, Dad smiled. “Oh, well, that’s good that you’re finding success.” Kellan nodded at him, taking the eggs as they made their way around the table. As Dad loaded his fork with food, he asked, “So what do you boys call yourselves anyway?” I cringed, knowing my dad wasn’t going to like this. Anna laughed while Kellan looked down, seemingly unsure if he should say it to the man he was trying to impress. Maybe understanding that lying would do no good right now, Kellan picked up his fork and muttered, “D-Bags.”
Dad sputtered on the food he’d just attempted to swallow. Coughing a little, he leaned over his plate. “Excuse me?” Clearing his throat, Kellan looked up at him. “Um, the band…we’re named…D-Bags.” He shrugged. “It’s just…supposed to be funny.” As Dad narrowed his eyes, clearly not amused, Kellan murmured, “We might change it…if we go mainstream.”
Anna looked between the two men and laughed. Spunkily shaking her head, her high ponytail flipping around her face, she told Kellan, “You better not. I love that you’re Douchebags.” Kellan bit his lip to hide his amusement while my mother gasped.
“Anna!”
Teasingly shoving Kellan’s shoulder back, Anna laughed again and dug into her food. Dad frowned at my sister, but said nothing more about the band’s name. There was a moment of silence around the table as we all ate in peace. Mom’s food was incredible and I nearly purred as I popped a gooey piece of cinnamon roll in my mouth. Kellan watched me eat it, a slightly devilish look in his eye. I smacked his leg under the table, warning him as quietly as I could to behave himself.
When he playfully grinned at me, popping a segment of a roll into his own mouth, I had to look away. I’d suddenly envisioned licking cinnamon and sugar off his skin, and that was certainly not a thought I should be having on Christmas morning…at my parents’ table. While Kellan chuckled, I met eyes with my dad. He was watching us with a furrowed 260
brow. His eyes darted past me for a second, into the living room, and I held my breath, hoping he didn’t piece anything together.
What he did say, though, made a cold wash of nerves go over me, and I suddenly would have preferred him asking about last night.
“Kellan…is it true what they say about rock stars?” Kellan finished his roll and looked around the table. Bunching his brows, he shook his head. “What do you mean?” Dad paused to take a bite of his bacon while I tensed. There were so many different paths he could take this conversation down, and all of them were bad. “You know, about the women that follow the bands around, trying to…get to know them.”
Anna dropped her fork and stared at Dad while Mom brightly exclaimed, “Would anyone like some more eggs?” Kellan ignored her question, keeping his eyes locked on Dad’s. “Some women are like that, yes, but it’s a lot less than you would probably think—”
Dad cut him off, waving his bacon slice in the air. “But it is true, though, you do have women trying to seduce you? To lead you away from my daughter?”
I flushed, hating that our life was being discussed so openly. “Dad!” Dad ignored me, focused intently on Kellan. As Kellan unwaveringly met his eyes, I suddenly saw my dad’s true fear with me dating a rock star. It wasn’t really that he considered the job frivolous, or that there was an alarming potential for drug or alcohol abuse. It was that my dad didn’t think Kellan could possibly be faithful to me. It was my own fears reflected back to me. Somehow, that made them seem all the more possible.
Beside me, Kellan whispered, “Yes.”
I blinked and looked over at him, not expecting him to answer so honestly. It stung, too, knowing that he was getting offers. Even if he was 261
rejecting them, it still hurt to know that they really were out there. My eyes started watering and Kellan purposely avoided looking at me.
Dad leaned forward in his chair and I looked back at him, begging my eyes to calm down. I did not want to cry in front of my parents. They would never trust Kellan if I didn’t trust him. As Anna sputtered that none of this was Dad’s business, Dad pointed the last of his bacon at Kellan. “Don’t you think it would be better for Kiera then, if you paused the relationship while you were away…so she doesn’t get hurt by your…admirers?”
Kellan shook his head. “I never…I don’t…” He closed his eyes, taking a moment to collect himself. Just as I felt my eyes starting to pool over, Kellan opened his and looked over at me. “I love your daughter, and I’d never do anything to hurt her.”
My mother stood up then, collecting Dad’s plate. “Of course you wouldn’t, dear. Martin’s just being an ass.” Dad frowned at Mom and I blinked, staring up at her. Mom never swore, not even the mild ones. When Dad looked about to object, Mom gave him a glance— the glance. It was a pointed look that said so much. It was a full-on sentence in just a second of connection. She may as well have screamed—Y ou have said enough, and if you open your mouth again there will be hell to pay in this house for the next six months! It is Christmas morning and I will not let you make my baby girl cry while she is here visiting us, for quite possibly the only time until next winter, by making her doubt the man that she is clearly head-over-heels in love with!
Dad wisely said nothing.
When a strained quiet fell over the table, Mom looked around.
“Should we open presents then?”
Kellan slapped on a smooth smile as he stood up. “Sounds wonderful, Mrs. Allen.”
Mom smiled at him around her hands full of plates. “Caroline, dear.” 262
Kellan nodded at her. “Caroline, thank you for breakfast. It was incredible.” He motioned around the house with his hand. “Is there a bathroom…?”
“Oh, sure.” Mom motioned upstairs with her one free pinky.
Kellan smiled and looked around the room as he excused himself. He seemed happy and unperturbed, but I saw his fingers go to the bridge of his nose as he turned the corner to head upstairs. I knew enough about him to know that the conversation had bothered him. He was taking a minute.
My eyes snapped back to Dad when Kellan was out of earshot. “Dad!
What was that all about?”
Anna crossed her arms over her chest and glared at him. Dad looked between the two of us. For once, his face was almost sheepish. “I’m sorry if I stepped over the line there, Kiera.” He leaned forward and pointed his finger to where I could hear water running upstairs. “But these are questions you need to ask yourself if you are going to be in a relationship with him. Is he on the same page? Does he really love you? Can he turn down woman after woman? If you take the relationship to the next level, will he soil your marriage bed?”
I flushed and looked down, too flustered to say anything. Anna spoke up in my silence. “He’s a good guy, Dad. You don’t even know him.” Her hands free now, Mom came up to rest her palms on my shoulders.
“That could have been handled more privately, Martin.” Dad glanced up at her. “I’m just looking out for our daughter.” I peeked up at him then. “I can look out for me, Dad.” Glancing over my shoulder really fast, I leaned in and whispered, “I’ve had all of the doubts that you have, okay. I think about it. I worry about it.” I shook my head. “But I love him. Shouldn’t I give him the chance to fail before I condemn him?”
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Dad’s eyes widened as he sat back in his chair. A hand rubbed over his jaw as he softly smiled at me. Fatherly pride stretching over his face, he shook his head. “You always were too smart for your own good.” I relaxed back into Mom behind me and shook my head. “Not really…but I’m trying to be smarter.” I bit my lip, not wanting to let too much truth about my vast failings slip out. My parents still didn’t know the real reason Denny and I broke up. They assumed he had left the country for a job, and I was content to let them think that. “I’m in love with him, Dad. Pausing…isn’t an option for me.” I heard a sniff from the doorway and looked back to see Kellan standing there, head down as he listened. He looked up and met my eye, a genuine, peaceful smile on his face. Dad sighed, maybe finally seeing that he really had lost his little girl. I stood up and walked over to Kellan.
Cupping his cheeks, slightly moist, like he’d splashed water on them, I searched his unique eyes. “Not being yours isn’t an option anymore,” I whispered.
He nodded, and leaned down to kiss me. I let him, Dad be damned.
Twenty minutes later, you wouldn’t even know the conversation had happened. Kellan let it slide off of him and Dad even seemed a little chagrined that he’d brought it up. He even stopped his sullen, disapproving looks at Kellan. He didn’t suddenly turn warm towards him or anything, but he did stop being the brutish, overprotective father.
Anna had forgotten about the moment the minute we stepped near the tree. Honestly, eating breakfast first was the hardest part about Christmas for her. We’d only started doing that in the last couple of years, when the presents part of the holidays started taking a back seat to the family part of the holidays. But she was still a giddy little girl when it came time to rip open stuff.
Kellan sat beside me on the couch as she started doling out gifts. She handed everybody a similarly wrapped, flat square and made us all open them together. Kellan laughed as he looked around at all of us opening Anna’s gift. I laughed when I saw what it was. We were all now proud owners of next year’s Hooters calendar. I blinked as I stared at the three orange and white clad vixens on the cover.
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Dropping my jaw, I looked up at her. “You got the cover?” Anna clapped and giggled, stomping her feet in her excitement. “Yes! I was hoping you didn’t see one in the stores, I wanted to surprise you.” I stood up and gave her a hug, Mom and Dad and Kellan following suit. I knew she’d made the calendar, April, from what she’d told me, but the cover was an even bigger deal. Sitting back down, I flipped to her page. God, she was pretty. I immediately closed it. Kellan set his aside and grabbed my hand, leaning into me. Smiling over the fact that he hadn’t peeked at her picture, I kissed his cheek.
The standard gifts went around the room—clothes, books, music, movies and games. The merriment in the air was palpable as we all laughed and enjoyed each other’s company. Kellan silently watched the whole affair, his eyes soft and speculative. When it got near the end of the pile under the tree, Anna handed him a present from my parents. He blinked at the gift, surprised, like he hadn’t been expecting to receive anything from them. Honestly, I was pretty surprised, too.
My dad was wrapped up in playing with a new, techy gadget, but Mom watched Kellan as he turned the present over and over. I elbowed him gently. “Open it.”
He looked up at me, then at my mom. “You didn’t have to…” He shrugged and Mom smiled.
“I know.”
Swallowing, Kellan unwrapped the present. Inside a simple, white box, was a small scrapbook. Kellan smiled as he started to flip through the pages. I blinked as I looked over his shoulder. It was a book about the two of us, about our life together. There were pictures of just me, some taken when I was pretty young. There were pictures of Seattle—his house, the bar, the Space Needle. And then there were pictures of the two of us.
Most of those pictures were candid, like we weren’t aware that we were being photographed. There was one of him staring at me at work. I 265