“Yes!” Kallie supplied.
Shea affectionately rolled her eyes and slung a big beach bag stuffed full of all the girlie shit women thought they needed whenever they went to the beach. Somehow I didn’t mind. “Apparently so,” she said.
She sidestepped me and headed toward the door. She went to grab the booster seat she’d left sitting just inside the door.
“Here, I’ve got that.” I swung down with Kallie still secured against me, picked it up with my opposite hand.
Laughing hysterically, Kallie hooted like she was on a rollercoaster, clinging to my neck like a safety net. “Don’t drop me, Baz! Don’t drop me!”
My pulse thudded some strange beat, volatile satisfaction.
“I’m not gonna drop you, silly girl.”
We followed her mom down the walk and to the Suburban. I set Kallie down while I fixed her seat in the back right behind Shea. My head spun a little more. Two months ago, had someone told me I’d be concerned with adjusting a car seat so it was level in the back of this Suburban—the one that’d been bought with the sole purpose of rolling around my crew—I would have sneered, told them they had me mistaken for a very different guy.
Leaning down, I picked Kallie up from under her arms. “In you go, Little Bug.”
I strapped her in, made sure she was secure, and ran around and hopped in the driver’s seat. I leaned over the console to grab a quick kiss from Shea.
Contentment swept through me when I threaded my fingers through hers, and she sighed and sank more comfortably into the leather seats like she felt it, too.
We drove the twenty minutes out of Savannah and into Tybee Island, and cruised around to the end where Anthony’s house butted up against the beach. The whole way, Shea and I chatted casually, Kallie all too willing to chime in and offer her opinion and excitement or confusion on just about everything.
Parking in the circular driveway, I climbed out and was quick to round the front to help Shea out. I dipped in and stole another kiss, because I saw no point in trying to resist.
I was fucking hooked.
Kallie jumped down from her seat and ran up the walkway ahead of us, flapping her arms and jumping around as she scrambled up the seven steps that led to the double doors.
Butterfly.
Couldn’t help but smile when I glanced down at Shea. I took her hand and gave it a squeeze.
She let her eyes travel over the massive house. “Nice place.”
I shot her a wink. “Think so, huh? Don’t get too excited, I don’t own it.”
With a short laugh, she shook her head. “Don’t ever think I’m going to want you for your money, Baz.”
I brushed my lips to her temple. “Don’t think that. Not for a second.”
That fact was liberating. Everyone wanted a piece of Sebastian Stone. But the surface pieces—the fame and the money and the bullshit that amounted to nothing.
Shea? She wanted all the rest.
But fuck, if I didn’t want to give all of it to her.
Kallie waited impatiently at the door, and when I slid the key in the lock and the door swung open, she flew right in, not a shy bone in the little girl’s body.
All the guys were inside, hanging around the kitchen, appearing antsy and ill at ease. Before I left, I’d hauled their lazy asses out of bed and ordered them to be on their best behavior.
Kallie skidded to a stop when she saw all of them staring back at her.
Okay, so maybe there was a shy bone or two.
And hell, these guys could make a grown man stop dead in his tracks.
Couldn’t imagine what they looked like to a four-year-old little girl.
Releasing Shea’s hand, I moved to set a calming palm on Kallie’s head who was watching the guys with wide, apprehensive eyes. “Hey, Kallie, want to meet some of my friends?”