Matt was taking about a hundred pictures on his phone. I already had about a bazillion on mine, but I pulled it out again to get some of Gibson and Kellan. Grinning ear to ear, Matt looked over at Griffin. “I’m gonna send some of these to Mom and Dad. You call your parents yet?”
Griffin nodded. “Yeah, they want us to fly her out to L.A. as soon as the tour’s over.” Griffin and Matt were both originally from Los Angeles and still had family in the area, on the other side of town from where the record label’s house was. They’d both visited their parents while we’d been staying down there, but had mainly stayed at the label’s place. Griffin had told me once that it was, “Hella nicer than my parents’ spread.”
Wondering what they were going to do in the meantime, I thought about broaching the subject with my sister. Matt beat me to it, though. Face serious, he told Griffin, “The tour is moving on tonight. What are the two of you going to do?”
Griffin looked over at Anna, his face torn. “We have to be on the bus when it leaves. I have to go with them.”
Anna nodded as she swallowed. “I know.”
Looking over at Kellan, I told Anna, “I’ll stay here with you, Anna.” When Kellan swung his eyes my way, I looked over at my sister. “I’m sure you’ll be discharged tomorrow if everything looks good. Then I’ll take you home . . . to Mom and Dad. You can stay there and rest up until the wedding.”
Anna looked forlorn as she contemplated staying with our parents for the next month. What else could she do, though? If she flew back to Seattle, she’d have to fly twice with an infant during the busiest travel season of the year. That sounded really silly to me. Best to just plop her down in Ohio now. And besides, having Mom around to help would be good for Anna . . . even if she did drive her crazy.
Anna bowed her head, not thrilled about it, but clearly accepting her fate. Griffin, however, wasn’t accepting it at all. “No, I don’t think so.” Walking over to Kellan, he gently removed his daughter from his arms; Kellan seemed reluctant to let her go.
Anna snapped her head up; hope was in her eyes that maybe a better option was available to her. Crossing my arms over my chest, I wondered what option Griffin might come up with. As everyone turned their eyes to him, he locked gazes with my sister. “I don’t want you to go. I want you to stay on the bus with me.” Griffin turned to stare me down. “After they let her go, you bring her to me.” By the heat in his expression, it was clear he wasn’t asking.
I couldn’t help my startled expression. “You want a newborn on a tour bus with you?”
Griffin shrugged and looked around the room. “Sure. Why not?”
Anna seemed conflicted. Her maternal instincts had kicked in, and they were fighting with her natural, carefree spirit. “I don’t know, Griff. It seems unsanitary.”
Griffin snorted. “I’m probably the dirtiest thing on the bus, and you sleep with me every night.”
I tried not to laugh at that. And failed miserably. Kellan elbowed me as he shook his head in amusement. Anna still seemed uncertain. She looked from Gibson to me. “What do you think, Kiera?” Her eyes were wide, fearful. Now that Gibson was a tangible object, Anna was terrified of doing something wrong. She was desperately afraid of making a bad choice.
I could feel Griffin boring holes into me, and I could see the hope on my sister’s face, but if I was going to honestly answer her question, I needed to put the two of them aside and think about Gibson. What would be best for her? If she were mine, what would I do? I really didn’t know much about babies, but I knew a lot about the people on our bus. Aside from my parents, who both had jobs that they couldn’t just abandon to help my sister, there was no one better on earth to help raise this baby than the D-Bags.
Turning to my sister, I told her, “I think in most cases, having a baby on a bus, living the life we live, is absolutely insane.” Anna frowned, and Griffin started to protest. I held up my hand to stop him. “But in this particular case, I think it works.” I focused on Anna. “Your baby was never going to have a typical childhood, and I can’t think of anywhere else that she could possibly be loved more than that bus.”
As Anna’s face broke into a tearful smile, I added, “Besides, didn’t the nurse say they mainly sleep, eat, and poop for the first few months anyway?”
Griffin nodded his thanks to me, then seemed to realize he’d placed quite a burden on the rest of his band. “You guys . . . cool with that?”
Kellan wrapped his arms around my waist as he kissed my neck. “I think it sounds great.”
Evan nodded in agreement; nothing much fazed him. Matt smirked. “Loud crying coming from your room at all hours of the day and night”—he twisted to look at Evan and Kellan—“I think we’re already used to that.”
After light laughter went around the room, Kellan frowned and looked over at Matt. “We’ll have to have a talk with Holeshot.”
Matt nodded. “Deacon is pretty easygoing. I’m sure he’ll be fine with it.”