Kellan gave me a crooked grin. “Not really.” He leaned over to kiss me, then hopped out of the cubby. “Back soon.”
Covering my face, I laughed into my hands. God, I hoped he managed to get into our bags without too many people seeing him. He was gone longer than I thought he would be. If it were me, I’d be running. Curious, I peeked my head out of the curtain. I couldn’t see anybody, but I heard them. Some of the guys were still snoring, and some of them were in the lounging section. I could hear Gibson crying too. Our things were in the other direction, in a closet near the bathroom. Just as I was wondering where Kellan was, he reappeared from the curtain separating the cubbies from the back of the bus. He was fully dressed, laughing to himself. I wondered why until Anna stepped out of the curtain a second later. Oh God, had she seen him naked?
Anna smirked as she walked by him. Leaning down when she passed me, she scuffed up my hair and murmured, “Your husband’s got a nice package.” She looked back at him, winked, then returned her focus to me. “Lucky girl.”
My face filled with heat. Yep, she’d finally seen Kellan in all his glory. Awesome.
After Anna left, Kellan squatted in front of me, clothes in hand. “Here you go.” He laughed. Where I would be mortified at being caught in my birthday suit, Kellan was just amused.
When we walked out to the lounge, Griffin was watching Anna discretely breastfeed Gibson. A few days ago, I would have expected him to have a scandalous gleam in his eye while watching an act like that, but he wasn’t looking at Anna in a devious way. In fact, he wasn’t looking at Anna at all. His eyes were locked onto Gibson, and a small, peaceful smile was on his face as he watched her eat.
Kellan interrupted his moment by smacking him on the back of the head.
“Dude, what the fuck?” Griffin scowled.
Kellan pointed back to the cubbies. “That’s for nabbing our clothes.”
Griffin laughed and turned back to Anna, who was giggling uncontrollably now. “Oh yeah, that was awesome.” He held his hand out to Anna and she gave him a high five. Turning back to Kellan, who was studiously ignoring my semi-exposed sister, Griffin added, “Gibson wouldn’t go back to sleep so I paced the bus with her. We couldn’t resist when we saw your jeans poking out of the curtain.”
Kellan gave me a dry look at Griffin’s explanation. We? He and Gibson were partners in crime now? Still laughing, Anna murmured, “You’re the best Dilf ever, Griffin.”
Leaning back in his seat, Griffin looked like a king upon his thrown. “Thanks, Milf. You’re not so bad yourself.”
Their pet names made me cringe. “Ugh, couldn’t you guys find words of endearment that were actually endearing?”
Griffin snorted as he looked up at me. “What, like Snookums?” Brightening, he twisted back to Anna, “Hey, Milfums, it’s my turn next, right?”
Anna gave him her best seductive smile. “Oh, don’t you worry, Dilfums, I’ll be satisfying you later.”
Feeling a little nauseated, I turned away from the pair. God . . . never mind, they could keep their pet names, so long as I didn’t hear them say anything like that ever again.
Kellan sat down next to Evan while I went to get us some coffee. I was going to need a little pick-me-up to get through this day. When I got back, Kellan was holding Gibson. Seeing how natural he was with her made me stop in my tracks. He was standing in the middle of the bus, swaying as he rocked her. And he was singing to her. It was low, and I couldn’t quite make out all of the words over the video game Holeshot was playing, but from what I could tell, he wasn’t singing a lullaby. He was singing a D-Bags song. My favorite D-Bags song.
Kellan peeked up when he saw me. I’d never seen a more exalted smile on his face. My sister was right; this man needed a child to love. I felt a little shaky as I sat down next to Anna and put our coffee cups on the table. Was I ready to give him one? Every maternal instinct in my body was screaming Yes, do it! But I needed to use my head here. If we had a child, we would have to be apart. A baby on the road was one thing, but a toddler? A school-age child? That was something else entirely. It wasn’t as if I wanted to spend my entire life on the road, but I wasn’t quite ready to give it up yet. Aside from the Sienna drama and the cramped sleeping quarters, I liked my life with the D-Bags. And maybe it was selfish of me, but I wanted to be Kellan’s only love for a few more years. Then maybe we could have a whole busload of kids.
Anna slung her arm around me as we both watched Kellan and Gibson. He was just beginning another song for her when he suddenly froze. His face contorted and he held Gibson a foot away from his chest. “Uh, she doesn’t smell so good anymore.”