Sienna stayed at the house the entire holiday weekend. A group surrounded her wherever she went; I don’t think I ever saw her by herself. It didn’t take my sister long to become a member of her entourage. When Sienna came down to the main pool Saturday afternoon, my sister tossed on a bikini and joined her. And I swear, only my statuesque sister could pull off pairing a pregnant belly with polka dots.
Sienna continually struck up conversations with Kellan. Whenever he went out back to lay in the sun or take a dip in the pool, she was right there, telling him how great their single was going to be. I tried to ignore the light in her dark eyes when she talked to him. I tried not to notice how casually he carried on a conversation with her. And I really tried not to think about how much they had in common. Kellan and Sienna seemed cut from the same cloth, and I had to imagine that if I had never come into Kellan’s life, he would have dated the superstar in a heartbeat.
But he never said or did anything inappropriate when he was around her. In fact, he was usually touching me in some way when he was talking to her—a hand on my thigh, his knee glued to mine, our bare arms brushing together. Some tiny bit of contact was almost always between us, like he was subconsciously letting me know that I had nothing to worry about.
On my sister’s last day in California, Kellan and I were enjoying some sunshine by the pool. Most of the houseguests had gone home last night after the fireworks, and for once, Kellan and I were completely alone. He was relaxing in a lounge chair, wearing black swim shorts and nothing else. I was in the chair next to him, my left hand entwined with his right. Eyes closed, he played with my wedding ring while I gazed at the tattoo above his heart. I was in a near trance as I mentally traced the scripted letters of my name when my sister’s irritated voice broke through my peaceful fog. So much for being alone.
“No, it’s not a good thing. I wanted a girl!”
Anna passed through my field of vision and I followed her with my eyes. She stormed over to a table and set her juice down so hard she spilled some. Griffin followed her. Like Kellan, he was only wearing swim shorts. While Griffin was fit and could definitely pull off the look, he wasn’t quite as well defined as Kellan.
“Well, I’m cool with a boy. I think it’s awesome. Instead of Myrtle, we can call him Myrt or Mort . . . Mortimus.” He paused for a minute while my sister made a face. I did too. Mortimus? I could not call a baby that. Suddenly, Griffin raised a finger into the air. “Maximus!” he exclaimed.
I looked over at Kellan and we both smiled and shrugged. Maximus was a heck of a lot better than Mortimus. My sister snorted, and I looked back at her. A wry smile on her lips, she shoved Griffin’s shoulder back. “Maximus . . . like the gladiator?”
Griffin smiled and brought his hands to his hips. “Well, he will be a slayer.” He thrust his hips forward and I stopped smiling. Anna laughed and trailed her hand down Griffin’s chest. She tugged on his shorts, pulling him into her bare stomach. His lips were instantly attached to her neck, his hands immediately slipping down the backside of her bikini bottoms. I turned back to Kellan. I really hoped they didn’t try to make another baby while they were ten feet away from me.
Kellan watched them for a minute more, then closed his eyes and laid his head back on the chair. Sienna’s toned legs appeared on the other side of him. Shirking off her sheer robe, she frowned as she watched my sister being mauled by the D-Bags’ bassist. “Are those two really a couple? He’s hit on me about a dozen times.”
Sienna seemed as confused by Anna and Griffin’s relationship as I sometimes was. As I tried not to gape at the perfection of her sculpted body, Kellan looked over and smirked. “That depends on your definition of ‘couple.’” Returning his eyes to my sister, he added, “We’re all still trying to figure them out.”
Sienna smiled; the brilliance of her white teeth nearly blinded me. “They’re not as exclusive as the two of you then?” Her eyes drifted over Kellan’s tattoo before shifting to my wedding ring.
Kellan smiled at her as he brought my ring to his lips. “No, definitely not.”
Sienna smiled politely as she watched him. If she was disappointed over Kellan’s commitment to me, I couldn’t see it. But then again, she was a performer, and acting was a big part of that. As her entourage spread out around the pool, Sienna flipped onto her stomach. Her backside was impossibly perky, and I discretely adjusted the bottom of my modest tankini.
Pulling the sheet of dark hair off of her shoulders, Sienna unhooked her top. Resting her head on her arms, she told us, “I’ll be heading back to London in the morning. Would the two of you like to have dinner with me tonight?”
Kellan was silent, leaving the answer entirely up to me. Not able to pass up a meal with number ten on the “Most Influential People in the World” list, I shrugged and nodded. “Yeah, sure . . . sounds great.”