Killing him with my eyes, I very firmly informed him, “You’re sleeping in your own cubby tonight.”
His expression changed so fast I had to turn away to hide my smile. “I was joking, Kiera.” Pretending like I didn’t hear him, I stormed away. “Kiera? You know I was kidding, right?”
Not able to maintain my fake anger anymore, I tossed a smile over my shoulder. His corresponding grin was so delicious that I knew my bold statement wouldn’t end up happening. No matter where Kellan went, my body, my heart, my soul, would automatically follow him. Except onto that stage.
A week into the tour, all of the bands had fallen into a comfortable routine: travel, setup, play, takedown, travel. Sometimes band members shuffled from one bus to another, but generally the D-Bags shared a bus with the five members of Avoiding Redemption; the rest of the bands shared the other bus. Immediately after the first concert, Kellan had claimed the only bed on the bus. He’d stretched a couple lines of yellow Do Not Enter tape across the doorframe and taped a huge sign in the middle of the crisscrossing X that read: Reserved for Mr. and Mrs. Kyle. Stay Out. That means you, Griffin. I was so grateful that Kellan nabbed the bedroom before Griffin had a chance to sully it. He may be practicing monogamy right now, but I still didn’t want to share bedding with him.
Griffin pouted, but the rest of the band members thought it was funny and let us have the bed, since we were the only couple on the bus.
Aside from the fans asking Kellan about Sienna each night, and chanting for their single at the end of the show, the hype around the two was starting to taper off. I’m sure Nick just hated that. Sienna too for that matter. But she was off doing her thing, and Kellan was off doing his. With no more leaked photos and risqué videos, there just wasn’t anything interesting to keep the pseudo-couple at the top of the gossip news.
That didn’t stop the questions, though.
“So, Kellan, what’s really going on with you and Sienna Sexton?” A radio personality was leaning over her microphone, beady eyes intent on Kellan’s answer. I don’t know why she looked like she had just asked him a life or death question.
Kellan smiled, but I could see the sigh behind his eyes. He was really getting sick and tired of answering the same thing city after city. I thought he might go back to saying “No comment,” just because explaining his life was driving him crazy. “We’re colleagues. We worked together on a project, but that’s it.”
Kellan paused and waited for the question that always came next.
“So, you’re single?” By the look on the DJ’s face and the tone of her voice, it was obvious that she totally thought Kellan was blowing smoke up her ass.
An easy smile still on his lips, Kellan shook his head. “No. I don’t want to go into detail about it, but I’m in a relationship.” I was standing behind the DJ while Kellan was in front of her. His eyes shifted to just over the DJ’s shoulder, and locked onto mine. “And I love her very much.” He shifted his gaze back to the DJ before she noticed that he’d directed that statement to me.
God, I really did have the best husband on earth. I schooled my features as best I could, but I just couldn’t remove the small smile on my lips. The DJ pursed hers. “Okay, well, how about you boys play us a song?”
Kellan seemed confused about why the DJ looked so apathetic over his answer. She’d asked him a direct question, he’d given her one. It may not have been what she wanted to hear, but, well, too bad.
Matt and Griffin strummed their guitars while Evan beat out a rhythm on a lone snare drum. Kellan’s voice filled the studio, pitch-perfect, and the mood instantly lightened. No one could deny that the D-Bags were good. No, not just good . . . amazing.
Afterwards, the group of us slipped into a couple of waiting cabs and headed back to the tour bus. The driver of the cab Kellan and I were in was listening to the radio station we’d just left; I recognized the DJ’s high-pitched voice. Evan was riding in the cab with us. Leaning forward, he said, “Think they’ll talk about us now that we’re gone?”
Kellan and I shrugged, then started paying closer attention to what she was saying. I instantly wished I hadn’t. “Kellan’s a liar, that’s all there is to it. Just colleagues. Right. I’m supposed to believe that that freaking hot music video was fake? Sorry, sweetheart, Sienna’s not that good of an actress. Those two are swapping a lot more than lyrics! In a relationship? Yeah, tell us something we don’t know, Kellan . . .”
Kellan groaned and dropped his head back on the seat. I completely understood the feeling. Guess I know why no one was really hearing what he was saying now.