Effortless (Thoughtless, #2)(93)

Swallowing, I nodded at him encouragingly.





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Digging into the plate of bacon, Dad smiled. “Oh, well, that’s good that you’re finding success.” Kellan nodded at him, taking the eggs as they made their way around the table. As Dad loaded his fork with food, he asked, “So what do you boys call yourselves anyway?” I cringed, knowing my dad wasn’t going to like this. Anna laughed while Kellan looked down, seemingly unsure if he should say it to the man he was trying to impress. Maybe understanding that lying would do no good right now, Kellan picked up his fork and muttered, “D-Bags.”

Dad sputtered on the food he’d just attempted to swallow. Coughing a little, he leaned over his plate. “Excuse me?” Clearing his throat, Kellan looked up at him. “Um, the band…we’re named…D-Bags.” He shrugged. “It’s just…supposed to be funny.” As Dad narrowed his eyes, clearly not amused, Kellan murmured, “We might change it…if we go mainstream.”

Anna looked between the two men and laughed. Spunkily shaking her head, her high ponytail flipping around her face, she told Kellan, “You better not. I love that you’re Douchebags.” Kellan bit his lip to hide his amusement while my mother gasped.

“Anna!”

Teasingly shoving Kellan’s shoulder back, Anna laughed again and dug into her food. Dad frowned at my sister, but said nothing more about the band’s name. There was a moment of silence around the table as we all ate in peace. Mom’s food was incredible and I nearly purred as I popped a gooey piece of cinnamon roll in my mouth. Kellan watched me eat it, a slightly devilish look in his eye. I smacked his leg under the table, warning him as quietly as I could to behave himself.

When he playfully grinned at me, popping a segment of a roll into his own mouth, I had to look away. I’d suddenly envisioned licking cinnamon and sugar off his skin, and that was certainly not a thought I should be having on Christmas morning…at my parents’ table. While Kellan chuckled, I met eyes with my dad. He was watching us with a furrowed 260



brow. His eyes darted past me for a second, into the living room, and I held my breath, hoping he didn’t piece anything together.

What he did say, though, made a cold wash of nerves go over me, and I suddenly would have preferred him asking about last night.

“Kellan…is it true what they say about rock stars?” Kellan finished his roll and looked around the table. Bunching his brows, he shook his head. “What do you mean?” Dad paused to take a bite of his bacon while I tensed. There were so many different paths he could take this conversation down, and all of them were bad. “You know, about the women that follow the bands around, trying to…get to know them.”

Anna dropped her fork and stared at Dad while Mom brightly exclaimed, “Would anyone like some more eggs?” Kellan ignored her question, keeping his eyes locked on Dad’s. “Some women are like that, yes, but it’s a lot less than you would probably think—”

Dad cut him off, waving his bacon slice in the air. “But it is true, though, you do have women trying to seduce you? To lead you away from my daughter?”

I flushed, hating that our life was being discussed so openly. “Dad!” Dad ignored me, focused intently on Kellan. As Kellan unwaveringly met his eyes, I suddenly saw my dad’s true fear with me dating a rock star. It wasn’t really that he considered the job frivolous, or that there was an alarming potential for drug or alcohol abuse. It was that my dad didn’t think Kellan could possibly be faithful to me. It was my own fears reflected back to me. Somehow, that made them seem all the more possible.

Beside me, Kellan whispered, “Yes.”

I blinked and looked over at him, not expecting him to answer so honestly. It stung, too, knowing that he was getting offers. Even if he was 261



rejecting them, it still hurt to know that they really were out there. My eyes started watering and Kellan purposely avoided looking at me.

Dad leaned forward in his chair and I looked back at him, begging my eyes to calm down. I did not want to cry in front of my parents. They would never trust Kellan if I didn’t trust him. As Anna sputtered that none of this was Dad’s business, Dad pointed the last of his bacon at Kellan. “Don’t you think it would be better for Kiera then, if you paused the relationship while you were away…so she doesn’t get hurt by your…admirers?”

Kellan shook his head. “I never…I don’t…” He closed his eyes, taking a moment to collect himself. Just as I felt my eyes starting to pool over, Kellan opened his and looked over at me. “I love your daughter, and I’d never do anything to hurt her.”

My mother stood up then, collecting Dad’s plate. “Of course you wouldn’t, dear. Martin’s just being an ass.” Dad frowned at Mom and I blinked, staring up at her. Mom never swore, not even the mild ones. When Dad looked about to object, Mom gave him a glance— the glance. It was a pointed look that said so much. It was a full-on sentence in just a second of connection. She may as well have screamed—Y ou have said enough, and if you open your mouth again there will be hell to pay in this house for the next six months! It is Christmas morning and I will not let you make my baby girl cry while she is here visiting us, for quite possibly the only time until next winter, by making her doubt the man that she is clearly head-over-heels in love with!