Christmas with a Rockstar Read online

  A smile curved on his lips. “No. I want us to adopt the baby.”

  I squealed before throwing myself into his arms. “This is crazy. You know that, right?” I laughed against his chest.

  He chuckled. “Oh, yeah, it’s crazy. Epically batshit crazy.”

  “No one does crazy better than us, right?”

  “You got that right.”

  I brought my lips to meet his. “Just when I think I couldn’t love you more,” I murmured against his mouth.

  “I know just what you mean.”

  When he pulled away, his expression was serious. Sucking in a breath, I asked, “Oh no. You’re not changing your mind, are you?”

  “No. Of course not.”

  “Then what is it?”

  “I didn’t tell you about it because I was afraid I would worry you. But I’ve had this feeling lately.”

  “A bad feeling?”

  “No. It was a good one actually. Well, I guess I should say it was more of longing. Like something was missing.” Rhys shook his head. “I had some really crazy thoughts running through my mind like we needed to move, or I needed to take on some sort of solo project from the band. Anything to fill this weird longing I was experiencing.”

  My heart leapt into my throat when tears shimmered in his eyes. “I guess this is what it was about all along.”

  “That’s….” I swallowed the rising lump in my throat. “The most beautiful thing.”

  “It really is amazing how it all came together.”

  “I can’t believe you were feeling like that and didn’t tell me.”

  “There were many times I wanted to, but I felt it was better if I worked through it myself first.”

  Maybe Rhys was right. If he had told me what he was feeling, I would have probably worried and overanalyzed that something was missing in our marriage. How could I have ever imagined what it truly was?

  “So, we’re having a baby, huh?” Rhys questioned.

  I laughed. “I guess we are.”

  “I think most couples usually start off practicing for parenthood with a dog.”

  “Does Angel count?”

  Angel was Jake and Abby’s Golden Retriever who rode along with them on their tour bus. I’d helped feed and walk her when I was a nanny.

  Rhys chuckled. “Maybe.”

  “See. We’re good.”

  “I doubt that seriously, but we’ll learn. And with the guys and all their wives, we’ll have plenty of people to get advice from.”

  “That’s the truth.”

  Jerking his chin at the door, Rhys said, “We should probably go talk to Keira and make it as official as we can until we do the legal stuff.”

  With a nod, I slipped my hand in his. I couldn’t believe how quickly our lives had changed since we’d woken up on the tour bus that morning. But it certainly was a wonderful, unexpected blessing.

  Rhys

  As I rolled through the remains of the colorful wrapping paper while wrestling with my nephews Jax and Cody, I couldn’t imagine a happier time in my life. It wasn’t just about being silly with the kids. It was the way Allison’s family made me feel like I was truly home. Growing up, I’d never experienced Christmases like the ones at Allison’s. There had been fine china and crystal in the formal dining room while my sister and I had been banished to the nursery to eat our turkey and dressing. It didn’t get better as I grew older. Instead, it remained just as cold and sterile. The only warmth came from our nanny and cook.

  And then I’d befriended Jake, AJ, and Brayden when we were at Georgia Tech. With their friendship came my entrance into their band, Runaway Train. That’s when I’d gained the family I’d always desired. In turn, each of them made me a member of their own family. It was through Jake that I met Allison. Never would I have imagined his gangly, brace-faced little sister would one day become my wife. The only woman I’d truly ever given my heart and soul to.

  When I looked up from the kids, I met her gaze. I winked at her, which sent a beaming smile to her face. God, she was beautiful with her long, dark hair and crystal blue eyes. She’d been gorgeous since the time she turned sixteen. It was a cliché, but she was like a caterpillar immerging from its cocoon to become a beautiful butterfly. Gone were the braces and the awkwardness. The gangly legs were now sexy as hell, and I loved nothing more than having them wrapped around my waist. But the best part of all was how beautiful Allison was on the inside. She had the kindest spirit, sweetest soul, and loving heart. I was a hell of a lucky man that she was mine.

  Allison’s sister, Andrea, rose out off of the couch beside her. Eyeing her son and daughter, she clapped her hands together. “Okay guys, it’s time we started packing up. We have to get to Big John and Meme’s by six.”

  “Aw, we want to stay here with Uncle Rhys,” Cody whined.

  I chuckled at his reaction. “Sorry, Little Man, but Allison and I have to get on the road, too.”

  After spending last night with Allison’s parents, we were heading down to Savannah. While my relationship with my parents could be characterized as strained as best, the main reason for going back home was to see my sister, Ellie. We planned on having Santa Claus waiting on her when she came over tomorrow morning. Even though she was thirty-one, she loved Christmas with the same childish abandon as when we were kids.

  “Speaking of getting on the road, we better get packed up,” Allison said as she started for the stairs.

  After giving each of the kids a quick hug and kiss, I pulled myself up off the floor. While the others worked on cleaning up the mess of wrapping paper and boxes, I went to help Allison. As I turned back to eye the kids one last time, warmth radiated through my chest at the thought that next year Allison and I would have a child of our own.

  If you would have told me last Christmas that we’d be expecting a child, I would have laughed in your face. It’s not that I didn’t want children. They were always the “someday” or “one day” that Allison and I talked about. Sure, at thirty-two I wasn’t getting any younger, but Allison was still so young. She was thriving in her fashion design business. It just didn’t seem like the right time.

  But sometimes you don’t know what you need until it’s staring right at you. In our case, it was a frightened seventeen-year-old birth mother asking us to be her baby’s parents. I don’t think I’d ever experienced such shock as when Allison told me what Keira had asked her. I was piss-my-pants- scared and fought the urge to run away. I’d spent the last four years of our relationship dealing with the fear I had at becoming a father. At the same time, I knew an opportunity like this didn’t come out of thin air without having a purpose. For Allison and me, it was clear that the universe was ready for us to be parents.

  When I entered the bedroom, Allison was bent over the bed. Her luscious ass was on perfect display through her jeans. Although it was the most inopportune moment, my dick instantly hardened. Even after all these years together, she still that effect on me. It probably didn’t hurt that we’d spent the last two weeks apart while I was out on tour, and she was here in Atlanta working on designs.

  At the thought of the five-hour car ride ahead of us, I knew I had to have her right here and right now. I crossed the room to get to her in two long strides. Sliding my arm around her waist, I pulled Allison back against me. My free hand went to cup and knead her breast.

  She sucked in a harsh breath as her nipple pebbled under my fingers. “What are you doing?”

  Dipping my head, I licked a trail up her neck to her earlobe. “Loving my beautiful wife.”

  “While I appreciate the sentiment, you do realize it’s broad daylight at my parents’ house?”

  “I’m fully aware of when and where we are.”

  When my other hand came between her legs, she moaned. “Rhys, we can’t do this right now.”

  “Considering I can feel how wet you are through your jeans, I’d say you’re more than ready.” I licked the shell of her hear. “Give in, Allison.

  “Close an
d lock the door,” she commanded.

  “Yes, ma’am.”

  While I crossed the room to the door, Allison unbuttoned and unzipped her jeans. She was shoving them down her thighs when I turned the lock on the door. I walked slowly back over to her, enjoying the view of her in her skimpy red panties.

  “Aren’t you festive?” I teasingly asked, as I motioned to her underwear.

  “Just wait,” she replied with a smile. After sweeping her sweater over her head, she revealed a matching red bra.

  “Very nice.”

  Her hands came to the waistband of my pants. While one hand worked to unzip me, the other caressed my dick through the fabric. Once she had my pants and underwear down around my ankles, I stepped out of them. Reaching between us, Allison took my cock in her hand, causing me to hiss. As she began to stroke me, I brought my lips to hers and plunged my tongue into her warm, inviting mouth.

  Breaking our lip-lock, I started to push Allison down onto the bed, but she frowned up at me. “You’re leaving your sweater on?”

  I glanced down at my chest. “Sorry. Got lost in the moment.”

  After I lifted it over my head, Allison’s look of lustful appreciation made me glad I had. As I nudged her onto her back, I slipped between her thighs. After pulling off her panties and tossing them to the side of the bed, I guided my erection to her core. With one thrust, I buried myself deep inside her. It’d been almost five years since our first time together before we’d been actually been a couple. We’d come together hundreds of times since then, but it never got old. I’d once feared that with monogamy, the thrill of sex would wane. But not with Allison.

  Jerking the cup of her bra down, I brought my mouth to her breast. Allison moaned and brought her hands to my hair. My tongue flicked and sucked her nipple into a hardened peak. “Mmm, Rhys,” Allison panted.

  As I pumped furiously, my dick went deeper and deeper as Allison’s hips rose up to meet each thrust. We were in perfect sync. Although I wanted the sex to go on and on, I knew we had to hurry before someone discovered us. Reaching between us, I pinched Allison’s clit, causing her to cry out. “Shh,” I murmured into her neck.

  “Can’t. Help. It,” she muttered. A few more tweaks had her walls convulsing around me. The tightness of her around my dick sent me off a few thrusts later.

  We lay there, panting to catch our breath. After a few minutes, Allison turned her head on the pillow towards me. “Do you think they’ve missed us yet?”

  “I think the better question would be did they hear the squeaky bed from downstairs?”

  Allison’s eyes bulged. “I knew we should have gone in the bathroom and turned on the water.”

  I chuckled. “Don’t you think they would have wondered why we were running water for no apparent reason?”

  “It’s better than trying to explain why the bed was squeaking.”

  I pushed the stray strands of hair out of her face. “I’m pretty sure with the kids running around like mad that no one heard us.”

  “God, I hope so.”

  After kissing her one last time, I pulled myself into a sitting position. “We better get going.”

  Allison bobbed her head before rolling off the bed. Adjusting the cups of her bra, she said, “You know this is about to change, don’t you?”

  I jumped back into my pants. “How’s that?”

  “When the baby comes, our sex life is going to change.”

  “It doesn’t have to.”

  Allison shook her head as she pulled her sweater back on. “You say that now when we aren’t sleep deprived, or he’s lying between us in bed.”

  “I don’t think we’ll be the first parents to get it on in the same bed as our child.”

  She wrinkled her nose. “I suppose not.”

  “Think of the pioneers. They used to sleep three and four to a bed.”

  “Doesn’t seem like it was much of a deterrent,” she teased.

  “Not exactly.” I crossed the room to stand beside her. I placed my hands on her shoulders.

  “Look, what it all boils down to is making time to still be husband and wife while keeping the communication flowing.”

  Allison eyed me curiously. “Since when did you become so knowledgeable about marriage and children?”

  I grinned. “I spent years observing the marriages of the Runaway Train guys. AJ, Jake, and Brayden have given me tons of advice on how to survive the first six weeks of newborn life as well as keeping the fires burning.”

  “I really don’t want to know what Jake had to say about us keeping our fires burning,” Allison groaned.

  “Trust me, he feels the same way about me discussing anything about you. It’s usually only AJ and Brayden who get specific. Since they feel like you’re their little sister as well, they really don’t want to hear much either.”

  Allison exhaled a relieved breath. “That’s good to know.” After she grabbed her pants off the floor, she pulled her phone out and eyed it curiously.

  “Everything okay?”

  I didn’t have to ask to know why she was checking her phone. Even though it was three weeks until Keira’s due date, Allison was a nervous wreck about the baby coming while we were gone to Savannah. Okay, maybe we were both nervous about it.

  “Nope. Nothing.”

  “No news is good news, right?”

  She smiled. “That’s right.” She then jerked her thumb at the bathroom. “Come on. We need to clean up before we go downstairs.”

  “Yes, ma’am,” I replied.

  Allison

  After our quickie, Rhys and I put ourselves back together in the bathroom. The last thing I wanted was my parents to suspect anything because of his wild hair or my smeared lipstick. Once we were finished, we headed back downstairs with the luggage.

  Thankfully, our absence hadn’t been noticed since Mom and Dad had been in the process of saying goodbye to Andrea and her kids, which meant helping pack up the car. Jake, on the other hand, gave us a somewhat curious look, but then appeared too disgusted to question it.

  Once the car was packed with our luggage and Mom had handed over a bag of leftovers to munch on during the drive, we said our goodbyes. Normally, I wasn’t as tearful, but today there something about impending motherhood that made me more nostalgic for home and my parents.

  As we started down Mom and Dad’s road, I flipped on the radio. Rhys groaned when I settled on a station playing Christmas music. “Oh, come on, Scrooge. It’s Christmas Eve.”

  “How about we make a deal?”

  “Okay.”

  “You get the first two hours of road trip music, and I get the rest.”

  I grinned. “Sounds like a plan.”

  We were almost two hours south of Atlanta when my phone rang. My heart stopped the moment I saw the caller id. It was Keira. I crossed my fingers she was calling to wish us an early Merry Christmas. “Hello?”

  “Um, hey, it’s me. What I thought was my back hurting from overdoing it wrapping presents….it was actually labor.”

  “Are you serious?”

  “Yeah, I actually just got checked in to the hospital.”

  “What? Why didn’t you call us before?” I demanded a little more sharply than I should have. “I’m sorry.”

  “It’s okay. I wanted to make sure I was really in labor, and it wasn’t a false alarm.”

  “Of course. That was the right thing to do,” I assured her.

  When I glanced over at Rhys, he stared wide-eyed back at me. “Turn around,” I mouthed.

  Thankfully for us, an exit was just in the distance.

  “Are you guys close?” Keira asked.

  “We’re almost to Macon.”

  “You’re two hours away?”

  “It’s okay. We’ll get there in plenty enough time. Remember what we learned at the birthing classes? Labor can take hours….sometimes days.”

  “I know. I just really wanted you guys to be here.”

  “We will. We’re getting off on an exit
to turn around right now. We’ll be there just as soon as we can.”

  “See you soon…I hope,” Keira replied.

  “Me too.”

  After I hung up the phone, I shook my head. “I can’t believe this. She’s three weeks early. First time babies usually never come early.”

  Just as we came off the exit from turning around, Rhys responded by slamming his foot down on the accelerator, sending the car lurching forward. As we started careening down the interstate, Rhys began zigzagging in and out of lanes to pass different cars.

  “Rhys, slow down!” I screeched, as I braced one hand on the dash and the other on the window.

  Rhys tightened his hands on the steering wheel. “Do you want to get there in time to see our baby born or not?”

  “Of course, I want to get there, but I’d prefer to get there alive and in one piece.”

  “This is too important to miss,” Rhys countered.

  “Take a deep breath, but most importantly, take your foot off the accelerator.”

  After uttering a frustrated growl, Rhys finally eased up a little, and we slowed down. “Thank you.”

  “Sorry.”

  “It’s okay. Your heart was in the right place even though your head wasn’t,” I mused.

  Once we were back up the interstate at a reasonable speed, I started breathing a little easier. Of course, my mind began whirling with panicked thoughts. “Dammit.”

  “What?” Rhys questioned.

  “I don’t have our bag.”

  With an expression of confusion, he replied, “Yeah, we do. It’s in the trunk.”

  “No, not that bag. The one with our clothes and the baby’s clothes in it. It’s back at the house.”

  Rhys nodded. “It’s okay. I’ll go back for it sometime tomorrow.”

  With one crisis averted, I flipped to another one. “We haven’t finished babyproofing the house.”

  With a chuckle, Rhys said, “Considering he won’t be crawling or walking anytime soon, I think we’re good.”

  “I hope so.” My mind kept whirling with thoughts. “Oh God.”

  “What is it?”

  “Our quickie,” I hissed.

  “What about it?”