Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Evan shrug. “Sure, why not?”
Twisting my head, I glared at each of them. “You guys are assholes.”
Evan frowned and looked over at Matt. “I think I’m gonna lose this one.”
I stepped inside the church and instantly heard Matt groan. Looking back, I saw him muttering something as he handed Evan more money. Just to further emphasize his loss, I stood in the church’s doorway and, using my feet to hold the heavy doors open, I flipped him off with both hands. Incinerate that, asshole.
That was when I noticed Anna’s dad watching me. Dropping my hands, I gave him a feeble chin nod. Trying to be the polite, dutiful son-in-law that Kellan was, I asked him, “How’s it hangin’, Mr. Allen?” See, I’m just as cool and friendly as Kyle. Instead of answering me, Martin rolled his eyes and gave his daughter a look that clearly said, Why did you do this to me?
Turning around, I ignored him and continued on into the church. I’d tried, but the odds of that man ever warming to me were slim to none. Oh well, his loss. The doors boomed shut behind me, and the people inside the quiet space twisted to look. While I gave the group of women closest to me finger guns, I spotted a few more friends and family. Denny and Kellan were talking near the front, Liam was a few rows away from where they were standing, clearly eavesdropping.
Liam’s face was alight when I walked up to him; I hadn’t seen him this excited in a while. Maybe he’d just found out that he’d gotten that new gig after all. If so, I didn’t have time to hear about it. He opened his mouth, and I could tell he was going to start spouting about his newfound opportunity. I held up my hands to stop him. “Later. We gotta get this ball moving.”
Sweeping past Liam, I spotted the pastor who was performing the ceremony today and made a beeline for him. Time to ring the bell, or bang the gong, or rev up the organ. Whatever they did to announce the beginning of service. The older man smiled when he noticed me approaching. Anna and I had met him a few times in preparation for today. He was cool. Preachy at times, but cool.
“Good afternoon, Griffin,” he said, smoothing a purple stole around his neck.
“Yo, Pops, or Father, or…whatever. We good to start?”
He looked about to correct me, or chide me, or start in on a four-hour speech about the errors of my ways, but instead, he closed his mouth, smiled, and nodded. “Yes, we’re all set to begin. I’ll go tell everyone to come inside.”
As I watched him saunter off toward the doors, my gaze came across Denny and Kellan. Kellan had a strange expression on his face—broody, like he was contemplating all the hardships in his life. I was sure whatever he was beating himself up about wasn’t really that big of an issue. Oh no! Women obsess over me, the media loves me, and everything I say and do is praised by all. Yeah, tough life you got there, Kell.
Ignoring them, I found a hard pew in front and sat down. God, I was tired. Today had been a superlong, exhausting day, and I didn’t even feel like I’d done anything. Anna may be right about the chaos of our house. Maybe it was too much. A little peace sounded fabulous. And so did a nap. Surely no one would mind if I dozed off during this.
I closed my eyes, just to rest them, and heard people entering the church and finding places to sit. I recognized Anna’s perfume as she sat beside me. Kiera must have been with her, because I heard her saying, “It still shocks me that you have your kids baptized.”
Anna let out a throaty laugh. “It shouldn’t. You’ve met their father, they need all the help they can get.”
Cracking my eye open, I shot Anna a glare, but then I shrugged. She had a point. Onnika was with her again, and she was staring at me with an intense expression, like she was trying to communicate how utterly awesome it was to be my spawn. Either that or she was trying to poop. Kellan sat down beside Kiera. Oddly enough, he had the same look on his face. If he was trying to drop a load, I would suggest he wait until after the ceremony. If the crowd was going to smell anyone’s excrement, it should be my daughter’s.
Kiera reached over to grab his hand, and he gave her a brief smile. While I watched them, Matt sat behind me. Leaning over the pew, he murmured, “Hey, we’re all getting together to work on the album after this. It’s almost halfway done, and if we keep plugging away at it, we could finish it next month. Then we can start on promotion.”
That made me groan. I didn’t want to work on it today. I had a house full of people, a tired wife, a daughter who was probably plotting the demise of her sister, and a newborn who needed me. I was beat, and I didn’t have it in me to jam on songs that I’d had zero input on. Irritated, I snapped at the last comment he’d made. “Why do we have to do promotional shit? Isn’t that what we pay Denny half our money for?”
Matt snorted and made some comment that we didn’t pay him quite that much, but Denny happened to walk in front of me to sit on the other side of Kellan, so I blocked out Matt’s explanation of just what Denny did for us.
Denny had an odd look on his face that matched Kellan’s. Giving Kellan a sympathetic squeeze on the shoulder, he told him, “You should think about it some more. I know it’s a hard move, but I think it could benefit everyone in the long run.”
That got my attention. I’d already packed up all my crap and moved once because of Kellan. I wasn’t thrilled about doing it again, not without a really, really, really good reason. Leaning forward, I peered past Anna, Kiera, and Kellan to ask Denny a question. “Kellan’s moving?” I shifted my gaze to him. “Where are you going?”