My ovaries clench again. Why is a man with a baby so damn sexy?
“Is it the baby or Adam?” Rudd asks softly.
I jerk back. “What? I…what?”
He winks at me. “You sighed.”
“I did not.”
“You did. You sighed like a girl at her first concert.”
“It was the baby,” I proclaim. Inwardly, I cringe. I’ve got to do a better job of hiding my rapidly developing crush.
Rudd chuckles. “It’s alright. I’m not going to tell anyone. We’re besties, so your secret’s safe with me.”
“It’s the baby,” I repeat.
“You keep telling yourself that.” He draws away. “Berry, come and meet our new bandmate. This is Landry.”
Grateful for the interruption, I smile at the dark-haired woman. “Hi, Berry. Your baby is so adorable.”
She shifts her tiny son to the side before reaching out and grasping my hand. “Jack? I know. He’s a peanut. So how do you feel about traveling with these jokers?”
“I’m sure it’s going to be awesome.”
She busts out laughing, which causes Jack to cry a little harder. “Girl, let’s go to the back so you don’t choke on all the lies you feel obligated to say in front of them.”
Before I can blink, Berry brushes by a protesting Ian and grabs my arm, hauling me toward the back room we just abandoned.
“Isn’t this thing amazing?” she raves. “Finn and Adam did such a great job fixing it up. Before, it was a rotted dump. I swear you could still smell the vomit and shit from the last time Adam’s dad took it out on the road.”
“Adam redid it himself?” Obviously, he’s a man of many talents, particularly talents with his hands. That thought leads to another, naughtier one, and suddenly it’s very warm in the back of the bus.
“Yup. Him and Finn. You know Finn?” The baby starts fussing loudly. Berry plops down on the edge of the sofa and pulls her shirt down. “You don’t mind, do you?”
“Nope. Feed away.”
She gives me a small smile of appreciation and proceeds to expertly flip her breast out and into little Jack’s mouth. He immediately clasps his lips around the nipple and starts to suckle. I take a seat opposite of her. The black leather feels soft as butter under my hand.
“Finn O’Malley runs the O’Malley Construction company with his uncle,” Berry explains.
“Oh wow. I’ve seen their signs around.” Everywhere from construction at the Capitol to big projects in the suburbs.
“Right. So Adam and Finn are old friends. Since grade school. I think they ate sand from the sandbox or something. Anyway, the two of them bought the house over there.” She jerks her head in the general direction of the timber and glass structure just beyond the bus. “And they live there with a couple other guys who go to Central. Or maybe they’re done with Central.” Central’s the fancy private college in town. Berry continues, “I don’t really know. When Adam got the invite for the tour, he told Ian that they were going to take the bus. Ian, as you can guess, is thrilled.”
“These are nice digs,” I admit. “You coming with us? I bet Ian would be so happy if you were here and I’d love another woman. Look at all the room we’d have.” I wave a hand around the space. “You, me, and Jack. It’d be perfect.”
She laughs. “You’ve never had a kid, have you?”
I shake my head. “No. Never.”
“I can tell. A newborn is like a bus full of these guys at their drunkest. Impossible to control and incredibly loud until you give them the tit.”
I grimace. “Do you have any other coping techniques? Because I’m not down with the whole giving-them-the-tit thing.”
“They’re pretty much giant kids. Ignoring Ian works. He hates the silent treatment. Rudd needs constant attention, and Adam, it depends on his mood.” Berry doesn’t give me a chance to ask what she means by that. “I’m moving back in with my mom and dad while Ian’s gone. I have plenty of support, and this is Ian’s big chance. Besides, being on a tour is terrible. I rode with Ian for two weeks during a summer break between our junior and senior year of college. It was miserable. Of course, we were in a twelve-seater van instead of a bus like this one, but the stench.” She shudders. “I couldn’t do it again. ’Course, it sounds like you don’t have a choice.”
“Ian told you about my stalker?” I shift uncomfortably in my seat. I hate that’s the only thing some people will know about me. Oh, there’s Landry Olsen. The girl with the stalker.