Living In The Shallows (UK Crush #1)

Chapter Eleven

"Ro! Geth! Hurry the fuck up!" I used their nicknames to mitigate the fact that I was yelling like a shrew and swearing at them.

"Steady on," said Ronan as he passed me with his duffle bag. "We have a saying in my country: Don't get your knickers in a twist," he called over his shoulder as he continued down the hallway toward the elevator.

"The cute and cuddly fairy's got quite the mouth on her this morning," Gethin remarked with a smile as he, too, finally emerged from his room.

"Sorry." I sincerely apologized as I followed him toward the elevator. "It's just I gave Betsey my word I'd have you on the bus on time, and it's five 'til now."

Gethin leaned toward me as we got on the elevator. "I'll let you in on a little secret, Tink," he said in a stage whisper. "No way that bus is leaving if we're not on it. We're sort of the heart and soul of the show. They actually can't manage it without us. So don't worry your pretty little head."

"Sorry," I said again in a small voice.

Gethin shook his head in a "don't worry about it" manner, and he chivalrously took my rolling suitcase from me, as Ronan, flashing me that smile with those eyes, silently took my shoulder bag onto his own broad shoulder, leaving me with only my computer case and purse. My boys. I wondered how I'd lived these twenty-two years without them when, in the space of one week, I now found life without them unimaginable.

"Jesus! Finally! Did you sleep enough?" Theo asked with a friendly grin as we boarded the bus. Gethin gave him the finger in response as we sat down. I had expected Betsey, Nancy, or maybe even the scary but nice Melanie to be on the bus with us, but it was just the boys and me again. Fate seemed to want us to really really bond, though I didn't see how we could get any closer, short of actually becoming some sort of strange sexual quintet. I mentioned this to Gethin, and asked why no one else traveled with us, especially since there was so much room. Wouldn't it be more cost efficient to have fewer buses with more people on them?

"Ah, Tink, this outfit threw budget out the window long ago; can't you tell by now?" Gethin said with a grin. "We're shitting money on our way to the bank."

"Very elegantly put," I answered with a grin.

"I'm not feeling particularly elegant this morning, little one," he responded. "Too sleepy. But seriously, we've made everyone involved with this band so bloody rich, no one thinks twice about the expense of a bus. When we first started we had to have so many people travel with us—parents, other family members, handlers, managers, friends, even—the bus was really crowded. And we used to even sleep on the bus sometimes, so there had to be room for bunks. Over the years, the crowd has thinned out, and of course we don't sleep on the buses anymore, but we never got out of the habit of it being just us on the bus, so here we are. Kind of nice, actually, to have some peace and quiet, don't you think?"

I didn't bother to point out to him that nearly all of my time had been spent with them and only them, because it didn't bother me at all. So far, I hadn't been particularly impressed with the people I'd met on the tour outside the boys, and I didn't care if I met anyone else. I was happy to be with just them.

"Say, Tink?" Geth was looking at me inquisitively.

"Yeah?"

"We were wondering something? All of us?" He swiveled his head to include the entire bus, so I took it to mean all of the boys. I nodded encouragingly.

"You're such a classy girl, you know? I mean, you're a uni girl, you have such nice manners, you're always dressed, you know," and now he was getting embarrassed, blushing to the roots of his hair, "like the Duchess of Cambridge or whatever, you're so well read, um, you're so, so pretty..." He trailed off, looking everywhere but at me.