The Rove Life - Sequel To The Beginning of Rove

Part 5

This is the day. The day of the Cloud 9 premire. The day Bella will be introduced. The day everyone hates me. 

"Stop thinking that way." Ryan tells me. 

"How did you know I was thinking of everyone hating me?" I ask. 

"The look on your face." Ryan says before taking a drink of coffee. I roll my eyes and pick Bella up. 

"Whatever." I tell him. Then I turn to Bella. "We need to get you into training for IASH, little girl." 

"Wait, you mean you want our daughter to go on deadly missions?" Ryan asks. 

"That's what I do." I tell him.  

"Not until she's a legal adult." Ryan says. 

"No. She needs to start training soon." I tell him. 

"Okay then." Ryan says. Then he looks at his phone. "Time to go." 

"Oh yeah." I say sarcastically. 

"If you frown again I'm gonna have to kiss you." Ryan says. 

"Why?" I ask. 

"Because you'll smile." Ryan teases. 

"I will not." I sass. 

"I bet you ya will." Ryan says as we get in the car. 

"Have fun with that. Why don't you just tickle me instead?" I ask. 

"Because last time I tickled you, you had an asthma attack. And I highly doubt you listened to me and brought your inhaler." Ryan says looking at me accusingly. 

"I brought Bella's!" I defend. 

"Not the same." Ryan tells me. I cross my arms and look out the window. Promising myself I wouldn't talk to Ryan until he apoligizes, I was quiet the rest of the way. "We're here!" I get out and get Bella then follow Ryan to the front. "Are you gonna talk to me? Hello? Dovey, talk to me!" 

"No." I say. 

"Why not?" Ryan asks. 

"Because I'm mad at you." I tell him. 

"So you're talking to me?" Ryan asks. 

"I'm not talking to you!" I say. 

"You just did. And, I grabbed your inhaler." Ryan says. 

"Where is it?" I ask. 

"Your bag." Ryan shrugs. 

"Fine. I guess I'll talk to you." I give up. We walk out to the front and notice Kiersey, Luke, and Mike. Kiersey sees me right away and runs over. 

"I'll take Bella. That way if anyone asks, she can be my niece." Kiersey says. 

"Thank you so much, Kiers." I say as I hand her Bella. 

"Anytime." Kiersey smiles. We all walk over and the cameras flash and questions fly everywhere. I hear one aimed at Kiersey about Bella. "She's my friend's daughter. My friend is busy tonight so I took her here with me." I look over at her and mouth 'thank you'. Bad move because people saw it. 

"Dove! Why did you just mouth thank you to Kiersey?" a reporter asks. 

"Because I needed to thank her." I say. I've learned to avoid personal questions. 

"Why?" another reporter asks. 

"My business. Not yours." I tell him. We all walk inside to watch the movie. Kiersey sits next to me and I hold Bella throughout the movie. Then when we leave, I realize I still have Bella. And Kiersey is nowhere to be seen. 

"Who has Belle?" Ryan asks coming up behind me. I turn around and his mouth makes an 'o'. 

"We do. Now what?" I ask. 

"Avoid any questions thrown at you and hope they don't guess." Ryan says. 

"How would they guess?" I ask him. 

"Have you seen Bella lately? She looks a lot like you." Ryan tells me. 

"Great." I mumble. We walk back outside and, of course, people are wondering why I have Bella instead of Kiersey. 

"Maybe Bella is Claire's baby." Ryan suggests. 

"Bella? Is that the kid's name?" a reporter asks. 

"Uh, yeah. That's what I just called her." Ryan says. I try to pull him back to the car because I know what's coming next but he won't budge. Screw that idea. 

"She's ugly." the reporter says. That was it for Ryan. I could already tell. I see Luke looking over at us so I quickly wave him over. 

"What did you just say?" Ryan grits out. 

"I said she's ugly." the reporter shrugs. "But you wouldn't care because she's Claire's daughter." Luke comes running over and sees Ryan trying not to flip out. Doesn't work. 

"She's not ugly. She looks exactly like her mom. She's really pretty and if you even sort of knew her, you'd know what I meant." Ryan says. I hand Bella to Luke and pull Ryan away from the reporter. 

"Wait a minute, you said she looks exactly like her mom. Dove's sister has brown hair with hazel eyes." the reporter says. "The kid looks like Dove." 

"Maybe because that's her mom." Ryan says. "Which means you just called Dove and Bella ugly." 

"Luke, help me get him out of here." I say. I take Bella back and Luke helps me drag Ryan away from the reporter.