Free Redeeming Kyle: 69 Bottles #3 by Zoey Derrick Page B

That’s a whole hell of a lot different than you being overly protective of me.”  
    “Well, that’s part of it.”  
    “Don’t, you can’t do this. Do you have any idea how many singers perform while pregnant?”  
    “But you’re not them. You’re you. You’re mine and Kyle’s girlfriend.” He sits down on the bed and I walk over to him. His legs automatically open for me to step between them, and he wraps his arms around my legs and puts his ear to my stomach. “I don’t want anything to happen to you,” he whispers and I can’t tell whom he’s talking to, the baby or me.
    I run my fingers through his hair. “Do you honestly think that Kyle, Mills, Tori, Dex, any of the guys, will let anything happen to me? Whether they know I’m pregnant or not. Since I stepped onto this bus, I have been the cocoon that everyone has gravitated toward and surrounded with their love and protection. You and Kyle are in the center of that protective wall. I know you won’t let anything happen to me. I won’t let anything happen to me. Which is why I’m coming back here after the show. I won’t be going to the after party.”
    His arms squeeze a little tighter around me. “I don’t know what else to do,” he whispers and Kyle comes over to sit next to him. He puts his hand on Talon’s back, rubbing it.  
    “We’re all in the same boat, but smothering Addison with overprotectiveness isn’t exactly the best way to go about it. Believe me, I understand why you feel it’s necessary to protect her like this. God, Talon, I want to wrap her in bubble wrap and put her in a padded room for the next nine months, but I can’t do that to her. I won’t do that to her because it’s just going to make us all crazy. The best way we can protect her is to love her, cherish her, and be there for her.”  
    Talon nods against my stomach.  
    I put my hand on Kyle’s cheek and continue stroking Talon’s hair. We stay like that for a couple more minutes. Kyle kisses my palm and then takes my hand in his. “Talon?”  
    “Yeah?”  
    “You okay, big man?”  
    “Yeah, I’m sorry, angel.”  
    “Don’t be sorry. I understand, honestly I do, but there is a time and place for me to not be on stage with you and this isn’t it. When I’m nine months pregnant is a good time. But not now. No one will know.”  
    “I know and that’s scary enough.”  
    I chuckle. “For you it is. For me, not so much. If you cry, you cry. The songs are beautiful and very romantic. So unless you completely lose your spot in the song, no one will know. And even if you lose it, I know the song. But I have faith in you, big man. I know that you’re more than capable of keeping yourself in check. There will be time to cry later.”  
    I smile down at him and his eyes finally meet mine. Then he kisses my stomach, just above my pubic bone and I damn near lose it.

Both Cincinnati performances go great. Talon cried the first time we sang together, but by the time we got to ‘To Be Free’, he had it under control. Though I could see the glossiness in his eyes, seeing him cry nearly made me cry.  
    Kyle continues to wait on me hand and foot and when he’s not doing it, Talon is there. It’s nice but after nine months, this is going to get old. I have three meals a day delivered to me; whether in the suite of the hotel or on the bus and I learned very quickly to eat before performances. After I was done with ‘To Be Free’ during the first concert, I felt oddly weak. I chalked it up to being tired, which is the new name of my game lately. But I was quickly brought chicken mac n’ cheese from Noodles & Company which I devoured and instantly felt better.  
    On Sunday I started tracking in my pregnancy journal the things I ate, the things I did, it even has a sleep counter. The problem with that is the fact that I barely notice when I fall asleep and usually am running straight to the bathroom to either pee or vomit when I wake up.