Chapter 53
Claire was
glad to go to work the next morning, knowing that staying busy would help keep
her from missing Nick. She did just
that, working a full day and then going to see Casey, and it worked – she
hardly thought of him until she set foot inside his house at the end of the
day. The loneliness hit her the moment
she walked through the door, and as she made her way through the foyer, past
the sweeping staircase and into the large kitchen, she missed her old apartment
almost as much as she missed Nick. His
house was beautiful, but it seemed too big and too empty without him in it, and
she didn’t like living in it alone. Her
apartment had been cramped and run down, but she’d always felt comfortable
there. It was homey.
This house,
without Nick, did not feel like home.
Nevertheless,
she tossed her car keys down on the counter and opened the refrigerator to
figure out what she was going to have for dinner. She spotted the leftover lasagna from Sunday
night and pulled it out, sticking it in the microwave to heat up. Just as she was sitting down with a plate of
it, she heard her cell phone ringing from inside her purse. Her first instinct was to ignore it – it was
after seven; she was hungry, damn it – but, realizing it might be Nick,
she jumped up and made a mad dash to answer it.
Digging it
out of her purse, she glanced at the screen briefly, and her excitement instantly
faded. It was only Dianna. She almost dropped the phone back into her
purse without answering – Dianna was such a talker; she’d never be able to eat
– but thought better of it and pressed the talk button. “Hello?”
“Claire! Turn on E!!”
“Huh?”
“E! The E! Channel! Turn it on, right now!!” Dianna’s voice
screeched in her ear.
“Okay…” Confused, Claire obediently hurried into the
living room and turned on the TV, flipping to E! just in time to see a
red graphic that said “E! Flash” appear on the screen. “What exactly am I supposed to be-?”
“Just
watch!” Dianna hissed.
Claire
watched a quick segment about the Olsen twins, knowing that couldn’t be what
Dianna wanted her to see. She had a
feeling it was something about Nick, and the feeling wasn’t a good one. Nothing could have happened to him,
right? If it had, she’d know by now,
wouldn’t she? Someone would have called
her… Dianna at least would have said something… she wouldn’t be finding about
it on E! News...
She gasped
out loud and dropped the phone as a picture flashed onto her TV screen. It was Nick… and her. There they both were, plain as day, wrapped
in each other’s embrace. They were in
the airport, she realized; this was one of the photographs snapped by the paparazzi
who had stalked them there yesterday morning.
As she stared at it, open-mouthed and indignant, she heard a voice over
reporting, “Before hopping a flight to Los Angeles Monday morning, Backstreet
Boy Nick Carter was seen cuddling with his girlfriend, who is reportedly now
his fiancée.” Claire gaped as the
picture changed to one of her alone, walking out with the security guards, and
then zoomed into a blurred close-up of what she realized was her left hand. Pixilated and fuzzy though the picture was,
the ring on her finger was pretty obvious.
“E! News was unable to contact Nick’s publicist for confirmation on the
engagement.”
As the
picture changed to one of Nicky Hilton and the voice-over started gossiping
about her next, Claire reached down with a shaky hand and picked up her
phone. “Did I just really see myself on
the freaking E! Channel?” she mumbled.
“Can you
believe it?!” Dianna cried incredulously.
“I don’t know whether that’s really cool or really freaky!”
“Me
neither,” Claire laughed, still shocked by it.
“It’s just… weird. I
wonder if Nick knows. I should call
him…”
“Call
him! I’ll let you go; I just wanted you
to see it! I almost spit out my Coke
when I saw the teaser for that!”
Claire
laughed again. “Well, thanks for calling
me. I think I am gonna try Nick’s cell…
I’ll talk to you later, okay?”
“Okay,
girl. Later!”
The phone went dead, but Claire, forgetting all about her dinner, immediately
punched in the speed dial for Nick and hoped that he would pick up.
***
Another
sign that things were getting back to normal in Nick’s life was the annoyed
glare Kevin gave him when his cell phone started ringing in the middle of their
meeting. If looks could kill, Nick
definitely would have been dead; Kevin’s eyes could be awfully piercing. In a strange way though, Nick welcomed that
familiar look. A year or two ago, none
of the guys would have looked at him like that; they’d probably have expected
him to drop dead for real. It was nice
to have them treating him like the same dumb old Nick who forgot to put his
phone on silent during meetings again.
“Sorry,” he
mumbled sheepishly, pulling his phone out of his pocket to shut it off. Before he did that, though, he couldn’t help
but glance at the screen to see who was calling. His heart swelled when he saw Claire’s
name. Making a split-second decision, he
said, “Sorry, I need to take this call.
I’ll be right back; keep goin’ without me.” He made his exit as quickly as he could,
hoping she wouldn’t hang up. On his way
out the door, he impulsively pressed the green button to answer his phone and
said loudly, “Hey, Juliette, what’s up?
“Good
evening, Romeo,” Claire replied, sounding slightly puzzled. “Wherefore art thou?”
“I’m in the
hall,” Nick said in a loud whisper, once he was actually in the safety of the
hallway. “Sorry, I was in a
meeting. Juliette’s my publicist; I had
to pretend it was an important call.” He
smirked, pleased with himself, as he crept down the hall, away from the
conference room.
“I’m
not important??” Claire gasped in mock offense.
Ducking
around a corner, Nick chuckled. “’Course
you are. You know what I meant. Hey, but it’s not anything important,
is it? You’re okay? The house is okay?”
“Yeah,
everything’s fine. I’m really sorry for
interrupting your meeting; I wasn’t thinking.
It can wait if you need to go.”
“Nah, it’s
fine. So what’s up? Just couldn’t go another minute without
hearing my sexy voice?” he asked, dropping his voice half an octave.
She
giggled. “Not quite. But since you mentioned your publicist… you
haven’t heard anything from her, have you?”
“Uh…” Nick thought.
“About what?”
“About…
us?”
“Us?” He was drawing a blank.
“I just saw
myself on E! News, Nick. There
were pictures of us from the airport yesterday!”
“Aww…” Nick groaned, dragging a hand over his
face. He hated paparazzi. He was used to them by now, but Claire
wasn’t, and he could tell she was a little freaked out at seeing her picture on
the entertainment news. “I’m sorry,
babe. What’d they say about us?”
“That we
were reportedly engaged and that they couldn’t get a hold of your
publicist to get a statement. But the
thing is, Nick, those people at the airport yesterday already saw my ring, and
they asked if we were, and I said yes… I’m sorry; they just caught me
off-guard, and I couldn’t lie; I mean, it’s not like they would have believed
me anyway; it’s obviously an engagement ring-“
She was
talking very fast, obviously upset. He
cut her off by laughing. “Claire, don’t
worry about it! You think they weren’t
gonna find out? I’m actually surprised
it took this long to get out. It’s no
big deal; we got nothin’ to hide. I’ll
call Juliette later and have her put out a statement confirming it, and that’s
that.”
“Really,
that’s it? So they’re not gonna make a
big deal out of it?” Her voice rose with
relief.
“Nah, they
shouldn’t… I’m only the third Backstreet Boy to get married; it’s
nothing new. It’d only be big news if I
were marrying J.Lo or something.”
She
laughed. “Okay… well, that makes me feel
better.”
He
smiled. “Good. Well listen, I should probably get back
before they send a search party, but I’ll call you back later, aight?”
“Okay. Sorry again for calling in the middle of your
meeting.”
“No prob;
it was boring anyway.” Laughing, he
added, “I love you.”
“I love you
too. Bye.”
“Later,
babe.”
Nick ended
the call and was just setting his phone on silence when a familiar voice said,
“So, you and Juliette are pretty close these days, huh?”
Spinning
around, Nick found Brian’s elfin face smirking around the corner at him. “Eavesdropping on my conversation, were you?”
he shot back, pretending to be angry even though he wasn’t. He knew Brian didn’t care who he had snuck
out of the meeting to talk to; Brian couldn’t resist taking phone calls from
Leighanne either.
“I love
you… Later, babe,” Brian mocked in a lisping voice, batting his
eyelashes. “I wonder what Claire
would think if she caught you talking to your publicist like that?” He winked, and Nick rolled his eyes.
“Yeah,
yeah, it was Claire, but if you must know, we were talking business. Apparently the paparazzi finally figured out
the two of us are getting married.”
Brian
chuckled. “Only took them twice as long
as it did for them to find out that Leigh and I were engaged.”
“Yeah,
those paparazzi… they been slackin’, man,” Nick said, shaking his head. They shared a laugh. “Well, come on, we better get our butts back
in there, or Kev’s gonna kick mine.”
“He’ll
probably kick your butt anyway for forgetting to turn off your phone. Very unprofessional, Nickolas,” scolded Brian
playfully, wagging a finger in Nick’s face.
Nick
laughed; Kevin would probably use those very words too. “Well, I better go face the music then. Come on, Rok.” He slung his arm around Brian’s shoulders,
and together, they walked back to the conference room.
***
For Claire,
the rest of the week continued in much the same fashion. Every day, she worked and then went to the
hospital to sit with Casey for a couple of hours before heading home. Every night, she made herself dinner, watched
a little TV, read a chapter or two, and talked to Nick on the phone until she
went to bed. The routine was monotonous,
but it could have been worse. At least
her life was predictable for a change.
She welcomed the normalcy.
Friday
after work, she met up with Dianna, and they hit Happy Hour at one of the local
bars, then went back to Dianna’s apartment for a girls’ night in. Watching movies and sipping margaritas late
into the night kept Claire’s mind off of Nick, and it didn’t bother her at all
that he didn’t call.
On
Saturday, her mom drove down from Gainesville to spend the day and discuss
wedding plans with Claire. They met
Kyle’s wife Amber, who was very eager to help out with the planning, at a small
café near the beach for lunch.
“So do you
two have a date yet?” Amber asked, as she unfolded her napkin and draped it
over what little lap she still had left – she was seven months pregnant now and
looked every bit of it. “Or at least a
month?”
“We were
thinking May…” Claire said slowly, waiting for their reactions. The date she and Nick wanted was only seven
months away, and she knew they’d be cutting it close. There was so much to do before then. Her mother and Amber exchanged glances, but
before either of them could say anything, she continued quickly, “I know it’s
only seven months away, but I think we can do it. We want to get married on the fourteenth,
which is a Sunday – that’ll make it easier to book.”
“May
fourteenth?” her mother repeated, nodding slowly. “Well, I’ll call Father Saunders tonight and
find out if that’s possible. I’m not
sure how he feels about performing wedding services on Sundays; usually people
are married on Saturdays or weekdays…”
Claire
cleared her throat loudly. “Um,
Mom? Actually, I’m not sure we want to
get married at your church.”
Her mother
paused. “Oh. Sorry, honey, I just assumed – well, never
mind. Would you rather have the ceremony
at one of the churches here in town?
Maybe the one we used to go to when you were younger? Or did you mean.. not in a church at all?”
Claire
hesitated just a second before answering, “Not in a church at all.” She knew her mom had been envisioning a
traditional Catholic wedding ceremony for her, and she had nothing against that
idea, but… “It’s just that Nick’s not
Catholic, and I think it would be more comfortable for both of us if we got
away from the whole strict church atmosphere,” she explained.
“Alright…
well, where would you like to get married?”
“On the
ocean. We thought we could rent a yacht,
one of the big luxury kind, big enough for everyone want to invite, and take a
private cruise. A wedding on the deck of
a boat, at sunset… wouldn’t that beautiful?” Claire gushed.
“That
sounds gorgeous, Claire,” agreed Amber, her face lighting up with enthusiasm at
the idea.
Claire
smiled at her, glad to have an immediate ally.
Turning back to her mother, she added, “And I know it sounds expensive,
but Nick wants to help cover the cost.”
“Oh honey…
the bride’s family traditionally pays for the wedding,” her mother insisted and
then smiled. “If this is what you want,
we’ll make it work.”
Claire
nodded. “This is what we want. And I promise, the ceremony itself will be
traditional, but as far as other stuff goes, like where we get married and who
pays for it… well, Nick and I haven’t had the most conventional relationship
anyway, so it just fits that we break from tradition just a little,” she said
with a smile of her own.
The three
women discussed a few more details before their waiter brought out their
orders, and then the wedding talk waned, as they all dug into their lunch. Claire was quiet as she ate, hardly tasting a
bite of the food in front of her. Her
mind was miles away, aboard a lavishly decorated ship deck. There she stood in a gown of white, her back
to the setting sun, the long train of her dress blanketing the deck behind
her. Beyond the rails of the deck, she
could see nothing but ocean all around, its navy ripples sparkling dimly in the
dying sunlight. And by her side stood
Nick, tall and handsome in his black tuxedo, hand in hand with her.
***