Chapter
141
AN: Kaz,
thanks for the help and ideas!
The sky was blue and cloudless, and the
morning sun shone brightly, casting a gleam upon the world. The road stretched before him, straight,
long, seemingly endless. But Nick was
okay with that. Fiddling with the cruise
control buttons on the steering wheel, he was perfectly content to just keep
driving, to follow the interstate as far as it would take him.
He wasn’t going to do that though. The road stretched all the way to Canada, but
he would only go as far north as Atlanta.
Brian had invited him to come up for
the weekend, since it had been almost two months since they’d seen each
other. The guys had all kept in contact
the past month though, what with planning for the charity concert Kevin had
thought of. It had not even been a month
since the idea had come about, but things were falling into place
perfectly. After some debate, they had
decided to have the concert in the beginning of December, which gave them only
two months to make all the necessary arrangements. But the planning went fairly smoothly, and
now, only three weeks later, they had a venue in Tampa booked and over two
hundred guests set to come. The guests
were teenagers and children with cancer or other serious conditions and
disabilities and their families. Many of
them lived in Florida, but others were flying in from all parts of the country
to attend the concert. CBS, the station
that had aired Backstreet Boys “Larger Than Life” concert special three years
ago, was sending camera crews to film the concert, which would then be
condensed and aired on primetime later in December.
The month of November would be spent
rehearsing and preparing for the concert.
The guys had quickly decided that the concert would take on a low-key,
intimate feel, similar to the one they had done in Germany for their “A Night
Out With the Backstreet Boys” video.
They would only be singing ballads and mid-tempos, leaving out the
fast-paced songs that they usually danced to.
Without the rigorous dancing, preparation for this concert seemed easy
compared to the other concerts they had done in the past, but it was still
going to take a lot of work. None of
them had performed an entire concert set in a long time, and they all needed to
get their voices ready. Nick was
especially concerned about this; he’d had a cold the week before and was
terrified his voice was going to go.
Even though he still had a month to go before the concert, losing his
voice right at the time when he needed to be getting it into shape was not a
good thing.
Luckily, the cold was going away, and
his voice was still intact. Except for a
cough, he was all right.
Last week had been an entirely
different case though. “You sound
terrible,” Brian had said in concern when he’d called to ask Nick about coming
to Atlanta. “Are you all right?”
“I’b godda cold,” Nick had wheezed,
sniffling through a stuffy nose.
“Aw, man, that sucks. I guess it’s getting to be that season
though, right?” Brian said sympathetically.
“Do you think you’ll feel up to coming next weekend?”
“Yeah, it’s just a cold. I’ll be fide by dext weekend.”
“I hope so. Now, are you gonna want to fly, or would you
rather drive up? Because if you’re going
to fly, we better get your ticket soon, or-“
“Bri, you dow me – I hate flying. I’ll drive up.”
“Can Howie come up too then? Because I don’t want you driving that far by
yourself.”
“He’s got a charity thing in Orlando
for DLF dext weekend. But I can drive
byself; I’b dot a baby.”
“I know you’re not a baby,” Brian had
sighed in annoyance, “but it’s like an eight hour drive, and that’s a long way
for anyone to drive alone. Someone
should come with you; otherwise you should just fly. What about Claire – what’s she doing next
week?”
“You want Claire to cobe up with be?”
“Sure, why not? You know I like Claire, and Leigh thinks
she’s a sweetheart. We’d love to have
her come up with you, if she wants to.”
“I guess I could ask her and see if
baybe she wants to.”
“Yeah, do that. And call me back when you find out,
okay? Cause if not, I’ll buy you a plane
ticket.”
Refusing to get in an airplane if he
didn’t have to, Nick had obeyed and called Claire. And now here he was, driving down the
interstate with her at his side. Two
hours and three CD’s into the drive, they had just passed Ocala and were
jamming to Journey’s Frontiers album.
He sang along to the first song, “Separate Ways,” as he always did,
rather lost in his own world as he drove one-handed, letting the cruise control
take over. He blinked in surprise when
he heard Claire’s voice join his for the chorus of the song.
“Someday, love will find you
Break those chains that bind you
One night will remind you
How we touched
And went our separate ways
If he ever hurts you
True love won’t desert you
You know I still love you
Though we touched
And went our separate ways…”
He glanced over at her, grinning. “I thought you didn’t sing.”
“I said I can’t sing, not that I
don’t sing,” she clarified, sticking her tongue out at him.
He laughed. “Well, you were right. You can’t sing.”
“I know! I told you, I’m tone deaf!”
He laughed again, relieved that she
wasn’t offended. It was true though; she
really was god-awful. God-awful, yet
amusing, like one of those really bad American Idol auditions. She didn’t seem to mind though, and neither
did he, so he kept singing, and she joined in unabashedly. Her off-key pitches may have clashed horribly
with his tuned notes, but their laughter blended together perfectly.
“Oh, hang on,” she said suddenly,
bending over. She rummaged through her
purse, and only then could he pick out the sound of her cell phone ringing
above the music. He turned down the
volume and smiled when he recognized her ringtone.
“Linkin Park,” he said, as her phone
blared a digitized version of the song “Crawling.” “Nice.”
“Thanks,” she murmured absently,
checking the screen on the phone. She
let out a groan. “It’s Tim.”
He tried not to smile, but was quite
pleased at the tone in her voice as she said that. “You gonna answer it?”
She rolled her eyes and punched the
talk button. “Hello? Oh, hey…
Driving… Um, we’re a little past
Ocala… Uh-huh… Yeah, well, I can’t really talk now… We’re, uh… we’re about to
stop, okay? Yeah, I’ll talk to you
later. Bye.” She quickly ended the phone call and tossed
the phone back into her purse.
“That was quick,” said Nick with a
chuckle.
“Ugh, he’s so irritating
sometimes! Watch, he’ll probably call me
like ten million times this weekend.
He’s pissed that I’m going to Atlanta with you and not hanging out with
him.”
Nick felt a surge of anger. “Why?” he asked heatedly. “He gets to hang out with you all the
time! What’s he complaining about?”
“Well, Sunday’s Halloween, and he
wanted me to go to this costume party with him.” She paused, then added quickly, “Which would
have been totally fine… I mean, it would have been really fun… but he wanted us
to go as swans!”
“Swans?” Nick repeated in
confusion. “Why swans?”
“I think he thought it would be romantic. You know, swans only ever have one mate, and
they mate for life.”
Nick frowned, his heart skipping a
beat. “Well, what does he mean by that?”
he demanded, slightly panicked. “Does he
want to marry you or something?”
“I don’t know,” said Claire. “God, I hope not.”
Nick’s heart skipped another beat, only
for a good reason this time. He felt a
flutter of excitement. “Really? So you don’t want to marry him?”
“Marry him? Of course not! We’ve only been seeing each other for like
four months!” she exclaimed. “And to be
honest… I don’t know how much longer it’s going to last. I think he’s a lot more serious about ‘us’
than I am.” She bit her lip. “I feel kind of bad, cause he’s a nice guy,
you know, and I really did want this to work out, but… well, I didn’t know him
very well when we started going out, and now I do know him better… and,
frankly, he’s kind of annoying.”
Nick laughed, totally delighted by this
news. “So are you going to dump him
then?” he asked hopefully (although he tried his best to sound nonchalant).
She shrugged. “I don’t know. I don’t want to hurt his feelings cause he is
a nice guy. He’s just… not the right guy
for me. But,” she added quickly, as if
feeling the necessity to defend Tim, “I have fun with him. I mean, I would have gone to that party with
him if I wasn’t going to be with you… just not as a swan.” She giggled.
“Yeah, what’s up with his obsession
with wearing giant bird costumes?” snickered Nick. Claire cracked a smile. “What would you have gone as?” he asked her.
“Well I thought it would be cute
if we’d gone as a toothbrush and toothpaste.
But somehow I think Tim would prefer feathers to bristles.”
Nick laughed so hard he started
coughing. When he’d caught his breath,
he cleared his throat and replied, “Are you serious? What guy wouldn’t want to look like a giant
toothbrush?”
“Shut up,” Claire said, shaking her
head. “You’re making fun of me.”
He smirked. “’Course I am. You’re funny.
Trust me, Claire, I don’t think you’d really want to go to a Halloween
party dressed as a tube of toothpaste.
It would just give people an excuse to grab you and squeeze
you. And Tim would just be waiting for
you to open up and lay yourself on him.
He’d get you out of your tube and spread all over him faster than you
can say Crest!”
Claire’s mouth dropped open. “You’re such a nasty perv! I can’t believe you just said that!” she
cried, lightly swatting his arm.
“Hey!” he exclaimed through another
gale of laughter, which led into another fit of coughing. “I’m trying to drive!”
“Then stop looking at me and watch the
road! I swear, you are scary when you’re
behind the wheel. You’re like an old
man! Bad driver, laughing so hard you
cough… at least you’re not bald anymore,
or then I would really laugh!”
“Shut up! I am a good driver! And I have a cold, okay?”
“Okay, Mr. Carter,” she replied in a
sing-song sort of way, then muttered under breath, “Just wait, next you’ll be
wearing high-water pants and taping Lawrence Welk.”
“I heard that,” Nick announced loudly.
She flashed him a grin that was both
innocent and impish. “Heard what?”
***
Six hours and two rest stops later,
Nick was turning onto Brian’s property.
He parked the car and let out a little sigh, glad he’d found the place
without much trouble and relieved to finally be there. As soon as he had turned off the ignition and
taken his foot off the brake, the exhaustion hit him. He and Claire had taken turns driving – he’d
done the first three hours, she’d taken the next three, and he’d finished out
the last two – but driving or not, eight hours of traveling was enough to wear
anyone out.
He opened his door and climbed out,
glad to be able to stretch. His right
leg was rather stiff from sitting for so long, and the left was even
worse. It had been giving him hell this
last part of the trip, twinging and aching with phantom pains. He figured too much sitting in one place
would do that and hoped walking around would help.
Claire got out as well and looked all
around as she walked slowly around the car to join him. “Nice place,” she said, nodding approvingly
at Brian and Leighanne’s gorgeous home.
He nodded in agreement. “Yeah, it’s nice.”
“That you, Carter?” they heard a voice
call. Brian appeared at the front
door. “Hey, guys, come on in! You need help carrying bags?”
“I think we got ‘em, Bri, thanks!” Nick
shouted back as he and Claire retrieved their luggage from the backseat. They’d both packed light, just a duffel bag
each, which they carried up to the house.
Brian took Claire’s bag from her at the door and set it on the floor,
giving her a quick, friendly hug. He did
the same with Nick, only the hug was a little tighter and lasted a little
longer.
“How are you feeling?” Brian asked as
he finally let Nick go and studied him.
“You look kinda pale.”
“Yeah, I’m still getting over this
cold,” Nick replied. “But I feel much
better than I did last week.” He tried
to smile and ended up coughing. Brian
frowned.
“That cough doesn’t sound very good.”
“Thanks for pointing that out, Kevin,”
Nick enunciated, playfully sticking his tongue out at Brian and rolling his
eyes. “Let it go, dude, I’m fine. Just tired from the trip. Where’s Leigh and the little squirt?”
Brian’s frown immediately
vanished. “Upstairs,” he replied,
grinning. “It was time for a diaper
change.”
“Ah.”
“Well, come on and sit down. Y’all want anything to drink? Soda?
Beer? Wine cooler?”
“I’ll have a soda,” Claire replied.
“Pepsi okay?”
“Perfect.”
“Nick?”
“I’ll have the same.”
“Great.” Brian escorted them into the living room and
then disappeared into the kitchen. When
he came back carrying two glasses of Pepsi, Leighanne was with him, carrying
Baylee on her hip. She broke into a
smile when she saw Nick and Claire and set the toddler down.
“Hi, guys,” she greeted them
cheerfully. “Brian said you just got
here. How was the drive up?”
“Long,” Nick answered, at the same time
Claire said “fine.”
Leighanne chuckled. “I don’t envy you at all; eight hours is a
long drive. I’m glad you both could come
though.”
“Thanks for having us,” Claire said,
smiling. Then she turned her attention
to Baylee, who was clutching Leighanne’s leg and peering at them shyly. “So this must Baylee, huh? Hi, Baylee!” she said, her voice softening as
she smiled at the baby.
“He’s gonna be shy for you,” Leighanne
said, looking down at her son fondly.
“Baylee, you remember how we said we were going to have company come
today? Well, this is them. This is Claire, and that’s Nick over
there.” She pointed them out, while
Baylee looked on in awe. “Can you say
hi?” she coaxed him.
“Hi, Baylee,” Nick piped up, but Baylee
just ducked behind Leighanne’s legs again.
Glancing over at Brian, Nick said, “He probably doesn’t remember me,
does he?”
“I don’t think so,” said Brian, looking
apologetic. “It’s been awhile since
you’ve seen him, hasn’t it?”
“Yeah… I think last time I saw him was
Christmas,” replied Nick. He looked over
at Claire. “I’m his godfather,” he
announced proudly.
“Oh, really? That’s sweet,” she smiled.
Brian cleared his throat. “Oh yeah, Mr. Godfather, we have a favor to
ask you.”
“What?”
“Leigh and I were invited to a party
tomorrow night, kind of a Halloween shindig.
How would you feel about watching Baylee?” he asked, then quickly added,
“You don’t have to if you don’t want; we can always hire a sitter. I just thought maybe-“
“We’d love to,” Claire answered for
him. “Right, Nick?”
Nick was caught off-guard, but he
quickly agreed, “Right, we’d love to.”
Brian beamed. “Thanks, guys,” he said appreciatively.
“No problem,” replied Nick. “We’ll have fun, right, Baylee?” He looked over at Baylee again and was
finally rewarded with a smile as the toddler peeked out from behind his mother
again and grinned.
***
Lyrics: “Separate Ways (Worlds Apart)” by Journey