Chapter
7
Brian picked
Morgan up and carried her piggyback off of the stage and to the backstage area.
He set her down in a chair and collapsed in the chair beside her, along with
the other guys. Some stage hands came and brought them water bottles and
towels. Brian mopped his face off and gulped some water. Then he turned to
Morgan.
"So, what
did you think?" he asked. Morgan's blue eyes sparkled brightly.
"It was
awesome!" she cried. "This is the best day of my whole life!"
Brian grinned. "How did you know that "I Want It That Way" was
my favorite song?" she asked.
"I called
your mom this afternoon and asked," he said, smiling. "I forgot to
ask you that yesterday. I'm glad you wrote down your phone number for me.
Otherwise we would have had to guess what your favorite song was so we could
dedicate it to you." Morgan grinned.
A few minutes
later, her parents were escorted backstage.
"Hi
Mommy! Hi Daddy!" she said.
"Hi
sweetie," Lisa said. "Are you having a good time?" Morgan nodded
happily.
They stayed
backstage for an hour before getting ready to leave. Brian could see that
Morgan was exhausted.
As Lisa was
prying Morgan away from Nick, Dave pulled Brian aside.
"I just
want to thank you guys so much for making my daughter so happy," he said,
his voice thick with emotion.
Brian nodded.
"We enjoyed spending time with her," he said sincerely. "I hope
everything works out okay for her."
"We're
hoping so too. She needs a heart transplant. That's the only way she'll live.
Otherwise, her doctor told us she probably won't live past her eighth
birthday." Brian didn't know what to say. He could see that Dave was
struggling to hold back tears just talking about it.
"We'll be
praying for her," Brian said, putting his hand on Dave's shoulder.
Suddenly he thought of something. "Hang on a minute," he said. He ran
back to the dressing room and scribbled something down on a small piece of
paper. Then he ran back and handed it to Dave.
"This is
my cell phone number," he said. "If she ever needs some cheering up
or something, just call." Dave smiled.
"That's
very sweet of you," he said.
"It's no
problem. I really like Morgan. Just make sure no one else finds out what my
number is. I don't want a bunch of fans calling me all the time." Dave
grinned.
"Don't
worry," he said. "It'll be a secret. Thank you so much."
"You're
welcome," Brian said. Then he went and said good-bye to Morgan, hugging
her and kissing her cheek again. After everyone had said their good-byes,
Morgan and her parents were escorted outside.
***
