“I sat behind the wheel of a rented sports car and asked, “Where am I going, Kev?”

“Oh, uh, turn left up at the third light, I think,” Kevin was sitting shotgun as I drove us to a nearby meeting. It was only 7 o’ clock in the morning and we had a fully packed day ahead of us. We were in Canada for a few weeks and had a lot going on. I’m not exactly sure why I got stuck with Kevin, but Brain was driving the other rental car with AJ and Howie.

“Where did my cell phone go?” I asked as I reached back and began rummaging in the bag that was sitting on the floor behind Kevin’s seat.

“Does it matter? Pay attention to the road, Nick,” Kevin glanced at me in that fatherly way. I just rolled my eyes and looked back to the bag. Traffic wasn’t that bad, so I didn’t figure there was much to worry about until…

“NICK WATCH OUT!!!!” Kevin screamed. I whipped around to see that a light had turned red. I slammed on the brakes but still ended up hitting the car that was in front of us. “I told you to pay attention!”

“You could have warned me that the light turned!” I argued as I began to get flustered.

“I shouldn’t have to! I’m not the one driving, Nick! UGH! I knew I shouldn’t have let you drive!!!!” He scowled as he opened his door and climbed out of the car.

“What do we do, Kev?” I asked as I stepped out and joined him in front of our rental car.

“We need to see if the other driver is safe and call the cops,” Kevin answered my question as he moved towards the driver side of the other vehicle. “Are you alright, miss?”

“I…uh...yeah…I think so,” the young woman finally got out of her car. “What happened?”

“My dumb friend here wasn’t paying attention to the road and he didn’t see the light turn red,” Kevin looked at the woman closely. She was really pretty. Standing only five and a half feet tall, she had long jet black hair and bright green eyes.

“Hey, Um, I’m sorry about this,” I approached them, “I’m sure we can settle this without involving the insurance company.”

“What?!?” Kevin and the woman both looked at me with scrunched eyebrows.

“Hey, after that DUI, I can’t afford for my insurance to go up again, Kevin. You know they are giving me a hard time over that.” I looked at Kevin, expecting him to understand. “How about I give you a few hundred bucks and an autograph?”

“NICKOLAS!” Kevin hit my arm.

“Please, tell me you are kidding and that you really aren’t that arrogant,” she laughed at me, “I’m sorry Carter, but you’re not even my favorite. What makes you think you can bribe me with an autograph? How, do you figure, that’s going to fix my car?”

“He’s not serious. Ignore him and I will go get the information from the car. It’s a rental, so I have to call the company and figure out how this needs to be handled.” Kevin glared at me and shook his head before heading back to the car.

“Come on, there HAS to be a way we can work this out,” I pushed a little more. I really didn’t need any more bad publicity and this wasn’t going to look good on the front of a tabloid. I didn’t really care if I was being arrogant or whatever…I wanted to get out of this as quietly as possible.

“Yeah, there is. I’m calling the cops, Kevin is getting the information, and the insurance is going to cover my car,” she scrunched her eyebrows at me and gave me a sarcastic laugh before pulling out her phone.

“This is just peachy,” I shook my head and kicked at the ground. Why didn’t I just let Kevin drive? I regretted talking him into giving me the keys!

“Okay, I got things rolling with the rental company and a couple tow trucks are on the way to get the cars. I’m sorry, but I didn’t get your name…” Kevin spoke as he looked at the woman in front of us.

“Sorry, I’m Mariah,” she smiled and shook Kevin’s hand. Kevin and Mariah exchanged all the necessary information as the cops finally arrived. There was one ambulance there so that a paramedic could check us out and make sure that everyone was okay. It seemed like it took forever to get out of there and to the meeting!

“Sorry, we’re late. I was dumb and let Nick drive,” Kevin announced as we entered the meeting.

“Get lost, Nick?” AJ chuckled.

“No, he hit someone at a stop light.”

“Thanks a lot Kev,” I huffed as I collapsed in one of the chairs. I was going to get a lot of grief over this! To make things worse, we had to meet back up with Mariah, later! After Kevin talked with her, she agreed to let us get to our meeting and handle the details afterwards.

“Nick shouldn’t even have a license!” Brian poked me in the ribs. I swatted his hand away and gave him a death glare. “Geesh, lighten up, Nick. It can’t be THAT bad!”

“Alright, I think that about covers it,” our manager concluded over two hours later. I was even more irritated now, I was hungry, and I had no feeling in my butt! Of course, I wasn’t allowed to do anything before Kevin grabbed my arm and whisked me off to go meet up with Mariah.

“Long meeting, eh?” she looked up from her drink as Kevin and I approached the table where she was sitting. We were in some little coffee shop type place, near where I hit her.

“Dreadfully long,” Kevin sighed as we sat down. My arms were crossed as they began to talk over things. It was just like Kevin to always go by the book!

“Why can’t I just pay out of pocket?” I interrupted. They both looked up at me, waiting for me to continue. “Forget the autograph and whatever. You go get it fixed and I’ll foot the bill. Then, you won’t have to wait for the insurance people, lord knows they’ll take forever and a day to get anything done, and I won’t have to take a hit on my insurance bill.”

“Nickolas,” Kevin scolded. “We need to do this the right way. Quit thinking about only yourself. You are the one who got the DUI and you are the one who hit her. You have a lot of nerve to disrespect her like this.” I rolled my eyes, cocked my head to the side, and let out an exaggerated sigh.

“Actually, Kevin,” she piped back up, laying a hand gently on his arm. She leaned forward to look me in the eyes. “If Nick is true to his word, that wouldn’t be such a bad idea. All I want is for my car to get fixed. I’m not out to get him smeared on the news or anything,” her eyes were locked on mine, yet she was talking to Kevin. I think she was looking for a sign to see if I was just saying things to get myself off the hook. I kind of was, though, I would do anything to avoid more problems with my insurance company.

“Are you serious?” I questioned at the same time as Kevin.

“It’s quite simply, really. You don’t screw me over and I won’t screw you over. I’ll keep it out of insurance claim if you pay for my car to get fixed and get fixed properly. Of course, being a rental, I’m not sure how it would work for the car you were driving.”

“What about the news and stuff?” I looked at her skeptically. I was so rude to her, why would she be nice to me, now?

“I can keep a secret, Carter. I don’t do blackmail. All I want is my car fixed.”

“Deal,” I stuck my hand out and she shook it with a smile. Kevin didn’t look too happy, but I was elated! It only took a week to get everything worked out. Her car was fixed and paid for, and no one was the wiser. I was a bit shocked that it hadn’t leaked into the press or anything but I was thankful.

Several months later, we were on stage performing and I had nearly forgotten about the whole incident. I was singing the verse to our new single when Kevin came over and slung his arm over my shoulder. It startled me at first but then I saw that he was pointing off into the crowd.

“Take a look, Nicky,” he whispered in my ear. My eyes searched for what he was pointing out and it only took a moment to spot it. Out in the midst of the crowd was an enormous sign that read ‘I lied Nick, you ARE my favorite!’. The sign was bright and covered in glitter. I squinted my eyes a little to get a better look and sure enough, the woman holding the sign had long jet black hair.

“Maybe I should see if I still have her number,” I whispered back after I was done singing my part.

“If you don’t, I know I still have it written down. I had a feeling it might come in handy,” Kevin winked at me before walking off to the other side of the stage. The next day I called her and asked her out to dinner. Luckily for me, she agreed.” I held out the picture as I finished telling my vivid story. A small hand took it from me.

“That’s how you met mommy? You crashed into her car?” my son’s bright green eyes looked up at me.

“Yep,” I smiled.

“And then you got married?” my daughter’s voice piped up.

“Well, not right away. It was three years before we got married,” I chuckled. Our daughter, Laura was almost 7 with my blue eyes and blonde hair, our son Markus just turned 4 and had my blonde hair but his mother’s green eyes.

“You and mommy have been together FOREVER!” Laura squealed and Mark looked up at me with wide eyes.

“It has been 13 years since I crashed into her car,” I snickered as I watched their expressions.

“What are you guys doing in here?” Mariah walked into the room carrying freshly baked cookies. She was 9 months pregnant and ready to pop, but she was still beautiful.

“Just telling them about the picture,” I smiled and handed her the picture of me and Kevin.

“Huh?” she looked at the picture funny. “Do I even want to know?”

“Baby, it’s a picture of Kevin pointing out your sign at that concert,” I grinned.

“Oh, THAT’S what this is? I just figured you liked the picture of your and Kevin’s butts,” she snickered, passing the framed picture back to me. I rolled my eyes at her and set the frame back, in it's spot, on my desk.

“Happy 10th anniversary, sweetheart,” I enveloped her into a hug.

“You too, hun,” she smiled and gave me a gentle kiss.

“EEEEEEEEW!” both of our children groaned. Ah, now I was REALLY living the life!