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Chapter Nineteen - Cozumel, Mexico

“Here we are in lovely Cozumel,” Nick said. He was sitting in a beach chair right next to mine. He panned the camera around.

“There’s Howie and Leigh. Little Buddha is playing in the sand…oh wait. Howie I think he’s eating the sand.”

Howie jumped out of his chair and started wiping sand off of James’ tongue. Nick panned over to Brian, Leighanne, and Baylee.

“There’s the Littrells. B-rok you ready to snorkel?”

Brian was chewing on the end of a plastic straw and was wearing a big floppy straw hat. He tipped it and grinned.

“I reckon I am. This here Lexington boy is gonna wrangle up some jellyfish.”

“You are incredibly white and nerdy Bri,” Nick said with a laugh. He turned to me.

“Here’s my fiancée Olivia and da baaaaaby.”

I waved to the camera and laughed.

“And on the other side of Livvy is Rochelle and AJ.”

AJ leaned forward and flashed the peace sign. Rochelle gave a little wave. Nick turned the camera on himself.

“So, Brian, Howie, and Leigh are going to go snorkeling with me. AJ, who’s afraid of getting the last few strands of his hair wet, is staying on dry land.”

“Dude, I just don’t like sharks. I know there are sharks in this water.”

Nick snickered. “You heard it folks. Three-fourths of the BSB are headed into shark infested waters. Will we return? Da dum…da dum…da dum…”

Nick stopped the camera and handed it to me with a kiss. I smiled.

“The Jaws theme was a great effect,” I said.

“Yeah, I thought so.”

Nick tilted my beach umbrella so that I was completely ensconced in shade. Howie handed James to me; Baylee was sitting by Leighanne creating a giant sand castle. Nick demonstrated how to put on the snorkeling gear and leading the way, flopped to the water. Several fans stood off to the side, eagerly snapping pictures.

“James, want me to read you a book?” I asked as he sat on my lap. He looked up at me and smiled. He was slobbering badly; his teeth were beginning to come in like crazy..

“Boo,” he said, slapping his legs. He was wearing the cutest baby beach shorts I had ever seen. I wiped a mass of drool from his mouth and settled in for story time.

I rooted around in my bag and took out The Belly Button Book. I had sent a copy to Howie and Leigh a couple months ago and they told me it had quickly become James’ favorite. Sure enough, when he saw the hippo he began to clap.

“This tiny hippopotamus has something small to say,” I began. James pointed at his belly button.

“BEEEEE BO!!!!!”

I laughed. James leaned against my belly as we flipped through the book. He made for an enthusiastic audience.

When we were done, he looked up at me with rich brown eyes. I felt his hands fall on my belly.

“Bee-bee,” he said. As we were reading I had felt her continuously somersaulting around. James must have too. I smiled.

“Yup, baby,” I said. He stretched down, his ear resting against my belly. I saw his eyes close.

“That’s the cutest thing I’ve ever seen,” Leighanne said. I looked over and saw she was crying. I smiled.

“Oh, Leigh,” I said.

She laughed and wiped her eyes. “I’m sorry, it’s just so cute.”

“Mom, come here!” Baylee called. Leighanne got up and sat down next to him in the sand. I watched as she helped him make a turret on the top of his castle. James fell fast asleep on my lap, his ear still pressed to my stomach.

A half hour later I saw our snorkelers begin to reemerge. I turned on the camera just as Brian staggered up onto the sand. He had seaweed stuck in his hair. I saw him pull out his mouth piece.

He shook his head slowly, seaweed flew everywhere. “Do I make you horny, baby?” he said in his best Austin Powers imitation. Leighanne looked over and just laughed.

Howie and Leigh came up next. They walked back onto the sand hand in hand. After taking out their mouthpieces they shared a kiss.

“How was it?” I called, zooming in on them. They smiled towards the camera.

“Amazing,” Leigh said.

“The coral reefs are muy bonita,” Howie added.

I waited for a few minutes with the camera on for Nick. I didn’t see him. I paused the camera and glanced over at Bri.

“Hey, what happened to Nick?”

Brian, who had taken over for Leighanne in sand castle building, looked up. “I don’t know, he was with us the whole time.”

After Leigh toweled off, she carefully picked up James.
I stood up and walked to the water’s edge.

After another few minutes I saw Nick’s blonde head. He came up with a graceful ease. When he saw me he took out his mouth piece.

“Where were you?” I said.

“I got distracted. I found a bigger reef than Howie and Leigh so I stayed down a little longer.”

I let out a sigh of relief. Nick grinned. “Did you think Jaws got me?”

“That’s not funny!” AJ called out from his chair. Nick and I both laughed.

I followed him over to our beach chairs and began to help him towel off.

“Uncle Nick!”

Nick looked over at Baylee. He was pointing proudly to his sandcastle. “Look!”

“Hey that looks great! Can I live in it?”

Baylee laughed and rolled his eyes. “No, it’s not to live in. It’s for play.”

Nick snapped his fingers. “Shucks.”

Brian and Baylee abandoned the castle to get their camera. Brian leaned down and kissed Leighanne softly His whole face lit up when he looked at her. She touched his face. Baylee shuffled from foot to foot impatiently, camera in hand.

“Geesh, get a room,” AJ called out. Brian laughed.

After taking Baylee to get some pictures, they returned once more. Brian sat down at the foot of Leighanne’s beach chair; his face had grown more serious.

“Hey guys, I have a favor to ask,” Brian said.

“What’s up?” Nick asked. He was shaking out the legs of his shorts, sand was flying everywhere.

“I talked to Kevin right before we left for the cruise,” Brian explained. “He didn’t want to go into a lot of detail, but he asked if we could write some character references for him.”

“Character references?” AJ asked.

Brian sighed. “Kristin’s trying to go for full custody of Mason. I don’t know everything that’s been going on with him this last month, but he doesn’t sound good. He needs two letters from family members and three from friends. Kevin’s mom and I make up the family references; I’m hoping you guys can get him those three friend letters.”

“Absolutely,” Howie said. I saw him glance over at James. I could almost see him imagining life without him. His face grew tense.

Besides thoughts of Kevin and a quick prayer that everything would be okay, the day was turning out perfectly. By 5 o’clock we had made a quick trip to the lighthouse and then returned to the ship to change out of our beach gear to hit the town. I had bought a dark blue halter style dress for the evening. I spent longer than usual on my hair and makeup and slid a pair of silver hoops through my lobes.

“Liv? You almost ready?” Nick called out. I spritzed on a light perfume, slid my feet into flats, and walked back into the bedroom.

“Ready,” I said. Nick let out a low appreciative whistle.

“Where’d this dress come from?” he said, running his hand over my bare shoulder. I turned in a complete circle.

“Ah, this is a special sexy night dress,” I teased.

“What’s underneath?” he said. He knelt down and lifted the bottom of my dress with a finger. I stepped back.

“Uh-uh. Not until later,” I said. He groaned, but stood up and took my hand.

Everyone was gathered in the hallway to the cabins. Howie and Brian had managed to convince Leigh and Leighanne to entrust in a nanny for the evening. I had a feeling sexy time was in mind for most everyone.

“Who’s ready for an adults-only evening?” AJ said. Brian whistled.

“So are we going fancy or casual for dinner?” Nick asked.

AJ was dressed for clubbing in a tank top and pants with so many chains that he would set off any metal detector for miles.

“Casual,” he said.

We ended up at Fat Tuesdays Bar & Restaurant. Howie and Brian took tequilas for the team. AJ and Nick decided to see who could eat the most suicide hot wings without taking a drink. As a humongous chicken wrap was set before me, I saw a plate of wings set before Nick that were covered in the reddest sauce I had ever seen. They truly did look like suicide on a plate.

“Are you sure about this?” I asked warily. Nick grinned.

“I am the master of hot,” he said. AJ snickered and cracked his knuckles. Two ten dollar bills sat on the table, Brian and Howie weren’t stupid enough to take the challenge. I grabbed my camera; I knew a good opportunity when I saw it.

“Alright, on your marks, get set, go!” Howie said.

Nick and AJ each picked up a wing and began to gnaw on it like savage dogs. The first one went down quickly, as did the second. By the time they reached the third, the full effect of the sauce seemed to hit both of them simultaneously.

“Holy shit!” AJ said. He dropped the third wing, his mouth hanging open.

Nick dropped his wing and stood up. With his head bowed, he slammed his fist on the table a couple of times. That seemed to have the desired effect, because he picked the third wing up and ate it standing up.

AJ, not to be outdone, scraped the third one to the bone. The fourth one went down okay, but AJ gagged on the fifth one. Both of their faces were redder than the ripest tomato.

It was like watching a train wreck. You wanted to turn away, but you just couldn’t. At one point both Nick and AJ circled the table, hoping that the cooler evening air might ease the burning. Tears actually poured out of Nick’s eyes. Even so, he grabbed yet another wing and tore into it.

In the end, Nick beat AJ by one wing. After a quick, sauce covered handshake, both dived for pieces of celery and ranch dressing. A mutual ‘ahhh’ was muttered as the ranch dressing cooled off the burning. After wiping his hands on a napkin, Nick pocketed the twenty bucks.

“Nice doing business with ya,” he said happily. AJ gave him the finger.

“Put it towards your kid’s diaper fund,” he said bitterly. Nick laughed.

“You’re such a sore loser,” Rochelle said. AJ leaned down for a kiss, but she scooted away.

“Uh-uh. I’m not falling for that again. Last time you had wings and kissed me, my mouth burned for hours.”

“That wasn’t the wings baby; that was the kiss.” AJ said cockily. Rochelle made a gagging motion with her finger.

After we had all finished eating and Brian and Howie had done one last tequila toast, we headed back out into the night.

“Now to Neptuno, my friends,” AJ declared. Rochelle jumped on his back and he gave her a piggyback lift all the way.

“I think we’ll stay for the lightshow and turn in early,” Nick whispered in my ear as his hand slid down my back. I couldn’t have agreed more.

The club was wall to wall people. Both levels were packed with half naked bodies. Obviously the fans knew AJ as well as AJ knew himself because I spotted a good deal of fans roaming through the building. I saw several fingers point in our direction as we walked in. The DJ must have caught wind that the BSB were in the house as well, because minutes after arriving, the club remix of The Call started pounding through the place.

I shimmied along Nick as I mouthed along with the song. I felt his fingertips brush my breasts. The light show couldn’t come fast enough.

The place had no empty tables, but we found a fairly unoccupied corner. We lost AJ and Rochelle to the dance floor straight away; Howie and Leigh weren’t far behind.

For a few minutes Nick and Brian sat against the wall while Leighanne and I perched on their laps. The amount of people was astronomical. I didn’t feel claustrophobic often, but this was one of those times.

“I don’t think we’re ever going to see Howie and AJ again,” Brian said.

“We should have gone to Senor Frogs,” Nick said.

Before anyone could complain any further, the light show began. If the place had seemed overwhelming before, the lights dancing all around in a dizzying array of colors and patterns was over the top. I was beginning to feel a little sick from the whole thing when I heard Nick cuss.

“What?”

I felt his elbow reach out and nudge Brian’s side. Nick reached around me and pointed. Brian seemed to spot what Nick saw right away. I still had spots dancing in my eyes, everything was blurry.

“Can you girls go wait outside?” Nick said. He nudged me up gently; Brian did the same thing with Leighanne. They jumped to their feet simultaneously.

“Why?” Leighanne said. She seemed just as sick from the show as I did.

“No reason. We’ll be out in a second,” Brian said. “This place really is too crowded for you guys. We just want to tell AJ and Howie we’re headed back to the ship.”

I couldn’t argue with that logic. My neck was drenched in sweat from the oppression of people. Leighanne stuck close to me as we weaved our way back outside. I took a deep, satisfying gulp of air as we headed outside. All of the clubs in the area were lit up and rocking, but none quite as hard as Neptuno.

Leighanne and I waited outside. Five minutes passed, then ten. Just as we were ready to go back in, a sound erupted from inside that made my blood run cold.

Gunshots.