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Chapter Seventeen – June 3

It’s amazing what thoughts can go through a person’s mind in the middle of the night. When I was a teenager I didn’t stay out late often, but when I did I always received the lecture about being courteous to those in the house who were trying to sleep. I always used to laugh and roll my eyes; I used to think that sleep was extremely overrated. Moms and dads just weren’t cool enough to appreciate all the fun stuff teenagers did at two o’clock in the morning. As I sat feeding Brooke at three o’clock in the morning, I was hit with the sudden realization that mom’s words had officially come back to bite me in the butt. Mom always used to say I wouldn’t know what she was talking about until I became a mom; now I realized just how right she was.

I had given up with breast feeding a few days ago; Brooklyn had taken to the bottle quite well. In fact, I had seen more smiles in the past few days than I had ever thought possible. Through bleary eyes I smiled down at her. Brooklyn was growing rapidly; I hadn’t realized how fast the time would go. Her eyes which had been blue since the day she was born had only changed shades, now color. Now when I stared at her it was like looking into Nick’s eyes, albeit way more innocent.

Brooke ate until the bottle ran out. After burping her I sat for a few more minutes, just staring down at her. Her eyes focused on my face and I was rewarded by a smile.

“Well sweetheart, after a rocky start you are completely making up for it with those pretty smiles,” I said softly. I leaned down and kissed her forehead. Her arm reached up, her fingers opening and closing like a little baby wave.

Humming softly I stood up, gently placed her in the crib, and started her mobile. I leaned over the bars and watched as her eyes focused on the lighted mobile and her legs kick as the music began to play. By the time the mobile wound down, her eyes closed and I could tell sleep was welcoming her once again.

Feeling absolutely lighthearted I walked back to the bedroom. Our night light threw long shadows across the room. Nick was fast asleep, his arms curled around his pillow as if hugging it. The sheets had dipped low on his waist, the band of his boxer briefs was visible as well as his long upper body. I pulled the covers back and quietly slid in next to him.

I must have fallen asleep rather quickly; the next time that I opened my eyes, Nick was sitting cross legged in bed, hovering over Brooklyn. He had her little hands in his own playing peek-a-boo. Between her toothless grin and her loud pitched coos it was a great way to wake up.

“Peeeeeek-a----boo!” Nick said, leaning down again so fast that his nose practically touched hers. I rubbed my face and sat up. Nick turned to look at me.

“Good morning, mommy.”

I smiled. “Good morning, daddy.” I leaned over and kissed Brooke’s cheek. “Good morning, Brookey.”

I scooted closer to Nick; for the next half hour we took turns playing peek-a-boo.

I couldn’t think of a better way to ease into a day.

----------------------------------------------------

Around noon, Nick was locked in the studio in the midst of a teleconference with the other guys. I sat down with the first RSVP’s for the wedding, inputting yes’s and no’s into a database for the wedding planner. As I tore open the last envelope, the phone rang. It was my mom.

She had been at the forefront of my mind the whole night before. I knew she was on her date and I was dying to find out how it went. I hit ‘talk’ and brought the phone to my ear while I scanned the last RSVP card.

“How’d it go?” I asked.

“Well, hello to you too,” mom said with a laugh. I took laughter as a good sign.

“Sorry. Hello.”

“Hi, sweetie.”

“How’d the date go?”

She was quiet for a few seconds. I set down the RSVP card and stared ahead, my lips puckered. Finally I heard the lift of a happy voice.

“It went very well. He bought dinner and then took me to a movie.”

“Oooh, a movie?” I said. “Was it a chick flick?”

“It was a comedy.”

“Did he do the whole “I’m yawning, but I’m really trying to get my arm around your shoulder” move?”

“What? No, he didn’t. Who does that?”

“Guys with no social skills,” I said, thinking about one of the first dates I went on with Hunter. “So are you going out with him again? Did he kiss you good night?”

“Yes to your first question and no to your second.”

I wrinkled my nose. “No good night kiss? Not even a peck on the cheek?”

“He’s a gentleman.”

I couldn’t help but think back to what seemed like a long time ago but was in actuality just a little more than a year ago. We had gone to a nightclub in Atlanta and because of Nick’s penchant for tickling I had set off the fire alarm and sprinkler system. Afterwards, I remember leaning against the bus saying goodnight to him. I can recall the slow movement of his face as it dipped towards mine and the utter panic as I ducked out from under his arm. Nick had known I was a married woman but it was like we had our own force field. We hadn’t kissed that night; I’m sure most people would say that even trying to kiss me wasn’t a gentlemanly act. But it had been the start of something that I wouldn’t trade for anything in the world.

“So you had fun?”

“I did,” she said. I smiled at the enthusiasm in her voice.

“Has he been married before?”

“He lost his wife to breast cancer nine years ago.”

“Oh,” I said quietly. Even though I couldn’t imagine how hard that would be, it didn’t escape me that mom and this guy had both lost their spouse. There was mutual ground there.

“Does he have any children?”

“No, they never did.”

“So when am I going to meet him?”

“Let me get through another date first!”

I laughed. “Well, I’m just glad to know you had fun and that he wasn’t a serial killer. That would have sucked.”

“Yes, it would have,” my mom agreed. “You would have lost your babysitter.”

I laughed. “I love you, mom.”

We talked for just a little while longer and then I had to hang up; I had another call coming through. Without bothering to check the caller ID I hit the talk button on my cell phone.

“Hello?”

At first there was nobody; then I heard a little sigh.

“Liv?”

I pulled the phone away from my ear and double checked the caller ID in case I was mistaken; I wasn’t.

“Jess?” I asked incredulously.

I heard a baby crying in the background. When she finally spoke it sounded like she was beginning to cry.

“Liv, I called to warn you,” she said.

“Warn me?” I said bitterly. “About what? Are you going to try to sleep with my fiancée now?”

She gave a tremendous sniffle.

“I’m sorry,” she said in a small voice. “I can’t believe I…”

“I don’t want to go down that road,” I said impatiently. “Why are you calling me?”

She said the one word that I didn’t want to hear. “Hunter.”

I sighed. “What about him?”

“I think…” the connection seemed to break. “be careful…” I strained to hear over the increasing static. “Florida…baby.”

The line went dead. I hit redial, but I heard a message about the user being out of service range. I sat with the phone in my hands, a deep frown etched on my face.

Feeling on edge, especially after hearing the word ‘baby,’ I looked over at Brooklyn. She was fast asleep in her swing, her head pressed right against her chest. Little bubbles escaped from between her lips and her blonde hair curled gently on her forehead.

I was still watching Brooke like a hawk as Nick walked into the kitchen. He glanced at me, opened the refrigerator and took out a bottle of water, and then glanced back at me.

“What’s wrong?” he asked.

“I just got a phone call from Jess,” I said, still watching the swing rock back and forth.

“Jess? As in Jess who slept with your creep of an ex-husband? That Jess?”

I nodded. “Her connection was bad but she said to be careful and something about a baby.”

“What? That’s insane. She just called you out of the blue? Did you try calling her back?”

I nodded. “The connection was broken.”

“Well, we have a restraining order,” Nick reminded me. “Even if Hunter was to show back up in Florida, his ass would be in jail so fast he wouldn’t know what hit him. Just like when my fist hit his nose. Ker-splat! Boink! Jinkies!”

I finally turned to look at him. He was holding the water up against his shirt; a big wet spot was spreading.

“Jinkies?” I repeated. Nick grinned.

“I had a little old-school Batman mixed with Scooby Doo moment there,” he said sheepishly. “But do you see what I’m saying? I have a security company monitoring the cameras outside the house and if he breaks in we have four dogs that would tear his throat out.”

I glanced into the living room. Three of the dogs were lying by the door that lead out to the beach. They were fast asleep. Only Iggy was pacing the floor. If he was a person I could picture him as Vin Diesel. Lila, Bitsy, and Atari would be the Three Stooges. I glanced back at Nick; he smiled.

“Okay, make that one dog that would tear his throat out. The others would probably just sit there and lick themselves.”

I couldn’t help it; I laughed. I felt my shoulders relax. “You’re right. I’m being silly.”

Nick opened his bottle of water and tossed back his head as he gulped greedily. He smashed the thin plastic on his forehead when he was done and tossed the bottle into the recycle bin.

“We do silly up right in the Carter house,” he said. He made a big show of flexing his muscles as if crushing already recycled plastic was a tough feat. I smiled.

“How’d your conference call go Hulkster?”

“It went really good, except Kevin forgets that he’s low man on the totem pole right now.”

“Kevin can never be low man on the totem pole,” I said.

Nick pouted. “See, that’s what everyone else said too. But the way I look at it is that it’s what he gets for dropping out. I’m tired of being low man.”

“How are you low man?”

“Because I’m the youngest. Kevin told me for years that I would always be low man.”

I smiled. I had a feeling that going on tour with Kevin along was going to add a whole new dynamic.

“So any insider information you can share with your soon-to-be wife?” I asked.

Nick bounced on his heels; the energy he got even talking about music never ceased to surprise me.

“We’re going to do four small club dates in September. Kevin thought that might help get the creative juices flowing and help us decide how to work his vocals into songs from Unbreakable and This is Us.”

“Are wives invited on this little tour?” I asked. Nick grinned.

“Well, I couldn’t very well leave my wife or daughter at home could I?” he said. He made a face as if he had just tasted something sweet. “Hmm.”

“What?”

“I like the sound of that. My wife.”’

My stomach did a ridiculous flip-flop. Nick broke into an excited grin.

“See that’s another reason I’m not low man anymore.”

I raised an eyebrow. It hadn’t taken him long to get back onto that subject again.

“What’s another reason?” I asked. I couldn’t help it; no matter how inane the subject was, I couldn’t help but want to follow along.

“I’ll be married. Kevin’s single. So not only do I have more years in the group but now I have a wife.”

“That’s not really his fault,” I argued. “And don’t you dare try to justify your “low man” theory with that.”

Nick pouted. “Well it makes sense to you doesn’t it?”

For some reason it really mattered; maybe it was because he had spent most of his formative years being fathered by Kevin. Now that he was in his thirties, he seemed to want to prove himself. I smiled.

“Yes, it makes sense. But Nick?”

“Yeah?”

“You’ve never been low man in my book.”

His eyes softened.

“Well, when you put it that way I think that’s the ranking that matters the most.”

I grinned. I couldn’t help but think that life would be so much simpler if the right words could fix everything. Even as I thought it, I knew that was a thought that belonged in a fairy tale. Even though Nick felt completely confident that we were untouchable, I had a bad feeling that one of those so-called “dark forces” was going to hit us.

And soon.