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Chapter Seven

The next morning, Howie and I were playing a rousing game of Hide and Go seek with James around the studio when Kevin finally showed up. Brian hadn’t been exaggerating. As Kevin shuffled into the studio, I wanted so badly to shove him up on a bell tower. All he needed was a gigantic googly eye to pull off the Quasimodo look. Addy followed behind him, her arms outstretched as if ready to catch him if he should tumble.

I was expecting him to be incredibly grouchy, but that didn’t stop me from feeling the need to razz him.

“Dude, we should have brought your wheelchair from the birthday party to L.A., old man,” I said. He stopped and rested a hand on his lower back. He looked up at me and I was surprised when he actually smiled.

“Nick,” he said lightly. “As much as I would like to kick you in the balls right now, you are not going to ruin my good mood.”

He shuffled by me and settled down awkwardly into a chair. Brian tossed him an ice pack.

“Good mood? How could you fall off a bull and be in a good mood?”

Kevin just continued to grin. He pointed at Addy. I looked over in confusion until she lifted her left hand and grinned. Kevin’s engagement ring was nestled on her finger.

“Hey, he didn’t win the bet!” Brian said. Addy laughed.

“I almost broke my spine,” Kevin said dramatically. Addy rolled her eyes.

“He was so pathetic I couldn’t help but say yes,” she said.

Liv, Leigh and Sam ran over to take a look at the ring and offer their congratulations. Brian stupidly went over and slapped Kevin on the back. I burst into laughter as Kev let out a yell and shoved Brian down to the ground.

“Geesh, I just wanted to say congratulations!”

“I think you got your point across,” Howie said with a grin. He scooped James up and went over to Addy. James leaned way over Howie’s arm, his eye almost touching the stone in the ring.

“Pitty!” he declared. I’m pretty sure he said pretty; even though “pity” was much funnier.

Addy smiled.

“He’s got great taste,” Howie added. “I’ve taught him well.”

“He’s the only two and a half year old I know that has an Armani suit,” Leigh added.

While Howie began to discuss the importance of a good suit, AJ snuck in the room. I wasn’t the only one who realized he was late.

“Where’ve you been?” Kevin asked.

“I overslept,” AJ said. “Sorry. What did I miss?”

“A lot actually,” I said. “Kevin and Addy are engaged. All of us will be happily married men. Cool huh?”

AJ looked disgruntled by my innuendo, but he forced a smile in Kevin’s direction. “Oh? Well, congratulations.”

“Thanks,” Kev said. He stared hard at AJ as if picking up on something, but he seemed to let it go. Instead he put on his business face.

“Before we start running through the west coast tracks, I want to go over our schedule.”

I groaned. I hated schedules; hell, besides Howie and Kevin we all hated schedules. I saw Sam pull out a notebook and a pen.

“If you post this online you better word it so that no one complains when we don’t meet our deadlines,” Brian suggested. “The fans get angry when we miss our deadlines.”

“We’re not going to miss our deadlines this time,” Kevin said confidently. Between Howie and me, we’ll keep us on track. Right, D?”

Howie cracked a smile. “Yup.”

Kevin shifted in the chair and winced.

“It’s November,” he began.

“No shit,” I muttered under my breath. Brian heard me and grinned.

“We’re aiming for a March 6 release date. We need to block out February for U.S. promotional dates.”

My arm shot up in the air.

“Nick?”

I glanced over at Liv. The little crease that appeared in her forehead when she was worried was visible.

“Liv’s due February 21,” I explained.

“If we hit the west coast at the end of January through the first week of February and then do New York the second week of February we’ll block out the last two weeks for no dates. Will that work?”

I glanced over at Liv. She nodded.

“Yeah, that’ll work,” I said. Even if she went into labor early, if I was on the East coast I would be able to hop on a plane and get to the hospital in time. No sweat.

“And so you can have a little time at home to help Liv out, why don’t we hit Asia mid-March and run through mid-April?

“That sounds good,” I said.

“Then we’ll spend two weeks in Australia and take a week off before doing the U.S. leg.”

“What about Europe?” Brian asked.

“We’ll have to hit Europe in the Fall.”

“What about South America?” Howie asked. “They’re begging us to come back. We promised them some stops on the This is Us tour that never materialized.

“South America would be a good way to start 2013. It would be nice to go back to do South Africa again too,” AJ said.

“Then we could add in a few more Europe and Asia dates and then one more summer tour back here. I’d like to end by August of 2013,” Kevin added. “Mason will start Kindergarten in September back home in Kentucky that year.”

I saw Addy and Kevin share a smile.

“James will be ready for preschool by then,” Howie said. He looked shocked.

“If he’s potty trained,” I teased. Howie made a face.

“He’s doing much better, thank you.”

I smiled over at James. “Did you beat up the potty monster?”

His eyes grew huge. “Pot moos?”

He began to cry.

Leigh scooped him up and headed out of the room. Howie gave me a death stare.

“Just wait until you start potty training your boy. Just wait.”

I grinned. “I’m not scurred.”

Anyhow,” Kevin said. “With this schedule that means that we’re going to have to finish up the album no later than December 15. We’re going to have to have our set list decided the first week of January as well as our first single. We’re going to need at least three weeks of rehearsal on choreography. Do we want backup dancers?”

“I think the fans thought it was nice to have the dancers back,” Brian said.

“Well we’re going to have to hire dancers this month.”

“So are we going to divvy up duties?” Brian asked. He knew as well as I did that if all five of us tried to work together on each decision that we never got anywhere.

“If you want,” Kev said. “What do you want to do?”

Brian looked at me and smiled. “Nick and I will work on set list.”

“It still has to meet everyone’s approval,” Howie said. I could tell that he didn’t trust us. He was probably worried that I was going to work in She’s a Dream again.

“Shawty ain’t got cable,” I sang. Kevin groaned.

“What were you guys thinking?” he asked. “Like Howie said, it’s got to meet everyone’s approval.”

Brian shrugged. “That’s cool.”

Kevin glanced at Howie. “Want to work on set design?”

Howie nodded. “That works for me.”

“I’ll work with Kev on getting the dancers,” AJ said. I glanced over at him, frowning.

“I can do that,” I offered.

“No, you’re working on the set list. It’s cool,” AJ said. He met my gaze. “Really.”

Kevin looked between us thoughtfully.

“Alright. I think that’s it. Sam can you type all that up and fax it over to the guys at Universal? I'm sure they'll feel better knowing that weve finished our homework."

Sam grinned. "No sweat.

Kevin smiled "Then let’s get to work.”

I think he momentarily forgot about his back; he got up way too fast. He screamed. I jumped up and hovered over him.

“Easy grandpa,” I soothed. Kevin’s hand came around and smacked me right in my gonads. I crumbled to the ground as the pain flared up.

“What did you do that for?” I cried. Howie grinned; I had a feeling he had probably wanted to do that for at least the past hour or since I made James cry about the potty monster. Kevin just beat him to it.

“Sorry, it was a pain reflex,” Kevin said with a snicker.

I closed my eyes and clutched my package. It really did hurt; my junk was sensitive. By the time I opened my eyes back up Brian was standing over me with his cell phone in hand.

“What are you doing?”

His eyes twinkled. “Payback. What do you think I should call it? Wait…I know!”

He slid open his phone and began typing on the keyboard.

“Recording is a pain in the gonads.”

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By the time I looked at the clock again, it was eleven o’clock at night. We had been in the studio for more than twelve hours. I sat at the drums with Brooklyn on my lap. Liv sat beside us, twirling gently back and forth on an extra swivel chair. I had my large hands wrapped over Brooke’s small hands and we were holding a pair of drum sticks. Her face lit up every time “we’ hit the crash symbal.

“You’re going to grow up and bring female rock back in style,” I said to her. She looked up at me and giggled.

“But you can’t let any boys on your tour bus. Because then daddy would have to kill them.”

Liv laughed. “We won’t tell her about what’s happened on your tour bus.”

I grinned. “Exactly.”

I brought Brooke’s hand over and we tapped the snare drum.

“Oooooo,” she babbled. She looked back up at me. Her two little bottom teeth made her smile just that much cuter.

“Dada.”

I had always secretly hoped that ‘dada’ would be Brooke’s first word. I just didn’t realize how emotional I would get when it really happened. I felt my eyes widen; her little hand felt so warm under mine. She stared at me with that happy smile as if she called me ‘dada’ every day.

“She just called you dada,” Liv said quietly. She looked just as shocked as I was.

I felt like if we just continued to gawk at her that we weren’t doing our jobs. Even though I had a tear in my eye I blinked quickly and grinned.

“That’s right Brooke,” I said happily, bouncing her on my knee. “Dada! Good job!”

She snuggled into me and I felt her little fingers give up the drum stick. I set it down on a tom and scooped her up, planting a kiss on her cheek. Liv leaned over and did the same thing. Brooklyn clapped.

“What’s with the love fest?” AJ said, wiping his mouth as he came back in the room. I beamed.

“Brooke just said dada,” I said happily. “That’s me!”

“What’s you?” Brian asked coming in behind AJ.

“Brooke just said dada,” I repeated.

AJ just smiled; Brian grinned like someone who knew just what I was feeling.

“It’s a great feeling isn’t it?” he said. He glanced at Liv.

“It’s only a matter of time before she says mama,” he added for her benefit. “Da is easier to pronounce.”

Liv smiled. “I know that. Trust me; it doesn’t bother me a bit. I just knew she was going to say dada first. Anyone who can stop three weeks of continuous crying in the first ten minutes he’s back home deserves to get the first word.”

I knew she was talking about Brooke’s bout of colic. I still remember putting her tiny little body on my chest and the sweet sigh of relief that escaped from Brooke’s tiny mouth when her cries subsided.

I looked back down at Brooke. That time seemed like so long ago. Now my little girl was crawling and talking. Livvy and I couldn’t help but announce the great achievement to everyone else as they filed back into the room. Kevin leaned down next to me and tickled Brooke’s stomach. He also started a round of applause in her honor. I was hoping for a repeat performance in front of the entire group, but she just clapped her hands and grinned as everyone smiled back at her. She seemed to eat up the attention.

Something told me being a fame whore was going to run in the family.