"Ow! Ow! That hurts!"
"Do you want me to stop?"
"No, I want a dwawing."
I was holding Jake's arm as gently as possible, attempting to draw a picture of a three headed alien.
Jake had woken up crabby and whiny. He was already sick of lugging the heavy cast around. He couldn't keep it in the sling. He had already cried five times.
I felt horrible for him.
"And I want an eyeball dere. Good!"
I smiled. Underneath the alien I wrote, Love Daddy. Jake looked happy.
"Are you gonna live with mommy and me every day forever?"
Shay had gone to the gym. I had to give it to her; she was serious about it this time. I sat back on the living room floor, my back pressing against the couch. Jake snuggled closer.
"Well, that's hard for me to promise, buddy," I said quietly. "Do you remember how I told you I travel a lot?"
Jake nodded. "You're going to Mex-co."
"That's right. My job's to travel the world and sing. So, I won't be able to be here every day."
Jake poked at the cast. "I'm gonna miss you."
My heart melted. "I'm gonna miss you too." I leaned in closer. "Maybe someday you and mommy can come with me."
Jake perked up. "Like now?"
I shook my head. "Not now. Mommy has to stay here and she'd miss you if you came with me."
Jake nodded. "Yeah, mommy would be sad."
I could tell Jake was getting sleepy when he didn't say anything else for a full minute. I leaned in close.
"Do you want to watch Thomas?"
"Yeah-huh."
I stood up, slid my hands under his arms and hoisted him up. He whimpered.
It was a good thing I wasn't leaving for another day. Because, if I had to go now, I would have probably taken him with me.
And his pretty mom too.
"No, daddy! No!"
Jake clung to Nick's leg, his face planted into the rough denim. I was crouched down beside him, my hand on his back.
"Honey, daddy has to go. He'll be back soon."
"I want to go to Mex-co!" Nick looked panic-stricken. I wiggled Jake's fingers, loosening his grip.
"NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!" Jake howled. His cast hit my knuckles and I stifled a curse.
"I'm going to bring you a bunch of cool toys. And we can talk on the computer. Won't that be fun?"
"No," Jake said stubbornly. I yanked him up. Nick grabbed me as I stumbled.
"Jake, give daddy a kiss good-bye," I said.
"No," Jake complained. Nick looked at me and smiled sadly. "Bye, Shay."
I smiled. "Bye. Have a safe trip." I picked up an envelope I had placed on the table earlier in the morning. I handed it to him. He looked confused as he felt it.
"What's this?"
"That," I said. "is a DVD with all of Jake's baby videos. I thought you might like to watch them if you get bored."
Nick gave me a dazzling smile. "That's awesome. I can't wait to see them."
"I should warn you there's a disclaimer. There's some mild daddy trashing."
Nick laughed. "Thanks for the warning."
Nick picked up his suitcase and opened the door.
"I'll call you when I get there." He ruffled Jake's hair. "Love you, Jakey."
Jake didn't answer. Nick faultered for a second, but finally headed down the sidewalk towards his car. He popped the trunk and tossed his bags in. He was just about ready to open the driver's side door when Jake's head popped up.
"WAIT!"
I knew what he was going to do. I put him down. He took off out the door.
"DADDY!"
Nick was ready for him. He scooped him up and covered him in kisses.
I stood there melting. After several minutes, Nick whispered something to Jake and stood up. Jake stayed by the curb waving until the car turned the corner. When he came back to me, he took my hand.
"What did daddy say?" I asked. Jake looked at me proudly.
"He toad me to take care of you, mommy."
"What's this? Porn? Did you bring porn on the flight? Cause, I gotta tell you, if you did you're my fucking hero."
I got a fist in my back.
"Would you not talk about p-o-r-n?"
"Bri, I'm pretty sure Baylee can spell by now. He's what, ten?"
"Eight," Leighanne corrected. AJ shrugged.
"It's not p-o-r-n," I said, spelling it for Brian's sake. "It's Jake's baby videos."
"Jake?" Bri asked.
"His son," AJ explained.
Bri thought for a moment. "Oh, yeah. I forgot."
I hadn't seen the guys except for random NKOTBSB things and we hadn't had a lot of time to talk. Bri stuck his head between the seats.
"Kev says he looked just like Nick," Bri said.
I almost snapped the DVD in half. Just the mention of his name...
I turned around. "By the way," I said angrily. "You're cousin's an asshole."
Bri's eyes widened. "What?"
"He's fucking anything that breathes."
Leighanne sighed. I could suddenly hear the music coming from Baylee's headphones. Leighanne had it on full blast.
"Oh, that," Bri mumbled. He looked uncomfortable. "Don't get too mad at him..."
"Mad? Who's mad? I'm murderous! You have no idea what he did to Shay."
"Shay?" AJ asked.
"Jake's mom."
"Oh yeah. Why haven't I met her yet? Does she really exist? Are you sure you're the same Nick? I don't think I've met you," AJ said with a smile. "I'm totally out of the loop with you, Carter. The only thing I know is your kid is just like you. My fists still hurt from banging on your goddamn front door for an hour and a half."
I laughed. "That was classic.
"Classic my ass." "Hey, Nick, where's Lauren?" Howie said. He was sitting in the front, like always, but he was still tuned in. The only time he wasn't was when he was snoring.
"Yeah, shouldn't she be coming with you to find like a one-of-a-kind wedding dress from some small Brazilian shop or something?" AJ questioned.
I popped the disc tray out of the laptop and put the disc in. I heard the whirl as it began to load.
"Uhm," I coughed. "Lauren and I...we're kinda not engaged any more. Right now. At all."
The response came in surround sound from Bri, Howie, AJ, and Leighanne.
"WHAT DID YOU DO?!"
