Nick reached up and hit the GPS. "Fuck you," he said to it. He pulled the car over. "God damn it." Lauren was biting her lip to keep from laughing. Nick whipped the car door open and got out and leaned against the back passanger door, arms folded. He spit onto the gravel road.
Lauren took a deep, steadying breath - he'd only get worse if she laughed at this too soon - and got out of the car and walked around, leaning against the car beside him. She glanced up at him, squinting against the sunlight. "You could always ask for directions," she said.
Nick glanced sidelong at her. "No," he answered.
Lauren licked her teeth and turned to stare straight ahead, at the wide field across the street from them. They'd passed the same field about a hundred times since they'd left the airport, following the direction the GPS had been giving them to get to Brian's house. Nick spit onto the ground again and Lauren turned so she was back-to him so she could repress another laugh.
"I'm a man, I don't need directions," Nick said, delayed so entirely that Lauren knew he'd been weighing his options in the silence that had befallen them.
Lauren shrugged, "Being man enough to admit you need help is sexy," she said. She turned and walked around the car and climbed back into the passanger side. Lauren peeked out the window to see what Nick was doing. She watched as he paced back and forth a moment, then pull his cell phone out of his pocket.
"Hey Brian, it's me," he said into the phone, "I need directions." Lauren covered her mouth to keep a guffaw from reaching his ears. Nick was too easy. "Dude, I dunno where we are. There's a big ass field," Nick was saying. "I just need directions from the big ass field."
"Well ain't Kentucky a hoot," Nick called when they finally arrived to the house. Brian and Baylee were spilling out of the house to greet them. Nick slammed the driver's side door and came around the nose of the car just as Baylee flung himself at him. Nick shook his head, "Who knew there were so many damn fields?"
Lauren rolled her eyes and smiled, then embraced Brian in a friendly way, "Hey mister," she said. She gently kissed his cheek, then held up her hand for a high-five from Baylee. "Nice hair cut, buddy."
"Yeah, dude, you didn't just get a haircut," Nick said, "You got'em all cut."
Baylee looked at Nick and laughed, "You're crazy, uncle Nick."
"This house is gorgeous," Lauren commented, eyes roving over the detailed work on it. She glanced at Nick, "Isn't it gorgeous?"
Nick glanced at the house, "Uh huh."
Brian and Nick started unloading the suitcases and all as Baylee led Lauren to the front porch, talking animatedly about some stuff he'd been learning at school. Once they were out of ear shot, Nick smacked Brian's arm. "Hey, how're you doin' anyways, Rok?"
Brian sighed, "I'm okay."
Nick hoisted a couple bags over his shoulder. "You look better than you did last I saw you," he admitted. He leaned against the bumper. "So... who's this Emma chick you mentioned on the phone?" Nick raised an eyebrow.
Brian cleared his throat and looked at his shoes. "She was a girl that I dated in high school."
"Nice." Nick's voice was reverent. "She hot?"
"She was," Brian said.
"Missin' a couple teeth? Got Pipi Longstocking hair now?" Nick asked, "Is she a redneck?"
Brian laughed, "You're an asshole."
"But you love me," Nick grinned. "Seriously - was? How do chicks get unhot?"
Brian shrugged, "I dunno. I don't think it's so much as unhot as much as..." he paused. "I feel guilty," he admitted, "Because she looks like someone who's been through hell and I know that I at least started the hell."
Nick gnawed his lip, unsure what to say to that. Finally, he looked up and said, "So this is her house, huh?"
"It was her family's when we were in school, yeah."
"So how come she doesn't live here?"
"I have no idea."
Lauren and Baylee had disappeared inside some time ago, but now Lauren emerged from the front door onto the porch. She stared across the yard at the two boys. "Are ya'll coming inside today or should I get out some sleeping bags for you?"
"Yeah yeah yeah!" Nick yelled, "We're comin', hold ya horses!" Lauren gave him the finger and disappeared into the house. Nick looked at Brian. "I love that woman."
Brian smiled. "Ya'll work good together."
Nick stood up. "You do know that I want full details on this Emma chick, right?" he asked.
Brian rolled his eyes, "I pretty much just told you all there is to tell you."
"I mean details dude," Nick said, wiggling his eyebrows as Brian hoisted a suitcase out of the back of the car. "Did you sleep with her?"
Brian nodded.
Nick grinned.
It was later that night, the star were out overhead. Lauren had gone inside to help Baylee with some homework, and left Brian and Nick reclining in folding chairs in the backyard. The smell of the barbequed chicken they'd had for dinner still hung in the air, the brickquettes not quite dark in the pit, but glowing red ambers rolling as they smoldered and collapsed upon themselves. The two boys each were clutching a tall, dark bottle of beer and Nick had shucked off his shirt. Brian's voice had just faded from the darkness, finishing telling Nick everything about his relationship with Emma, and now Brian was waiting for a response from Nick.
Nick had closed his eyes. He was imagining the version of Brian that had stepped off the plane back in 1993, wearing overall jeans and a basketball jersey. He imagined that Brian in the story he'd just heard, imagined that Brian wanting to run away to Tennessee and get married. "You were just kids," he said at least. "Ya'll didn't really know what you were doing back then."
Brian swallowed a mouthful of beer and shook his head, "No, Nick, we knew. Even lookin' back now, so many years later, I can tell ya that I knew fully what I was talkin' about when I asked her, when I signed the paper, you know? I knew. I - I became a man that day."
"Then why were you a boy when I knew you?" Nick questioned.
"Things are different here in Kentucky," Brian answered. "I was a man here, where problems are things like if there's enough milk in the fridge and whether to mow the law Saturday or Sunday. Where my main goal would be to pay rent each month and take care of a woman that I loved. I was ready to do that stuff." He glaced at Nick, "Then I came down to Florida, got into the music business, and the problems were more complex, and we were knee deep in 'em and I tried to get my brain around it, tried to understand everything going on, but it's hard stuff when you're suddenly thrown into a different world. Lou Pearlman and Johnny Wright and all of'em, they took advantage of all of us because none of us were men in that world." Brian smiled sadly. He took another swig of beer. "But here, I was a man."
Somewhere across the backyard, a heat bug issued its cry and Nick took a pull off his bottle. He sighed deeply. "It's nice here," he admitted. "It's nice to get truly quiet, you know? In LA there's always some noise somewhere, even if its just the ocean rolling or some siren somewhere across the city. It's nice when you stop talking that you can hear your own heart beating here, you know?"
Brian smiled.
"It's nice seeing the stars, too," Nick said, "There's more of them than you realize in the city, you know?"
"Yeah there's a lot of'em," Brian agreed.
"They remind me of the fans," Nick laughed.
Brian laughed, too. "You're crazy, Frack."
Nick smiled. "Plus it's nice havin' you around, Frick," he added after a long pause.
