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His strong arm weighed heavily on my shoulders, and I sighed in contentment as I adjusted my head on his chest. I matched the rhythm of my breathing with his slow, steady breaths and I could almost feel myself slipping gently back off to sleep.

“Amy?”

My eyes fluttered open at the sound of Baylee’s voice. I blinked rapidly to focus my vision and saw Baylee standing over me and pushing lightly on my shoulder.

“Wake up.” He urged. “Where’s my dad?”

“Your dad?” I repeated; my voice hoarse with sleep. “He’s right here.”

Baylee gave me a bewildered look and quickly turned his head to both sides. “I don’t see him.”

Feeling more alert, I lifted my head and took note of the tattooed arm that was encircling me. It definitely wasn’t Brian’s. Shit! I pushed myself off of AJ’s chest and gently shook him awake.

His eyes blinked open and he stared at me in confusion. “Amy?” His voice cracked as he spoke. “Did we fall asleep?”

“Of course you fell asleep.” Baylee answered, rolling his eyes. “Do you know where my dad is?”

“He isn’t here?” AJ asked, rubbing at his eyes and pushing out his chest in a deep stretch.

“If he was here, than I wouldn’t be asking you if you know where he is.” Baylee responded. For a ten year old, he sounded highly exasperated.

I quickly ran my fingers through my hair and saw that Nick and Lauren were passed out on the other couch. The TV was still on and a re-run of Gilmore Girls was playing softly. I focused my eyes on the digital clock on the cable box. It read 8:25 A.M. We had been asleep since we got back to the hotel yesterday evening at 5:30 P.M.

“It’s morning!” I gasped.

The tone of my voice caused Lauren to stir awake in confusion. “What? I’m awake!” She grunted, sitting up and patting Nick lightly on the chest.

“We’ve been asleep for fifteen hours?” AJ wondered aloud. “Why did no one wake us up?”

“I just woke you up.” Baylee pointed out as Nick finally opened his eyes and looked around at the rest of us.

“Bay?” Nick asked. “What are you doing here? Where’s your dad?”

Baylee threw his hands up in the air in frustration. “That’s what I’m asking you guys!” He cried as his arms slapped noisily at his sides. “I’m just gonna go and ask Kevin.”

“Wait!” AJ exclaimed. He scrambled to haul himself off of the couch as Baylee headed towards the door. “We’re coming with you!”

Baylee rapped his small fist against the door of Kevin’s room and waited approximately five seconds before repeating the procedure. I stifled a laugh as Lauren attempted to smooth out the silk shirt that she had been wearing (and sleeping in) since last night. I subtly motioned that her mascara was smeared, and she shot me a look of gratitude before licking her finger and scrubbing fiercely at her face. I gave myself a mental pat on the back for falling asleep in a sensible cotton t-shirt with a freshly scrubbed face.

Baylee’s knocking must have roused Kevin from a sound sleep, because he appeared to be a bit disoriented when he eventually yanked open the door. He blinked at us several times before recognition finally dawned on his face. Running a hand through his dishevelled hair, he held the door open for us.

“I see you’ve all decided to wake up.” He said, clearing the sleep from his voice.

“Is my dad here?” Baylee demanded. “I woke up and the only people that I could find were these guys.”

“I take some offence to that.” Nick said, feigning hurt.

“Your dad is on the couch.” Kevin replied. “Apparently, there was no space left for him in his own room last night.”

“That’s because someone was sleeping right in the middle of the bed.” Brian teased. “Bay, you were supposed to remind me to tell the front desk that we had to move to a room with two beds and you forgot.”

Baylee smiled at his father’s playful banter as Brian came around the corner to give him a hug. “I’m just a kid.” He shrugged, playing along. “You’re supposed to be the one who remembers stuff.”

I tuned out their chatter as soon as Brian appeared. I swallowed hard and willed myself not to blush as I took him in. He was wearing a pair of baggy basketball shorts that hung low on his hips. His chest was bare, chiselled, and drool worthy. Well aware of the fact that I was staring longingly at him, I forced myself to look away. Unfortunately, I chose to look directly at AJ who shot me a knowing smirk.

“Bri, put a shirt on. There are ladies present.” AJ quipped as he strolled past him into the room.

“Of course ... where are my manners?” Brian laughed, giving me a flirtatious grin as he snatched a t-shirt from the back of the couch. He hesitated slightly before pulling the garment over his head and he gave me another wicked smile when he was sure that nobody else was looking.

“I saw you staring at me.” Brian whispered once everyone else had migrated over towards the seating area.

“I wasn’t staring.” I whispered back, blatantly lying through my teeth.

“You’re cute when you lie.” He countered, pushing a wayward piece of hair off of my forehead.

“Dad!” Baylee’s voice cut through our moment. “I’m hungry!”

“We’ll order room service.” Brian sighed as I walked away from him and sat down on the nearest couch. “Everyone pick what you want.”

While the others began devouring the room service menu, I absently pulled my phone out of my pocket. I hadn’t looked at it since we had all inadvertently fallen asleep yesterday evening. The blinking light immediately filled me with dread. We were going to have to discuss the latest round of pictures sooner rather than later. I pushed the little, round button and the screen immediately sprang to life. I had ten missed calls and two voicemail messages. One of the calls was from Greg and the other nine were from Hannah. I immediately dialled into my voicemail and waited anxiously for the first message to begin.

“Amy ... Greg here. Listen, I’ve just gotten off the line with Sacramento. The guys over there have some news for the group, but Hannah insisted that I call you and give you the news myself. Tell that Brian guy that he’s damn lucky. Whoever worked on those photos has talent! In two of them, everything lined up. The pixels were a good match and the quality was the same. I was thinking that I was going to have to call Eddie and Cass and tell them that they were dealing with a legit crisis. If whoever is behind this hadn’t released the third picture, I never would have caught it. Anyways, Hannah is telling me to cut to the chase. Straight up ... the pictures have been faked. Well, your buddy’s junk is definitely the real deal, but the girl he’s banging has been Photoshopped in. It turns out that her image was lifted off of some obscure amateur porn site. The logo for the site was still partially visible in the third image. There were only a couple of pixels left and most people would have missed it, but that’s why they pay me the big bucks, I guess. Also, her body was just a little bit too awkwardly positioned for my liking ... that’s what really tipped me off. Shit! Now Hannah’s telling me to wrap this up. So, long story short, all three pictures are a scam. I’ve already left messages for Eddie and Cass. I’m assuming that Cass will talk to the guys tomorrow about a press release. Tell Brian that he owes me a beer! We’ll talk soon.”

I slowly lowered the phone from my ear as Hannah’s message began playing. I had completely stopped listening and was staring at my phone in disbelief. I quickly disconnected from my voicemail and checked the time of Greg’s call: 11:45 P.M. I wondered if Eddie or Cass had checked their messages yet. Based on the fact that neither one of them had attempted to wake any of us up, I figured that I was the first one to find out about this critical piece of information.

“Amy? Are you okay?” Lauren’s voice distracted me from my thoughts.

“We need to get Howie.” I said. I could feel the smile growing on my face. “You all need to hear this message together.”

“I’ll get him!” Baylee shouted, springing off of the couch and running towards the door. “Dad, order me pancakes!” He added as he propped the door open and hurried off into the hallway.

“Why the hell does he have so much energy?” Brian mused, shaking his head. “He usually fights with me if I even so much as attempt to get him out of bed before nine.”

“He did sleep for like seventeen hours straight.” Lauren pointed out. “He fell asleep well before the rest of us did last night.”

A few minutes later, the door to the room banged closed and Baylee reappeared, dragging a very groggy looking Howie by the hand.

“He was still sleeping.” Baylee informed the rest of us as he flung himself down on the couch next to Nick and Lauren. He grabbed Brian’s iPad off of the end table and promptly covered his ears with a pair of headphones. Seconds later, muffled explosions could be heard as he immersed himself in The Avengers.

Howie blinked several times before sitting down on the available seat next to me. “I want to ask what’s going on, but I’m scared of the answer.” He mumbled. He yanked at the bottom of his baggy sweatpants that were dragging on the floor and attempted to smooth some of the wrinkles out of his t-shirt. “Baylee said that I had to come right away. He didn’t even let me brush my teeth.”

“Amy has a phone message that she wants us all to listen to.” Kevin informed him.

“Well, let’s hear it then.” Howie said, stifling a yawn. “I’m awake now ... kind of.”

I stole a quick glance at Baylee to make sure that he was still engrossed in the movie, before I placed my phone on the coffee table. I didn’t think that the message was appropriate for a ten year old. Calling up the voicemail system, I placed the phone on speaker and waited for the message to begin. Once Greg’s voice started to come through the speakers, everyone leaned forward to listen.

“Straight up ... the pictures have been faked. Well, your buddy’s junk is definitely the real deal, but the girl that he’s banging has been photoshopped in.”

“Oh my God ...” Lauren breathed, but Nick immediately shushed her.

“It turns out that her image was lifted off of some obscure amateur porn site. The logo for the site was still partially visible in the third image ...”

“Amateur porn?!” Brian cried, his eyes darting worriedly in Baylee’s direction. There was no need to worry, as Baylee was laughing away at whatever was happening on the screen; completely obviously to what was going on around him.

“So, long story short, all three pictures are a scam. I’ve already left messages for Eddie and Cass. I’m assuming that Cass will talk to the guys tomorrow about a press release. Tell Brian that he owes me a beer! We’ll talk soon.”

The message from Greg came to an end and Hannah’s voice began screeching through the speakers: “Amy!! Why are you not picking up your phone? If you’re listening to this, I’m assuming you’ve just heard Greg’s message. Isn’t that fantastic news? Now you can go ahead and fuc...”

“This one’s personal!” I cried, launching myself at the coffee table and grabbing my phone to take it off of speaker. “There’s no need for everyone to listen to it!”

“Riiiiight.” Kevin drawled, raising one of his bushy eyebrows in amusement.

“I can’t believe it.” Brian whispered; a slow smile beginning to stretch across his face. “He did it. I’m going to buy that guy a whole fucking case of beer! Hell, I’m going to buy him a bar. Maybe even two!”

“God, Brian, I’m so sorry!” Lauren exclaimed. She sprung off of the couch and flung herself, without warning, into his chest.

“Huh? You’re sorry? For what?” Brian asked. Caught off guard, he stumbled slightly under Lauren’s weight before returning her embrace.

“I thought that you were full of shit when you were denying it.” Lauren explained. “You should have heard the crap that I was saying to Nick. I feel awful! I’ve been a truly horrible friend.”

“It’s all right.” Brian soothed. “It wasn’t looking so good for me ...”

“It’s not okay!” Lauren shook her head. “Nick didn’t waver the whole time. Even when the second set of pictures came out, he stood by you. He refused to even entertain the idea that you could have cheated on your wife.”

“Really?” Brian asked, gently releasing Lauren and turning to face Nick.

“I’ve grown up with you.” Nick shrugged. “I know there have been times when we haven’t seen eye to eye, especially where Leighanne is concerned, but I just knew.”

“Well ...” Brian began. He stopped to clear his throat, which had suddenly become rather scratchy. “ ...you won’t have to worry about Leighanne causing any more issues with our friendship.” He cast a quick glance at his son to make sure that Baylee still wasn’t paying us any attention before he continued. “I had her served with divorce papers last night.”