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Chapter Sixteen


Nick

I pulled up to the departures curb the next morning with Kevin in the passenger seat. We were moving slowly forward, closer and closer to the drop off. “You’re sure you don’t wanna stay with us and fly out Monday, cos… that’s ok,” I said. I felt bad he felt like he needed to go so fast. I mean, Lauren was probably at home lighting candles and throwing rose petals on the bed as I spoke, but I needed to make sure Kev knew that I wasn’t throwing him out or anything, too.

“I know,” Kev nodded. “I told my mother I’d come back soon, I didn’t get to see much of her while we were there, and it’ll give me a couple days to get a head start on Andrew.” He smiled.

I took a deep breath, “Well, whatever you do, don’t let that bastard tell you he’s bad at Call of Duty. He’ll get you gambling and then turn on his bad ass skills and whoop you good and walk with all the cash.” I’d learned this the hard way.

“I barely even know what Call of Duty is, Nick,” Kevin said.

“I’m just saying.”

We were next up to the drop off.

“Lemme know how it goes,” I said. “I’d love to hear it if you need someone to listen or whatever before you send it to her.”

“Sure,” Kevin agreed.

“Say hi to everyone. Y’know. Your mom. Andrew. Caroline, if you see her.”

We rolled up to the drop off. “Yeah, I will. And thanks again.” He waved my Nashville house key at me. “Go home and be with your fiance.” Kevin reached around in the back for the duffel bag. He leaned back out and patted the roof of my car twice, like he was releasing a cab. “See ya buddy,” he said.

I watched as he walked toward the automatic doors ‘til the car behind me honked.

I hoped the song thing worked for him.




Lauren was sitting in an overstuffed chair in the den, reading a cookbook, her glasses on, a pen clenched between her teeth and a notebook balanced precariously on the arm of the chair beside her. I snuck up behind the chair and reached around her, handing her one of our old wedding invitations. “What’s this?” she asked, letting the pen fall onto her chest.

“Open it,” I answered.

She tilted her head back to grin at me, then turned back to the invitation, opening it slowly. Inside the text was a mess, scribbled out bits here and there. “Nick Carter and Lauren Kitt are getting married!” the top of the card boasted, and just below that I’d added “(for real this time!)” I’d crossed out the old date and written in the new. She stared at it for a long moment, then she rolled to look at me, kneeling in the chair, the cookbook, and the pen, falling to the floor, making Igby, who’d been sleeping in front of it apparently, run off.

“Nick?” she asked, eyeing me carefully as she faced me, “Did you talk to Lori?”

I nodded.

“So this is for real?” she asked, waving the invitation at me, “This isn’t another box truck with a date that’s gonna get pulled away from me, right?”

I took her glasses off her face and put them on my own, “If you think that card’s a box truck, you might need some new glasses. Shit baby, it’s blurry in here.”

Lauren let out a scream and launched herself over the back of the chair on me, knocking me to the floor with a thump, landing on top of me.

“I love you Mr. Carter,” she said, staring down at me when she’d finished kissing me and freaking out.

I smiled, “I love you too,” I answered, staring back up at her.

“Now we gotta replan everything,” she said. I’d leaned up been about to kiss her, but the realization had made her sit up and roll off me, so she was sitting on the floor beside me.

“Why replan? Just we’ll do what we did before,” I said. I sat up, too and I put my hands on her shoulders and leaned over to kiss her, but she turned her head, biting her lip thoughtfully just before my lips made contact.

“Shit there’s so much to do,” she mumbled.

I tapped her shoulder.

“What?” she asked, looking at me.

“I’ma need you to focus,” I said with a smirk.

Lauren grinned. “Oh… using my own words against me now, Cassanova?”

I nodded. “Now c’mon, get back on top of me ‘cos I got plans.”

“Plans?” She asked, straddling me as I laid down. “Oh, now you have plans, do you?” She ran her palms over my chest. “We never even got to do all of my plans, Mr. Distracted By Kevin.”

“Then we’ll do your plans,” I said, “As long as we’re doing somebody’s plans, I’m happy.”

“I have a feeling we had similar plans,” she agreed.




We were a tangled knot of limbs. At some point we’d made it up to the bedroom, though we were in it upside down, under the covers like a tent, our feet up on the pillows. I grabbed hold of the blankets and tugged them out of the grip of the mattress, freeing our heads. The fresh oxygen out from underneath the blankets felt sharp in my lungs and Lauren breathed deeply, laughing. “I don’t remember feeling suffocated in tents when I was a kid,” she said.

“Me either. Maybe kids are equipped with super lung capacity,” I suggested.

“Or maybe it’s something to do with the higher thread count we undoubtedly have now.”

“Yeah I doubt my Star Wars sheets had a 900 thread count,” I agreed.

“Aw, you had Star Wars sheets,” Lauren laughed, “You’re such a nerd.”

I snuggled closer, running my hand over her forehead to push her hair back, my hand drifting through her hair. I stared into those beautiful eyes of hers. To me, she looked like an angel. I always felt humbled when I stared into her eyes. Like I didn’t deserve her. And after everything I’d done, I probably didn’t. “Lo?”

She was still laughing at my Star Wars sheets. “Yeah?” The smile on her face couldda lit up the whole world if we had a power shortage, I was sure of it.

“Why’d you forgive me so easy, when I didn’t really deserve it? Even Kevin said that running away like that was the point of no return. And yet when I called you took me right back. Why?”

Lauren’s smile didn’t fade, though it warmed as she sobered, and she cupped my cheek with her hand, “Because I love you.”

“No,” I said, “Besides that. ‘Cos, I mean, you could’ve got over me.”

Lauren shook her head. “Not ever.”

“Never?”

Lauren was still shaking her head.

“I wouldn’t have got over you, either,” I said.

“That’s how it is when you’ve found the One Person that’s made for you, Nick, you just love’em no matter what they do and you forgive them quick because it’s better that way. You get back to the good stuff faster.” She ran her thumb across my cheek. “Besides,” she added, and her smile clouded, “It wasn’t entirely your fault.”

“How do you figure?” I asked.

Lauren sighed, “I put so much pressure on you. Between getting a date and my mission to domesticate you, I don’t know. I was talking to Larry about it. I kind of stopped being me and started being like Bridezilla me and, looking back, after you left I thought maybe I’d scared you away.”

“I was scared,” I said, “But it was stupid, I was scared of us becoming my parents.”

“We’re not gonna be your parents, baby,” Lauren said. “And if I ever get to be anything like your mom, I want you to take me to the shooting range and put me out of my misery,” she laughed.

“I missed you so much like instantly,” I said. “You shouldda felt it in my heart. I was laying on the bed in the hotel that night and alls I could think about was how nice a hug from you would’ve been.”

“I missed you, too,” she replied. “But I promise no bridezilla this time. And you promise no running off this time. We’re going to make it to that damn altar, Nick. And we’re going to have a great life together. I hope when we’re a hundred we’re still laying in bed like this making sex forts in our 900 count sheets.”

“That sounds like a fun role play,” I snickered.

Lauren laughed, “No, we aren’t role playing old us having sex.”

“But we could do everything extra slooowwwwly,” I wiggled my eyebrows suggestively.

“Sounds a lot like the time we role played slow motion land,” she pointed out.

“Oohh...duuuude… sllloooow mmmoootionn lllaaaand waaas kick aaass…” I said, slowly, “I… got too taaaalk liiiike Keeeevinnn.”

Lauren laughed, “Oh my God. Slow motion land can never happen again. I’ll always think you’re actually role playing that you’re Kevin now.”

“Ew,” I made a face, “No.”

“You know, an inordinate amount of our sexual endeavours have you thinking about Kevin lately.” She raised an eyebrow.

I laughed. “You know it’s just ‘cos I’m worried ‘bout him.”

“I know, sweetie, I’m just teasing you.”

I took a deep breath. “Do you think his idea with the song will work?”

Lauren shrugged, “I don’t know. For his sake, I hope it does. But…” she paused, thought about whatever it was she was about to say, then shook her head.

“But what?” I asked ‘cos now I had to know.

“Nevermind,” she said.

“C’mon, tell me,” I pleaded.

Lauren hesitated. “Well I was going to say that… maybe if it doesn’t… he’d do better to… to move on.”

“Move on? From Kristin?”

Lauren bit her lower lip. “I have a confession.”

“What?”

“Kris and I have been talking.”

I blinked at her, sitting up slowly, “What?”

“We’ve been talking. Not really long, just since the wedding. When you guys left, I was out on the street and the paparazzi were all over the place, like a swarm, and I was trying to get back inside, but they kept screaming questions at me - all these stupid questions, and I was just trying not to cry in front of them anymore than I already had. I was already feeling guilty and empty and all these things and they were making me angry. Like Hulk angry.”

“It’s bad when you’re Hulk angry,” I intoned.

Lauren nodded, and continued, “But Kristin and Larry came out of the church together and they helped me get inside. And inside it was all chaos, too, so they pulled me out to this room… I’m guessing it’s where you guys were ‘cos there were ties and half finished glasses of scotch everywhere. And they set me down and Larry went to go get me some water and Kristin knelt down in front of me and she was just trying to make it all better, you know? Anyway, she helped me out of the dress and told me to call her later if I needed to talk. And I did, so we talked for hours, Nick.”

“About what an asshole I am?”

Lauren laughed, “About what an asshole all men are, actually. Which is when she told me what was happening between her and Kevin.”

“But you sounded surprised when I told you on the phone.”

“I think all I said was they split up in sympathy,” Lauren said, “I’m not gonna win an Emmy or anything.”

“So what’d she say?”

“I think she wants a divorce, Nick,” Lauren said gently. “I think the song might be a nice gesture and maybe it’ll make her think twice, but… I don’t know if it’ll work. It might be too little, too late, you know?”

I couldn’t picture Kevin and Kristin divorced. It seemed anticlimatic, them just breaking up, like we’d been through all this long drawn out story for nothing but broken pieces in the end. It was hardly the fairy tale ending that I now liked to believe in. The fairy tale ending would be the song touching the ears of it’s intended and everything turning out alright in the end, everyone in the arms of their beloved.

“She’s… seeing someone,” Lauren said.

“Say what?”

Lauren blushed, “Not like that. I don’t think. It’s just there’s this guy she knew in highschool, or college or something, who added her on Facebook and he’s a psychologist. She’s like his patient, nothing more, and he gave her a prescription, that’s why she’s doing better now.”

“Well… well maybe since she’s doing better, she’ll be able to understand how much Kev wants to fix it between them,” I suggested.

“Maybe,” Lauren replied.

“Cos he does,” I added, nodding. “He really does.”

Lauren nodded, “I believe you, Nick,” she laughed, “I’m not the one you have to convince of that.”

“Yeah,” I agreed.

But her words pinged a realization in me… started a ball rolling through my mind. Maybe I could find a way to help Kevin, to kind of prepare the landing pad for him to swoop in with his song. Maybe if I could convince Kristin that he really wanted to fix things then when he gave the song to her she’d be all ready to receive it just the way he needed her to and she’d run into his arms just the way he was imagining.

Maybe the fate of the gods rested in my hands, I thought dramatically.

I could do this.

I would do this.

The fairy tale ending would happen after all and they’d owe it to me, but I’d be modest, I told myself, I’d never tell anyone that it was me that they owed it all to.

“We should order some food,” Lauren suggested, breaking into my thoughts.

“Yeah,” I agreed.

“I’ll go get the menus,” she laughed and wiggled out from under the blankets.

I sat up as she left the room. When I heard her feet on the stairs, I crawled across the bed and grabbed our cell phones from the night stand. Kevin had said that Kristin had changed her number but Lauren apparently would have the new one, since they’d been talking and everything, so I scrolled through Lauren’s contacts ‘til I found it and added it to my own phone.

I’d call her later, I thought as I put the phones back where they’d been, careful to put them back exactly, because I had a feeling Lauren wouldn’t entirely approve of this plan I was hatching. But I’d call her later and I’d tell her about how much Kev loved her and beg her to just hear him out and to let me give him her new phone number and she’d be impressed and tell me to give him the number and he’d call her with his song and it would be like magic had happened.

Abracadabra.

Lauren came back just as I was settling back into position under the sheets again. As she laid the menus all out on the bed, I looked at the phones, feeling quite good about myself and the plan.




“Well, I made it to my momma’s place,” Kevin said later that night when he called. Lauren and I were laying on the couch, Ghostbusters 2 on TV, an empty pizza box laying on the coffee table, a couple crusts we’d ripped to give to the dogs in there after they’d rejected them. “The traffic in Louisville was a bitch.”

“I’m glad you made it okay,” I said as Lauren got up and started picking up the box while I talked.

“Did you tell Lauren about the date?”

“Yeah, I gave her the modified invitation,” I said, grinning up at her and winking. She winked back and left the room, carrying the box with her. “You start writing the next great love song?”

“I scratched some notes on the plane, but not a lot. It’s really hard getting everything I feel about it into words, you know?” Kevin sighed, “It’s complicated. There’s a lot going on in there, I guess.”

“You’ll get it,” I replied. I grinned to myself, thinking of my plan to help. “You staying at your mother’s or the camp?” I asked.

“Momma’s,” Kevin answered. “I might swing by the camp and see how Caroline’s doing, though.”

“Well, say hi to her if you do,” I told him.

“I will.”

Lauren came back and settled herself back beside me on the couch.

“Hey, and invite her to the wedding, too,” I said, “She was there for me when I wasn’t sure Lauren would wanna hear from me ever again, you know, and she told me to try and... I feel like she needs to be there.”

Lauren looked over, one eyebrow raised.

Kevin’s voice was low, “Yeah, I’ll do that.”

“Thanks.”

“Anyways, I better get going. It’s late here. Y’all have a good night, I’ll call ya when I get to your place in Nashville.”

“A’ight. Peace, man.” I hung up the phone and tossed my cell onto the coffee table.

“Who are you inviting to the wedding?” Lauren asked, snuggling into me.

“Caroline,” I answered.

Lauren took a moment to think. “The girl from the camp?” she asked, “The one you said was Kevin’s ex?”

“Yeah,” I answered, “She and I talked about you a lot and stuff while I was there. She’s real nice, you’ll like her.”

Lauren hummed, “Well that will be interesting.”

“What will?”

“Oh… nothing.”

“No what’s interesting?” I pleaded ‘cos now I had to know.

Lauren laughed, “You can’t let anything go can you?”

I shook my head.

“I think you need to practice letting things go,” she suggested with a smirk.

“But bayyyybeeeee, I can’t, I can’t let it go,” I whimpered. "I ain't Elsa."

Lauren laughed, “You can let it go because it doesn’t matter,” she said quietly.

“But what’s it?”

Lauren smiled, “Sweetie… it just is.”