He wasn’t going to do that though. The road stretched all the way to Canada, but he would only go as far north as Atlanta.
Brian had invited him to come up for the weekend, since it had been almost two months since they’d seen each other. The guys had all kept in contact the past month though, what with planning for the charity concert Kevin had thought of.
It had not even been a month since the idea had come about, but things were falling into place perfectly. After some debate, they had decided to have the concert in the beginning of December, which gave them only two months to make all the necessary arrangements. But the planning went fairly smoothly, and now, only three weeks later, they had a venue in Tampa booked and over two hundred guests set to come. The guests were teenagers and children with cancer or other serious conditions and disabilities and their families. Many of them lived in Florida, but others were flying in from all parts of the country to attend the concert. CBS, the station that had aired Backstreet Boys “Larger Than Life” concert special three years ago, was sending camera crews to film the concert, which would then be condensed and aired on primetime later in December.
The month of November would be spent rehearsing and preparing for the concert. The guys had quickly decided that the concert would take on a low-key, intimate feel, similar to the one they had done in Germany for their “A Night Out With the Backstreet Boys” video. They would only be singing ballads and mid-tempos, leaving out the fast-paced songs that they usually danced to. Without the rigorous dancing, preparation for this concert seemed easy compared to the other concerts they had done in the past, but it was still going to take a lot of work. None of them had performed an entire concert set in a long time, and they all needed to get their voices ready.
Nick was especially concerned about this; he’d had a cold the week before and was terrified his voice was going to go. Even though he still had a month to go before the concert, losing his voice right at the time when he needed to be getting it into shape was not a good thing.
Luckily, the cold was going away, and his voice was still intact. Except for a cough, he was all right.
Last week had been an entirely different case though. “You sound terrible,” Brian had said in concern when he’d called to ask Nick about coming to Atlanta. “Are you all right?”
“I’b godda cold,” Nick had wheezed, sniffling through a stuffy nose.
“Aw, man, that sucks. I guess it’s getting to be that season though, right?” Brian said sympathetically. “Do you think you’ll feel up to coming next weekend?”
“Yeah, it’s just a cold. I’ll be fide by dext weekend.”
“I hope so. Now, are you gonna want to fly, or would you rather drive up? Because if you’re going to fly, we better get your ticket soon, or-“
“Bri, you dow me – I hate flying. I’ll drive up.”
“Can Howie come up too then? Because I don’t want you driving that far by yourself.”
“He’s got a charity thing in Orlando for DLF dext weekend. But I can drive byself; I’b dot a baby.”
“I know you’re not a baby,” Brian had sighed in annoyance, “but it’s like an eight hour drive, and that’s a long way for anyone to drive alone. Someone should come with you; otherwise you should just fly. What about Claire – what’s she doing next week?”
“You want Claire to cobe up with be?”
“Sure, why not? You know I like Claire, and Leigh thinks she’s a sweetheart. We’d love to have her come up with you, if she wants to.”
“I guess I could ask her and see if baybe she wants to.”
“Yeah, do that. And call me back when you find out, okay? Cause if not, I’ll buy you a plane ticket.”
Refusing to get in an airplane if he didn’t have to, Nick had obeyed and called Claire. And now here he was, driving down the interstate with her at his side. Two hours and three CD’s into the drive, they had just passed Ocala and were jamming to Journey’s Frontiers album. He sang along to the first song, “Separate Ways,” as he always did, rather lost in his own world as he drove one-handed, letting the cruise control take over. He blinked in surprise when he heard Claire’s voice join his for the chorus of the song.
“Someday, love will find you
Break those chains that bind you
One night will remind you
How we touched and went our separate ways
If he ever hurts you
True love won’t desert you
You know I still love you
Though we touched and went our separate ways...”
He glanced over at her, grinning. “I thought you didn’t sing.”
“I said I can’t sing, not that I don’t sing,” she clarified, sticking her tongue out at him.
He laughed. “Well, you were right. You can’t sing.”
“I know! I told you, I’m tone deaf!”
He laughed again, relieved that she wasn’t offended. It was true though; she really was god-awful. God-awful, yet amusing, like one of those really bad American Idol auditions. She didn’t seem to mind though, and neither did he, so he kept singing, and she joined in unabashedly. Her off-key pitches may have clashed horribly with his tuned notes, but their laughter blended together perfectly.
“Oh, hang on,” she said suddenly, bending over. She rummaged through her purse, and only then could he pick out the sound of her cell phone ringing above the music. He turned down the volume and smiled when he recognized her ringtone.
“Linkin Park,” he said, as her phone blared a digitized version of the song “Crawling.” “Nice.”
“Thanks,” she murmured absently, checking the screen on the phone. She let out a groan. “It’s Tim.”
He tried not to smile, but was quite pleased at the tone in her voice as she said that. “You gonna answer it?”
She rolled her eyes and punched the talk button. “Hello? Oh, hey... Driving... Um, we’re a little past Ocala... Uh-huh... Yeah, well, I can’t really talk now... We’re, uh... we’re about to stop, okay? Yeah, I’ll talk to you later. Bye.” She quickly ended the phone call and tossed the phone back into her purse.
“That was quick,” said Nick with a chuckle.
“Ugh, he’s so irritating sometimes! Watch, he’ll probably call me like ten million times this weekend. He’s pissed that I’m going to Atlanta with you and not hanging out with him.”
Nick felt a surge of anger. “Why?” he asked heatedly. “He gets to hang out with you all the time! What’s he complaining about?”
“Well, Sunday’s Halloween, and he wanted me to go to this costume party with him.” She paused, then added quickly, “Which would have been totally fine... I mean, it would have been really fun... but he wanted us to go as swans!”
“Swans?” Nick repeated in confusion. “Why swans?”
“I think he thought it would be romantic. You know, swans only ever have one mate, and they mate for life.”
Nick frowned, his heart skipping a beat. “Well, what does he mean by that?” he demanded, slightly panicked. “Does he want to marry you or something?”
“I don’t know,” said Claire. “God, I hope not.”
Nick’s heart skipped another beat, only for a good reason this time. He felt a flutter of excitement. “Really? So you don’t want to marry him?”
“Marry him? Of course not! We’ve only been seeing each other for like four months!” she exclaimed. “And to be honest... I don’t know how much longer it’s going to last. I think he’s a lot more serious about ‘us’ than I am.” She bit her lip. “I feel kind of bad, cause he’s a nice guy, you know, and I really did want this to work out, but... well, I didn’t know him very well when we started going out, and now I do know him better... and, frankly, he’s kind of annoying.”
Nick laughed, totally delighted by this news. “So are you going to dump him then?” he asked hopefully (although he tried his best to sound nonchalant).
She shrugged. “I don’t know. I don’t want to hurt his feelings cause he is a nice guy. He’s just... not the right guy for me. But,” she added quickly, as if feeling the necessity to defend Tim, “I have fun with him. I mean, I would have gone to that party with him if I wasn’t going to be with you... just not as a swan.” She giggled.
“Yeah, what’s up with his obsession with wearing giant bird costumes?” snickered Nick. Claire cracked a smile. “What would you have gone as?” he asked her.
“Well I thought it would be cute if we’d gone as a toothbrush and toothpaste. But somehow I think Tim would prefer feathers to bristles.”
Nick laughed so hard he started coughing. When he’d caught his breath, he cleared his throat and replied, “Are you serious? What guy wouldn’t want to look like a giant toothbrush?”
“Shut up,” Claire said, shaking her head. “You’re making fun of me.”
He smirked. “’Course I am. You’re funny. Trust me, Claire, I don’t think you’d really want to go to a Halloween party dressed as a tube of toothpaste. It would just give people an excuse to grab you and squeeze you. And Tim would just be waiting for you to open up and lay yourself on him. He’d get you out of your tube and spread all over him faster than you can say Crest!”
Claire’s mouth dropped open. “You’re such a nasty perv! I can’t believe you just said that!” she cried, lightly swatting his arm.
“Hey!” he exclaimed through another gale of laughter, which led into another fit of coughing. “I’m trying to drive!”
“Then stop looking at me and watch the road! I swear, you are scary when you’re behind the wheel. You’re like an old man! Bad driver, laughing so hard you cough... at least you’re not bald anymore, or then I would really laugh!”
“Shut up! I am a good driver! And I have a cold, okay?”
“Okay, Mr. Carter,” she replied in a sing-song sort of way, then muttered under breath, “Just wait, next you’ll be wearing high-water pants and taping Lawrence Welk.”
“I heard that,” Nick announced loudly.
She flashed him a grin that was both innocent and impish. “Heard what?”
***
Six hours and two rest stops later, Nick was turning onto Brian’s property. He parked the car and let out a little sigh, glad he’d found the place without much trouble and relieved to finally be there. As soon as he had turned off the ignition and taken his foot off the brake, the exhaustion hit him. He and Claire had taken turns driving – he’d done the first three hours, she’d taken the next three, and he’d finished out the last two – but driving or not, eight hours of traveling was enough to wear anyone out.
He opened his door and climbed out, glad to be able to stretch. His right leg was rather stiff from sitting for so long, and the left was even worse. It had been giving him hell this last part of the trip, twinging and aching with phantom pains. He figured too much sitting in one place would do that and hoped walking around would help.
Claire got out as well and looked all around as she walked slowly around the car to join him. “Nice place,” she said, nodding approvingly at Brian and Leighanne’s gorgeous home.
He nodded in agreement. “Yeah, it’s nice.”
“That you, Carter?” they heard a voice call. Brian appeared at the front door. “Hey, guys, come on in! You need help carrying bags?”
“I think we got ‘em, Bri, thanks!” Nick shouted back as he and Claire retrieved their luggage from the backseat. They’d both packed light, just a duffel bag each, which they carried up to the house. Brian took Claire’s bag from her at the door and set it on the floor, giving her a quick, friendly hug. He did the same with Nick, only the hug was a little tighter and lasted a little longer.
“How are you feeling?” Brian asked as he finally let Nick go and studied him. “You look kinda pale.”
“Yeah, I’m still getting over this cold,” Nick replied. “But I feel much better than I did last week.” He tried to smile and ended up coughing. Brian frowned.
“That cough doesn’t sound very good.”
“Thanks for pointing that out, Kevin,” Nick enunciated, playfully sticking his tongue out at Brian and rolling his eyes. “Let it go, dude, I’m fine. Just tired from the trip. Where’s Leigh and the little squirt?”
Brian’s frown immediately vanished. “Upstairs,” he replied, grinning. “It was time for a diaper change.”
“Ah.”
“Well, come on and sit down. Y’all want anything to drink? Soda? Beer? Wine cooler?”
“I’ll have a soda,” Claire replied.
“Pepsi okay?”
“Perfect.”
“Nick?”
“I’ll have the same.”
“Great.” Brian escorted them into the living room and then disappeared into the kitchen. When he came back carrying two glasses of Pepsi, Leighanne was with him, carrying Baylee on her hip. She broke into a smile when she saw Nick and Claire and set the toddler down.
“Hi, guys,” she greeted them cheerfully. “Brian said you just got here. How was the drive up?”
“Long,” Nick answered, at the same time Claire said “fine.”
Leighanne chuckled. “I don’t envy you at all; eight hours is a long drive. I’m glad you both could come though.”
“Thanks for having us,” Claire said, smiling. Then she turned her attention to Baylee, who was clutching Leighanne’s leg and peering at them shyly. “So this must Baylee, huh? Hi, Baylee!” she said, her voice softening as she smiled at the baby.
“He’s gonna be shy for you,” Leighanne said, looking down at her son fondly. “Baylee, you remember how we said we were going to have company come today? Well, this is them. This is Claire, and that’s Nick over there.” She pointed them out, while Baylee looked on in awe. “Can you say hi?” she coaxed him.
“Hi, Baylee,” Nick piped up, but Baylee just ducked behind Leighanne’s legs again. Glancing over at Brian, Nick said, “He probably doesn’t remember me, does he?”
“I don’t think so,” said Brian, looking apologetic. “It’s been awhile since you’ve seen him, hasn’t it?”
“Yeah... I think last time I saw him was Christmas,” replied Nick. He looked over at Claire. “I’m his godfather,” he announced proudly.
“Oh, really? That’s sweet,” she smiled.
Brian cleared his throat. “Oh yeah, Mr. Godfather, we have a favor to ask you.”
“What?”
“Leigh and I were invited to a party tomorrow night, kind of a Halloween shindig. How would you feel about watching Baylee?” he asked, then quickly added, “You don’t have to if you don’t want; we can always hire a sitter. I just thought maybe-“
“We’d love to,” Claire answered for him. “Right, Nick?”
Nick was caught off-guard, but he quickly agreed, “Right, we’d love to.”
Brian beamed. “Thanks, guys,” he said appreciatively.
“No problem,” replied Nick. “We’ll have fun, right, Baylee?” He looked over at Baylee again and was finally rewarded with a smile as the toddler peeked out from behind his mother again and grinned.
***
