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“Soon,” Mia whispered into her cell phone and looked to make sure she was alone in Howie’s den. “Look, I shouldn’t be talking to you now because I’m not alone. I’ll call you later.”

“Who are you talking to?” Howie asked as he handed her a glass of lemonade and made himself comfortable on his leather sofa.

“Oh, that was just a friend of mine,” she smiled and snuggled next to him. “So, are you looking forward to tonight?”

“I am,” Howie smiled. Brushing some stray hairs from Mia’s face he smiled, “I can’t wait for you to meet everybody.”

“I can’t wait either, baby. I just hope they like me,” she said with a nervous pout. “That’s the only thing I’m worried about. What if they don’t like me, Howie?”

“Mia they will love you,” he reassured her and pulled her closer to him on the sofa.

Mia fought the urge to groan. Howie wasn’t a problem; in fact, she actually found herself growing somewhat fond of him. His friends were another story. She knew she would eventually have to meet them all, but what if they were able to see through her? What if they suspected something? Those thoughts kept springing up in the back of her mind and they were becoming harder and harder to ignore.

Suddenly, Howie’s voice brought her back to the present and he was looking at her with an expression of concern. “What’s the matter?”

“Nothing, why?” she asked and shifted uncomfortably.

“You were frowning,” his face was still showing his concern.

“Oh,” she said quietly, “It’s nothing, I just have a headache.”

“Well, why don’t you go to my room and lie down for a while? That might help you feel better,” he placed a kiss on her forehead.

Mia nodded and smiled. “Okay, I’ll go rest for a little bit. Come get me in about an hour, okay?”

“Absolutely,” Howie smiled and kissed her cheek.



“Well, if you hadn’t decided to change a thousand times then we wouldn’t be running late, now would we?” AJ chided Bianca causing her to playfully swat his arm.

“I only changed twice and you know it,” she poked her tongue out as she tapped on Howie’s front door.

“You look beautiful, by the way,” he whispered as he softly kissed her shoulder.

“Okay, enough with the PDA’s people,” Brian loudly broke up their tender moment. “Don’t you two get enough of one another at home? God!”

Bianca laughed at his silly grin and leaned in for a friendly hug while AJ slapped his shoulder in a brotherly manner. Glancing into the den he saw that there were already plenty of people there. “So, are we the last to arrive?”

“Pretty much,” Brian laughed and moved aside for them to step into the house, “I wonder who we should blame for that?”

“I can’t believe this,” Bianca feigned anger, “I only changed twice. You know what? I will not stand here and take this! I’m going to find someone who will be nice.”

Brian and AJ just laughed as they watched her disappear into the crowd of people flooding Howie’s den. AJ shook his head and motioned toward the room, “Let’s go mingle, Rok.”

“Mingle? Are you kidding? I’ve been mingling for the past twenty minutes, I’m gonna go find some food!”

AJ just shrugged and stepped into the throng of people. He immediately spotted Howie by the stereo and started maneuvering his way over to greet his friend. He finally reached him and caught the older man in a hug. “Some shindig you got goin here, D.”

“Yeah, you could say that,” he laughed. “We have Mia to thank; she’s one helluva party planner.”

“Mia, huh?” he questioned with raised eyebrows, “Gotta love her taste.”

***

“Excuse me,” Bianca yelled above the music as she pushed her way toward the kitchen. Bumping into someone else, she turned and offered an apologetic smile, “Sorry.” Finally inside the spacious room, she walked over to the refrigerator and retrieved a bottle of water.

“What do you think you’re doing?” a female voice startled her.

Taking a sip of the refreshing water, Bianca kept the smirk off of her face. This must be Mia. “Hi, I’m Bianca. You must be Mia,” she extended her hand.

Mia just stood there with her arms crossed over her chest staring at Bianca like she’d just committed an awful crime. “Well, Bianca, what do you think you’re doing going through someone else’s stuff like that? Especially when there are refreshments provided for you in the other room.”

Bianca could no longer hide her smirk. “I didn’t think Howie would mind since it’s only a bottle of water. Anyway, it was nice to finally meet you.” Yeah, nice. Right. Shaking her head, she wandered back into the den where the music was still going and everyone was still having the time of their lives. Spotting AJ standing with Howie, she walked over and slid her arm around his waist. “I hope you don’t mind that I stole a bottle of water.”

“Not at all,” he winked, “Anyway, if you two will excuse me, I’m gonna go find Mia.”

“This should be interesting,” Bianca rolled her eyes when Howie was out of earshot.

***

Kevin didn’t bother knocking on Howie’s door before entering the packed house; no one would hear him anyway. Stepping into the room he was surprised at just how packed the house was. Scanning the room, he quickly spotted Brian standing on the far side of the room with Bianca. They seemed to be immersed in conversation and didn’t notice he’d joined them.

Finally, feeling someone standing next to him, Brian turned and saw his cousin standing there with a broad grin. “Hey, man, what took you so long to get here?”

“Business,” he said simply and smiled at Bianca. Moving closer he gave her a warm hug, “Hey, Bean.”

“Hey, Kevin. How are you?” Bianca smiled.

“Pretty good,” he nodded, still smiling. “Staying busy that’s for sure.”

“Kev!” AJ and Howie called in unison as they joined the others in the huddle.

AJ grinned and knocked him in the shoulder. “How are things?”

“Good,” he said with a nod. “So D, why didn’t you have all this at Tabu instead?”

“Well, I didn’t actually know that this many people were going to show up,” he said with a laugh. “I didn’t know how many people Mia invited until today, so by then it was too late to change locations.” Spotting Mia across the room, Howie smiled. “Speaking of Mia... I’ll catch you guys later.”

Looking around the still crowded room, Bianca noticed that the group of people that had been seated on the sofa was now getting up to leave. “C’mon guys, lets go sit down.”

AJ, Bianca and Brian all settled onto the sofa while Kevin made himself comfortable in a nearby chair. They all remained silent for a few minutes before Brian finally spoke up.

“So, what kind of business made you late?”

Kevin inhaled deeply. At the moment, Brian was the only one that knew he was awaiting results of a paternity test. He had planned on telling everybody, but he didn’t know if this was the time or place. Clearing his throat, he decided it was as good a time as any. “I had a few phone calls to make since I got the results of the paternity test back the other day.”

Brian’s eyes went wide, “Well?”

“Whoa… wait a minute… paternity test?” AJ asked. He and Bianca were both obviously shocked.

“Long story,” that was going to be all the explanation Kevin would offer for the night and they knew that by his tone.

“So? What’s the deal?” Brian interrupted impatiently.

Kevin smiled and nodded. “Chris is my son.”

Brian reached over and clasped his cousin on the shoulder silently congratulating him. He knew how Kevin wanted the results to turn out this way and he was truly happy for him.

“Well, damn man, that is great!” AJ stood up and gave Kevin a brotherly hug.

Kevin kept grinning and nodded. “I know. It is.”

***

“I was beginning to think you were gonna be a drama queen and stay at home in your footie jammies,” Brian grinned as he greeted Nick. “What’s up with the whole “I’ll be an hour late” diva thing man?”

“I was doing stuff,” Nick rolled his eyes at his friend. “Got a problem with that?”

“No problems at all.”

“Hey baby,” a tall leggy blonde came up and linked her arm through Nick’s. “Sorry that took so long.”

When the girl was looking the other way Brian wiggled his eyebrows suggestively. He laughed to himself when Nick narrowed his eyes and tried to look menacing.

“Well, Nick, I’m heading home. Uh, have fun. And it was nice meeting you…”

“Tasha,” she smiled.

“Nice to meet you Tasha. Keep this boy in line for us, okay? Later, man.”

Nick scowled and turned to walk the other way when he heard his date gasp. “What’s wrong?”

“Isn’t that Bianca Parker?”

He groaned inwardly and turned to look. Sure enough, Bianca, hand in hand with AJ, was heading in their general direction. Great. “Yeah, that’s her.”

“Do you think I could meet her?! I’m a huge fan!”

He snorted. Of course you are. “Sure.” When Bianca and AJ were just a few feet away, he pushed his way past the people that were standing between them. “Hey guys.” He noted that his voice sounded a little too cheerful and his smile was more than a little forced. Surprisingly, Bianca and AJ didn’t seem to notice that.

“Hi,” Bianca greeted hesitantly while AJ just stood staring as though Nick’s head had started spinning 360 degrees.

“Hey,” Tasha spoke up eagerly.

“This is my date Tasha—”

“I’m a HUGE fan,” she gushed before Nick could explain.

Nick felt his face turning a furious shade of scarlet as he watched AJ smirk. Bianca only smiled politely and offered her thanks.

“It was really nice meeting you!” Tasha said with grin.

“You too,” Bianca nodded. Looking at Nick she smiled, “It was good seeing you.”

“Yeah,” he mumbled, “you too.”

“Bye!” Tasha called eagerly as she and Nick disappeared into the still partying crowd.

“Well, THAT was interesting,” Bianca said as she and AJ made their way out to their car.

“This whole night has definitely been interesting,” AJ laughed and kissed her the side of her head.