“Nick, I understand you have a daughter,” the man interviewing us smiled in my direction. I plastered a smile on my face and nodded. “What’s her name?”
“Yes, I do. Her name’s Lanie,” I nodded with a smile. Don’t get me wrong, I loved my little girl. But I barely knew anything about her. I only saw her whenever I was in Tampa.
“That’s a beautiful name. How old is she?” The reporter continued. So far, so good. I knew all these answers.
“She’s almost four,” I continued and folded my hands in my lap.
“Aw, how adorable!” The man exclaimed. That confirmed it for me. He had to be gay. “So you know all her favorites; her favorite TV show, her favorite movie, her favorite color, her favorite food…” the man trailed off. “You know, I have a son her age. He loves that new movie Cars. What’s her favorite movie?”
I bit my tongue hoping it would send some kind of message to my brain. “Uh, you know?” I tried to think of something quickly. “I’m not even sure these days. I mean, you know kids. Their favorite thing changes one day to the next.” Phew, nice save, Carter.
“Ah, I know what you mean,” he chuckled. As the interview continued I was thankfully let off the hook. As we reached the exit I saw Baylee run towards Brian.
“Daddy!” Baylee exclaimed as Brian swooped him up in his arms and spun him around. “Superman!” Baylee cheered loudly as his dad flew him around in the air as if he were Superman.
A smile crept over my lips and I watched as Leighanne came into view. “Hey, Nick,” she nudged me. “Shelby called here earlier. She asked me to have you call her back. She sounded kind of upset.”
I groaned and rolled my eyes. “Of course she sounded upset. When isn’t she upset?” I muttered.
“Nick, I mean it. She really sounded frantic,” Leighanne took Baylee from Brian’s arms.
“Is everything okay?” Brian asked, concerned. Leighanne just shrugged. “Nick, maybe you should head back to the buses and try her cell or something.”
“Nah,” I shrugged it off. “I’ll call her tonight when we get back to the hotel. Right now I just want to go out and have some fun.”
I watched Brian roll his eyes and look to Leighanne. She just shrugged. I let them roll off my shoulders as I headed back to the bus. AJ mentioned some new club in town. We wanted to go out with Kevin and celebrate a few more times before he headed back home for the last time. Shelby could wait.
Shelby James. She used to be known as Shelby James-Carter. Yeah, we were married. It lasted two years. She became pregnant and we decided to get married. Right after we were married, our daughter, Lanie, was born. I was off touring quite a bit and working on my solo thing and Shelby was hurt. We both said some things we didn’t mean, and ever since, I only see her whenever she drops Lanie off or vice versa.
“Nick, what do you want to drink, man?” Howie asked me for what had to have been the third time, at least.
“Oh, sorry,” I snapped away from my thoughts. “Uh, I’ll take a coke and rum.” I said simply and looked back down at the napkin. “Where’s Bri?”
“Baylee wasn’t feeling well tonight so he stayed in the hotel room with him and Leigh,” Kevin explained loudly over the music. I rolled my eyes. “Nick, don’t be an ass. Once you have a kid, things change.” He said quicker than he thought.
“Hey, I have a kid, ya know,” I shot back. “Things didn’t change for me.”
“That’s because you wouldn’t let them,” AJ jumped in. I frowned at both of them.
“What the hell? You two would rather stand up for Shelby over me?” I looked at the both of them incredulously. “I can’t believe either of you.”
“We weren’t standing up for her, Nick,” AJ rolled his eyes. “We were trying to make things clearer for you.”
“Whatever,” I muttered and stood up to find two blondes waving and smiling from the bar. I winked and headed over to dance with them as Howie returned with the drinks.
“What’s he doing?” I heard Howie ask.
“Being himself,” Kevin yelled over the music again. I knew he did it purposely so I would hear. As I approached the blondes, I heard Leighanne yelling my name. What was she doing here? I spun around and saw her hurrying through people and trying to get to me.
“Leighanne, what are you doing here? I heard Baylee wasn’t feeling well and you were back at the hotel…” I frowned. She looked frantic and flustered.
She was out of breath from running, but she pulled me close so I could hear her. “You need to call Shelby…now.”
I dialed the number on my cell phone and listened to it ring. Leighanne wouldn’t tell me why I needed to call Shelby, she just said it was an emergency. I didn’t really know what to expect. “Hello?” I heard a soft voice on the other side.
“It’s Nick,” I muttered and rubbed my temples. I sat down on a step in an alley to try and get a little privacy.
“Took you long enough,” she muttered with anger dripping from her words. Even through the anger, I could hear the sadness and pain in her voice.
“What do you want?” I muttered through gritted teeth. “Why was Leighanne in such a hurry to get to me?”
“It’s Lanie,” Shelby whispered so I could barely hear her. “She’s sick.” She cried.
“What does she have?” I sighed. “The flu? A cold? What do you want me to do, send you ten bucks in the mail for child Tylenol?”
“Damn you, Nick,” she muttered through gritted teeth. “She has leukemia, you bastard.”
Author's Chapter Notes:
I just started writing a Kevin fic, "That's Where it Is" and as I was reading through my old fan fics that I had lost contact with for so long, I found this one in my documents. I'm pretty far along in this one...and I like where it's going. So I'm going to give it a try. Let me know what you think!
