The following weeks were spent in blissful happiness for me. I had the best of both worlds. I got to spend quiet nights at home with Brian, just being in the comfort of his arms while we watched a movie or talked, but I also got to spend time with John as well, going to charity events and just being the perfect wife and best friend I had always been. The press had noticed my change of attitude, too. I was much more willing to talk to the press and smile for the cameras instead of shying away. When John and I weren’t making our rounds in the Christian community, we were working with Brian on his album. We spent many long days and nights in the studio, writing and recording. On several occasions, Brian would end up sleeping at the house instead of making the journey back out of town only to return again the next morning. Brian and I picked up our relationship as if we had never been apart. We immediately fell back into the roles we had once had. Still, through it all, there was one thing that was missing and that kept hanging over my head. I still had yet to see Baylee since Brian’s return in my life, and, honestly, I was terrified to meet him.

In May, Brian began rehearsal for his upcoming Backstreet tour. Fortunately, John and I had many clients who lived in L.A. and we did a lot of business there, so we had invested in a house for those times we had to go to California for work. When Brian had to head west for rehearsals, John and I followed. One night, Brian and I were curled up on the couch together when he mentioned an idea that completely threw me off guard.

“I want you to come to rehearsal with me tomorrow,” he mentioned casually while we were watching The Notebook.

“What!?!” I screeched, staring at him as if he had completely lost his mind.

“I want you to come to rehearsal with me tomorrow,” he repeated, pausing the movie and then turning to face me.

“Are you crazy, Brian? If I go to rehearsal with you, the guys will get suspicious,” I stated incredulously.

“Alex already knows and Howie and Nick both know how miserable I have been with Leighanne. They will just be happy to see me smiling again,” he tried to convince me.

“Brian, they are going to think the worst of me. I don’t want them to start off thinking I am a home-wrecking, cheating whore. They won’t understand why we are doing what we are doing,” I continued to argue.

“They would never think of you like that. You don’t give them enough credit. They WILL understand,” he laughed.

“Brian…” I warned, his laughing not helping the matter.

“I promise, they won’t think badly about you,” he tried soothing me.

“I don’t know, Brian. That’s a big step and a big risk,” I tried one last time to convince him otherwise, despite the fact that I knew I was going to give into him like I always did. He just had that kind of power over me. I couldn’t refuse him if he asked me for something. Just one look into his pleading, crystal blue eyes and I would give him anything he wanted. A lot of that, though, had to do with the fact that I trusted him with my life, and I knew he would never ask something of me that I couldn’t give.

“It’s worth it, don’t you think? I don’t want to hide our relationship from the people I care about most. You mean the world to me and I want my brothers to know that,” he told me, caressing my cheek with his thumb.

“I just don’t want you to regret anything or feel ashamed of me,” I confessed my true fears and insecurities.

“I could never regret being with you or feel ashamed. You’re amazing. I am so proud of you, and I want to tell the world that you’re my girl. You are the best thing to happen in my life, and I am lucky to have you with me,” he lovingly told me. “I love you, Mel. Nothing will ever change that.”

“I love you, too, Brian,” I repeated, giving in.

“I’ll pick you up at 7 tomorrow morning, then,” he finalized, leaning in and giving me a deep kiss, which only intensified as time passed by. Soon, the movie was long-forgotten as we lost ourselves in a world of love and passion, kissing and making up for lost time.

By the time we finally noticed the clock, it was after midnight, and we knew that tomorrow was going to be a very long, emotional day. I walked him to the door, bidding him a goodnight with the promise of being ready at 7 for rehearsal. With one final goodnight kiss, he was gone and, in less than 20 minutes, I was reunited with him in my dreams.

*the next day – at rehearsal*

“Brian, are you sure this is a good idea?” I questioned as he lead me into the dance studio where rehearsals were being held. I wanted to make sure he knew what he was getting into and that I gave him every opportunity to back out if he wanted to. Plus, I was nervous.

“I’m positive. We’re early, so we will be the first ones there. It’ll give you some time to calm down and get comfortable first.” When he noticed my nervous shaking and twitching, he stopped me, turned me to him, and laughingly said, “Stop worrying. Everything will be fine, I promise.”

As much as I tried to calm myself down, I was unsuccessful. I couldn’t stop playing different scenarios in my head, none of them as happy as Brian seemed to think today would be. Still, I knew how important this was for him, and that was the only reason I had yet to turn around and run out the door screaming the whole way home.

“EVERYBODY! Yeahhhhh. Rock your body. Yeahhhh. EVERYBODY, rock your body right!” a familiar voice sang, loudly. I looked at Brian, who reached over to hold my hand in a sign of support, just before the doors were thrown open in the dramatic fashion that could only come from one person. “Backstreet’s back…”

“Alright,” Brian finished singing, laughing at his best friend’s antics.

“Hey Rok, what are you…” Alex started, but his sentence soon trailed off when he saw me sitting beside Brian. “Mel?” he questioned, confusion written all over his expression.

“Hey Alex,” I smiled. I regretted not keeping in touch with him, but I also knew that, ultimately, I had no choice in the matter. If I had kept in touch with him, I would have been tempted to try and contact Brian and Baylee. And knowing Alex, he would have wanted to fix things between Brian and I, which would have, ultimately, caused me more heartache and frustration. I knew that Brian had to come to me in his own time if things were ever going to work between us.

“Well come here, girl! Give me a hug! I haven’t seen you in, what, 3 years?” he exclaimed, his excitement immediately making me loosen up and relax.

“I know. I’m sorry,” I told him, hugging him with a force I didn’t even know I had in me.

“Where have you been? What are you doing here? Why didn’t you ever call? Why did you leave?” Alex questioned, not even stopping to breathe.

“I just had some things I had to deal with on my own, that’s all,” I sighed, glancing at Brian before turning back to Alex. “I just couldn’t keep going the way I was.”

“Fair enough,” he conceded. Before we had time to say anything else, the remaining three Boys made their entrance into the studio, followed closely by their choreographer, Camilla Santiago.

As they made their way over to our group, I felt myself start to panic, but before I became too overwhelmed, Brian reached out to grasp my hand for support. When I glanced at him, he gave me a supportive smile and a quick wink before addressing his band mates.

“Hey guys, I want you to meet the most important person in my life, Melanie Dav… Williams,” he introduced me, managing to catch his slip up in time. “Mel, this is Howie Dorough, Kevin Richardson and Nick Carter.”

“Hi guys. I have heard so much about you from these two. It’s an honor to finally be able to meet you,” I politely greeted. I didn’t know what to expect, but I did not expect what happened to happen. I reached out my hand to shake Howie’s hand, and immediately, I was pulled into a tight hug, as if he were hugging a long-lost friend. And as soon as he released me, Nick pulled me into his own tight embrace. Kevin smiled at me as he recognized me from a distant memory, pulling me into his own hug.

“These guys have told us so much about you that we feel like we already know you. Brian used to tell us stories about all the crazy things you used to do. And during our hiatus, he made all of us listen to your show every morning,” Nick explained for them.

I looked at Brian, who was looking down, his whole face tented red as he blushed.

“Well, then, I guess I have a lot of catching up to do,” I smiled.

“You bet. How’s now for you?” he laughed.

“Now is not the time to discuss your life history, Nickolas. Now is the time to dance,” Camilla interrupted before Nick could say anything else.

The guys jokingly groaned in disapproval, yelling out various excuses about not being able to dance today. However, with one stern look from Camilla, they were in their positions faster than I could blink my eyes. I returned to my seat on the couch to watch the rehearsal. Every so often, Brian would slip me a smile or a wink. All his goofing around, though, got him in trouble when Camilla called him out. “BRIAN! Stop flirting and pay attention to the steps you are supposed to have memorized by now. You, of all the guys, need to be paying the most attention.”

I immediately hid my face in my hands, completely humiliated by the fact that not only had we been caught, but Camilla had announced it to the rest of the guys as well. I started laughing at myself, but my humiliation was short-lived when I felt Brian’s phone vibrate next to me. When I saw that it was Jenny, his babysitter and niece, calling, my stomach dropped, and I rushed over to Brian, his phone in hand.

I quickly pulled him off to the side and handed him the phone. “Jenny’s calling,” I explained, and with a slight nod, he took the phone, answering the call of his hysterical niece screeching on the other end. The feeling in the pit of my stomach only got worse by the second, and when I saw Brian’s face drop, I knew something was wrong. When Brian hung up, we turned around and everyone was watching us with a keen eye, Camilla’s eyebrows raised in annoyance.

“Guys, I’m sorry but I have to go. Jenny just called and Baylee is sick. I’ll call you guys later and let you know what’s going on,” he said, making his way to his bag in the corner before turning back to me. “Mel, come on.”

“Brian...” I started to protest, but he wouldn’t let me.

“Mel, you belong there just as much as I do. He needs you. He needs the both of us,” Brian told me, his voice and face conveying how much he believed what he was saying.

I looked down at the floor for a second before nodding and running to catch up to him. In less than a minute, we were out the door and in the car on our way to see our sick son.